DEPEZANTYZACJA VS. GENTRYFIKACJA? ZMIANY STRUKTURY SPOŁECZNEJ WIEJSKIEJ POLSKI PO 1989 R.
DEPEASANTISATION VS GENTRIFI CATION: CHANGES IN THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF RURAL POLAND AFTER 1989

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to present the specificity and diversity of the social structure of rural Poland between 1992 and 2020. The basis for understanding the processes of social structure change lies in earlier years, as until the end of the 1980s, Poland had an anachronistic socio-professional structure associated with the departure from collectivisation. Farmers, owners of agricultural holdings, constituted almost a quarter of Poland's population; they dominated rural areas, comprising about half of their inhabitants. The post-communist transformation initiated significant changes in this structure: the share of farmers in the structure decreased from 46.4% to 27.4% (depeasantisation), workers increased from 41.1% to 50.2% (proletarianisation), and the middle class increased from 12.5% to 22.4% (rural gentrifi cation). Depeasantisation and rural gentrifi cation attract attention with their dynamics. They are responsible not only for the new arrangement of the social structure but also for the shaping of a new socio-cultural and economic quality towards traditional rural structures, mainly shaped in the agricultural production model with all its social consequences. This new quality, in some dimensions, is visible when comparing two distinguished types of communities. In peri-metropolitan areas, the processes of depeasantisation and rural gentrifi cation are advanced, as evidenced by the atypical composition of the social structure for rural Poland. These communities are densely populated, the local economy is based on the service sector, and they are fi lled with people whose professional lives are oriented towards a career in nearby cities. This indicates the disappearance of the previous "rural syndrome". It is still noticeable in peripheral communities. These typically rural communities are characterised by low population density, dominance of agriculture, and for many members of these communities, convergence of workplace and residence.

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