Urbanization and the transformation of society in villages
Berenyi, I.
Teruleti Kutatasok 6: 16-30
1983
Document Number: 346465
The population of Kiralyhegyes village, Hungary, was analyzed by the Research Institute of Social Sciences and the Research Institute for Geography. Post 1945 land redistribution was not sufficient to support peasant farming so many workers migrated to towns during the first period of intensive industrialization. Even after cooperative farming improved conditions young people often commuted to work in towns and later settled there. Ths increased the county town's population by 72% in 1960-80, while the population of smaller towns with fewer facilities fell. A household survey of Kiralyhegyes village in 1977 classified households as agricultural, industrial, mixed or pensioned. Some 33% were pensioned households, unable to undertake homeplot farming and who found the village services insufficent. More attention should therefore be paid to the negative impact of urbanization on villages, and a specific policy should be developed to counteract it. The problems of low incomes and limited consumption create low morale among village inhabitants and this should be considered in future planning.