Rusticity as a sociological category

Abstract

This study is a contribution to the ongoing scientific discussion on the post-industrial society’s notion of “rural community” and “rusticity”. It starts with a description of the paradigm/opposition “town – village” that was popular up to the 1970s, quoting arguments presented in sociological discussions to prove its inadequacy. It points to the fact that the notion “rural”, which is being commonly used at present, can be analysed at different levels, and it describes various methods of constructing the notion “rural community” and the notion “rusticity”. The study focuses on the constructivist method of defining these notions, which is an approach typical for sociology. In the study’s empirical section more than 40 reports on surveys conducted by the public opinion polling centre CBOS are analysed from the point of view of the contexts in which the notion “rural community” or the notion “rusticity” appears and from the point of view of its minimal usefulness in comparisons with four types of towns categorized according to their size. In its conclusions the study draws attention to the stereotyped descriptions of the rural community, to the necessity to show it in a context, and to the subjectivity and political aspects of the formulation of the rural community’s definitions in Poland.