Main description:

Featuring chapters by an international group of scholars and academics, Rural Youth at the Crossroads discusses the challenges and contexts facing youth from rural communities in countries with legacies of socialism undergoing social, political, and economic transition.

The chapters employ a variety of sources and approaches to examine rural youth outcomes, and the well-being and sustainability of rural areas. The book focuses particularly on career and educational goals, the often contradictory relations between rural schools and communities, majority-minoritized group relations, community engagement, and political attitudes. Individual chapters examine these questions and dynamics within Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Vietnam. In total the volume represents a unique and timely comparative discussion of the relationship between youth and rural development within transitional societies, and the challenges and opportunities for enhancing the well-being and sustainability of rural communities.

Aimed at informing strategies to revitalize rural social space, this book is targeted towards social scientists with interest in sociology and rural sociology, demography, education, youth development, community/regional development, rurality, public policy, and identity formation in transitional contexts. As such, this book will have international appeal to researchers, educators, and policymakers in transitional countries, and to those interested in these topics, regions, and communities.

Contents:

List of figures vii

List of tables viii

List of contributors x

Acknowledgements xiv

Introduction: Rural youth and societies within post-socialist and transitional contexts 1

ANNIE MASELLI, KAI A. SCHAFFT, SANJA STANIC AND RENATA HORVATEK

1 Leaving the Croatian countryside: local context and rural youth aspirations 19

SANJA STANIC AND KAI A. SCHAFFT

2 Uneven demographic development within Croatia, 1950s-present: implications for rural quality of life and youth out-migration 37

SANJA KLEMPIC BOGADI AND SONJA PODGORELEC

3 Rural youth and school-based political socialization: the case of Croatia 53

RENATA HORVATEK

4 Sociocultural capital among rural youth in Croatia 74

MARIJA LONCAR, ZORANA SULJUG VUCICA, AND GORANA BANDALOVIC

5 Coming of age in the Czech countryside: life and educational transition contexts for rural youth 90

DOMINIK DVORAK, SILVIE R. KUCEROVA, JAROSLAVA SIMONOVA, PETR MEYER, ZDENEK KUCERA, AND JAN SMID

6 The contradictions of education in Russia: resilient and struggling schools in the context of rural depopulation and decline 115

ROMAN ZVYAGINTSEV, MARINA PINSKAYA, DAVID KONSTANTINOVSKIY, AND SERGEY KOSARETSKY

7 The case of Serbia: the orientations of rural young adults towards education, work, and emigration 137

DUSAN MOJIC, IRENA PETROVIC, AND VERA BACKOVIC

8 Diverse migration processes of rural youth and young adults in Hungary 157

TIBOR FARKAS, EMESE BRUDER, DORA KOLTA, AND ILONA GERENCSER

9 Roma youth and on-the-ground implementation of Roma education policies in rural Romania 176

CODRINA CSESZNEK AND KAI A. SCHAFFT

10 Vietnamese youth, schools, and communities in transition: a decade after the administrative boundary extension of Hanoi 195

CHI NGUYEN

Conclusion: Rural people and places in transitional societies: leaning into an uncertain future 216

SANJA STANIC, RENATA HORVATEK, KAI A. SCHAFFT, AND ANNIE MASELLI

Index 231