Slavic Research Center News no9 (2)

Annual Newsletter of the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University		SRC Home
	No.9 , December 2001	back to INDEX>>

From the Director	SRC Summer Symposium in 2001	Foreign Visiting Fellowship Program	Departure of Professor Shugo Minagawa	Arrival of Professor Akihiro Iwashita	Our Current Staff
Research Funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture		Guest Lectures from Abroad	Visitors from Abroad	Publications(2000-2001)	The Library

Essays by Foreign Fellows

Petr Pavlinek

Juha Janhunen

Nikolai Bolkhovitinov

Xing Guangcheng

SRC Summer Symposium in 2001

In the summer of 2001, the Slavic Research Center held an international symposium, "Transformation and Diversification of Rural Societies in Eastern Europe and Russia" over a four-day period starting on July 11. Overseas participants included eight scholars from Russia, the United States, Germany, Czech, Slovakia, and Hungary who were invited to give presentations. In total the symposium held eight separate sessions, which included a pre-session.

During the symposium, four primary issues came under review: 1) How societal changes in the past 10 years in rural Eastern European and Russian communities fit within the context of rural Slavic history since the 19th century; 2) How economic and societal changes correlate; 3) How the latest structural transformations in agriculture can best be analyzed; and 4) How the relationship between land ownership and agricultural operations can best be analyzed.

Discussions pertaining to the first of these issues brought out the need to look beyond the age of socialism and to include institutionalized factors present during historical periods preceding the establishment of socialism (the theory of "path dependency". Discussions on the second issue recognized the particular importance of the formation of leadership classes and the different roles those classes have played within agricultural communities, including communities in Russia. Discussions on the third issue highlighted the insufficiency of analyzing rural economy restructuring solely from the privatization viewpoint. Rather it is essential that concepts like management rationalization, regional cooperation, local leadership, and management theory also be brought to bear. In discussing the fourth issue, participants recognized that large agricultural corporations and small-scale peasant farm operations will likely continue to coexist over a long period of time in Eastern Europe and Russia. Hence it was predicted that the question of how to best consolidate excessively subdivided agricultural lands will become a future focus point. The way in which administrative policies become tied to this integration will be particularly important for Eastern European nations hoping to join the European Union.

Throughout the symposium overseas participants noted that they had found inspiration in research originating in Japan. This confirms the high level of respect being afforded by the international community to Japanese research on rural Slavic communities.

Also of interest was that this symposium followed a new format, marked by a pre-symposium workshop that was held in the previous year. Consequently, discussions were more tightly focused and produced more collective, concerted results. In addition, the incorporation of interdisciplinary analytical techniques spanning economic, social, political and other fields allowed new centers of discussion to develop.

A proceedings of papers will be published by the end of the academic year.

By O. Ieda

July 11, 2001

Pre-Session: Russian Communities in the Asian-Pacific Region

Speakers: Yuliya V. Argudyaeva (Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, Russia) "Colony of Russian Orthodox and Old Believers in Manchuria"; Nikolai N. Bolkhovitinov (Institute of General History, Russia) "Russian Colonization in Alaska"Chair: Inoue, Koichi (SRC) Commentators: Sakamoto, Hideaki (Tenri University, Japan); Hara, Teruyuki (SRC)
Session 1: Rural Russia in a Historical Perspective

Speakers: Ilia V. Gerasimov (Executive Editor, International Quarterly Ab Imperio, Russia) "A Little-Known Project of Public Modernization of Russian Countryside: The New Generation of Russian Intelligentsia and the New Peasantry, 1907-1917"; Yoshida, Hiroshi (Okayama University, Japan) "Russian Peasant Customary Law as Representations" Chair: Wada, Haruki (Emeritus Professor, Tokyo University, Japan) Commentators: Choi, Jaedong (Rikkyo University, Japan); Matsumura, Takeshi (Akita Keizaihoka University, Japan)

July 12

Session 2: Rural Russia in Transformation

Speakers: Zemphira I. Kalugina (Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering, Siberian Branch of RAS, Russia) "Rural Transformation in Russia: Inconsistencies and Results"; David J. O'Brien (Missouri University, USA) "Household Capital and Structural Change in Employment and Income in Rural Russia from 1991-1999" Chair: Minagawa, Shugo (Aichi Shukutoku University, Japan) Commentators: Nobe, Koichi (Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan); Hirooka, Naoko (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan)

Session 3: Structural Change in Rural Hungary

Speakers: Katalin Kovacs (Center for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) "Agricultural Restructuring and Its Impacts on Rural Society in Hungary・ Ieda, Osamu (SRC) "Re-transformation of the Co-operative Farm and Rural Society in Hungary: Dual Leadership of Integration in Agricultural Production・Chair: Hayashi, Tadayuki (SRC) Commentators: Tsuboi, Nobuhiro (Tsukuba University, Japan); Osanami, Fumio (Hokkaido University, Japan)

Session 4: Re-Thinking on Russian Agricultural Development

peakers: Kojima, Shuichi (Konan University, Japan) "Kondrat'ev's View of the Russian Agricultural Development"; Yamamura, Rihito (SRC) "New Phase of Post-Socialist Structural Changes in Russian Agriculture"Chair: Matsuzato, Kimitaka (SRC) Commentators: Ilia V. Gerasimov; Hizen, Eiichi (Teikyo University, Japan)

July 13

Session 5: Diversification of Agriculture in Eastern Europe
Speakers: Gejza Blaas (Research Institute of Agricultural Economy, Slovakia) "Is Completion of Agricultural Reforms in Central and East European Countries Conditional on the Move to a Family Farm?"; Yoshino, Etsuo (Hokkaido University, Japan) "Polish Agriculture: Today and Future - Polarization Process of the Family Farm in Poland -・Chair: Nishimura, Yoshiaki (Hitotsubashi University, Japan) Commentators: Gemma, Masahiko (Waseda University, Japan); Sato, Yukino (Tohoku University, Japan)

Session 6: Rural Enlargement toward East and West

Speakers: Klaus Frohberg (IAMO, Halle University, Germany) "The Rural Economies in the EU-Accession Countries: Do EU Agricultural and Structural Policies Need to Be Adjusted?"; Tomas Doucha (Research Institute of Agricultural Economy, The Czech Republic) "Agriculture and Rural Development in the Czech Republic: History, Visions, Reality";Chair: Yamamura, Rihito (SRC) Commentators: Korenaga, Tohiko (Utsunomiya University, Japan); Sato, Masanori (Tohoku University, Japan)

Session 7: Round Table on Future of Rural Society in Slavic Eurasia

Panelists: David J. O'Brien; Tomas Doucha; Yamamura, Rihito Chair: Ieda, Osamu (SRC)

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