Social Dynamics of Czech Vineyard Communities after Land Redistribution

Mgr. Josie L. Suská, B.A.

Master's thesis

Abstract:

ABSTRACT Winemaking in the social sciences is a recent multi-disciplinary sub-field which has emerged in the last 40 years to include contributors from anthropology and human geography. Sociologists in the strict sense of the word have so far not played a substantial role. This study, conducted to fulfill a master’s thesis, attempts a foray into the sociology of winemaking to answer the question: what effects of the agricultural de-collectivization process of the 1990s are found among vineyard-owners in the Czech Republic? A mixed method strategy based on grounded theory was used to triangulate the topics of education, informal communication, as well as generations. Findings suggest that any possible generational gap is not prominent, and that the education of winemaking is centered in a secondary school, a university, and recently-created civil organizations. It was expected that due to a fragmented form of vineyard plots and increased face-time with one’s winemaking neighbors, the continued acquisition of winemaking knowledge would be largely informal; this was unsupported by the findings. Interpreting the findings with the use of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory reveals how the development of civil organizations has played an important role in the community’s adaptation to the reaching effects of socialism.

Keywords

agriculture, socialist land redistribution, Czech Republic, generations, systems theory, knowledge, winemaking

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 7. 5. 2010

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 31. 5. 2010
• Supervisor: Mgr. Benjamin Jeremiah Vail, Ph.D.
• Reader: prof. PhDr. Ivo Možný, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Sociology / Sociology (Eng.)