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Coping strategies in the times of crisis – a qualitative study of 25 small farmers households in four South East European countries

This paper brings the analysis of survival and coping strategies of small farmers households in four SEE societies (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia). Social, cultural and economic practices and strategies of households are situated in two partially overlapping fields – the field of formal and of informal economy. It is led by an extended Bourdieusian theoretical framework and based upon a qualitative analysis of 25 group interviews in small farmers households. The paper covers the structural conditions of the households’ participation in both fields of ‘play’, the analysis of household capitals and the interpretation of practice – strategy dimension. The findings indicate that, confronted with economic crisis, all of the households developed diversified strategies to cope and survive - most of them enabled by the social capital and realized in the field of informal economy. Only those households which activated multiple capitals and had exceptional levels of reflexivity and agency succeeded to transcend their vulnerable position.

practice, strategy, social capital, agency, small farmers

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