engleski

'It doesn't look lika a village anymore' - social production and construction of Mrzla Vodica

Mrzla Vodica is a village located in a mountainous region of Gorski kotar in Croatia. The village is interesting in the scope of anthropology of space and place because of the series of events that changed tremendously its fate: in the beginning of 19th century a road passed through and marked a start of development, not only of the village, but the whole region ; in 1873 a railway completely changed life and economy of the settlement ; World War II and a new Italian border that was installed nearby brought well known unfortunate events ; the dam was constructed in the 50's and accumulation lake filled the valley with water, flooding the houses, sawmills, inns and a chapel. The emigration and depopulation were inevitable. Nevertheless, research showed an emergence of a recent trend of lifestyle migrants (O’Reilly 2007), that are returning back from the cities to find a "rural idyll" and better quality of life. These are some examples of social production and social construction of the place, but more attention will be given to politics and power, as well as to social practices, being, belonging and remembering. This case study will show that theories employed in urban anthropology of space and place can be used to explain the construction of the rural place as well. Because of the diachronic approach of this ethnographic research, this paper will, on the example of the village of Mrzla Vodica, show the village of 21st century in comparison to 20th and 19th century village.

social production, social construction, space, place, Gorski kotar

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