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| Contribution
to the Gardening-Conference 2000:
"Perspectives
of Small-Scale Farming in urban and rural areas
- about the social and ecological necessity of gardens and informal agriculture" from 21. - 25. July 2000 in Berlin Infos: Work group "Small-scale farming and Gardens in urban and rural Areas", C/O Free University of Berlin, Institute of Sociology, Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen, gartenkonferenz@gmx.de , http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~garten/ |
Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen
The rural culture of the peasant's village in the 'Warburger Börde' (East Westfalia, Germany): A hidden source for an autonomous regional economy?
The 'Warburger Börde' is a very fertile agricultural region. Because of this fact we could expect to find here an intensive agricultural production especially oriented towards the world market. This, in part, takes place: There is an ongoing concentration of land in big farms which growingly build fattening pens for thousands of pigs. But, on the other hand, there exist still relatively numerous small and middle sized farms. But, what is really striking, the cultural givens cannot be so easily channeled into the faith in the globalised growth economy like elsewhere in Germany, above all in the cities.
In relation to Third World or Eastern regions we are accostumed to discover
alternative, reluctant, local traditions. Within our own country, this
First World country par excellence, we lack this aproach and its discourse.
In my paper I will contribute one piece of this missing link concerning
the function of the rural culture as a possible source for an own, regional,
economic perspective through local traditions: The activities of the 'Schützen'
and other community based groups.