Collective Management of Environmental Resources: Historical-Anthropological Insights from the Slovenian Karst (19th century to post-socialism)
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Giulia Beltrametti
Abstract
This paper presents the first results of a two-year interdisciplinary research project on the collective management of environmental resources in the Slovenian Karst region from the 19th century through the post-socialist era. Utilizing both anthropological fieldwork and historical archival research, the study explores the historical continuity and discontinuity of local agrarian communities’ practices in managing forests, land and pastures. The research emphasizes the socio-legal capacity of these communities to produce, claim, and negotiate rights amidst varying administrative and political regimes, from the Habsburg Empire to independent Slovenia. The study also compares similar cases in other Eastern European post-socialist countries, highlighting the complex dynamics of re-socialization and ownership morphologies. The findings suggest that a nuanced understanding of the historical and social contexts is crucial for interpreting the collective management of natural resources, with implications for current and future resource accessibility and sustainability.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Beitrag werden erste Ergebnisse eines zweijährigen interdisziplinären Forschungsprojekts vorgestellt, das sich mit der kollektiven Bewirtschaftung von Umweltressourcen in der slowenischen Karstregion vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur postsozialistischen Ära befasst. Mit Hilfe anthropologischer Feldforschung und historischer Archivrecherche untersucht die Studie die historische Kontinuität und Diskontinuität der Praktiken lokaler Agrargemeinschaften bei der Verwaltung von Wäldern, Land und Weiden. Der Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung liegt auf der sozio-rechtlichen Fähigkeit dieser Gemeinschaften, Rechte zu produzieren, einzufordern und auszuhandeln, und zwar inmitten unterschiedlicher administrativer und politischer Regime, vom Habsburger Reich bis zum unabhängigen Slowenien. Die Studie vergleicht auch ähnliche Fälle in anderen osteuropäischen postsozialistischen Ländern und hebt die komplexe Dynamik der Resozialisierung und der Eigentumsmorphologien hervor. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass ein differenziertes Verständnis der historischen und sozialen Kontexte für die Interpretation der kollektiven Bewirtschaftung natürlicher Ressourcen von entscheidender Bedeutung ist, was wiederum Auswirkungen auf die gegenwärtige und zukünftige Zugänglichkeit und Nachhaltigkeit der Ressourcen hat.
Acknowledgements
This paper is part of the research project Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions H2020, n. 101033368, OCHER – Owners of a Common Heritage. Commons, Environment and Rights in European Mountains, 18th–20th century. A first version was presented at the workshop Collective Land Rights and Capitalist Economy, 19th–21st Centuries (Duisburg, November 24–25, 2022). The author would like to thank the seminar participants and in particular the organiser Borbala Zsuzsanna Török for the fruitful discussions and the two anonymous reviewers of the text for their valuable input.
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© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Collective Land Rights and Capitalist Economy, 19th–21st Centuries
- Between a rock and a hard place: the privatization or preservation of the commons in Spain in the long 19th century
- Negotiating Collective Land Rights in the Andes: Insights from contrasting trajectories on the Bolivian-Chilean altiplano, 1880s–1930s
- Collective Management of Environmental Resources: Historical-Anthropological Insights from the Slovenian Karst (19th century to post-socialism)
- Collective Property in the Modern State: Émile de Laveleye’s Primitive Property in its Global Context
- The trajectory of a transnational right to land norm
- Rights of nature, indigenous communities and land property: legal perspectives from Latin America
- Abhandlungen
- Rechtspraxis in der Arbeitsvermittlung: Die Rolle des professionellen Selbstverständnisses von Fachkräften in der Arbeitsvermittlung von jungen Menschen
- Kann Technik sanktionieren? Der technische Vollvollzug von Normen als soziologisches Problem
- The Reception of Luhmann in the Sociology of Law in Brazil
- Between a rock and a hard place: the privatization or preservation of the commons in Spain in the long 19th century
- Rezension
- Karl-Heinz Ladeur, Das Rechtssubjekt und sein Bildungsroman. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des Privatrechts im 19. Jahrhundert, Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft 2024, 382 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-95832-362-9, 49,90 €.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Collective Land Rights and Capitalist Economy, 19th–21st Centuries
- Between a rock and a hard place: the privatization or preservation of the commons in Spain in the long 19th century
- Negotiating Collective Land Rights in the Andes: Insights from contrasting trajectories on the Bolivian-Chilean altiplano, 1880s–1930s
- Collective Management of Environmental Resources: Historical-Anthropological Insights from the Slovenian Karst (19th century to post-socialism)
- Collective Property in the Modern State: Émile de Laveleye’s Primitive Property in its Global Context
- The trajectory of a transnational right to land norm
- Rights of nature, indigenous communities and land property: legal perspectives from Latin America
- Abhandlungen
- Rechtspraxis in der Arbeitsvermittlung: Die Rolle des professionellen Selbstverständnisses von Fachkräften in der Arbeitsvermittlung von jungen Menschen
- Kann Technik sanktionieren? Der technische Vollvollzug von Normen als soziologisches Problem
- The Reception of Luhmann in the Sociology of Law in Brazil
- Between a rock and a hard place: the privatization or preservation of the commons in Spain in the long 19th century
- Rezension
- Karl-Heinz Ladeur, Das Rechtssubjekt und sein Bildungsroman. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des Privatrechts im 19. Jahrhundert, Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft 2024, 382 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-95832-362-9, 49,90 €.
