Community and gentrification in a rural settlement

Abstract

The present study examines the impact of urban middle-class, intellectual influx and gentrification of rural areas in the light of the development of community life in the target settlement. Within the framework of the qualitative research on which the study is based, about 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with natives and newcomers, artists and local entrepreneurs in a small settlement in South Transdanubia with the participation of PTE BTK sociology students. According to our results, during the different stages of rural gentrification, immigrants with different values and social status arrived in the settlement, as a result of which the economic co-operations, hierarchies, common values and goals that constructed the foundations of the local community changed dramatically. In the 1990s, first a group of artists, intellectuals, and then more and more entrepreneurs moved to the settlement. Migrant intellectuals transformed the life of the quiet village and turned it into a bustling settlement rich in festivals and tourists. As a result of the process, local economic relations and tourism have revived. Due to the transformation of the composition of the inhabitants, and the change of the function of the settlement, the differences in the values became more visible, which can be observed both on the indigenous migration axis and within the community of the two groups. Different, competing ideas about the village have led to a spectacular change, both for the community(ies) and the settlement, with the result that different actors and groups are fighting for their own interests in the formal sphere of power. Gentrification in the settlement can simultaneously strengthen and reduce social cohesion and thus the community itself.