Page 74 - Changing Living Spaces

Žarko Lazarević

sufficient sources for their survival and for social and economic modern-
ization, but the fragmented land structure made it impossible for all the
vital needs of the farmers and their families, as well as their life goals, to
be met solely by agricultural income. There was a gap between the avail-
able labour force and the amount of labour available on farms: the num-
ber of laborers exceeded the amount of labour available in agriculture.
Overpopulation as an abstract concept took the form of widespread un-
employment or underemployment of the rural population in everyday life;
precisely such a situation was one of the crucial problems in rural are-
as. With additional employment, which also brought additional income,
there arose not only the survival of peasant families, but also the possi-
bility for small investments, and economic and social modernization. In
order to overcome the constraints of unfavourable land tenure, peasants
had to find additional employment, thus the various sources of income.
This was the only way they could meet their cash needs to finance the ris-
ing cost of living and keep pace with economic and social modernization.
Diversification of agricultural income was therefore a social and econom-
ic necessity. Farmers who owned up to five hectares of land were in a par-
ticularly difficult position. However, farmers or the agricultural popula-
tion did not practice income diversification or integration only because
they had to – of course, the desire for a higher income or greater income
stability and an improvement in the family’s standard of living was also
extremely important. Emigration, employment on other farms, and ag-
ricultural production of various commodities were among the most im-
portant measures for integrating the various sources. All these processes
improved the situation in the short term and thus also contributed to eco-
nomic and social stabilization in the countryside before World War II. The
concept of the integrated peasant economy proved to be appropriate to in-
terpret the economic and social processes and development trends in ru-
ral areas.

Acknowledgement
This study is the result of the research programme Economic and Social
History of Slovenia (P6-0280, 2014–2021) and of the bilateral project
Sustainable living spaces: a comparative approach to modernization in
rural Japan and Slovenia during the Anthropocene (1800-present) (BI-
JP/19-21-003, 2019 – 2022), supported by the Slovene Research Agency
(ArrS).

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