ABSTRACT

Featuring chapters by an international group of scholars and academics, Rural Youth at the Crossroads discusses the challenges and contexts facing youth from rural communities in countries with legacies of socialism undergoing social, political, and economic transition.

The chapters employ a variety of sources and approaches to examine rural youth outcomes, and the well-being and sustainability of rural areas. The book focuses particularly on career and educational goals, the often contradictory relations between rural schools and communities, majority-minoritized group relations, community engagement, and political attitudes. Individual chapters examine these questions and dynamics within Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Vietnam. In total the volume represents a unique and timely comparative discussion of the relationship between youth and rural development within transitional societies, and the challenges and opportunities for enhancing the well-being and sustainability of rural communities.

Aimed at informing strategies to revitalize rural social space, this book is targeted towards social scientists with interest in sociology and rural sociology, demography, education, youth development, community/regional development, rurality, public policy, and identity formation in transitional contexts. As such, this book will have international appeal to researchers, educators, and policymakers in transitional countries, and to those interested in these topics, regions, and communities.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

Rural youth and societies within post-socialist and transitional contexts

chapter 1|18 pages

Leaving the Croatian countryside

Local context and rural youth aspirations

chapter 2|16 pages

Uneven demographic development within Croatia, 1950s–present

Implications for rural quality of life and youth out-migration

chapter 3|21 pages

Rural youth and school-based political socialization

The case of Croatia

chapter 5|25 pages

Coming of age in the Czech countryside

Life and educational transition contexts for rural youth

chapter 6|22 pages

The contradictions of education in Russia

Resilient and struggling schools in the context of rural depopulation and decline

chapter 7|20 pages

The case of Serbia

The orientations of rural young adults towards education, work, and emigration

chapter 10|21 pages

Vietnamese youth, schools, and communities in transition

A decade after the administrative boundary extension of Hanoi

chapter |15 pages

Conclusion

Rural people and places in transitional societies: leaning into an uncertain future