ABSTRACT

Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl described the subject matter of the discipline that was to become European ethnology as 'the land and the folk', meaning rural and smalltown culture. In his 1854 book on the family, Riehl also described a pattern of socio-economic organisation known as the 'whole house'. This chapter explores aspects of the interplay between regional culture and economic development as expressions of these concepts. It reviews the informal economy in different national settings and discusses the leadership in the context of rural development. The chapter then focuses on part-time farming and immigration, and occupational pluralism as a feature of the 'whole house'. Agriculture plays a major role in development policies for the West of Ireland. Such policies have been based on certain assumptions about the essential structure of the regional economy, and guided by presuppositions related to either a peasant or a modernisation model of rural development.