Under Pressure: Young Farmers In Marriage Markets – A Greek Case Study

Abstract

Gender issues, and masculinity in particular, have increasingly drawn the attention of scholars in the last decade. Nevertheless, given the well‐established phenomenon of young rural women's rejection of framers and exodus from rural areas, scant attention is paid to the issue of rural marriage markets. This article aims to address the topic of young farmers' perceptions and practices in their search for a bride. The target population was young males who joined the ‘Young Farmers’ programme in two tobacco producing communities in Greece. Utilising Bourdieu's oeuvre (especially ‘habitus’), we argue that young male farmers do not seem able to reflect on their current position in the local marriage market and, in general, challenge dominant structures owing to themselves being ‘trapped’ in the tobacco production habitus (including dominant masculinity). While consciousness‐raising and change seem difficult the implications of the current crisis (including social suffering and disorders) are not yet plainly manifested.

She leaves, he stays? Sex-selective migration in rural East Germany

“…That "women is a greater [internal] migrant than man" and that women move from rural to urban districts for employment purposes was already put forward by Ravenstein (1885: 196) in his seminal paper on the 'laws of migration'. Lacking job opportunities are e in addition to economic restructuring, increasing educational achievement and young women's growing independence e still frequently cited as important drivers of sexselective out-migration from rural areas (Bjarnason and Thorlindsson, 2006;Kaberis and Koutsouris, 2012). An increasing orientation of women towards paid work will ultimately prompt them to leave the countryside since "the female labour market is, above all, urban" (Dahlstr€ om, 1996: 261).…”

On the role of cultures of (out-)migration in the migration decisions of young people in shrinking regions of Central Germany

“…Zorlu and Kooiman, 2019). The same is true for rural marriage markets (Kaberis and Koutsouris, 2013) or the formation of romantic relationships in general, especially at times when a considerable number of young people search for partners. Social pressures from relatives, friends, and within everyday institutions such as schools should also be mentioned here as they have proven to be most influential in shaping adolescent orientations towards (im-)mobility (Meyer, 2017).…”

“…Research on certain topics and places can hence contribute to or reinforce stigmatisation of the places in question and their inhabitants. The report by Kröhnert and Klingholz (2007) which generated considerable media interest in the late 2000s has contributed to the marginalisation and stigmatisation of rural eastern Germany in general and young rural men in particular (see also Wiest, 2016, andRolfes andMohring, 2009, for narratives and discourses of stigmatisation of the rural east). In the title of their publication, the authors use the soccer analogy of a club being sent down to a lower league (Abstieg) to describe rural eastern Germany as Abstiegsregionen and characterise the young men living there as disadvantaged, insinuating that they are not academically inclined and are right-wing voters and unattractive mates for the clever girls who consequently turn their back on rural eastern Germany and those left behind.…”

“…Numerous German and international studies have shown that migration in general, and especially migration from structurally weak rural areas, is age-and gender-selective, with young adults and women being more likely to leave (e.g. Kaberis and Koutsouris, 2013;Leibert, 2016;Makkai et al, 2017). Looking at the motives for migration, there is evidence of a dominance of educational and career-related aspects in the migratory considerations of young adults (e.g.…”

Affect and Taste: Bourdieu, Traditional Music, and the Performance of Possibilities

“…Rural sociologists have used Bourdieu to discuss social and cultural capital, sustainable agriculture, food and tourism, and marriage (Wall et al . ; Carolan ; Sutherland and Burton ; Kaberis and Koutsouris ; Paddock ). Music, though, has yet to be the centre of analysis in articles appearing in Sociologia Ruralis or Rural Sociology .…”