From Samoobrona (Self-Defense) to Agrounia:Rural social movements in Poland post-1989

Research questions that we will pose are related to the origins, impact and dismantling of the rural movements. The first question concerns the formation of the movements – what structural factors are conducive to establishing such movements? What is the catalyst motivating the participants to self-organize? We will begin with an analysis of the socio-economic and political conditions underlying the start of spontaneous protests.

The second question pertains to the institutionalization phase. As a movement develops structures and procedures, it becomes an organization. RSM tend to relatively early adopt political goals and start acting as political parties. We want to know what were / are their political goals? How effective were rural movements in articulating these goals? We will examine the parliamentary representation of RSM, and the role of RSM activists in the central and local governments. We will try to trace the link between the political side (acting within institutions) and social activism (acting as civil society organizations).

The third aspect of our research is related to the movements’ disintegration. We will investigate why these rural movements disintegrated? Was it: a) because they completed their mission, i.e. were successful in achieving their goals, b) because of the quality of leadership; c) due to structural changes in society?

The project will combine long-term analysis with references to the current events. It covers the activities of Polish rural social movements post-1989. Samoobrona (Self-Defense) was the largest RSM during the 1990s, however, once Poland joined the EU, the movement ceased to play any significant role due to the gradual improvement of living conditions in the rural areas (a structural factor) and the quality of its leadership. We will compare this process with the current situation related to a new rural social movement, Agrounia (established in 2018).