The project investigates the strategies of survival and adaptation in rural populations in altering property regimes in Poland, Finland, the GDR and the ESSR from 1945 to 1995. The project argues that the experience of injustice prevailing at the rural Eastern Europe is at once historical and deeply embedded in the challenges of contemporary society, such as climate change; it is a response to state intervention, but follows the structures of rural identity. The project combines quantitative research on a vast number of legal cases with qualitative analysis of the experiences of people in rural areas. The project's comprehensive and comparative research will be able to analyse this key political and social issue common to European societies and open up opportunities for dialogue and cooperation.

2025

2029