Local Initiatives Functioning as a Condition of Rural Development of the Czech Countryside

Rural development is closely connected with the development possibilities of residential locations. Broken social ties are projected into its earlier development. The socialist way of life (from the end of the WW II until the end of the eighties) was ideologically formed by collectivist models. Social organisations were highly formalised and controlled from above. Thousands of new social organisations have emerged in the villages and in towns since 1989, mostly involving cultural, sports and social activities. Civil initiatives were slow in winning recognition in rural areas and some types of initiatives are still missing. A new impulse for their progress was the accession of the Czech Republic into the EU in 2004. Information is drawn from the sociological research projects of the Sociological Laboratory, Czech University of Life Sciences.