Through the analysis of social structure and mobility of rural population, based on data
collected by a survey research, the author has got the insight both in actual situation and in
changes which Croatian village has been through. He found that contemporary Croatian
village is in the phase of so-called reconstruction, i.e. that it is not homogeneous but, on the
contrary, its social structure is distinctly complex. Being one of the products of industrial
development, occupations requiring manual work are still prevailing in the village, which
makes it significantly different from the town. But, in this regard also younger active rural
population differs from previous generations representing - through their schooling and
work skills - the greatest innovation in contemporary Croatian village. For the great majority
of rural population agriculture is not basic working sector, so - if aiming at comprising and
comprehending the reality of contemporary Croatian village - the syntagm “rural areas and
agriculture” completely misses this intention. Yet, it doesn’t mean that agriculture isn t still of
great importance for a significant part of inhabitants of rural areas, regardless whether they
are farmers or peasant-workers. It only means that in the priorities of most of them nonagricultural
activity has come before agricultural one, and that the future development of the
village can be recognized in preferences given to non-agricultural sector.
Through the analysis the author established that rural population has many significant and
useful resources at its disposal, which - under favourable conditions - can be used for a
successful adaptation to the requirements of the transitional framework orientation. In the
village there is no distinctive social group who would have some of the resources at its
disposal, the one gained through one’s position in the socialist system and which could be
converted into a higher social status. This characteristic couldn’t be attributed even to the socalled
family cultural capital. The advancement in the hiearchy scale and involvement in
enterprising projects is a result of the action of the totality of resources. As for rural settlements themselves, the social structure of their youngest active generation is their greatest
resource
