Sugarland : The Transformation of the Countryside in Communist Albania / Artan R. Hoxha.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoxha, Artan R., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sugar beet industry--Albania--Maliq (Korçë)--History--20th century.

Sugar beet industry.

Rural development projects--Albania--Maliq (Korçë)--History--20th century.

Rural development projects.

Communism--Albania.

Communism.

Maliq (Korçë, Albania)--History--20th century.

Maliq (Korçë, Albania).

Albania--Rural conditions.

Albania.

Albania--Politics and government--1944-1990.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 293 pages.) : illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Budapest, Hungary : Central European University Press, [2023]

Summary:

In this historical monograph on non-urban communist Albania, Artan Hoxha discusses the ambitious development project that turned a swampland into a site of sugar production after 1945. The author seeks to free the history of Albanian communism from the stereotypes that still circulate about it with stigmas of an aberration, paranoia, extreme nationalism, and xenophobia. This micro-history of the agricultural and industrial transformation of a zone in southeastern Albania, explores a wide range of issues including modernization, development, and social, cultural, and economic policies. In addition to analyzing the collectivization of agriculture, Hoxha shows how communism affected the lives of ordinary rural people. As elsewhere in the Communist Bloc, the Albanian regime borrowed developmental projects from the past and implemented them using social mobilization and a command economy. The abundant archival resources along with interviews in the field attest to the authorities’ efforts to increase consumption and to radically transform people’s tastes. But the book argues that despite the repressive environment, people involved in the sugar project were not simply passive receivers of models from the nation's capital. The author also describes that—in defiance of Cold War bipolarity—technological requirements and social policy considerations required a degree of engagement with the broader world.-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The making of the sugar scheme : transitioning from empire to nation

The making of Maliq's landscape : modern and Stalinist

Sugar and the Communist construction of spatial inequalities in Maliq

Maliq and the world

Communism and after : from sugar to ruins.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Hoxha, Artan R. Sugarland

ISBN:

9789633866177 (electronic book)

OCLC:

1369644043