One Village, One Family: Social Cohesion in Rural Slovakia

Abstract

This article is focused on mechanisms associated with social cohesion of Roman-Catholics in rural Slovakia. The article presents an analysis of ethnographic data gathered during field research in a municipality situated in White Carpathian mountains from June 2017 to July 2019. The data was collected from 38 residents of the selected denomination during semi-structured interviews. The primary aim of the article is to identify factors that help maintain social cohesion and factors that cause its disruption in concrete rural community in Slovakia. The data analysis based on the Grounded Theory method was performed in Atlas.ti. It showed that it is the help of friends, family, and neighbours, as well as family gatherings, religious tolerance, and baptism that contribute to the maintenance of social cohesion. The social cohesion is distorted by divorces, mobility of local inhabitants, ongoing industrialization, consumerism, and transformation of traditions.