The AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW
a journal of agricultural and rural history
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Agricultural History Review, Volume 60 Part 1 (2012), pp. 97–116
Farming and folklore in the contested countryside: the ‘Year of the Village’ (1978) and the transformation of the Farmers’ Union in Flanders
In the twentieth century, the countryside of densely populated Flanders was increasingly contested by the competing interests of agriculture, recreation, rural housing and industrial development. However, Flanders’ largest agricultural organization – the Boerenbond – managed to retain its hegemonic position in this multi-purpose countryside by dividing into dual networks of highly specialized Farmers’ Guilds and non-professional ‘Rural Guilds’. This paper mainly deals with the Flemish ‘Year of the Village’ (1978) and the pivotal role it played in the achievement of this transformation. Seemingly a governmental campaign to promote rural awareness, we will show that the ‘Year of the Village’ was actually conceived and planned by the Boerenbond’s public relation services and subsequently monopolized by the newly-founded Rural Guilds.