One Village, One Family: Social Cohesion in Rural Slovakia

Abstract

This article is focused on mechanisms associated with the 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 the White Carpathian mountains between June 2017 and July 2019. The data was collected from 38 residents of the selected denomination in semi-structured interviews. The primary aim of the article is to identify factors that help maintain social cohesion and factors that undermine it in the specific Slovak rural community. The data analysis was based on the grounded theory method and was performed with the aid of Atlas.ti. It revealed that the help of friends, family, and neighbours, as well as family gatherings, religious tolerance and baptism are factors that contribute to the maintenance of social cohesion. Factors that undermine social cohesion are divorces, the mobility of local inhabitants, ongoing industrialization, consumerism, and the transformation of traditions.