Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Interaction, migration and change
250 Maruška Svašek being invaded by a foreigner who had no moral right to own Czech property, and to transform village life according to his own ideas. The mayor, who supported social democratic ideals of “social justice for all", sought to generate an emotional discourse among other villagers of resentment and depression with political ambitions of his own. The Dutch investor used a discourse of capitalism, environmentalism, and patricianesque sentiments. He profited from the weak Czech economy, and thanks to his capital and business acumen was able to transform himself into a transnational estate owner, partly by slowly finding his way within the Czech bureaucratic system. As he spent an increasing amount of time and energy on the development of his estate, he also developed an emotional discourse to describe the whole process. This discourse served by contrast to strengthen his own identity as a worldly wise benevolent benefactor who helped to create a happy village. In conclusion, the analysis has shown that specific emotional discourses and practices have been inherent in the rapidly transforming property relations in the post-Cold War Czech-German border area. The experience of having lost possessions, and the prospect of losing or gaining property generated strong emotional discourses as people sought to ground a sense of personal and collective identity by relating in particular ways to their social and material surroundings. References Anderson, D.G. (1998), ‘Property as a Way of Knowing on Evenki Lands in Arctic Siberia’. In C. M. Hann (ed.) Property Relations. Renewing the Anthropological Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (64-84). Creed, G. (1998), Domesticating Revolution. From Socialist Reform to Ambivalent Transition in a Bulgarian Village. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Hamperl, W.D. (1996), Vertreibung und Flucht aus dem Kreis Tachau im Egerland, 1945-1948. Schicksale in Berichten, Dokumenten und Bildern (I and II). Trostberg: Private publication.
