Tomasz Figlus

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the concept of the “mutilated village” as a new analytical category for interpreting a specific type of rural settlement transformation. The concept refers to settlements that, as a result of sudden and most often exogenous impacts, have lost part of their morphological, functional, social or cultural integrity, while retaining settlement continuity. The term “mutilation” has a metaphorical character and denotes a socio-spatial condition of a settlement resulting from the deconstruction of its previous socio-spatial whole, rather than its complete disappearance. The article presents the theoretical foundations of the concept of the “mutilated village”, identifies its main dimensions – morphological, functional, social and cultural – and proposes a typology and a research model enabling the operationalisation of this category in empirical studies. The research procedure includes the identification of factors leading to the loss of settlement integrity, the analysis of the course of transformation, and the assessment of the village after “mutilation”, taking into account its adaptive potential, capacity for regeneration, and possible trajectories of further development.

Keywords: ‘mutilated’ village, rural settlement, morphogenesis, human geography, settlement geography

Andrzej Suliborski [andrzej.suliborski@geo.uni.lodz.pl], Faculty of Geographical Sciences University of Lodz Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland
Tomasz Figlus [tomasz.figlus@geo.uni.lodz.pl], Faculty of Geographical Sciences University of Lodz Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland
Anita Kulawiak [anita.kulawiak@geo.uni.lodz.pl], Faculty of Geographical Sciences University of Lodz Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland