LAZY – SÚČASŤ SOCIO-KULTÚRNEHO KAPITÁLU A ROZVOJOVÉHO POTENCIÁLU OBCE / REGIÓNU (NA PRÍKLADE OBCÍ HRUŠOV A ORAVSKÁ LESNÁ)

This study is based on an analysis of local economic, environmental, social and cultural activities in the municipalities which were awarded the “Village of the Year” title, with a special focus on the Hrušov hillsides and the settlements in Oravská Lesná. The basic historical and ethnological features of these villages include dispersion of the population, since the development period until the establishment of collective farms was characterised mainly by self-employed farmers. In both cases, it happened with a delay – in the 1970s and the 1980s. Ever since, the hillsides and settlements have become depopulated, mainly as a result of the growing construction of family houses or municipal (cooperative) flats in the central parts of municipalities. Inspired by the theoretical and methodological framework of the authors who have dealt with the transformation of hillsides/settlements (Priečko, 2003, 2015; Huba, 1989, 1990, 2009), four possible development processes influencing the hillsides/settlements over the past decades can be hypothetically assumed: 1. Strengthening the original residential and economic function through a set of incentives. 2. Complete functional transformation of the sites from residential to recreational areas. 3. Exclusion of the sites from the category of built-up areas and delimitation of agricultural land to forest land category; 4. Combination of two and more functions with a view to a rational use of the landscape potential and preservation of the genius loci, which, however, requires the ability and willingness of the original or new users to respect the natural and cultural values of places of habitation and of the country, traditional agro-technical processes as well as landscaping in connection with the local/regional cultural heritage.