“Post-doctoral researcher Elda Muco carried out her second fieldwork between May 9 and 30 in the district of Pukë, in northern Albania. This phase of the research focused on delving deeper into the patrimonial dimension of land, with particular attention to how collective memory and the country’s post-authoritarian transformation have shaped local perceptions of agricultural land.
Through a combination of qualitative interviews, informal conversations and field observations, the fieldwork aimed to explore how rural communities remember, value and symbolically appropriate land. Particular attention was paid to understanding the continuity (or rupture) of traditional land-use practices and collective norms inherited from the socialist period, and how they influence current land-related identities and attachments.”
