Paper long abstract:

Transylvania, and its easternmost part, Szeklerland are symbolic lands for tourists coming from Hungary to experience the authentic rural Hungarian life. In this frame those communities that cannot display any natural and/or Hungarian values are disadvantaged and caught in trap between their declining agrarian production and roadlessness: the restructuring agrarian sector force them to give up with production, to become buyers on the market, but in many cases there are no other solutions to use their environment as economic resource. In my paper I analyze the case of a community from Szeklerland whose members perceive themselves as losers of this transition (in which the landscape turned into saleable product) comparing their 'valueless' natural and built environment with those of the successful communities. This phenomenon will be analyzed by capturing the local factors, but also some external, seemingly successful examples where the locality has been reconstructed fittingly to the new demands.