NATURAL SYSTEM–HUMAN SYSTEM INTERFUNCTIONALITY SPECIFIC TO THE RURAL COMMUNITIES. CASE STUDY: TRADITIONAL PRODUCTS

The present study intends to identify the socio-ecological logics of the technological process generated by the particular type of the functionable relations between farmers and the natural space, with reference to the traditional farm products. The traditional product is closely connected to the physical territory, in which the local specific culture is relevant, which in its turn comes from the local social system. At another level, the production of these traditional goods is obtained in the context of private initiatives, in the strategies of some farmers who in this way get connected to the structural dynamics. The traditional product is considered as a “cultural trademark” for the local populations, being able to have “a patrimonial status” for the rural communities. The paper is based on in-depth interviews applied to farmers in the Romanian rural area, in the period 2009–2010; it appeals to the diagnosis analysis of traditional products as well as to the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the rural inter-functionality processes and phenomena, assisted by the ATLAS Ti software.