collectivization

American  

[kuh-lek-tuh-vahy-zey-shuhn] / kəˌlɛk təˌvaɪˈzeɪ ʃən /

especially British, collectivisation

noun

1. the act or process of organizing a people, industry, enterprise, etc., according to collectivism, an economic system in which control, especially of the means of production, is shared cooperatively or centralized.

   After World War I Russia introduced a full-scale command economy, including the collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of almost all industrial capital.

2. the act of making something apply to a group of people as a whole rather than as individuals.

   The collectivization of guilt is a tool used to show that the community in which the crimes occurred has yet to become a community that can guarantee they will not be repeated.

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Etymology

Origin of collectivization

collectiiviz(e) ( def. ) + -ation ( def. )

Explanation

When an industry is controlled by a collaborative group, instead of by individual private owners, it's called collectivization. The Soviet Union's 1930s policy of agricultural collectivization transformed many small farms into one enormous shared farm. In economics, collectivization means forming collectives, or cooperative organizations, instead of allowing separate businesses to compete against each other. It's an important concept in communism, and Stalin's unsuccessful attempt at using collectivization to free peasants from poverty is often used as proof it can't work. Other kinds of collectivization have been more successful, though, from cooperative living situations to artist and worker collectives that give groups of people more support and bargaining power than they had as individuals.

Example Sentences

Collectivization efforts were intensified, and by the end of 1958 more than twenty-five thousand communes had been created, each consisting of several thousand families on average.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Mr. Conquest returned to the subject of the 1930s in 1986 with his study “The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine,” which, like “The Great Terror,” tried to describe the indescribable.

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 2015

Collectivization of agriculture, industrialization and the consequent migration from rural to industrial areas, and a widespread educational system have done much to transform the tribal character of the society.

From Area Handbook for Albania by Elpern, Sarah Jane