Hungarian Movement Research Articles

Prospects for the future: Community supported agriculture in Hungary

Alternative food supply systems have been a subject of increasing interest for many decades in various perspectives of food and agriculture studies. This paper contributes to the discussion by examining how farmer led Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement in Hungary creates an alternative in the dominant food regime. To examine CSAs future potentials, semi-structured interviews with producers, consumers-members, and experts, a consumer-member survey, and secondary data sources were utilized. We analyse ambiguities or uncertainties of production, logistics, economic viability, and community formation to sort out social and material practices that co-produce goods and values centred on sustainability. We conclude that CSAs create open and democratic spaces of active and direct producer-consumer cooperation and thus present a model for rethinking our food system. However the scaling up of these experiences is the main challenge today.

A TEKINTÉLYTAGADÓ HULLÁM PÉLDÁI A MAGYAR GYERMEKIRODALOMBAN

Ahogy Magyarországon legfőképpen Janikovszky Éva képviselte a magyar antiautoriter mozgalmat, úgy Kárpátalján Berniczky Évának jutott ez a szerep, csak egy kicsit másképp. A maga szürrealista stílusával és világával egy új, egyenrangú felnőtt-gyermek viszonyt teremt, ahol a gyermeknek is lehet, sőt van igaza, és ennek legfőbb módja, terepe és fegyvere a korlátlan gyermeki fantázia, amit csak kevés felnőtt tud, akar, képes követni. Berniczky Éva munkássága olyan, mintha egyszerre tanult volna Janikovszky Évától és Lázár Ervintől. Témaválasztása, szereplőinek neve pedig szürrealisztikus elemeket tükröz, mint Lázár Ervin regényeiben.

Converging Suffrage Politics: The Romanian Women's Movement in Hungary and Its Allies before World War I

This article focuses on the Romanian women's movement in Hungary before World War I and on its veiled suffrage politics. The first part of the article presents an overview of the organizational history of the Romanian women's movement from 1850 to 1914. The establishment of the Union of the Romanian Women in Hungary in 1913 constitutes a key event in this account. The second part of the article addresses the politics behind the Union and explores the converging suffrage politics of two more historical actors: the internationalization strategies of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) and the suffrage politics of the Romanian National Party in Hungary. The article concludes that the Union's actions resembled those of similar organizations in Austria-Hungary that sought to join the IWSA, indicating that the Union may have been preparing to adopt a pro-suffrage position.

Investigation of Dynamic and Kinematic Landslide Processes by Borehole Tiltmeters and Extensometers

Landslides cause many damages both in properties and in human life. The high loess banks along the River Danube are the most susceptible areas to mass movements in Hungary. Two test sites, one in Dunaföldvár and the other in Dunaszekcső, were chosen for the investigation of the kinematic and dynamic processes of the high loess banks due to tectonic, hydrologic and environmental effects. On both test sites, more landslides occurred in the last century. In Dunaszekcső the latest landslide took place in 2008. Here a new landslide has been developing since 2010. In Dunaföldvár borehole tilt and borehole extensometric measurements have been carried out since 2002. In Dunaszekcső the borehole measurements began in the autumn of 2007, thus both the large landslide formed in 2008 and the newly developing landslide could be observed. Comparison of tilt data with ground water level changes and the stage of the River Danube resulted in new knowledge of the landslide development processes of the high loess banks. The measurements made evident that the ground water level changes have two-three orders of magnitude larger effect on the high bank stability than the water level variations of the River Danube. The characteristic tilt processes during a 3-4 weeks period before the slump can be used for early warning of landslides. The increasing tilt amplitudes and regression coefficients between tilt and ground water levels could be the precursor of a forthcoming landslide.

Hungarian Nationalism and the Origins of Neolog Judaism

The new religious movement of the Neolog Jews in Hungary argued for Jews’ acceptance into Hungarian society by articulating an ethnic identity compatible with that of Hungarians. Neolog Jews promoted nationalism by propagating an ethnic Oriental Jewish identity mirroring Hungarian nationalist identity. By negotiating a common identity, Neolog Jews hoped to achieve recognition as fellow Hungarians. The history of the Neologs is unique because a non-Semitic, ethno-nationalist definition of Jewish identity occurred only in Hungary. Neolog Judaism constitutes a significant religious group not only because of its isolated case of nationalist ethnic formation of Jewish identity, but also because it became the mainstream Jewish religious movement in Hungary.

Staging ethnicity: Cultural politics and musical practices of Roma performers in Budapest

During the last two decades Roma musical styles have gone through numerous changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The effects of these cannot be assessed merely through changing musical performances and products in themselves, they must also be seen through the ways the Roma shape their relationships with their broader social surroundings. In spite of this, music-making is often considered as marginal compared to the mainstream issues of Roma research, justified by oppositions such as the one between the ‘sunny side’ of cultural creativity and the ‘gloomy side’ of everyday life in Roma communities. This view can be supported by some of the academic accounts that depict Roma performers as ‘apolitical’ subjects who are closer to the members of the majority — in the role of service-providers — than to their own co-ethnics. This paper introduces a case that counters these assumptions. Based on the heritage of the Roma cultural movement in Hungary, Roma performers and their practices of music-making were place...

The Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union ed by Yaacov Ro'i (review)

Reviewed by: The Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union ed by Yaacov Ro'i Larissa Remennick The Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union. Edited by Yaacov Ro'i. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. 450 pp. This edited collection, The Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union, includes six sections: Overview, Soviet Jewish Identity, The Political Ambience, Social Aspects, The Cultural and Spiritual Setting, The World Beyond, and an epilogue written by George P. Shultz, a prominent political scientist and US Secretary of State (1982-1989). Although Soviet Jewry's struggle for the right to emigrate has been addressed in many earlier academic and popular books, most of them have been written to present the external (mostly American) perspective on the movement's formation, heroes, and activities (Friedman and Chernin; Lazin). Yet, there was no academic work collected under a single cover focusing on the Soviet Jewish movement itself, from the inside perspective, showing the political and social context under which it took shape, how it developed its goals, tactics and leadership, its regional spread, and relations with its western and Israeli supporters. Together, these components enabled the achievement of its ultimate goal—mass Aliya of Soviet Jews to Israel and their emigration to the West. The contributions to this volume shed new light on a major wonder of state socialism in its prime years—how, despite the oppressive "national policy" with its built-in antisemitic streak, over 250,000 Soviet Jewish citizens could gain an exclusive right for emigration denied to the rest of the Soviet people. The three introductory chapters offer a broad general picture of the movement, its social basis, mode of operation, and evolution over the years since its inception in the late 1960s. They depict the political and social milieu in the years following Khrushev's Thaw, with their failed hopes for true political reformation of socialism after Soviet tanks crashed the liberalization movements in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). These [End Page 140] events formed the antecedents of the nascent movements of different kinds (religious, ethnic, nationalist), including the Jewish national movement, reinforced by the feelings of pride for Israel in the aftermath of its victory over united Arab armies in the Six Day War of 1967. The Jewish involvement in the opposition was multifaceted from the outset: while some Jewish professionals became key figures in the general political resistance to the Soviet regime (e.g., supporting Prague Spring), others chose to identify with Jewish ethnonational goals—the resuscitation of Jewish culture in the USSR or the right for Aliyah to Israel. Part 2 offers further elaboration on the matters of collective identity of Soviet Jews, their mindset, and relations with the Soviet regime, which many of them (or their parents) ardently supported in the initial postrevolutionary decades. The articles discuss the built-in contradiction of this uneasy relationship whereby Soviet Jews were strongly encouraged to assimilate and sever their ties with their religion and tradition, while at the same time the state's antisemitic policies and street-level antisemitism fostered sharp awareness of their otherness and the glass ceiling in their social mobility. This conflict was especially potent among the generation that came of age in the poststalinist 1950s and 1960s. This section also includes an excellent article on the emerging discourse of the Holocaust in the Soviet territory during World War II (carefully downplayed by the authorities throughout the Soviet period) and the role of Israel in the fortification of the Jewish identity among Soviet Jews. Part 3 reviews Soviet policies towards emigration (general and Jewish) during the Cold War and subsequent détente, in light of its negotiations with the US over trade agreements and disarmament. It highlights the role of Jewish emigration as a bargaining chip in these complex political games, as well as the place of Jewish emigration in the context of the emerging human rights movement after the USSR signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975. Part 4 brings to the fore the main figures of the Jewish movement and their everyday lives, especially after they joined the ranks of "refuseniks" (whose emigration petitions had been denied by the state). The loss of jobs and livelihood, social ostracism, and...

Book review: Katalin Fábián (ed.), Contemporary Women’s Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy, and Gender Equality

Book review: Katalin Fábián (ed.), <i>Contemporary Women’s Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy, and Gender Equality</i>

From the Green movement to a party

General political, economic and moral crises began in Hungary in 2006, after the prime minister’s speech about the real state of the Hungarian economy was delivered. Fidesz, the then largest opposition party refused any further cooperation with the government and started to attack the governing socialist‑liberal coalition. After four years of permanent campaign against the socialists, Fidesz won the elections in 2010 and started to rearrange the whole political and social system in Hungary. Parallel to that, the appearance of social movements in Hungary can clearly be understood as a reply to crisis phenomena, whether they are left‑leaning organisations, green‑ecological, critical of globalisation (“globcrit”) or far‑right, fascistoid groups and networks. One part of the green‑ecologial movement was formed into a party and was named as Politics Can Be Different (LMP), but after 2010 other organizations appeared such as Szolidaritás, an organisation established with reference to the Polish example, with a trade union background, Milla (One Million for Press Freedom), 4K (Movement for the Fourth Republic) and HaHa (Students’ Network), the Hungarian Two‑tailed Dog Party (MKKP) and the Hungarian Pirate Party.

The Invention of a Hero: Lajos Kossuth in England (1851)

The creation, propagation and mythologization of heroes, or rather, the images of heroes, have recently attracted a good deal of attention from historians. This article aims to contribute to this discussion through a study of the cult of the Hungarian independence leader Lajos Kossuth and his reception in Britain in 1851. Why was a Hungarian national hero so widely celebrated in far away England and how was Kossuth’s heroic image created? While historical research has not completely overlooked the subject, little attention has been paid to Kossuth’s own part and perhaps even more importantly, that of his representative in England prior to his arrival, Ferenc Pulszky, in these events. As this article will argue, Kossuth’s image was in fact purposefully manufactured by these two men and others. The role of Pulszky, Kossuth’s back‐stage manager cannot be overstressed; without him Kossuth might have remained an obscure Central European revolutionary leader. During the two years prior to the Magyar leader’s arrival, the ground was being carefully prepared for him, so that when Kossuth arrived, all he was required to do was employ his uniquely powerful oratory and continue to equate the Hungarian movement with certain universal values, a process that had already been set in motion by Pulszky. But specific Englishmen were also instrumental in the creation of Kossuth’s hero cult. A small group of liberal intellectuals and middle‐class radicals, including Lord Dudley Stuart and Richard Cobden amongst others, eagerly engaged in first helping Pulszky popularize the Hungarian question and then coaching Kossuth by giving advice on maintaining his heroic appeal. Thus it was a multi‐sided affair – the joint Hungarian duo of Pulszky and Kossuth and their English ‘sympathizers’ were all creators of Kossuth’s hero cult in England. But we must not forget that the adulation of Kossuth in 1851 was also down to more abstract notions: the receptiveness of contemporary English minds to the celebration of heroes and the importance attached to English national identity, with which the Kossuth cult was deeply intertwined in the eyes of all those Englishmen that celebrated him.

Contemporary Women's Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy, and Gender Equality. By Katalin Fábián. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. xvi, 396 pp. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Figures. Tables. $65.00, hard bound.

Contemporary Women's Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy, and Gender Equality. By Katalin Fábián. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. xvi, 396 pp. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Figures. Tables. $65.00, hard bound. - Volume 70 Issue 1

Fábián, Katalin: "Contemporary Women’s Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy and Gender Equality"

Fábián, Katalin. Contemporary Women’s Movements in Hungary: Globalization, Democracy and Gender Equality. The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, D.C.: 2009. 396 pp., Illus. Reviewed by Penny Shima Glanz, Freelance Writer.

Retrospectives from the Eve of Destruction: Historical Memory and Images of the Past in the Hungarian Jewish Press, 1938–1944

Hungarian Jewish leaders during World War II evoked the past extensively in their public statements. They attached current significance to Hungarian national anniversaries, cultural heroes and other historical and national symbols to imbue harsh contemporary events with meaning, to evoke hope, and to offer comfort.Based mostly on community publications, the article examines four major political and cultural orientations among Hungarian Jewry: the traditional Neologs (as the liberal or reform Jewish religious movement in Hungary was called), the more reflective and self-critical Neologs, Orthodox Jews, and Zionists.

Ancient Gods—New Ages: Lessons from Hungarian Paganism

This paper discusses contemporary Paganism in Central and Eastern Europe., taking off from the general (Western) definition of contemporary Paganism, and then moving to Pagan narratives present in the region, followed by the delineation of the features of Hungarian movements as a summary of a case study. Reasons and consequences of dissimilarities are presented briefly, reflecting to the outcomes of the foregoing research.

Mobilisation étudiante et génération politique : qui précède l'autre ? Réflexions comparatives à partir des exemples hongrois (1956) et mexicain (1968)

On the basis of the comparative analysis of the Hungarian movement of 1956 and the Mexican mobilisation of 1968, this contribution examines the relations between the ideas of student movements and of political generations by asking if the latter are formed a posteriori, in reference to a collective action in the past, or whether, on the contrary, they exist a priori, thus forming one of the subjective foundations of the mobilised group. Analysis of the Hungarian and Mexican cases will allow us to show that we can grasp the links between the two ideas not in terms of causality, but in terms of interactions.

Transnational influences on patterns of mobilisation within environmental movements in Hungary

This article analyses environmental mobilisation in Hungary and reviews the influences of western environmental movements on Hungary. The history of the environmental movement can be divided into three periods reflecting changes in opportunity structures. These are: (1) illegality during the last years of authoritarian regime; (2) establishing the legal framework and institutionalisation within the national political structures throughout the 1990s and until recently; and (3) emergence of transnational actors and networks in the new opportunity framework created by the European Union (EU). The article argues that the major patterns of environmental movement mobilisation can be explained in relation to each of these periods – the birth of the movement took place under illegality, but the remarkably high ‘movement capital’ evaporated soon after the regime change. The new post-socialist national framework provided limited resources which resulted in the emergence of narrowly focused non-governmental organisations. While in the final most recent phase, the intensification of transnational interaction gave rise to new mobilisation patterns and increased action by the environmental networks.

Changes in the role of the trade union in the Hungarian printing industry

PurposeThis paper sets out to describe the experiences of the Hungarian Trade Unions as they adapted to the political and economic changes of the post‐communist period. The paper lucidly explains how and why the trade union movement in Hungary made the transition from being a major player in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the old regime, to being a mere shadow of its former self in the early.Design/methodology/approachThe author paints a vivid picture of “how” and “why” the trade unions were perceived in the “golden age of Socialism”. He then explains why dissatisfaction and disillusionment of the workers grew as living standards and real income declined and Western Capitalism became more attractive. After the initial aphorism following the overthrow of communism, the Author analyses why many Hungarian workers by the late 90s yearned for a return to the securities and paternalism of the Kádár era.FindingsThis Paper systematically traces the steps from Socialism to Capitalism in Hungary and the impact this had on organized labour. The author notes the paradox that at exactly the time that trade unions were rationalizing and merging into mega trade unions in the West, the newly freed trade union movement in Hungary and elsewhere in the CEE countries fragmentized and formed a multitude of small unions many of which would fold in months rather than years. The point is made that the transition to a neo‐liberal economic and political system led almost immediately in Hungary to falling standard of living and rising job insecurity.Research limitations/implicationsThe account given in this paper of the changing nature of employee relations in Hungary spanning the communist and post‐communist periods provides researchers with a sound base to explore further the paradoxes to which the author has referred.Originality/valueThis paper provides a welcome, human account of what the changes and their consequences were for ordinary working people and their families and – most important – what they meant for organized labour in terms of its ability to enhance working peoples quality of life in Hungary.

From elections to democracy: building accountable government in Hungary and Poland

The countries of Central Europe in the first round for admission to the European Union have all established constitutional, electoral democracies and market economies. However, much remains to be done to achieve fully consolidated democratic states. This study documents the weaknesses of public oversight and participation in policymaking in Hungary and Poland, two of the most advanced countries in the region. It discusses five alternative routes to accountability including European Union oversight, constitutional institutions such as presidents and courts, devolution to lower-level governments, the use of neo-corporatist bodies, and open-ended participation rights. It urges more emphasis on the fifth option, public participation. Case studies of the environmental movement in Hungary and of student groups in Poland illustrate these general points. The book reviews the United States' experience of open-ended public participation and draws some lessons for the transition countries from the strengths and weaknesses of the American system.

Sources of inflation and output movements in Poland and Hungary: Policy implications for accession to the economic and monetary union

The paper examines the sources of fluctuations in inflation and output in Poland and Hungary. Using a rational expectations, dynamic open economy aggregate supply–aggregate demand model and considering several disturbances, it is found that balance of payments shocks are important in price level movements in Hungary while nominal shocks are dominant in affecting prices in Poland. Monetary shocks affect output in the short run in Hungary while supply shocks dominate output movements in Poland. A major component of inflation is demand driven, “core” inflation. Finally, the paper discusses policy implications of findings regarding membership in the Economic and Monetary Union.

Ages of periods of sand movement in Hungary determined through luminescence measurements

The Late Glacial and Holocene climatic oscillations in Hungary are manifested by changing fluvial and aeolian sand deposition, as well as by intercalated soil formations. The sand-blown territories have special interest since the buried fossil soils provide detailed information about climate and environment changes. During the past two decades the time of the sand-moving periods was studied exclusively by radiocarbon age determination, but by now, thanks to the latest investigations, these results have been controlled and completed by the thermoluminescence and infrared optically stimulated luminescence dating methods. These techniques have been applied to provide a more detailed chronological framework for Late Pleistocene and Holocene sand accumulation periods. Five aeolian sand accumulation periods can be recognized covering the Late Glacial and Holocene time period at 14.0±2.3, 12.0±1.9, 9.2±1.7, 6.0±0.5 and 0.6±0.07 ka. The sand-blown formations are intercalated by soil horizons. The radiocarbon age estimates provide evidence for Late Glacial (Bölling, Alleröd) and Lower-Atlantic soil-forming periods.