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• Social innovation in a Romani community. The case of the Gandhi Secondary School in Hungary

  63-70

  Katalin R Forray

  Tamas Kozma

  Views:

  4

  T

  The Story. Following the post-communist transition of 1989–90, a Romani secondary school—the first of its kind in Europe—was established in Pécs, Hungary. This initiative began as a grassroots civic movement and operated under non-governmental management from 1994 to 2011. In 2011, the Hungarian state took over oversight, and the institution was restructured as a non-profit organisation. This study presents and analyses the Gandhi Secondary School as a notable example of social innovation. Research Questions. a) What prompted the surge of civic initiatives within the Romani community of Southern Transdanubia after the political transition? b) How can we explain the trajectory of the Gandhi Secondary School, which experienced initial success, followed by decline, and eventually stabilisation? Methodology. It utilises the framework of educational anthropology. The methodology includes secondary analysis of existing research, participant observation, narrative analysis, and social listening. Results. a) The uniqueness of the Gandhi Secondary School stems from its origin as a social innovation directly emerging from the local and regional Romani community.  b) Although its lifecycle aligns with theoretical models of social innovation, its specific 'destiny' is closely linked to the socio-political context of the post-communist transition. Thus, this lifecycle serves as both a model and a unique historical case. c) The history of this innovation illustrates that in the Hungarian context, social innovations can only be sustained through strong partnerships with central/ local government.

• Specific Needs of Families of Deaf Parents and Hearing Children

  39-45

  Eva Klimentová

  Vít Dočekal

  Views:

  4013

  The aim of the paper is to describe specific aspects of deaf parenting of hearing children, based on an interpretation of research findings concerning the target group. Deaf parents, isolated from the verbally communicating majority by their sensory disability, face the challenge of raising and preparing hearing children for life. Our research based on semi-structured interviews with both deaf parents and hearing children demonstrates, however, that these parents do not primarily describe their parenthood as difficult or complicated. They are reconciled to their handicap and its consequences and use tools in the social environment to overcome the disadvantages of deaf parenting. Some “children” (all our respondents were adults reflecting on their childhood) describe, in contrast, their experience as a gradual reverse of natural family roles, with children eventually navigating their parents around the hearing world. These results indicate the need for further activities with these target groups in social work.

• The anthropological meaning of marriage: main lines

  1-6

  Giuseppe Mari

  Views:

  426

  Marriage is a deeply rooted institution, but today it is in big crisis. In Italy – with regard to 2015, the latest available survey – 194,377 marriages were celebrated (246,613, in 2008), but separations were 91,706 (84,165 in 2008) and divorces 82,469 (54,351 in 2008). It is a trend in line with European data. Is marriage only an "archaeological" residual? Actually, also today the fascination of marriage survives as it is confirmed in many books on the theme and within the media where, even when the marriage takes place between subjects who have experienced the previous failure, it is described as if it were the first and the last. Of course, so many cohabitations out of marriage are related to a change of mentality, but not so deep to reject marriage as public institution. My short contribution (recently I published a book on the issue) aims to support the challenge of love in the perspective of marriage. In my opinion, the mistake about freedom could be the cause of current fragility, and education to marriage could be the possible strategy to face the problem. I start by focusing on the anthropological depth of the institution of marriage, whose recognition supports the motivation to preserve and promote the value of the wedding.