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Rural youth and their lack of mobility
3-22.Views:464International research on the lack of mobility and its causes among people in rural areas primarily focuses on motivations for emigration and consequences of immigration. In the first half of our study we summarize the findings of the research described above. We explain the relationship between poverty and lack of mobility, review the link between agriculture and local mobility, predominantly through the functions of rural businesses. We explore the return migration of youths, especially those who move back to their village after a long period of education and/or job search. We revisit structural theories that connect migration to different types of capital and shed light on the impact of changing perceptions on rural life. We use longitudinal quantitative studies and their statistics to analyze the characteristics of the lack of mobility among Hungarian rural youths and emigration patterns between 2010–2017. The second half of our manuscript delineates the results of studies done by the Mobility Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The pertinent articles and case studies examine the role of social bonds in the lack of mobility, types of employment among rural youths, and how those influence their attachment to their village. Mobility case studies among the youths are also analyzed, along with the social representation of their identity, categories of success, the effects of poverty, their family bonds, perspectives for the future, as well as the consequences of the social and regional characteristics of their villages.
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Rural Small Schools’ Social Functions and Structural Dilemmas in Disadvantaged Areas
28-53Views:120This study examines the situation of small rural schools in disadvantaged areas, structured around five main research questions: (1) how small schools can be defined conceptually and what their key characteristics are, (2) what structural and operational challenges they face, (3) how they are related to educational inequalities, (4) what community roles and functions they fulfil, and (5) what social policy directions and preservation arguments can be identified. The analysis was based on a systematic literature review carried outin 2025. From 2847 initial records, 127 relevant publications (89 international and 38 Hungarian) were included and analysed through thematic synthesis, covering both national and international databases. The findings indicate that small rural schools are not merely educational institutions but also key nodes of social capital, cultural identity, and economic viability in rural societies. At the same time, in disadvantaged regions, compositional effects and segregation processes amplify the reproduction of disadvantage, leading to the “equity trap” dilemma, access alone does not guarantee genuine equality of opportunity. The study concludes that the survival of small rural schools requires targeted social policy interventions that balance the need for access with the assurance of educational quality.
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The Social Ecology of Rural Schools: Family-Community-School Relationships in Cross-National Perspective
76-103Views:127Rural small schools are situated at the intersection of educational and social inequalities, where students’ learning outcomes and overall development are closely tied to the quality of relationships among families, schools, and local communities. Although extensive research has examined parental involvement and social capital, relatively few comparative studies have explored the social ecology of rural small schools-particularly the interrelations between family milieu, community embeddedness, and institutional autonomy. This study addresses this gap through a systematic review of empirical and theoretical research published between 2010 and 2024. The analysis draws on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, Coleman’s concept of social capital, and Epstein’s typology of parental involvement. Findings indicate that the family-community-school nexus exerts a multi-level and interactive influence on children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development-directly through family practices, indirectly via the quality of parent-school relationships, and structurally through local social capital and institutional resources. A cross-national comparison reveals that while rural schools are universally positioned within structures of educational disadvantage, variations in cultural norms, community organization, and policy frameworks crucially determine whether family and community resources mitigate or reinforce these inequalities. The study concludes that the success of rural small schools depends not on the quantity of resources but on the quality of relationships. Trust, reciprocity, and partnership within the family-school-community triangle are essential foundations of rural resilience. Policy interventions are most effective when they strengthen the community-based and family-centered functions of small schools, embedding parental involvement as an integral element of the learning process.
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Village community and the school: Community-building and community-preserving function of rural small schools
54-75Views:79This study examines the community-building and community-preserving functions of rural small schools through an analysis of international and Hungarian literature. Although definitions of “small school” vary across countries, these institutions share the characteristic of operating in small settlements and fulfilling not only educational but also important social and cultural roles. Rural schools function as multidimensional community spaces that support everyday interactions, strengthen social capital – trust, cooperation, and social networks – and contribute to the maintenance of local identity. International research shows that school closures often lead to weakened social cohesion, increased outmigration, and economic decline. Hungarian studies similarly highlight that rural schools are key institutions of local communities, and their disappearance may result in the long-term erosion of social and cultural structures. The study argues that sustaining small rural schools is not merely an educational policy concern but a crucial aspect of functioning of local communities and local resilience.
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Challenges in rural Hungary in the post-pandemic period: Perception of problems in „emerging settlements” of Sellye district
5-31Views:378The social problems of marginalised rural areas have intensified and transformed in recent years, particularly in the context of pandemic and economic crisis. In the countries of the Central and Eastern European region integration of marginalized areas is a major challenge. Unlike in the West, segregation and ghettoisation are problems of small rural settlements far from prosperous centres. In Hungarian countryside, the life of small villages, which are located far from economic centres and lack institutions, continues to be characterised by negative migration trends. In this article, we present the situation of seven small villages in southern Baranya, which are covered by the programme to help the 300 most disadvantageous Hungarian settlements to integration, in the light of the perception of problems of the population living there. Our survey aimed to explore the difficulties related to the pandemic and everyday life at local level. The assessment of subjective perceptions provided an opportunity to structure the disadvantaged rural population from a specific perspective and to analyse the problems of the characteristics of each group.
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Women’s Work and Land Reform in Zimbabwe: A Feminist Political Economy of Social Reproduction
59-80Views:152While the future of work in Africa is increasingly becoming an important area of research, a feminist political economy of social reproduction holds potential to illuminate the gendered and geographical nature of women’s work in a context of radical land reform. Time-use surveys data was gathered across three study areas, two land reform and one non-land reform sites. This was complemented with in-depth and focus group discussions in the land reform sites with participants drawn from participating female and male-headed households. While literature on women’s work is accumulating, this has not been extended to integrate a feminist social reproductive lens on African rural women’s work in a context of land reform. The none or malrecognition of social reproduction by the State makes the latter an agent of depletion – a gendered form of structural and everyday violence on women. While liberating, radical land reforms, of their own, do not necessarily improve the care burden of women. This is compounded by the debt crisis crippling many countries of the global South.
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The impact of the family on the immobility of young people
153-166.Views:223The study examines the effects of the spatial mobility of the family. The family’s influence in many areas of people’s lives, so the socio-spatial movements. The people in the family will inherit the bulk of their resources, provides for standards, values, skills, behavior patterns of transmission, all have an impact on the social and geographical movement-related efforts and opportunities. A study of rural young people in interviews to examine the family and the relationship between mobility, immobility. The interviewees aged between 19 and 25 have in common is that they have already completed their studies, and their parents live in the same village. An analysis of how these young people are present in the családtörténetében mobility, we are characterized by their family members, relatives, and family resources spatial movement, kötődéseik, what impact does the site less costly.
