Wolfgang Iser (2004): Az értelmezés világa. Translated: Krisztina Lajosi. Gondolat, Budapest, p. 207

Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future was published in 2020. The novel is the sequel to the New York 2140 science fiction dystopian novel. The conceptual continuation presents a vision of unsustainable capitalism that functions via endless expansion. The Ministry for the Future brings into focus the outcome of externalities of capitalism: climate change and its effects on societies and individuals. The study emphasis on critique of capitalism, of mass production and mass consumption, at the same time it points at the techno-optimism in The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. The analysis of appearance of climate change in the novel is interdisciplinary, the study’s approach is scientific and empirical.

The study examines the labour market integration and employment attitudes of women with young children among the factors influencing the extremely low Hungarian fertility rate. The literature review looks at the role of education, working while raising children, the role of careers, work-life balance and the glass ceiling phenomenon. In the empirical part, We will present, without any claims to exhaustiveness, a typical set of problems that fundamentally determine women’s presence in the labour market. We surveyed 1,033 respondents on attitudes towards work, time spent at home and difficulties in finding a job. The results of the questionnaire survey were evaluated using the SPSS 26.0 software package, including mainly descriptive statistical methods. We found that discrimination against mothers with young children still persists in job interviews. The contribution to the family’s financial expenses is the main factor influencing the return from maternity leave. When choosing a job, the key factor is the work schedule of the job applied for.

Interpersonal relationships of prisoners are of key importance from the aspect of their reintegration. We focus our attention on non-kin, primarily friendship ties on a sample of young Hungarian males convicted for the first time, for a relatively short period of up to 3 years. In our longitudinal qualitative research, 80 offenders from eight penal institutions were interviewed while serving their sentence and 31 of them could also be reached 6 months after they left the prison. We analyse what significance prisoners attribute to their friendship ties, how these change during the prison sentence, which factors influence their sustainment or dissolution, weakening or strengthening.

The study examines the segregation of different marginalized social groups – ex-prisoners, gypsies, gays and lesbians, homeless people – and their visibility in society. Using a size generator network method, the study builds negative binomial models to compare the segregation of marginalized groups within a representative sample of 1000 people. The alpha value in these models indicates the level of overdispersion. According to the results, the level of segregation varies between the overall network and the trust network. Specifically, the level of segregation for gypsies is the lowest in the overall network, whereas in the trust network, it is the lowest for gays/lesbians. The segregation of homeless people is extremely high, which is due to the fact that they are confined to their own space. Individuals with low education, belonging to lower classes, living in villages have the smallest network size. However, they have the highest number of marginalized social group members. A smaller network is associated with lower levels of peer support. The lack of weak bonds makes the social network homophilic and „island-like” social exlusions are formed where poverty and vulnerability are typical.

Pogátsa, Zoltán (2022): A globális elit. Kossuth Kiadó, Budapest, p, 319