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Family perspectives for young people growing up in child protection care
1-21Views:19The study examines the factors of family perspectives among vulnerable youths – children and youth living in alternative care – with qualitative method. The target group is children who live in the Hungarian child protection system as juveniles. Children and young people experiencing different family substitute arenas may result in various family perspectives. These family perspectives are examined within a theoretical framework of family sociology and human ecology.We used a complex approach to describe the experiences and changes of these structural and family-replacer dimensions together with their impacts on the family perspective. We have found that the family perspectives of the young people are diverse and their narratives about their visions of the future are often linked to dominant family and life events previously experienced in family milieus and forms of care. At the same time, the complexity of life events and the diversity of future plans are not necessarily reflected in the institutional background and the professional-young relationships that could support young people’s autonomy. Based on the interviews, the family and community levels of the human ecology model can also be a significant factor in young people’s family perspectives, so cooperation between family and community, institutional actors can be one of the keys to providing adequate support for young people. In order to realize future plans for family perspectives, professionals need to focus more on individual needs and the diversity and variability of family perspectives.
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Limits of the relationships in the roma communities living on the margins of society in Budapest
97-120.Views:28In this essay, I aim to summarize the main characteristics of the relationship structure of
poor Roma families in Budapest. The generational changes in the relationship structure are
illustrated by interviews and a short review of the relevant literature. In my research, I try to
find the answer to the question, whetherthe examined segregated streets and apartment blocks
– individually or collectively – can be called a community. And also if these segregated areas
have a describable connection limit, if we can describe them in a geographical or social sense,
or ifthese relationship have ethnical boundaries. I recorded my semi-structured interviews in
the 8th and 9th district of Budapest in 2017. I interviewed twenty people from ages of sixteen to
fifty-five. All parts of the interviews are accompanied by the related analytical and explanatory
notes. -
Social representation of rural youth identity
101-113.Views:29In this paper, we investigate the local and self-identity characteristics of socio-cultural groups based on social representation theory and one of its methods (association method). Carried out on a sample of rural youth, the analysis focused on the relationship between the four groups, distinguished by their social representations of identity, with different intensities of meaning and the sociological background variables. In addition to the expected results, the hypothetical explanation for the contradiction in the emotional attachment and mobility variables can be further empirically confirmed.
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Peer-group ties and a prison sentence: a chance to enhance successful re-entry
52-82Views:43Interpersonal 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.
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Equal opportunities and integration in the career choice: The relation between school competences and job market integration
173-190Views:30The competences manifested in the career choice decisions refer to the success of integration
and equal opportunities. They are able to forecast these social processes in a predictive way. The
career choice competences connect the individual features and the social scenes, so by analysing
them already the secondary school age group’s labour market success can be predicted.
By studying and analysing of the competence fields with the method of revealing the sociological, psychological and pedagogical correlations it is possible to determine the labour market competences of students facing career choice, which determines the success of their social
integration into the society at a personal level. Career choice plays a connecting part between education at schools and the labour market; therefore it has an important part concerning equal
opportunities and integration, beyond the effect of qualification. In my study I am describing this
process via displaying the affected competence fields. -
Preferred leadership style, leadership and entrepreneurial inclination among university students
3-26Views:33Although many researches have been conducted on leadership styles and university students
are participants in exploratory social science research quite frequently, fewer examples can be
found on the application of the Full Range Leadership model among the youth. In this article,
the authors examine preferred leadership styles among Hungarian students, and map their
connections with managerial and entrepreneurial inclination. The online questionnaire used inthe research was completed by university students studying economics, technology and social
studies in the capital and beyond. The questionnaire was completed by 335 university students.
The results are exploratory, and they seem to modify the existing typologies. Four distinct
leadership styles could be observed within the target group, embodying the transformative,
supportive, defensive, and laissez-faire leadership types. Based on multivariate analysis one may
suppose that among students leadership willingness is positively connected to transformative
leadership, while entrepreneurial inclination to the transformative and supportive styles. -
Alternatives of how to prepare for the future labor market
146-160Views:42What happens if among the members of a society and among the smaller and larger units and groups making up the society trust and confidence seems to be disappearing at once? What happens if confidence reposed into each other fall victim to social differences as well as to the economic / cost-of-living boxing of modern information society? How to stop the crisis symptom that seems to be developing this way and which is shown in the fragmentation of communities?1 With other words, is it possible to “stick again together” a community or even a whole society started to disintegrate? The questions, even if not so characteristically phrased, provide sociologists actually with the scope of understanding our modern, individualistic world (Habermas 1994). Gusfield (1975) depicts dichotomy of community and society in a way that we should interpret community as a pervading, significant contrast. By now literature seems as if it was only be able to picture the changes taking place in the images both of the society and community describing them by even more pronounced, contradictory processes. The changes that send messages on the disintegration of categories and frames becoming insecure instead of the security and integration quasi missed by Habermas. It also seems as if—quasi as an answer given to this process—occlusion/seclusion both on the part of community members and the various communities from the seemingly unknown and insecure changes were more intensive (Légmán 2012). We intend to construe these phenomena on the next pages, but due to extension limits without the need for completeness of social interpretations. We want to do it with the help of mainly one dimension: value preference through the example of a given society, namely the Hungarian one. Thus we get to the stability and the solidarity of the members of the smallest unit of society, one which accepts and expresses various value preferences, the family.
From time immemorial, one of the crucial questions of mankind has been what the future has in store for us. The future, however, has remained unfathomable up to this day, and even future studies promises only as much as prognosticating what is likely to continue and what will plausibly change in the world. Thus, no wonder, that already the first “real” economists of the 18th century (Adam Smith et al.) considered the creation of the future model of labor economy as a challenge. At the present era of modern labor market, this task is closely connected with the future status of labor market since in a consumer society income acquired by work forms the basis of satisfying needs (Ehrenberg – Smith 2003, Galasi 1994).We are not saying anything new by stating the fact that the demand for labor force is determined by new places of work and that an ideal supply of labor force must be adaptable to the requirements of demand. To meet requirements and to be adaptable is possible only if we are armed with the necessary competencies and capital (Hodges – Burchell 2003, Bourdieu 1998). The question, to what extent students in higher education are prepared for changes in the demand for labor force, arises at this point. What can young people expect on the labor market in this ever changing world? What kind of job opportunities and work conditions are there for them, and how much are they prepared to face these changes?
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Solidarity and autonomy in times of an epidemic
47-73Views:32The paper seeks to answer the question: what patterns of solidarity and autonomy can be identified in the Hungarian context of late modernity. The specific difficulty of answering this question is that it refers to social structures, which are naturalized interpretations of reality, thus exist mostly at an unreflective, preintentional level. In order to address this difficulty, our research has considered the COVID epidemic as a natural experimental situation: while the paradoxes and distortions of solidarity and autonomy, are usually naturalized by the actors, during the COVID they become reflected. The first section of the paper develops theoretical idealtypes of autonomy and solidarity specialised to the Hungarian social historical context. Then, after a brief methodological overview, I will present different patterns of solidarity and autonomy in the form of case studies. In the final section, the general conclusions are drawn from these cases, while an attempt is made to answer the question: how do the actors cope with modernisation structures that narrow the space of solidarity and autonomy and are characterized by fundamental paradoxes?
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Interpersonal relationships in Hungary – an overview
72-93.Views:29Our paper aims to demonstrate that social structure has significant impact on the formation of
interpersonal relations. We review and analyse the characteristics of ego-centric interpersonal
networks of Hungarians based on data from nationally representative adult population surveys
between the mid-1980’s up to 2015. We focus especially on core discussion networks, friendship
ties and weak ties and analyse how the transition to market economy influenced interpersonal
relationships. As expected, the large-scale social changes brought about by the transition
changed interpersonal networks as well. During the first decade of the transition (in the 1990’s)
one could not witness a significant change of personal networks, nonetheless the adaptation
process was easier for people supported by strong, traditional family ties. Non-kin ties, especially
friendships seem to gain significance at the expense of kin relationships. Overall, resources
available through weak ties seem to be decreasing. -
On the Roma issue again - Discourse analysis and reality
265-274Views:32At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, several works on the Hungarian Roma, their history, their current exclusion and their unresolved social situation, based on the same approach, partly on social history and partly on sociological surveys, appeared. Gábor Kertesi in 2005 ("On the margins of society. Roma in the labour market and in school") and Csaba Dupcsik in 2009 ("The history of the Hungarian Roma. History in the light of Gypsy studies 1890-2008") were published by Osiris Publishing House, while Tünde Virág's 2010 book ("Kirekesztve. Falusi gettók az ország margemén") was published by Akadémiai Kiadó as a result of a successful OTKA grant.
The most recently published work, presented at the 83rd Festive Book Week, is the first joint publication of Balázs Majtényi, a constitutional lawyer who is concerned with the protection of human rights, and György Majtényi, a historian who is particularly interested in the cultural and social history of the 20th century (including the Kádár era). The book, which can be ordered online with two different hardcover editions, was based on a 2003 study, which was later jointly expanded, combining the research results of several disciplines and "maturing" into a separate volume. However, it fails to provide the in-depth analysis of the subject of the title: it (also) fails to provide a factual social portrait of realities, of phenomena experienced and lived on a day-to-day basis, of phenomena examined from several perspectives, and of realistic alternatives to solutions. -
Reification, child protection in lock-ups
34-46Views:50This paper examines how the child protection system can address the problems of children and young adults, compensate for childhood disadvantage and promote successful social integration. To what extent are the professional means available within the state structure to achieve all these goals - as declared in the Child Protection Act of 1997. The interpretation of solidarity as a value in child protection is clear, since child protection aims to improve the situation of families affected by child protection problems and to promote their healthy personal development. The study, based on interviews with professionals and experts and a short case study, draws attention to the shortcomings and limitations of the system.
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Through the screen of the majority ...: Public opinions on the social situation of Roma and their media representation
74-92Views:33This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey on public opinion on the social situation of Roma and their media coverage. The survey was based on the attitudes of the population towards the Roma, their perceptions and prejudices, and their perceptions of the media coverage of the Roma.
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On the margin of child protection: Negative life events impact on the adolescents and youth health behavior
80-108Views:107The paper studies how negative life events affect risk behaviour of children and young people. Calculations on the database of the ‘Hungarian youth 2012’ research suggest that negative life events are strong predictors of different types of risk behaviour like alcohol, drug abuse and suicide. According to the data people who have experienced several and more serious negative life events, more likely refuse and turn away from the norms of the adult society than those whose life proves to be less stressful. To place these results into child protection context, the study calls attention to the fact that the Hungarian child protection system does not treat each group in the fragmented society equally, although, on the basis of the incidence of threat it should. Another important message of this paper is to highlight that in addition to scientific values large-scale sociological research studies have professional and practical values as well. To support it, from the questions of the well-known Holmes-Rahe scale the authors re-developed an exploration scale (Reduced Life Events Scale). The application of the Reduced Life Event Scale (or the original Holmes-Rahe scale) allows experts to focus more on the studied issues in the process of planning services, prevention and case work. The tool might propose solutions to use the insufficient resources in a more targeted way.
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The Patterns of free time in secondary schools
64-78Views:120The aim of this study is analyse the free time allocation in different types of secondary schools in Hungary. The use of free time is connected with social inequalities and the agglomeration of cultural capital so these patterns are rooted most of all in the social background. Besides, educational sociology involves an institutional effect in this field as well. Hungary has got a selective educational system and the different types of secondary schools refermainly to specific social groups so the differences in the use of free time can be significant. The database of HungarianYouth Research has been used during this analysis. This database is representative for regions, types of settlement, age and gender (N = 8000) and the subsample of secondary school students can be separated. Quantity of free time, places of free time, features of „screen time activites” and cultural activities have been analysed. Means, chi-sqare statistic, ANOVA-test, factor analysis and linear regression model were used. Our empirical finding scan show the different free time patterns of the subsamples (grammar school, secondary vocational school and vocational school).
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The role of a children group for the participant, underprivileged children in the family care system 1995–2005
113-135Views:22The aim of this paper is to analyse the methods and effects of a children group, which existed
from 1995 till 2005. The relevance of this group is, that the beginning of this period preludes the
constitution of the Hungarian child protection law. After the transmission period the emerging
social service system provided (or at least tried) supports and services. Those families whose
children were involved in this child group were dealing with unemployment, poverty, lack of
proper housing, abuse, deviance and addictions. The significance of this group that the given
service was easily ductile to the needs of the children and families. -
’If a worker’s hostel – let it be good’: The status of worker’s hostels in state and corporate social policy in Szabolcs-Szatmár county in the 1970s
43-61Views:50The presentation of the commuter’s ’second home’ is inevitable in connection with the research of commuting as one of the most defining social phenomena of the Kádár era. This is particularly justified in Szabolcs-Szatmár county, which area was closely connencted to the phenomenon of short-distance commuting. One of the main goals of the intertwining state and corporate social policy implemented in the era, especially from the first half of the 1960’s, was undoubtedly to ensure satisfactory living conditions and cultural services provided by workers’ hostels. While from the beginning of the 1970’s, the county’s political leadership, one of the companies employing the most commuters, the Szabolcs County State Construction Company, prioritized the matter of workers’ hostels, which had been operated since the beginning of the fifties, from the end of the sixties. The company’s efforts were mainly shown in connection with the creation of suitable hygienic conditions and the provision of cultural opportunities. However, despite the significant financial outlay, a lasting result was not achieved, as a result of which the corporate goals set in previous decades were also prioritized in the 1980’s.
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Social contacts and spending of leisure time of the elderly
86-104Views:163The phenomenon of the aging of societies is now well-known, demonstrating its demographic, economic and social impact in many countries around the world. The increase in average life expectancy at birth and the low number of children have naturally triggered the emergence of declining, aging societies. All this has led to a number of tasks for policy makers, domestic and international organizations, primarily to promote active, healthy aging. This article describes some of the results of an empirical study of 167 people conducted jointly with St. Luke’s Greek Catholic Charity in the winter of 2019 in order to assess the situation and needs of the elderly. This article presents the results of our study, which focuses on community activities, leisure, and social relationships. During our analytical work, we found that those living in residential care homes are more open to community-based activities to maintain physical and mental activity.
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Entangled in the web of solidarity paradoxes – from the moral contradictions of helping to the dysfunctions the welfare system
51-85Views:27The article aims at analysing the idealtypical paradoxes of solidarity in a Hungarian rural
community. The case study focuses on helping processes embedded in various integration
mechanisms (including conservatory, reflexive and cybernetical ones – Sik 2015), while
reconstructing the perspectives of the helping and the supported actors. During the field work
interviews (n=22), small surveys (n=95) and observations (1 week) were collected, which were
interpreted in several turns. The results of the research reveal the idealtypical paradoxes of
solidarity in various social spaces, and also the consequences of their accumulation. According to
our conclusion, it is particularly important to reflect upon these latter, mostly latent paradoxes,
as their treatment is indispensable for any spontaneous or expert social interventions. -
Szeklerland – social science approaches
3-16Views:25The study reviews the situation of social science research in Szeklerland after 1989, describes the
institutional framework for the organization of research. Presents the most important features
of the Szekler society with a view to providing an interpretative context for the Cross-Sections
Social Science Journal. It also indicates the areas of analysis in which regional researches were
conducted, but could not be included in this study compilation. -
Knowledge, power and discourses in Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis
94-112Views:84Critical Discourse Analysis (or Critical Discourse Studies – CDA/CDS) examines the relationship between texts, discourses and power, dominance, power abuses and social inequalities. Critical discourse analysis is a multidisciplinary research perspective, which not only examines the interactions between the text, the micro level and its surroundings, the macro level, but its main goal is to uncover social inequalities, expose the forms and modalities of abuse of power. The representatives of CDA are committed to social equality and justice. Present paper presents the work of one of the outstanding representatives of Critical Discourse Analysis, Teun A. Van Dijk, by presenting the history and possibilities of CDA, and also the key elements of Van Dijk’s approach. This study aims to show how knowledge, power and discourse are connected in Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis.
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Participatory research of social issues: practical experience from a research project on homelessness
40-61Views:68This article is an account of our practical research and cooperation experience from a
participatory research project on homelessness and psychosocial disability carried out in a
Hungarian university context, by a student and two experts by experience in a researcher role.
We argue for the involvement of disadvantaged people using social services in research related
to disadvantaged people and social services, highlighting the advantages and challenges of this
kind of research based on our experience. Finally, we formulate practical recommendations that
migh be useful for beginners – like we used to be – in participatory research in this field. -
How has university students’ drug use changed during Covid-19?
161-177Views:142The Covid-19 outbreak and the lockdown have had significant psychological and social impacts
on everyone’s life. Changing life circumstances and daily routines, job losses, uncertainty, have
put a psychological strain on us. As a consequence, we may experience risk behaviours more
often than before. The aim of the study is to analyse how risk behaviours have changed due to
Covid-19 among university students in Hungary, and to identify the psycho-social factors along which the shift can be explained. The analysis is based on the data of ‘Covid-19 International
Student Well-Being Study’ – a study initiated and coordinated by the University of Antwerpen
involving 75 universities from 26 countries. Four Hungarian universities – Corvinus University
of Budapest, the University of Debrecen, the University of Miskolc, and the University of Szeged
participated in the study. The survey was conducted among all university students who filled
in an online questtioannaire in Spring 2020. Our results show that all risk behavoiurs have
declined during the Covid-19 period. However, students who had had consumed drug before
Covid-19 have been using them more frequently during the pandemic. Our results suggest that
the recreational use have probably declined and the problematic use have probably increased
among university students during the pandemic. Our results highlight the fact that students for
whom the crisis situation imposed by the quarantine was hard to handle are more likely to use
substances more frequently, so offering them prevention and treatment options is crucial. -
Hopes and concerns of democratization: Ideas about popular vote in Hungarian political discourse 1985–1989
5-27Views:68The article analyzes the political discourse concerning direct democracy between 1985–89, when the issue of introducing popular vote at local and national level became relevant, both as a general institutional reform of political decision-making, and as the result of some major initiatives launched by social movements. The analysis covers the related law journal articles, party-state documents, the writings of political and intellectual elites (including the opposition), and the wider public (mainly daily and weekly newspapers). The discourse analysis is based on the academic literature of direct democracy and some new aspects, like the timing of introducing direct democracy, its role and perspectives, the consideration of threats and benefits, and the relevance of international examples as possible models for reform. The paper finds that the opposition and the party-state regarded the introduction of popular vote differently: while the emerging opposition emphasised the function of controling the state power by popular votes, the party-state expected to stop shrinking its social legitimacy. Meanwhile, general public seemed to be indifferent about this remarkable democratic reform.
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Effectively influence on people: or are helping professionals free to utilize manipulative impacts?
78-108Views:36The economic and political crises of the last two decades have been greatly influenced by the fact
that, impacted by manipulative effects, instead to follow their rational judgements people have
made their decisions under the influence of emotional and instinctive temtation, deception and
manipulation. So far, these manipulative influences dominate contemporary commercial or populist political communication. The paper below shares the author’s hesitation that, while
non-rational factors bias from rational arguing and reasoning, both in decision-making and in
communicative impacts on the other person inevitably present, is it acceptable to manipulate
the users/clients by assisting professionals/social workers while exercising influence on decision-making of their clients? And if so, under what conditions, what specific constraints could be
exercised such impacts and „professional power”? Likewise, when and what can and should be
done to immunize clients against manipulation, to mitigate manipulative effects, to „gain back”
rational mind and „empower” clients to follow rational consideration and make wiser decisions?
The article does not undertake to provide „only” true and correct answers, rather gives insights
and tries to provoke its reader to contribute to clarifying this important issue. -
How do the Spanish families face to crisis? The types and consequences of coping strategies
156-170.Views:31The impact of the crisis in Spain helped to harden the difficulties of a large number of households
in Spain. Even though these conditions had a widespread impact, it has been more acute in
families that prior to the crisis were dealing with difficult situations. The main objective of this
paper is to identify strategies the households developed in order to face these difficulties. The
results have been selected from a qualitative analysis of 34 excluded household´s life stories. From
this analysis two interesting results were obtained: On the one hand, households have developed
prevention and survival strategies. On the other hand, the study identifies the consequences of
the strategies and their impact in terms of household´s social integration. With all the results,
the paper invites to reflect on the limits of survival strategies.
