Search
Search Results
-
Peer support instead of community solidarity among people with psychiatric diagnosis: Examining an online, anonymous self-help website
10-33Views:58In our research, we examined the first social networking website in Hungary that was specifically and explicitly designed for people with mental health problems and their relatives, or for people interested in the topic. A unique feature is that in 2021, it will still be possible to register anonymously and post comments on the site. Our research explores the life situations of people diagnosed as psychiatrically ill based on the concept of the recovery model, and therefore a central question for us is how an online self-help, peer support group can contribute to the recovery of individuals. In addition, one of the main hypotheses of our research is that community solidarity towards people with a psychiatric diagnosis is very low at different levels of society, and therefore self-help and peer support, also provided by the site we are investigating, may be of particular importance for the people concerned. We assume that they are a group that is highly stigmatised and socially rejected. In the media they are typically either invisible or portrayed as violent, aggressive figures. The Covid19 epidemic situation has led to many people experiencing psychological difficulties because of quarantine or the long-term side effects of the virus itself, which have been thematised in the media, but we believe that the mechanisms of solidarity with those diagnosed as psychiatric patients have not fundamentally changed (see for example the first establishment of psychiatric hospital wards
-
„Women Question” in the Political Parties’ Discourse in Post-Revolution Tunisia (2011–2014)
127-145Views:54For more than fifty years, the Tunisian political system has been considered as a so-called secular system that had provided women with many rights in education, healthcare and in economic and political sectors, besides that woman friendly family laws reforms After the overthrown of Ben Ali regime on 14th of January 2011, the Tunisian society witnessed an economic, social and political significant transformation. A new Islamic-secular discourse have been raised debates both in public and private sphere, women’s rights have been one of the incendiary topics of these debates. Therefore, with the participation of the Islamists in political life, the country has faced a new political dynamic which made the pollical scene complex and ambiguous. In this context, discourse analysis is a very important and crucial to be used as a method to approach to the research main question. Some leaders’ speeches, events which took place during the democratic transition are examined and analyzed in order to serve the research’s analytic interest through the relevant materials.
-
On the Roma issue again - Discourse analysis and reality
265-274Views:43At 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. -
„In our society publicity ratify the success”. Success and career model of rural theater’s artists
84-104Views:44This study aims to answer the question of how actors and actresses define their own success and carreer. What does succes mean to an artist in rural theater? The study primaly discusses some contemporary analyses of sucess, amongst them I am using Deaton-Kahnemann’s and Barabási’s theories. I am also presenting the metodology of my research and later I show rural
theatre’s organization based on Bourdieu’s theory. Finally I describe the definition of success and career of the actors and actresses embedded in an organizational context which helps to understand their tipical habits. -
About the Understanding of Discursive Social Sciences and its Possible Aspects
93-107Views:44This article observes a paradigm shift occurred in several disciplines of social science which
also differs in theoretical and methodological aspects from science pursuing objectivity. The
interpretative social sciences primarily focus on the study of meaning and sets texts and talks
into the centre of understanding. Social facts are taking place in an intersubjective sphere,
namely among each other. In this paper they are consequently called ‘socially meaningful facts’.
Therefore, understanding and meaning of these socially meaningful facts can be study without
snapping social reality by means of different survey techniques, which would also necessarily
reduce the richness of social meanings.
In this paper the vote is given for the transition of discourse approach into a paradigm.
A couple of aspects are introduced in order to make an attempt to prove its scientific significance. On the other hand misunderstandings are also falsified. According to these misconceptions, a
text-based approach and an actual postmodern scientific scheme is nothing else than a literary
project, which also denies the pure existence of reality and only considers all previous knowledge
as relative. Instead of that, this paper states that every single fact of society has meaning which
is mediated through narratives by the language itself. -
Communities – in another way
161-168Views:38This paper summarizes the main characteristics of the formation, the internal dynamics and the transformation of the communities. I have used the worthes and communutuies researches and analyzes of Hankiss Elemér. His main qoestion was the individaul estrangement and the restraint of the action.
-
New ways in exporting Society: The potential of donation.based digital data collection
6-26.Views:64More and more digital data is being generated every day, and more and more social science
analyses are using Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook data. Many international and national studies
have already explored the social science opportunities and dilemmas raised by the phenomenon
of ‚big data’ - but the issue of ‚access to data’ has only been touched upon tangentially. And
access to data is becoming increasingly difficult. What can we do if market players close the
access to their data, and, if we find data available, the Research Ethics Board tells us to stop? The
answer is simple: go to the users and ask them for the data. This approach is what the literature
calls data donation. This paper will describe the data donation approach in detail, focusing on
how researchers can access data through users on the current major Western platforms. The
practical feasibility of data donation access will be illustrated based on a domestic pilot study. -
From Sunday lunch to the ballot box: Political socialisation and political homophily in Hungarian society
8-36Views:197Political socialisation is the process of forming an individual’s political identity, in the course of which the individual’s attitude to politics and political worldview is formed. Political socialisation takes place in different spheres, of which the family and parents are of particular importance. Previous research in Hungary has confirmed that the family is an “incubator” of citizenship. However, there is little data available in Hungary that would allow for a more precise understanding of the transmission of political attitudes. This study investigates political homophily within the family (between parent and child) and the effects of parental political characteristics on the individual in Hungary. Our data are drawn from a nationally representative telephone survey of 2000 respondents sampled in 2023. The results show that in nearly two-thirds of Hungarian families, family members held the same political views during the respondent’s childhood, with the highest proportions of homophily indicators, fathers’ and respondents’ voting activity, and mothers’ and respondents’ conservative-liberal attitudes. The effect of parental characteristics was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Parents’ political interests and ideological positions had a strong direct effect on the same child characteristics, but the individual’s political participation and party preference were only indirectly influenced by parents. The success of attitudinal transmission was strongly enhanced if the parents were themselves, homophiles, along with the trait in question. Our results point to the important role of the family as a primary agent in political socialisation and suggest new research directions.
-
Thomas Hobbes and the dilemmas of the natural state: First chapter – The axiomatic nature of total war
3-24Views:96The purpose of this paper is to reflect on some the ideas of Thomas Hobbes, one of the founders
of modern political philosophy, best known for his masterpiece, Leviathan. The aim of this essay
is not to provide a full scale analysis of Hobbes’ main work, nor to present his moral or political
philosophy, nor to reflect on the significance of his impact on later political thinkers. The aim is
more modest, and the theme under scrutiny is more narrow: the paper is devoted to a critical
analysis of the main premise (state of the nature) of Hobbes’ theory of power, including the
ambivalent character of the state of nature, as well as the logical dilemmas that arise during
the analysis.After a general presentation of Hobbes’s philosophy and of the logical construction of his
work, I will tend to focus on two aspects of the state of nature: firstly, I will analyse the assumed
analogy between the state of nature and the Book of Genesis; secondly, I will examine whether
the „war of all against all” is an axiomatic outcome of the „primitive” state. It turns out, that the
answers for these questions are not so unanbiguous. -
Neo-Hobbesian democracy: The theory of modus vivendi and democratic legitimacy
25-41Views:44In political theory, the criticism of Rawlsian constructivist liberalism has been articulated in
theories of political realism. John Gray, one of the promoters of realist liberalism, recommends
a neo-Hobbesian way of social coexistence which is based on the conflictual and antagonistic
idea of political life. It takes social values and forms of life as incommensurable in modern
multicultural societies. Taking value-pluralism and its conflicts seriously, a theory of modus
vivendi has been articulated among realist political thinkers. Being a post-liberal (or post-Enlightenment) theory, modus vivendi is more a practice oriented and open-ended theory than
philosophical constructions based on high morality. Modus vivendi theorists make an emphasis
on the peaceful co-existence of social groups and a moral minimum of the political society. One of
the deficiency of the theory is that it says not much about democracy, though it would be highly
useful according to two contextual considerations.On the one hand, a modern political system
would be impossible or outrageous without any form of democratic legitimacy. On the other
hand, there is an exhaustion of the liberal project(s) and the societies featured by multicultural
prosperity. Besides constitutional protection, defending democracy in this new context means
balancing between cultural and other value-oriented groups in modern societies. In my paper,
I make an attempt to examine the concept of democracy in the light of modus vivendi theory. -
College and university students’ attitudes towards democracy in Hungary
47-69Views:48The existence of education for democracy has positive impact on citizens’ political knowledge
and the identification with the democratic values. In the process of civic education, the
universities and high schools play an important role. Many scholars argue that the high schools
have a civic mission to serve a public good or the university is the civic mission itself. To examine
democratic citizenship among high school and university students we use a dataset composed of
three surveys (2011/2012, 2013, 2015) of 4800 Hungarian students. We build on the literature
about the empirical and theoretical framework of democratic citizenship to answer the question
if 25 years after the collapse of communism we can witness the emergence of a new generation
of democrats in Hungary? Have young people successfully come to terms with their countries' authoritarian past and developed a commitment to democracy as a system of rule? Are they
ready to defend it in the face of challenges? Based on the empirical framework of citizenship we
derive a number of significant lessons from the Hungarian case, with important implications
about the ability to teach the norms and responsibilities of democratic citizenship in the world’s
emerging democracies. -
Reflecions on the society of control – Footnotes to the Delezoguattarian machine
210-228Views:79The present study revolves around the concept of the Deleuzean machine. It undertakes to
introduce the machine from Deleuze’s concept of the societies of control. Thus this paper is not
a presentation of the critique of the Freudian and Lacanian notions of desire that the machine
is introduced as a late capitalist abstract agent, but a genalogy of the machinic mechanism – as
a logic of operation – is outlined from a new perspective. The emphasis of the study is not on
psychoanalises and capitalism, and on schizoanalysis as a critique of them, but ont he operational
logic of the societies of control: the articulation of controlling freedom. Fort he latter, concepcts
such as territory, de- and reterritorialization, as well as the operating principles of cybernetic systems are shed light on. By examining this concept, therefore, the ways of understanding the
social, economic and political processes of ourt time can be shed new light. -
Visibility of marginalized social groups from a network perspective
83-108Views:276The 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.
-
The interpretation of prejudice among students in Debrecen
232-243Views:58Negative discrimination has always existed, we have always had an opinion about the other individual, despite the fact that it was often without any background knowledge. It was in the first half of the twentieth century that the scientific, social psychological study of prejudice began in the United States, dominated by the antagonism between whites and blacks. It was at this time that human society came to realise that the problem was a global one, and that it was essential to examine it, starting, among other things, from the massacres of the Second World War, which were partly the result of prejudice. Unfortunately, however, we do not need to go back to the great events of history to realise that prejudice has serious consequences. In our everyday lives, we are also confronted with a plethora of cases of crime, discrimination and conflict based on an image of the other person that is based on incomplete information.
Although the image of a world free of prejudice may be a utopia, these types of feelings and attitudes can and must be dealt with, but above all it is very important to map the situation and to examine it scientifically. -
Central European Innovative Practices Supporting Active Ageing
48-63Views:90The study presents through international examples of how the security and quality of life of elderly and disabled people can be enhanced. 12 partners in eight Central European countries carried out pilot activities within the framework of the HELPS project. The aim of this international project is to contribute to the decrease of the social exclusion of elderly, and to elaborate practises through which seniors would not be constraint to institutional care, and can live in their homes on a longer term. The study presents the outcomes of these pilots and the ensuing primary experiences. The presented innovative solutions offer possibilities in various fields (housing, services, career, practises, information of relatives) for the home care of elderly and people living with disabilities. Prior to the elaboration and put into practice of the development ideas and plans, the partners evaluated the health care system and related services offered to elderly and disabled people in their homeland. The analyses revealed those shortage areas, where further developments would increase the possibility to keep and care for the target group in their homes.
-
Social contacts and spending of leisure time of the elderly
86-104Views:220The 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.
-
What is Alpha Generation?
20-30Views:178According to Mannheim (Mannheim 1969), age group can be considered as a generation if it is
characterized by a common immanent property, generational consciousness, community status,
and three conditions are required: a common experience; actual peer-to-peer orientation and
common situational interpretation, attitudes, forms of action (Mannheim 1969). Based on this
model Strauss and Howe (Strauss – Howe 1991), states, that a generational change happens
in around 15-20 years. Based on the relationship with the information society, the X, Y and Z
generations are interpreted, but the concept of Alpha generation is also defined. Our article
describes the story of the Alpha generation, the content attributed to the generation, and tries to
answer the question: can this concept be interpreted in the paradigm of the generation of ages? -
Political Socialization in the Adolescence
27-42Views:71In the research „School and Society, 2005” we had got an astonishing picture of the political socialization. Nearly four fifths of the high school students support antidemocratic principles: control and one-party political system. In 2008 we repeated the research and we had got similar results. Next time I did this research in 2017 and in this paper I summerize the results of the 2008 and 2017 research. I focus on the similar and different results.
-
Utopia and Social Science – Interpretation of the book Fahrenheit 451
98-108Views:71Utopian and dystopian works have traditions hundreds of years, but their golden era did not begin until the 20th century. The genre is very often depicted as a literary genre, but in reality it is much more than simple fiction. These novels are as much social science and social theory writings as they are works of phantasmagoria. In my writing, I strive to explain this line of thought based on Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451. In the course of my work, following the fictional story of Guy Montag, I intend to present the peculiarities of the genre, its social science relations and its relationship with our contemporary society, in parallel with other dystopian works of the 20th century.
-
Equal opportunities and integration in the career choice: The relation between school competences and job market integration
173-190Views:50The 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. -
Szeklerland – social science approaches
3-16Views:46The 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. -
"Teens at risk": The everyday life of the early school leavers
103-120.Views:111One of the most important challenges of today’s society is to fight early school dropout, and integrate the socially disadvantaged youth to the labour market. Research programs investigate the reasons, causes and solutions for the phenomena. Current statistics and analytical attempts, however, provide very few insights into the family ties, friend relations, financials, thoughts, goals and everyday life of the targeted youth. Our research aims to explore these areas through structured exploratory interviews with participants aged 15 to 19 who have already experienced or are in danger of early school dropout from a second chance provider secondary school.
