Search
Search Results
-
Interconnections between social work and the natural environment
96-112Views:62The aim of my study is to examine the appearance of ecology and natural environment in the
theory and practice of social work. By reviewing international literature, my aim is to review and
systematize basic theories and professional directions. I also consider it important to look at the
Hungarian aspects. Global environmental changes and social changes interact, and the social
work profession evolves, and incudes new trends and approaches while reflecting ever-changing
challenges. The relationship between the person and his/her environment has always been one
of the central themes of social work, but the pursuit of sustainability and the focus on the natural
environment may bring a new dimension to the interpretation of the person-in-environment
approach. In my paper, I attempt to understand the values and motivations of ‘green social work’,‘environmental social work’ and ‘eco-social work’ and I attempt to understand the relationship
between social work and the natural environment, and examine the roles social workers may
carry on related to the global environmental changes. -
Parents’ school volunteering in the interpretation of teachers in a disadvantaged region of Hungary
28-48Views:83In the international literature, there are many studies dealing with the voluntary work of parents at school, but there is little research on this in Hungary. In our study, we examine the volunteering of parents through the interpretation of teachers in three disadvantaged counties of Hungary, using a qualitative interview method. The research population was the teachers of primary and secondary schools, and the interviewed teachers were selected by multi-stage, stratified sampling. We included 38 interviews in the analysis, in which the voluntary work of the parents appeared. The interviews were analysed by manual and machine hybrid coding. According to our results, teachers also considered participation on request or under pressure as volunteering. “Real” volunteering is hardly present, and parents are less likely to initiate assistance on their own. Parents are typically occasional volunteers, and mostly the members of the parents’ work community participate in regular volunteer work. According to the teachers, the voluntary work of parents is indispensable in the life of the school, so in our opinion it would be important to promote it and to motivate parents to participate more in school life.
-
The transition between higher education and work
203-215Views:80One indicator of the labour market situation of recent graduates is the length and quality of the post-graduation period. Today, the path from higher education to the labour market is increasingly complex and flexible, with many people already working during their university or college years, while others find it takes months to find a job after graduation. The transition therefore starts during the period of study, before graduation, in the form of internships, work placements during training, or even voluntary work. Nowadays, the delay in finding a job has led to the status of unemployed recent graduates who are no longer studying but not yet working. However, the recent graduate unemployed behave differently from other unemployed groups, as they have generally not yet worked full-time and are supported by their families.
-
„We were born here, we grew up here, our relatives and our children are here… everything are in our village”. Weekly commuting in a village of Tiszahát
38-53Views:41The study present the weekly commuting in a small village of 1600 resident in Tiszahát. The
economic situation of the settlement, employment and income opportunities are lower than
national average, which also has an extremely strong impact on the livability of the village.
The local primary labor market can employ few workers, other employees can work in public
employment or they can work as a seasonal worker in agriculture buti it does not provide an
income that can be calculated all year. There are few opportunities in the region, so they can
not work in the nearby settlements. Many locals have to go to remote settlement for work. We
prepared interviews to examine: how weekly commuting became popular in the village and how
it affected local families and the local community. -
The role of a children group for the participant, underprivileged children in the family care system 1995–2005
113-135Views:51The 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. -
The Career-building effect of volunteering in higher education
146-160Views:89Nowadays the motives for volunteering are changing among higher education students, and
besides traditional altruistic motives, career-building motives also appear (the acquisition
of work experience and professional knowledge, professional development, networking,
the presentation of voluntary work in the resume). In this paper, we use data from a survey
conducted in five Central and Eastern European countries (N=2,199) to examine through linear
regression analysis the factors affecting the strength of career-building motives and to analyse
through a logistic regression model the determinants of whether or not volunteering is related to the field of study. Our hypotheses are formulated based on the literature. Our results show
that career-building motives are more pronounced among women and students who have a
close relationship with external friends outside the university, study outside Hungary, and study
something other than engineering, computer science or science. Voluntary work is more likely to
be related to the field of study among teacher education students, students with an unfavourable
financial situation, those who study in Romania, and those who have a close relationship with
faculty. -
Investigation of working conditions and risk factors for burnout of social and pedagogical professionals
3-29Views:70The study scrutinizes the relationship between professional working conditions and burnout among Hungarian social and pedagogical professionals. Despite the fact that burnout and occupational well-being have been extensively researched abroad among professional helpers – primarily health care workers –, no quantitative survey has been conducted in Hungary so far in the target group we examined. Another added value of our study is that, besides work and organizational factors revealed by previous burnout studies, it points to the role of client- and fieldwork-related difficulties in the prevalence of burnout symptoms. In our exploratory, crosssectional survey, 261 social and pedagogical specialists participated from Baranya County. Our results suggest that job and task matching problems, and difficulties related to the fieldwork and clients lead to emotional exhaustion of professionals and decreased work efficiency. Deficiencies related to work motivation cause loss of efficiency as well. The results also indicate that out of the three occupational groups involved in the research, professionals working in the field of child protection are most at risk for emotional exhaustion, and the symptom of depersonalization is most relevant to child protection and family and child welfare workers. In addition, we have shown that longer professional experience can be considered a protective factor in burnout symptoms. Our results can make an important contribution to the establishment of individual and organizational level training, support, development, monitoring and evaluation programs and/or policy-level guidelines and interventions that can improve the working conditions of professionals and reduce their risk of emotional, mental and physical strain.
-
Changes in family decision-making and division of labor among weekly families
148-165Views:109The study deals with the transformation of decisions and division of labor within the family by
processing the results of a qualitative, interviewed study of the target group of weekly workers.
The study shows how decisions are restructured according to roles within the family and how
the roles of women and men change as a result of the regular absence of one family member.
From the point of view of the approach to domestic work, the differences between weekdays and
weekends, which can be considered as a consequence of weekend, come to the fore. In the course
of the analysis, we examined whether there was a change in the decision-making processes
within the family as a result of the weekly (and if so, what areas were affected by the change)
and whether there was a radical change in the division of family responsibilities as a result of the
weekend. I present the results on the basis of two dimensions, on the one hand, of the phenomena
of disposition and decision-making over income, and, on the other hand, of the division of family
responsibilities and problem-solving. -
A possible vision for young public workers or The Hungarian JWT
121-130.Views:45According to different statements more and more youngsters, under 25 years of age, appear in Public Work Programs at the present time in Hungary. Even it occurs more frequently that pa-rents, primarily because of financial reasons, take out their children from school, and send them to public workers.This paper draws attention to this phenomenon. Furthermore, it shows a possible paral-lel between those young people who are in JWT (Job Without Training) and those Hungarian youngsters who are working in Public Work Programs reflecting on the Hungarian particulari-ties of this parallel.
The concept of JWT and its categories are presented, and also which of these categories may connect with the Hungarian public workers’ state of being. Statistical data show the rate of public workers and their gender breakdown. Reports also suggest that the rate of young public workers is growing and their situation may become futureless.The author thinks that the growth of young public workers’ rate and their settled situation in this employment sector is likely to make inevitable for them to become NEET in the future. -
Labour law and insurance from patriarchy to the beginning of nationalisation
279-282Views:42If the reader picks up Zsombor Bódy's The Society of Industrial Labour, the title page will probably lead him to a long discussion of the new problems and tasks caused by industrialisation, and the structure and situation of social relations that it changed.
However, reading the first pages, we understand that Bódy, touching on the deeper social context, selects only a slice of the complex problems of industrial society of the time, the development and change of the institutional system related to work from the mid-19th century to the end of the Second World War. The author, who has extensively processed relevant volumes of international and national literature and numerous archival and printed sources, has synthesised his findings in this volume after several smaller studies. The work contains a number of new approaches and new problem definitions, which I would like to reflect on below. From the book we can learn about the views and plans of the time in relation to labour, the provisions that were born, from the patriarchal view to the beginning of the era of nationalisation. A great advantage of the work is that it analyses at length the prevailing social policy ideas of each period, contrasting the different views. It deals not only with governmental ideas, but also with the views of the opposition, the interest groups and, last but not least, the experts and their associations of the time. It examines the power of each organisation in each era and the influence it could exert on decision-makers, achieving different results, even against other groups. All of this is to the advantage of the essay, and the author perhaps sometimes over-details the battles between different views. -
Alternatives of how to prepare for the future labor market
146-160Views:64What 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?
-
Danger on the labour market - some thoughts on occupational segregation
49-63Views:66Workers must be guaranteed equality, the possibility must be created for them not to be discriminated against on the basis of their work, the activities they carry out, and ultimately the results of their work. This is a serious obligation on the state, which it must ensure through its legislation and through the judgments of the courts, because social security cannot be achieved otherwise. The State's responsibility in this respect is not bound by time or place, since, as long as there has been a legal relationship in the development of labour law, this has always been a matter of concern for workers - and for labour lawyers.
It is not easy to assess, because even today, when general equality and equality of rights have been an accepted principle for centuries in almost all parts of the world (but not, of course, in those parts where, for example, there are serious traditional differences between men and women in society, such as in the Arab world), this problem is still a daily occurrence.
-
The linkage between motivation, work experience and sense of deadline-keeping in product development projects of those working in the automotive industry
37-53Views:40Nowadays, numerous new automobiles are being developed by various companies and their
suppliers around the globe. On account of the reduction of the product’s economic lifetime and
effects of the global market, n the automotive segments the time factor plays a key role in the
successful implementation of the project and consequently in the sale of the product. The current
study, focusing on human conditions, scrutinizes the behaviour of the members engaged in the project. It’s primary focus is not to reveal the hindering factors due to time-losses arising from
the shortage of resources or inadequate planning. These conspicuous reasons and the demonstration as well as treatment of risk, belong to the scope of the board of project portfolio management, which operates well among larger project organizations. Each project member is taking
an individual approach towards meeting deadlines, and their motivation about the execution
of the given tasks also vary. Beyond the results found both in the professional literature as well
as general research, I study whether the unique features of the actual automotive organizational projects can be identified or not. The ongoing research observes, based on the experience
acquired from the automobile development project, motivation and adherence to deadlines, the
composition of the team impacting work efficiency. -
On the margin of child protection: Negative life events impact on the adolescents and youth health behavior
80-108Views:145The 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.
-
Mechanisms of power, victimization and autonomy in the health care system
60-80Views:42The aim of this paper is to describe power relations, doctor-patient relationships among the
many ongoing changes in health care from sociological point of view. This paper is based on
interviews with 17 people who work in various fields of health care. To conduct the interviews as
well as to write the paper, a number of concepts and theoretical approaches were resorted to:
Dominique Memmi’s ’delegated biopower’, Eve Bureau and Judith Hermann-Mesfen’s notion of
’contemporary patient’, François Dubet’s concept of institutional programme as well as results of
Hungarian health sociology. The main focuses of interest of the paper are role models in health
care, the characteristics and consequences of new doctor-patient relations, their manifestations
in Hungary as well as potentials of defencelessness and autonomy in Hungarian health care. -
Where do young villagers work? Types of social bonds and occupational characters of young generations living in small villages
55-85.Views:72One of the defining elements of local identity is the opportunity to work and the chance ofear- ning money. These factors are especially important in small villages within low-populated rural areas, where due to changes in the production structure and land ownership job opportunities become less and less. In the absence of livelihood opportunities and adequate income for young people living in the countryside, the migration process is intensifying, the villages are aging and become more and more depopulated. A smaller part of young villagers however remain in the settlement, with new marginalized settlers from urban areas, who appear alongside them.
Our case study, based on 104 interviews in 12 settlements, seeks to find whether young peop- le – aged 19–25 – look at village life as a constraint or an opportunity. The central question is whether they think that this marginal status, with an assumingly cheap village life, is the only choice for them, or they are convinced that they are staying in small villages due to their cons- cious choice in favour of a rural lifestyle.
Focusing on employment strategies, the aim of this paper is to look at the dimensions of local attachment of the target group, and to show the various labour market characteristics of the target groupthat develops within the given framework.
-
Burnout syndrome among health care workers in Hungary – a literature review
62-77Views:98Burnout is recognised as an occupational hazard and prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors at work in various people-centred professions, with higher prevalence among health care workers. The main objective of this research was the integrative review of the literature on burnout syndrome in Hungarian health care workers. Twelve (12) studies found in PubMed database were included in the research and a number of important conclusions have been summarized about burnout syndrome among employees of the Hungarian health care system. Also, as important conclusion it has been highlighted, that recognising, preventing, and treating burnout and depression among health care workers should be one of the priorities of the health care in Hungary.
-
Perceptions of families with children and the social professionals working with them on services promoting the well-being and social mobility of families
3-28Views:99In our study, we investigate how families with children living in a disadvantaged sub-region of Northern Hungary, in areas of different settlement size and in settlements belonging to the Budapest agglomeration, perceive the available educational,
education, childcare, health and social services, whether they have any information about them, and what professionals working with families with children think about the education, childcare, health and social services and services available to them.
the professional content and quality of the services provided, and whether
the extent to which they can contribute to the well-being and social mobility of families. Our research included a population questionnaire survey and interviews with professionals and families with children. Our results indicate that children's abilities
the lack of services to develop their abilities, develop their talents and promote their well-being, the
existing education, health and social services with very limited capacity and therefore low quality, and limited access to cultural and recreational opportunities
mobility opportunities for children growing up in disadvantaged families are severely limited. Child welfare social work tools are scarce and social interventions are based on fire-fighting. -
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. -
Some demographic characteristics of long-term commuting in Hungary
3-19Views:79The study aims to show the most important demographic characteristics of long-term
commuting workers and the emerging territorial disparities using the latest available statistics.
The main motivation for commuting, including long commuting, is still to get the job they deem
appropriate, but about a quarter of a million people take on much greater burdens than average
and only travel home weekly or less frequently in Hungary. Most of them make this decision by
force, as there are no job opportunities in their place of residence, but the income they provide is
very important for their families. Long-term commuters mostly do seasonal work (construction,
catering, etc.) and work in physical jobs. Unsurprisingly, men are more likely to take on the life
form with increased physical and psychological strain, but not only the heads of the family in
their forties, but also young people in their 20s who are not yet independent of their families
are represented in large numbers. Long commuting is characterised by marked territorial
inequalities, and those affected mainly start from villages, despite the fact that the high level of public employment in the most disadvantaged areas is affecting the direction of the stay of the
workforce. -
The Career Concepts of Male Workers with or without Child
91-105Views:50The question of reconciliation of work and family is getting highlighted in social studies. For a
long time, a lot of studies concentrated on young mothers; however, researchers have realized
that this problem proves difficult to men as well. As Bencsik-Juhász write: ” As the actual labor
market primarily employs and caters for men, with all the inherent ad-vantages (like higher wages for the same job) and disadvantages (like longer working hours), it is no wonder that
the stronger labor-market presence and activity of women also changes the traditional family
roles”(Bencsik – Juhász 2012: 616). The public opinion has been starting to expect double sets of
obligations from the fathers, the traditional family supporter role is still strong, while men are
also expected today to take part in child-rearing. The question is whether these processes effect
on men’s career.
This study presents career perspectives of male workers with or without child. The authors
made a quantitative survey in order to get to know this question. Based on research conducted in
2016, it is possible to say that men with or without child are different in this question. -
Basic income: Sugar-coating over a bitter pill?
159-181Views:56Current and future evolutions in labour markets may be blurring lines between traditional
employment and new types of atypical employment, making it harder to reliably assess whether
someone is receiving any benefits at all. The basic income should be seen as a serious option in
the future, given the changing labor market and the findings from existing cash transfer schemes.BI is not means-tested, so the amount received does not depend on individual or family income or
assets and does not require any work performance, or the willingness to accept a job if offered.
In this study I examine the created image by the media through the method of content
analysis, in relation to basic income. Furthermore, it is analyzed to what extent this effect creates
a negative image of basic income among the students of the University of Debrecen, strengthening
the fear towards this social policy tool. Particular attention is paid to the value choices of young
people focusing on their individualization, motivation of working and willingness to take risks. -
Mothers with young children in labour market
29-51Views:466The 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.
