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Globalization theory of late modernity and identities in risk society
101-121Views:56Modernity is the sum of the fragmented cultural systems of meaning, that are mutually influential
on each other, plus of economic and political relations continually changing and transforming –
a complexity that manifests itself in the structure of the (world) risk society even on the level of
the individual. Following the late modern turn, the phenomenon of the means and opportunities
determining the ability of choice is not being shared equally, but multiplied as regards global
actors, as well as choice of identity, perceptibility of risks and facing them. The study presents
the new inequality factors and the asymmetric power relations of the late modernity along the
works by the recently died sociologists of the globalization theory (Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt
Bauman). In the world risk society, each community and individual bear the risks indifferently.
Accordingly, the ascertainments of the study are that the globalised economy and the subjects
of the local poverty do not possess the same degree of the freedom of maneuvering. In order
to demonstrate this and also to identify each postmodern life-strategy, the study relies on the
works on identity by the discussed sociologists. According to the latter, the study concludes, that
the reflexivity of the risk is the most profitable for those who are in the high position of the new
inequality, thus, have the power to determine conflicts generated by them and inflict them on
those excluded from the struggle of definition of risk. -
Solidarity and autonomy in times of an epidemic
47-73Views:45The 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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Entangled in the web of solidarity paradoxes – from the moral contradictions of helping to the dysfunctions the welfare system
51-85Views:74The 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.
