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Interconnections between social work and the natural environment
96-112Views:33The 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. -
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:38In 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. -
Investigation of working conditions and risk factors for burnout of social and pedagogical professionals
3-29Views:43The 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.
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Utopia and Social Science – Interpretation of the book Fahrenheit 451
98-108Views:46Utopian 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.
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Two sides of one coin: Social network of commuter and their families
54-71Views:34People around a person have important roles of the social integration and form of quality of life.
Changes in the life circumstances like getting a job or changes of the workplaces have significant
effect to egocentric social network. In a new workplace usually shape new relationships. Then
again, it is also possible that besides increasing of number of new contacts, there will be those,
which are drop out from the personal network. Paper shows the rearrange of the personal
social network of people who works as a commuter and theirs partnerships. Commuter is a
person who works far from his/her home and he/she goes home weekly or rarely. This topic was
examined making interviews in 2019 (N=24). On the one hand, these interviews revealed a wide
and confidant family and kin networks. On the other hand, it seems that, due to the workplaces
and the common activities at the workplaces and other places (accommodation, shopping etc.), commuter can make new, long-term and confidant friendships which complete his/her family
relationships and make their social capital stronger. -
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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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. -
Family plans and career plans among higher education students in the field of social sciences based on a pilot study in Eastern Hungary
71-93Views:68Our paper explores the family and career plans of social sciences students at Hungary’s second largest university based on a questionnaire-based pilot study. Nowadays, careers include more than the traditional vertical promotion within an organisation, as seen from the emergence of the self-directed “protean” career type, which prompts organisations to adapt to individuals’ values, attitudes, and own career definitions. In addition, the Kaleidoscope Career Model sets out that individuals adapt their career goals to their life stages. Thus, students’ career and family plans matter to prospective employers. Our results show that a modern self-directed career type has emerged among students, for whom it is a priority to meet their own expectations. In several cases, starting a family is preceded by career goals. Furthermore, despite the “feminine” nature of social sciences, our pilot study shows that male students in the field still tend to conform to traditional gender roles regarding the importance of family and career. Our research implies that prospective employers need to adapt their HR strategies to young people’s family and career plans. Moreover, organisations should support students in gaining relevant work experience and in achieving their subsequent career plans.
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Labour law and insurance from patriarchy to the beginning of nationalisation
279-282Views:18If 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. -
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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Relativized gendergizmos
107-119Views:17Gender-theory is an arguable direction of social gender phrasing; especially its concept, that deviancies from the biological orientation are optional. The notion of transgender ortrans-sexuality as a social construction evolved in the 1990’s from post-structuralist philosophies. Nowadays
multiple theories are mingled, and a relatively small minority seems to determine the majority’s
traditional orientation. Present article is to discuss radical wings of gender theories, especially
the ones that aim to alter the individual’s identity by relativizing the natural born biological
sex, or by opposing it with social gender. Instead of dealing with the biological trans-gender
(trans-sexuality, intersexuality, etc...), present work researches chosen gender, or the social gender roles and the corresponding ideologies; as well as a practical alternative, the intermentality
outline topic. -
Drawn Commuters: Caricature as a visual historical resource
125-150Views:41Despite of the fact that during the time of state socialism commuters meant a continuously
growing social group both in proportion and in size, writing about their social history has
been pushed into the background so far. The author’s aim is to fill this gap by trying to discover
the most of the available sources of different genres. The present study shows part of this
larger volume work, it shows what it can add to our knowledge about a social group through
traditional sources if we include caricatures of a given social group as visual historical sources
in the analysis.
In this paper, the author analyses sixteen caricatures of commuters, published in “Ludas
Matyi,” comparing written and audio visual sources. In the study, she tries, among other things,
to find out if there was a definite commuter picture of “Ludas Matyi”, and if so, to what extent
did this commuter’s image differ from that of other products in the press? To what extent did the
satirical portrayal of commuters refer to long-distance commuters and to what extent to daily
commuters? Were the real anomalies of commuting in the era reflected in Ludas Matyi?
The analysis discusses the economic and social processes that characterize the time of
publishing the caricatures, and denominates the external and internal characteristics and
emotions commuters were endowed with.The aim of the author is to present the method of
caricature analysis, which emphasizes the comparability of resources. -
The Career-building effect of volunteering in higher education
146-160Views:70Nowadays 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. -
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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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. -
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. -
Basic income: Sugar-coating over a bitter pill?
159-181Views:32Current 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. -
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. -
Hungarian Academics Working Abroad: Female and Male Career Paths
23-48Views:31Transnational mobility has not only become an integral part of the successful, internatonally driven career path of academics, but is emerging to a great extent as a major performance requirement. Similarly to academic careers in general, international mobility of researchers is also a gendered process to a great extent. This paper aims to assess the most important characteristics of Hungarian researchers working abroad with special attention put on the similarities and differences identified in the career path of female and male researchers. With an online self-administered questionnaire distributed through a snowball sampling methodology
among Hungarian PhD-holders working abroad for more than one year, we investigated the motivation for international mobility, the career path, work contracts, work-life balance, future career plans and the perception of the value of the PhD degree. Our key findings indicate that male researchers’s labour market position is more advantageous abroad than female researchers’ and overall they are more convinved of the positive value of their PhD degree, while female academics were statisfied, but at a more moderate level. -
Enforcement of Community Approaches in Child Protection Practice: International Trends
70-86Views:35Child protection has changed in important ways on international level in recent years. Child protection as social institution adapts to and follows social change. Global competitions, mobility
of capital and workforce, acceleration of economic processes and interdependence of national
economies, and the economic crises of 2007 has their impact on the operation and workings of
welfare systems. This study examines the trends and tendencies in international child protection practice since the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, what type of child protection
orientations can be distinguished, what kind of characteristics can be described and which way
seems to emerge—as a common challenge—in general in the field of the state’s child protection
activities. The study draws attention to the importance of some topics in international discourse, such as complex needs of the clients, importance of partnerships, support of parenthood and a
range of professional skills and competences to achieve these goals.
