Consumption and authenticity: relationships between built heritage and local society

There is a growing demand for authenticity and for the experience of past in postmodern societies. Built heritage is one of the main driver of tourist’s choice for destinations, thus place based development initiatives in many cases are based on the built heritages of places. Heritage tourism is more and more important in the economic and social development of Hungarian regions and settlements too. Scholars mostly focus on demands and authenticity perceptions of tourists, however the tourism development and also the perceived authenticity have significant impact on the changes of local societies. This paper presents two Hungarian case studies on how local societies perceive and use their built heritage and how their authenticity perception and local identity are changed by the local tourism development. The paper analyses an urban and a local case characterized by the high importance of built heritage in tourism development. The first case study analyses the temporary use and tourism based perceptions of the 19th century housing stocks in the 7th District of Budapest. While the rural case study presents the touristic use and image of the 19th century peasant buildings in Őrség micro region in the Western part of Hungary. Case studies focus perceptions of authenticity of locals and their interests toward their built heritage. The analysis purpose to explore how local’s perceptions and identity are shaped by the tourism destination’s public relations efforts to construct and convey local image. Case study present the key actors of local heritage tourism and their interests and attitudes towards local built heritage. We examine the conflicts connected to the different perceptions and uses of built heritage. Our findings show that important differences in perceived authenticity were observed among various groups of locals. Various dimensions of interests and contested use of built heritages are found both in urban and rural places

Várostervezés és a térbeni-társadalmi szerkezet változásai Budapesten = Urban Planning and the Changes of the Socio-Spatial Structure of Budapest

A városok térbeni-társadalmi szerkezetének alakulásának megértésében fokozott szerepet tulajdoníthatunk a tudatos tervezői beavatkozásoknak, akkor, amikor azt kérdezzük, hogy milyen tényezők eredményeként jön létre az adott térbeli-társadalmi szerkezet. A várostervezés ebben az értelemben olyan professziónak tekintendő, amely a különböző csoportok érdekeit érvényesítő hatalmi viszonyok kereszteződésében található. A tervezés ugyanis bár sokszor törekszik arra, hogy önmagát semleges szakértői tevékenységnek mutassa be, valójában nem kerülheti el azt, hogy tevékenysége során ? a kidolgozandó vagy elvetendő alternatívák számbavételével magának a tervezési folyamatnak eljárásmódjaival a döntések átvállalásával, és áthárításával, stb. ? ne szolgáljon eszközül abban a folyamatban, amelyben az eltérő érdekű társadalmi csoportok városon belüli térbeni-társadalmi helyzetük optimalizálására törekszenek. | The analysis of the spatial and social structure of modern cities and patterns of changes represent one of the basic research directions of urban sociology. The analysis of local and regional policies of certain Hungarian areas in restructuring their social structure served as the example of the consequencies of policies deliberately or tacitly implemented in favour of the better-off strata of the area. How can public participation, central regulations, European norms introduced in this field to balance these policies. We demonstrated that certain financial, economic interests of settlements are in conflict with traditions and other interests. The understanding of the mechanisms governing the internal structures of cities can help to understand the possible conflicts of the European integration as well

Najnovejše smeri razvoja urbane prenove v Budimpešti

V članku so orisani najnovejši družbeni procesi v središču Budimpešte, pri čemer se največ pozornosti posveča socialnemu trajnostnemu razvoju in gentrifikaciji, predstavljeni pa so tudi potencialni socialni konflikti na tem območju. Poleg tega so obravnavani najnovejše dogajanje na nepremičninskem trgu in območja gentrifikacije v središču mesta. V drugem delu so predstavljene smeri razvoja in mogoči dolgotrajni vplivi gradnje nepremičnin na preučevanem območju. Članek se konča z ugotovitvijo, da so lahko primeri gentrifikacije v središču Budimpešte opozorilni znak prihodnjega socialnega razseljevanja in socialne izključenosti

A housing regime unchanged: The rise and fall of foreign-currency loans in Hungary

This paper analyzes the expansion and crisis of the foreign-currency (FX) loan market and responding mortgage-rescue programs in Hungary. We assess changes in the housing regime and illustrate the process through analyzing interactions between individual and institutional (state, financial institution, and municipality) strategies. We argue that the current, malformed housing regime has not changed significantly and remains vulnerable to similar events. This particular case offers insight into regional tendencies, while also explaining the reasons behind the escalation of the crisis in Hungary. We claim that the coping strategies and broader behavior of participants reinforced the disproportionate elements of the housing regime. Since 2015, housing policies have again relied on economic stabilization, now subsidized by the EU, that incentivize market solutions for private home ownership and disregard the experiences of past decades

Hungarian Urban Planning and the Challenge of Integrated Planning: A Sociological Analysis

The paper takes the first steps to analyse changes concerning Hungarian urban planning in the recent years, focussing on the implementation and challenges of the integrated urban planning in Hungary in the light of planning traditions, arguing for the need of a better understanding of such traditions to understand current planning practices. It provides a sociological analysis on the effects of the political and economic context on urban planning, with specific regard to public participation, in different eras, like the state socialism, the period following the 1989/1990 transition and recent years. It presents how urban planning operated in very different and changing ‘faces of power’, under continuously strong external resource-dependency with varying key agents. It discusses the constraints of public participation rooted in contextual factors and in planning traditions. Finally, it also summarises existing research and presents hypotheses for a recently launched new research project