The Materiality of the New Family House in Hungary: Postsocialist Fad or Middle‐class Ideal?

In the social and economic upheaval during the first decade after the fall of state socialism in Hungary, the emergence of new neighborhoods of detached family houses outside of a former “socialist city” provoked ambivalent reactions. Were these homes the natural housing form for an emerging middle class in newly independent, free‐market Hungary, or a passing fad led by the nouveaux riches? This article argues that that the eventual triumph of this suburban housing form had little to do with an inevitable trajectory of capitalism modeled on that of the West. Instead, it was a unique material and aesthetic form that, in the Hungarian context, was aligned with the values of its rural precedents while at the same time distinguished from them as “middle class.” The materiality of the new family house has not only redefined the conditions for belonging to the ranks of a new middle class, but has been instrumental in constituting and legitimating this emerging class.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86877/1/j.1548-744X.2011.01047.x.pd

FROM SOCIALIST MODERN TO SUPER‐NATURAL ORGANICISM: Cosmological Transformations through Home Decor

Although the trend of bringing the “natural” world indoors took off in many parts of the world with the end of the Cold War, this article focuses on the case of Hungary, where the shift to and then away from state‐socialist versions of modernist design was particularly politicized. From the 1960s to the present, Hungary witnessed a shift from the dreams of modernist utopia imbedded in “man‐made” miracle materials like plastic and concrete to the neoliberal social order imbedded in “natural” (in fact super‐natural) materials like organic wood flooring and high‐quality roofing tiles. I draw on scholarship working with a Peircean semiotics of materiality to elaborate an approach to aesthetic styles in material worlds that can track transformations in such styles over time and link them to wider political cosmologies. I argue that the “organicist” materialities that emerged to humanize socialist apartments in generic modern buildings were part of a critique of the modernist project and its “unnatural” attempt to dominate nature and engineer human souls. After the fall of state socialism, the continued affective appeal of this Organicist aesthetics worked to legitimate neoliberal ideologies even as people bemoaned the suffering and inequalities generated by the new order. The emerging middle classes embraced the powers of a “natural” order that included a free market as much as it included a natural lifecycle. In so doing, they are inscribed as moral persons, and as such deserving of material worlds in which nature is enhanced and controlled. The morally justified search for quality produces inequality. The article is thus an exploration of the constitutive relationships among things (like residential housing and furnishings), people (esp. people's embodied experience), and ideology (of the state, market or of a particular group).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94524/1/j.1548-1360.2012.01164.x.pd

Identification of riparian vegetation types with machine learning based on LiDAR point-cloud made along the lower Tisza’s floodplain

The very dense floodplain vegetation on the artificially confined floodplains results in decreased flood conveyance, thus increase in flood levels and flood hazard. Therefore, proper floodplain management is needed, which must be supported by vegetation assessment studies. The aims of the paper are to introduce the method and the results of riparian vegetation classification of a floodplain area along the Lower Tisza (Hungary) based on automatized acquisition of airborne LiDAR survey. In the study area 15x15 m large training plots (voxels) were selected, and the statistical parameters of their LiDAR point clouds were determined. Applying an automatized parameter selection and 10-fold cross-validation he most suitable decision tree was selected, and following a series of classification steps the training plots were classified. Based on the decision tree all the pixels of the entire study area were analysed and their vegetation types were determined. The classification was validated by field survey. On the studied floodplain area the accuracy of the classification was 83%

Identification of Riparian Vegetation Types with Machine Learning Based on LiDAR Point-Cloud Made Along the Lower Tisza’s Floodplain

The very dense floodplain vegetation on the artificially confined floodplains results in decreased flood conveyance, thus increase in flood levels and flood hazard. Therefore, proper floodplain management is needed, which must be supported by vegetation assessment studies. The aims of the paper are to introduce the method and the results of riparian vegetation classification of a floodplain area along the Lower Tisza (Hungary) based on automatized acquisition of airborne LiDAR survey. In the study area 15x15 m large training plots (voxels) were selected, and the statistical parameters of their LiDAR point clouds were determined. Applying an automatized parameter selection and 10-fold cross-validation he most suitable decision tree was selected, and following a series of classification steps the training plots were classified. Based on the decision tree all the pixels of the entire study area were analysed and their vegetation types were determined. The classification was validated by field survey. On the studied floodplain area the accuracy of the classification was 83%

Riparian Vegetation Density Mapping of an Extremely Densely Vegetated Confined Floodplain

The most crucial function of lowland-confined floodplains with low slopes is to support flood conveyance and fasten floods; however, obstacles can hinder it. The management of riparian vegetation is often neglected, though woody species increase the vegetation roughness of floodplains and increase flood levels. The aims are (1) to determine the branch density of various riparian vegetation types in the flood conveyance zone up to the level of artificial levees (up to 5 m), and (2) to assess the spatial distribution of densely vegetated patches. Applying a decision tree and machine learning, six vegetation types were identified with an accuracy of 83%. The vegetation density was determined within each type by applying the normalized relative point density (NRD) method. Besides, vegetation density was calculated in each submerged vegetation zone (1–2 m, 2–3 m, etc.). Thus, the obstacles for floods with various frequencies were mapped. In the study area, young poplar plantations offer the most favorable flood conveyance conditions, whereas invasive Amorpha thickets and the dense stands of native willow forests provide the worst conditions for flood conveyance. Dense and very dense vegetation patches are common in all submerged vegetation zones; thus, vegetation could heavily influence floods

Modelling the hydrological effects of a levee failure on the lower Tisza river

Along the Lower Tisza River (Hungary) the water level of the floods reached new record stages in 1998 and 2006, resulting in 80 cm increase in the peak flood level since the “great flood of 1970”. Due to the gradual weakening of the levee-system caused by the several long-lasting floods, the question has arisen, that as in case of a levee breach or failure how would it modify the hydrological parameters of the river. The aim of the research is to create a hydrological model to analyse the effects (as stage reduction, slope and stream power) of two different levee breaches: one happening before the peak of the flood and another at the time of the flood level. The simulated levee breaching happened on the Tisza River at Mindszent, and the data-set of the 2006 flood was used for the modelling (at that time no levee failure happened in Hungary, and it was the greatest flood in history)

Polgári lakáskultúra (bourgeois furnishings) and a postsocialist middle class in Hungary

This article looks at the fate of the kind of home furnishing in Hungary known as “bourgeois” (polgári lakáskultúra) as a way to investigate the middle classes that have emerged since the fall of state socialism. In the 1990s, political discourse was full of speculation about the revitalization of a historic bourgeoisie, and the media regularly featured the material culture of such a historic class. Such furnishings were indeed highly valued among an urban intelligentsia, and seemed to represent evidence of a long history of Hungarian bourgeois taste, civilized values and refinement starkly at odds with socialist material culture, tastes and manners. However, I argue that for many of the emerging middle classes in the 1990s and 2000s, this form of furnishing was no longer a suitable expression of the kind of class position to which they aspired, nor for how it was being newly legitimized. As I show through my anthropological fieldwork among the aspiring middle classes in the former “socialist” town of Dunaújváros, even families who owned such furnishings sold them or demoted them to less prominent places in their homes. Although the socialist state had attempted to devalue inherited, antique furnishings in its promotion of modern lifestyles in the 1960s and 70s, it was not until the end of socialism that such furnishings began to fail to represent middle class respectability. New ideals for such a class were based on entrepreneurial achievements in the present rather than on inherited status, and new home décor was an important way in which this new middle class subjectivity was being constituted

Changes in Floodplain Vegetation Density and the Impact of Invasive Amorpha fruticosa on Flood Conveyance

Flood conveyance of floodplains is significantly influenced by the riparian vegetation cover, since vegetation affects flow velocity, therefore has a considerable impact on flood height and rate and pattern of sedimentation. However, climate change promotes the spread of invasive species, and their rapid growth results in dense vegetation stands, thus they have a significant impact on floodwater hydraulics. The aims of the present study are (1) to analyse the long-term changes in land-use and vegetation density on the Lower Tisza River, (2) to evaluate the role of the invasive Amorpha fruticosa in increasing vegetation density, and (3) to model the effect of dense floodplain vegetation on flood level and flood conveyance. Long-term (1784-2017) changes of land-use suggest that in natural conditions the study area was occupied by wetlands (92%), thus water covered the area for almost the whole year. In the 19th century, after levee constructions the wetlands were replaced by meadows and pastures (94%), then by the end of the 20th century planted and riparian forests replaced these land-covers. As a result, the mean roughness (0.14) of the floodplain has increased threefold until the early 21st century. Today forests are invaded by Amorpha fruticosa, which increases the vegetation density by 3% in riparian forests, by 23% in forest plantations, and by up to 100% in abandoned pastures and a rable lands. According to the results of HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System) and CES (Conveyance Estimation System) models, if floodplain vegetation was managed and Amorpha fruticosa was cleared from the floodplain, peak flood level would decrease by 15 cm. Due to dense vegetation, the flood conveyance decreased by 4-6%, and the presence of Amorpha fruticosa reduced the flood flow velocities by 0.014-0.016 m/s. Accordingly, clearance of the floodplain from Amorpha fruticosa would have positive effects on flood protection, since peak flood stages would decrease and flood waves would shorten

Hivatás vagy kényszer? A gyakorló pedagógusok pálya-elköteleződési motivációjának vizsgálata

Commitment to a career in teaching is not only important for successful performance, but also for preventing burnout. In our research, we wanted to explore the factors that play a role in keeping teachers in the teaching profession, despite or even in spite of increasingly difficult working conditions. Our questionnaire survey, based on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, involved 149 teachers. We used an open-ended question to investigate the factors of staying in teaching, while burnout was measured using a questionnaire developed by Jagodics and Szabó (2014). Job commitment and intention to leave the profession were measured with one item each. Content analysis using AGA (Szalay and Brent,1967) method revealed that the most prevalent career retention forces were psychological rewards of work and love of children. Intrinsic motivational factors were more important than extrinsic ones, such as coercion or work-related circumstantial benefits. However, for teachers who showed stronger signs of burnout, these extrinsic factors played a greater role in career retention than for their colleagues who did not show burnout. Our results confirm that the main attraction of a career in teaching, besides the love of working with children, is the freedom to work creatively, the persistent absence or severe limitation of which may contribute to leaving the profession.A tanári pálya iránti elköteleződés fontos szerepet játszik a sikeres munkavégzésben és a kiégés megelőzésében is. Kutatásunkban azokat a tényezőket kívántuk feltárni, amelyek szerepet játszanak abban, hogy a pedagógusok az egyre nehezedő munkafeltételek mellett is a tanári pályán maradjanak. Kvalitatív és kvantitatív módszertanra épülő kérdőíves kutatásunkban 149 pedagógus vett részt. A tanári pályán maradás tényezőit szabad válaszadásra alkalmat adó nyitott kérdéssel vizsgáltuk, a kiégést a Jagodics és Szabó (2014) által kifejlesztett kérdőívvel mértük. A pálya iránti elköteleződést és a pályaelhagyási gondolatokat egy-egy itemmel vizsgáltuk. Az AGA (Szalay és Brent, 1967) módszerrel végzett tartalomelemzés szerint a legnagyobb súlyú pályán tartó erő a munka pszichológiai jutalma és a gyermekek szeretete. A belső motivációs tényezőknek nagyobb szerepe van, mint a külső erőknek, mint a kényszer vagy a munkavégzéssel kapcsolatos „körülményelőny”. A kiégés jeleit erősebben mutató pedagógusoknál azonban ezek a külső tényezők nagyobb szerepet játszanak a pályán maradásban, mint a nem kiégett kollégáik esetében. Eredményeink alátámasztották, hogy a pedagóguspálya legfőbb vonzereje a gyerekekkel való foglalkozás szeretete mellett a kreativitást kívánó szabad munkavégzésben van, aminek tartós hiánya vagy erősen korlátozott volta hozzájárulhat a pályaelhagyáshoz