Vidékfejlesztési támogatások munkaerőpiaci hatásainak települési szintű útmodellezése magyarországi községek mintáin = Labour market effects of rural development funds. A path analysis approach

A tanulmány az Új Magyarország Vidékfejlesztési Program (ÚMVP) keretében felhasznált EU-s, szűkebb értelemben vett (3. tengelyes) vidékfejlesztési támogatások munkaerőpiaci hatásaival foglalkozik. A vizsgálat azért fontos, mert a vidékfejlesztési programok hatáselemzése általában a projektek teljesítményeinek számbavételére korlátozódik, az érdemi hatáselemzés mind a hazai, mind a nemzetközi szakirodalomban ritka és nem megbízható. Az ÚMVP szűkebb értelemben vett vidékfejlesztési céljaiként a vállalkozásösztönzést, a munkahelyteremtést és a jövedelemnövelést nevezi meg a helyi gazdasági diverzifikáció keretében. Ennek megfelelően a tanulmány elemző része a harmadik tengelyes támogatások elköltésének jövedelemre gyakorolt közvetlen és közvetett hatásával foglalkozik, a magas mérési szintű változók által lehetővé tett lineáris regressziószámításokon alapuló útmodellezéssel – a hazai községek három almintájában (agglomerációs, nem agglomerációs és leghátrányosabb helyzetű falvak). A modellek a munkaerőpiaci helyzetet mérő változóknak a 2006 és 2016 közötti, egy főre vetített változását magyarázzák az egy főre eső elköltött (harmadik tengelyes) támogatások függvényében. Az elemzés legfontosabb eredményei: 1. A vidékfejlesztési támogatások mind közvetlenül, mind a vállalkozások foglalkoztatottsági arányának növelésén keresztül közvetetten befolyásolták a helyi jövedelmi helyzetet a nem agglomerációs településeken. 2. Az agglomerációs településeken a változók kevésbé 74 Horzsa Gergely magyarázták a jövedelmek alakulását, mint másutt. 3. A leghátrányosabb térségekben a mikrovállalkozások arányának bővülése negatívan befolyásolta a foglalkoztatást, csökkentve a vidékfejlesztési támogatások összességének pozitív hatását

“What Would You Do If You Were to Win the Lottery?” A Qualitative Tool for Overcoming Agency-Structure Issues in Migration Research

This paper proposes a quasi-standardized hypothetical interview-guide question and demonstrates its applicability in addressing participants’ general life aspirations, and, in particular, the embedded migration aspirations. The proposed interview question is related to the hypothesized behavior of participants in the off chance of having won the national lottery. Based on fieldwork results, conducted in rural Hungary between 2014-2019, the paper demonstrates how this question, introduced as a closing question during interviews, may be useful in addressing cultural values and attitudes in an agency-oriented way and with a reduction of perceived structural constraints affecting them. The question was eligible in differentiating between forms of geographical mobility, reflecting some migration-related phenomena that were formerly claimed challenging to be specifically addressed, revealing that pro-migration structural constraints might mask general attitudes to stay among those seemingly opting for emigration, and conversely, structural, restraining-constraints that, in some cases, mask pro-migration attitudes among those seemingly aspiring to stay

Értelmezési problémák egy mai magyar politikai kérdőívezés kapcsán, rugalmas kérdőívvel

A kérdőíves vizsgálatot (survey technique) tipikusan kvantitatív módszernek tartják. A rugalmas kérdőív (elastic survey) a survey technika megújítását szorgalmazza, kvalitatív módszertani alapokon, a kulturális antropológiából és kommunikációelméletből átvett előképek alapján. Geertz nyomán az a javaslat fogalmazható meg, hogy a lekérdezés nyelve a mindenkori a terephez, azaz a megkérdezetthez alkalmazkodjon, (ne pedig fordítva); a nyolcvanas évek szociálpszichológiai vitáihoz visszatérve pedig a kommunikációs szimmetriát kéri számon kérdőíves interakció során. A cél egy fenntarthatóbb és érvényesebb eredményeket hozó vizsgálati módszer, amely ugyanakkor megőrzi a kérdőívtechnika megbízhatóságát. A technika alkalmazhatóságát egy, a TÁRKI és a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem együttműködésében végzett pilot kutatás eredményeivel illusztrálják a szerzők: hogyan értették félre a válaszadók egy politikatudományi jellegű kérdésblokk egyes kérdéseit, és hogyan javította a rugalmas kérdőívezés a kutatás érvényességét

Distant love by Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim

In the book of Distant Love Beck and Beck continue the work which was written in the Normal Chaos of Love by arguing that the classic family has begun to give away to the multiplicity of new type of families. Normal Chaos of Love has showed how single parent families and patchwork families have emerged due to successive marriage and divorce. Distant Love also focuses on new type of families, but it considers the global pictures by introducing the concept of world families. As Beck and Beck summarize it, the aim of the book is to “focus on the globalization of love”; however, it does not rely on own research or empirical results but illustrates its points with several examples taken from other studies

Place Naming and Place Making: The Social Construction of Rural Landscape

A social constructivist approach has been applied in our case study analysis in order to explore the sense of place and the perception of landscape of local inhabitants. Fieldwork was carried out in three rural Hungarian microregions selected on the basis of a typology developed through statistical analysis. The central question of the study assumes that the way people name the place where they live is an expression of their sense of place and that it is related to their perceptions about narrower locality and also the general attitudes they have towards the rural or urban landscape. To prove this hypothesis, we examined, in three microregions, how people name their own living area, how they relate to the countryside and rural way of life, and how they describe their own locality in their own words (positive and negative aspects). Based on analyses, three different landscape perception types were outlined and were seen to be interconnected with three ways of place naming: (i) a “close-to-nature” perception in relation to geographical place names; (ii) a “cultural-historical” identification in connection with cultural names and (iii) “lifestyle-service” focused landscape perception linked to administrative place naming

Rural Development and Migration - Effects of Rural Development Projects on Internal Migration and Migration Aspirations of Rural Dwellers in Hungary

The thesis is focusing on the relationship between rural development subsidies and outwards mobility from rural settlements. In general, the thesis’ aim is to analyse how rural development programmes influence emigration. Hungary, as the EU member with one of the highest social gap between rural-urban population as well as one of the highest ratio of non-urban dwellers, has in its rural development policies the central objective of reinforcing ‘population retaining capacities’ of the countryside, which these documents aim to achieve through rural development initiatives. However, the scientific literature is sceptical about development of migrant-sending areas resulting in lower ratios of outwards mobility. The thesis formulates 4 research questions and employs statistical data analysis methods (linear regression-based path analyses) as well as qualitative methods (interview analyses) to address them. While the former method relies on the investigation of Richard Rhoda (1983) on the topic, the latter method is based on the development-migration analytical framework of Hein de Haas (2014). Research findings suggest that among the least developed locations, rural development funds were more convincingly connected to a rise in enterprises, although funds spent for agricultural development seems absolutely ineffective in contributing to employment (that is, share of employed people living locally). Both these factors influence incomes positively. However, with rising incomes and employment, a much higher level of outwards mobility is expected, while conversely, entrepreneurship seems to reduce the share of those deciding to move away. As these impacts balance out one another, the overall effects of the different forms of rural development subsidies vary, with agricultural investments rather contributing to immobility and non-agricultural payments only doing alike because their incapability to promote new jobs. Interview analyses suggest that voluntary immobility is facilitated by positive changes in local career opportunities (instead of simply jobs), a sense of freedom and independence that the countryside may provide (instead of vivid local cultural life) and strong personal connections (instead of weak community ties). Job creation, at least seemingly, positively influences emigration. A reason for this is that local jobs, especially those created through development programmes are temporary and thus, trail uncertainty – in general, they cannot compete with jobs elsewhere and may only delay migration. Besides the interviews reflecting the wellbeing-enhancing aspect of capabilities to migrate, they also show, that these choices of mobility and immobility, are themselves facilitated by the will of achieving more freedom. From the micro perspective, it is precisely the lack of freedom-enhancing factor of Hungarian rural development programmes, why they seem to be ineffective in trailing satisfactory outcomes. Instead, these are interpreted by several respondents as dependency-increasing interventions, let these dependencies be meant on either the personal or community level. The two empirical parts of the thesis reinforce one another's claims: Instead of jobs and employment, career opportunities (including entrepreneurship and education) and self-actualisation is, that seems to matter in either moving or staying. Instead of local cultural life, basic welfare services and rural idyll in general, it is personal connections and the liberating aspects of the rural idyll that seems to matter in staying. It is unsurprising thus, that those were exactly these aspects of development programmes that seemed to reduce outwards mobility, whereas other aspects had no or even, contrary effects, some of which lies in the very essence and organisational setting of subsidisation. The scientific relevance of the research comes from ● its novelty in analysing development-migration interactions in the Hungarian context based on EU funds of the 2007-2013 budget period and considering rural development resources spent in non-agglomeration villages of Hungary. ● it being the first attempt to evaluate on the settlement level, how rural development programmes contributed to outwards mobility in rural Hungary. ● in a more global sense, this dissertation is one of the few empirical attempts to comprehensively evaluate how development programmes contribute to outwards mobility, ● moreover, it is also one of the few empirical attempts to validly evaluate the effects of EU-funded rural development programmes in general. ● the research contributes to a comprehensive understanding of development-migration interactions and the role of development in migration aspirations. ● it contributes to migration theory by providing empirical support for the migration aspiration-capability framework as well as a possible qualitative method for the better understanding of the different aspects of immobility Practical relevance of the thesis is ● the evaluation of the effects of development projects targeting local communities in Hungary, and the contribution to the understanding of potential limitations of such policies. ● More generally, this dissertation may help in understanding the boundaries and unexpected outcomes of subsidization, which are often trailed by the structure and nature of such interventions, both in intranational and international contexts

“What Would You Do If You Were to Win the Lottery?” A Qualitative Tool for Overcoming Agency-Structure Issues in Migration Research

This paper proposes a quasi-standardized hypothetical interview-guide question and demonstrates its applicability in addressing participants’ general life aspirations, and, in particular, the embedded migration aspirations. The proposed interview question is related to the hypothesized behavior of participants in the off chance of having won the national lottery. Based on fieldwork results, conducted in rural Hungary between 2014-2019, the paper demonstrates how this question, introduced as a closing question during interviews, may be useful in addressing cultural values and attitudes in an agency-oriented way and with a reduction of perceived structural constraints affecting them. The question was eligible in differentiating between forms of geographical mobility, reflecting some migration-related phenomena that were formerly claimed challenging to be specifically addressed, revealing that pro-migration structural constraints might mask general attitudes to stay among those seemingly opting for emigration, and conversely, structural, restraining-constraints that, in some cases, mask pro-migration attitudes among those seemingly aspiring to stay

Innovation, Financial Culture, and the Social-Economic Environment of SMEs in Hungary

Despite the numerous pieces of research that have been undertaken to aid understanding of the innovative activities of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), only a few have dealt with the interaction between innovation activity and the finance-related attitudes, literacy, and knowledge (competencies) of these companies. The current research focuses on specific aspects of the innovation activities of SMEs in a post-communist society (Hungary) by taking into consideration elements of both entrepreneurial financial culture and the social-economic environment. Our analysis is based on a national representative survey, 2017. Results show that the presence of a creative financial culture, and the grounding of management decisions correlate with company innovation. We found that subsidies as external financial sources contribute to a larger extent to the innovation activities of SMEs than other external and internal financial resources. Moreover, the study explores the effects of some economic and social competition-related factors