Hungary and the Information Society: getting a grip on territorial impacts

Since the political, social and economic transition was launched in the late eighties, regional differences, measurable on various spatial scales, have considerably increased within Hungary. Several studies carried out since the early 1990s indicate the existence of a capital-countryside dichotomy, a ?west-east slope,? as well as a more finely patterned divergence between dynamically developing, and stagnating or receding micro-regions regarding various socio-economic indicators. During especially the early transition years, foreign direct investment was a significant factor selectively revitalising certain regions, and among the ?transitional? crisis factors, the growth of unemployment had a considerable but a spatially uneven impact on Hungarian society. Meanwhile, a new group of elements has become increasingly noticeable which are assumed to influence and rearrange spatial patterns of the development of Hungarian economy and society. These are in connection with the phenomenon that is generally called ?informational development? (see e.g. Castells) or referred to as knowledge-based societies. Various international organisations have made many attempts and much effort to benchmark the development of information society on different territorial scales, and most recently on the sub-national scale (e.g. EU, UN). Also, such ventures are being currently undertaken by Hungarian regional scientists and researchers in other fields, as well as by planning institutions. The universal question is: what indicators are available and can be used to measure informational development on the sub-national level? In case of Hungary, it is important to see for example, whether the diffusion of different information and communication technologies can be regarded as a new factor in spatial divergence. There are other components of informational, knowledge-based development, which are even more difficult to track on a regional scale, such as the content and nature of Internet usage, or the openness and preparedness of the society enabling it to take full advantage of the new technologies. Learning about the spatial variation in these factors would significantly contribute to our understanding of why and to what extent regional inequalities in information society development resemble the already existing spatial patterns in economic growth. How do the new (?informational?) and old (?transitional?) factors correlate in space? From the mid-nineties, governments started drawing up a wide national strategy for Hungary aiming at its entering the information and knowledge-based society simultaneously with its EU accession. The liberalisation of the telecommunications market has taken a couple of years, and the rise in competition has just very recently had an impact on infrastructure provision and price levels. The diffusion of the relevant technologies, and especially, of Internet service provision and use through narrow- and broadband applications, is spatially uneven, more or less following existing disparities in economic growth and living standards. The paper gives empirical answers to the questions above representing regional inequalities in the emerging information society in Hungary. Keywords: information society, spatial diffusion of ICT, regional differences in Hungary

Hungary and the Information Society: getting a grip on territorial impacts

Since the political, social and economic transition was launched in the late eighties, regional differences, measurable on various spatial scales, have considerably increased within Hungary. Several studies carried out since the early 1990s indicate the existence of a capital-countryside dichotomy, a ?west-east slope,? as well as a more finely patterned divergence between dynamically developing, and stagnating or receding micro-regions regarding various socio-economic indicators. During especially the early transition years, foreign direct investment was a significant factor selectively revitalising certain regions, and among the ?transitional? crisis factors, the growth of unemployment had a considerable but a spatially uneven impact on Hungarian society. Meanwhile, a new group of elements has become increasingly noticeable which are assumed to influence and rearrange spatial patterns of the development of Hungarian economy and society. These are in connection with the phenomenon that is generally called ?informational development? (see e.g. Castells) or referred to as knowledge-based societies. Various international organisations have made many attempts and much effort to benchmark the development of information society on different territorial scales, and most recently on the sub-national scale (e.g. EU, UN). Also, such ventures are being currently undertaken by Hungarian regional scientists and researchers in other fields, as well as by planning institutions. The universal question is: what indicators are available and can be used to measure informational development on the sub-national level? In case of Hungary, it is important to see for example, whether the diffusion of different information and communication technologies can be regarded as a new factor in spatial divergence. There are other components of informational, knowledge-based development, which are even more difficult to track on a regional scale, such as the content and nature of Internet usage, or the openness and preparedness of the society enabling it to take full advantage of the new technologies. Learning about the spatial variation in these factors would significantly contribute to our understanding of why and to what extent regional inequalities in information society development resemble the already existing spatial patterns in economic growth. How do the new (?informational?) and old (?transitional?) factors correlate in space? From the mid-nineties, governments started drawing up a wide national strategy for Hungary aiming at its entering the information and knowledge-based society simultaneously with its EU accession. The liberalisation of the telecommunications market has taken a couple of years, and the rise in competition has just very recently had an impact on infrastructure provision and price levels. The diffusion of the relevant technologies, and especially, of Internet service provision and use through narrow- and broadband applications, is spatially uneven, more or less following existing disparities in economic growth and living standards. The paper gives empirical answers to the questions above representing regional inequalities in the emerging information society in Hungary. Keywords: information society, spatial diffusion of ICT, regional differences in Hungar

Quand l'autonomie locale rencontre la justice spatiale : l'action citoyenne dans les zones urbaines de la ville de Kotka

International audienceWithin the EU’s multi-level governance system, there has been an increasing interest in whether and how an enhanced role of the local level in the delivery of cohesion policies could lead to more cohesion, or in other words, to improved spatial justice. Joining this debate, the paper analyses a particular application and adjustment of the “ideal model” of the European policy instrument Community-Led Local Development (CLLD). In its core lies a local, third-sector action from Kotka, a medium-sized city in Southeast Finland showing, in a national comparison, significant levels of unwell-being of groups of residents and neighbourhoods. The paper investigates how local stakeholders organise themselves to address social/spatial injustice and how this is affected by “multidimensional metagovernance”. Additionally to a multi-level and relational approach to governance processes, linked to a dynamic understanding of spatial justice as an interactive combination of its distributive and procedural aspects, local autonomy is conceptualised in terms of two sources of empowerment, based on the two principles of power. One is how the “power of initiative” is expressed locally, evoking ideas of place-based capacities and perceptions and participation; the other is how the local level may strive to enhance its “power of immunity”, its freedom to act without the control of higher tiers of government. Meanwhile, the complexity and fuzziness of the notion of “locality” is demonstrated as a terrain and subject of spatial injustices as well as the source of (policy) solutions thereof.Au sein du système de gouvernance multi-niveaux de l'UE, le rôle accru de l'échelon local dans l'exécution des politiques de cohésion suscite de plus en plus d'intérêt : comment peut-il permettre une plus grande cohésion ou, pour le formuler autrement, une meilleure justice spatiale ? Cet article, en joignant sa voix au débat, propose d'analyser les applications et les adaptations du « modèle idéal » promu par un instrument de la politique européenne, le « développement local mené par les acteurs locaux » (DLAL). L'objectif est ici d'examiner l'action du tiers secteur à Kotka, une ville moyenne du sud-est de la Finlande dont certains quartiers et groupes d'habitants témoignent, par rapport à la moyenne nationale, d'un degré de mal-être élevé. Il s'agit dès lors de comprendre comment s'organisent les acteurs locaux pour remédier aux injustices sociales et/ou spatiales, en dépit des effets de la « métagouvernance multidimensionnelle ». L'autonomie est ici conceptualisée en fonction d'une approche relationnelle et multi-niveaux des processus de gouvernance-qui définit la justice spatiale à l'articulation dynamique de ses composantes distributive et procédurale-mais également à partir de deux sources d'empowerment, elles-mêmes fondées sur deux principes de pouvoir. Le premier fait référence aux manifestations locales du « pouvoir d'initiative » qui évoquent les notions de capacité, de perception et de participation fondées sur le lieu. Le second concerne la façon dont l'échelon local s'efforce d'étendre son « pouvoir d'immunité » et sa liberté d'action en la soustrayant aux échelons supérieurs de gouvernance. Dans ce sens, le caractère complexe et vague de la notion de « localité » se révèle être à la fois le terrain et la matière des injustices spatiales, mais aussi la source des réponses (politiques) qui peuvent être élaborées en retour

Telecommunications networks and services in Estonia. Lessons to other European countries.

Estonia has shown somewhat remarkable developments in the telecommunications – or more precisely, building up an efficient network of modern information and telecommunications technologies (ICTs) for the Information Society. This paper takes a look at the development of telecommunications infrastructure networks and services in Estonia. The study also evalu-ates what other countries could learn from Estonia. More specifically, by this study we at-tempt at answering whether Estonia is as successful as data suggests, what the factors behind this success are, and whether there are lessons to be learned for the entire European territory. The paper introduces to the development of the telecommunications infrastructure and ser-vices in Estonia, by presenting facts and figures, and comparing the progress of the country with that of other European countries. It also discusses the measures that have helped Estonia on the road to Information Society. The results show that in summary the success of Estonia seems to have been a result of three things: Proximity of Finland and Sweden, active regula-tion and relative early liberalization, and a competition and entrant friendly market environ-ment. The paper is an outgrowth of the ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Net-work) project 1.2.2 “Telecommunications Services and Networks: Territorial Trends and Ba-sic Supply of Infrastructure for Territorial Cohesion” (see: http://www.espon.lu).

Research design for studying development in border areas: case studies towards the big picture?

This paper is concerned with the research design of four recent border related research projects, all operating in European multi-case study frameworks. All these studied projects have the aim of producing, on the one hand, regionally specific research results and, on the other hand, results that bear relevance to general border theories. Furthermore, most of these researches have to provide messages for policy makers and not only on the local-regional but on a more general, European level. This paper discusses what research designs the projects have chosen to operate in to reach all of these objectives. The focus is on two major aspects that have an impact on the research designs and are connected to the need for abstraction from specific contextual cases: comparative framework and policy relevance on different levels.Cet article examine comment quatre projets récents consacrés à l’étude des frontières, tous opérant dans des cadres européens d’études multi-cas, ont conçu leur travail de recherche. Ces études visent à produire à la fois des résultats spécifiques au niveau régional et des résultats pertinents pour les théories générales relatives aux frontières. En outre, la plupart de ces recherches sont censées ouvrir des pistes aux responsables politiques, tant au niveau local-régional qu’à l’échelle de l’Europe. L’article examine dans quels modèles de recherche les quatre projets ont choisi d’opérer pour répondre à ces différents objectifs. L’accent est mis sur deux aspects majeurs impactant les modèles de recherche et liés aux impératifs d’abstraction à partir de cas contextuels spécifiques: cadre comparatif et pertinence au niveau politique à différentes échelles

Telecommunications networks and services in Estonia. Lessons to other European countries.

Estonia has shown somewhat remarkable developments in the telecommunications – or more precisely, building up an efficient network of modern information and telecommunications technologies (ICTs) for the Information Society. This paper takes a look at the development of telecommunications infrastructure networks and services in Estonia. The study also evalu-ates what other countries could learn from Estonia. More specifically, by this study we at-tempt at answering whether Estonia is as successful as data suggests, what the factors behind this success are, and whether there are lessons to be learned for the entire European territory. The paper introduces to the development of the telecommunications infrastructure and ser-vices in Estonia, by presenting facts and figures, and comparing the progress of the country with that of other European countries. It also discusses the measures that have helped Estonia on the road to Information Society. The results show that in summary the success of Estonia seems to have been a result of three things: Proximity of Finland and Sweden, active regula-tion and relative early liberalization, and a competition and entrant friendly market environ-ment. The paper is an outgrowth of the ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Net-work) project 1.2.2 “Telecommunications Services and Networks: Territorial Trends and Ba-sic Supply of Infrastructure for Territorial Cohesion” (see: http://www.espon.lu)

Cross-border shopping at the EU's Eastern edge: the cases of Finnish-Russian and Polish-Ukrainian border regions

Untersucht wird das grenzüberschreitende Einkaufen zwischen Finnland und Russland sowie Polen und der Ukraine seit dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion. Es geht hier hauptsächlich um bestimmende Faktoren, Auslöser und Ausprägungen dieser Tätigkeit zusätzlich zu ihrem Umfang und ihren Trends, um deren Auswirkungen auf den grenzüberschreitenden Austausch und die regionale Entwicklung zu verstehen. Dieses Einkaufen macht einen wesentlichen Teil der gesamten Mobilität aus und ist durch vergleichbare Fluktuationen auf beiden Seiten der untersuchten Grenzen gekennzeichnet, während es in beiden Fällen auch einige Spezifika gibt. Ein gemeinsamer Aspekt ist, dass in den ersten Jahren nach dem Regimewechsel eine Schattenwirtschaft in unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen beim Grenzübergang eine wichtige Rolle gespielt hat. Seit damals hat der normale grenzüberschreitende Einkaufstourismus, der durch die Attraktivität des Nachbarlands als Reise- und Freizeitziel begünstigt wurde, mit dem Zustrom von Russen nach Finnland an Bedeutung gewonnen, während die meisten Einkaufsbesuche von Ukrainern nach Polen weiterhin mit gewinnorientiertem Weiterverkauf verknüpft waren. Veränderungen der Devisenkurse stellten sich in beiden Fällen ebenso als Faktoren heraus, insbesondere bei den kurzen und häufigen Fahrten Finnland-Russland und (hauptsächlich) Ukraine-Polen zur Nutzung von Preisunterschieden bei besteuerten Gütern wie Kraftstoff und Zigaretten. Schließlich wird auch darauf hingewiesen, dass grenzüberschreitendes Einkaufen direkte Auswirkungen auf die regionale Entwicklung haben kann, da lokale/regionale Interessenvertreter darin einen wirtschaftlichen Vorteil sehen: Die Anziehung von Einkaufstouristen aus Russland ist in Südost-Finnland trotz der Anfälligkeit für Veränderungen bei den geopolitischer Bedingungen eine wichtige Entwicklungsstrategie geworden.This paper investigates cross-border shopping across the Finnish-Russian and the Polish-Ukrainian borders since the disintegration of the Soviet Union from a comparative perspective. Cross-border shopping can be defined in various ways for diverse purposes; this study is interested mainly in the conditioning factors, drivers and forms of this activity in addition to its volumes and trends in order to understand its implications to cross-border interaction and regional development. It is observed that cross-border shopping accounts for a substantial part of all mobility and that cross-border shopping is characterized by comparable fluctuations across both of the studied borders, while the two cases show some specific features, too. A common aspect is that during the first years after the regime change, informal economic activities in various forms played a major role in border crossings in these two regions. Since then, ordinary cross-border shopping tourism supported by the attractiveness of the neighbouring country as a travel and leisure destination has grown in importance in the influx of Russians into Finland, whereas most shopping visits by Ukrainians to Poland continued to be linked to profit-oriented reselling. Also, changes in exchange rates resulting from geopolitical turns and economic cycles have proved to be factors in both cases, particularly in conditioning short and frequent trips from Finland to Russia and (mainly) from Ukraine to Poland for utilizing differences in prices of excise commodities such as fuel and cigarettes. Finally, the study also shows that cross-border shop¬ping may have direct implications to regional development, as local-regional policy stakeholders may see it as an asset: the attraction of shopping tourists from Russia has become a key development strategy in Southeast Finland despite the vulnerability to changes in geopolitical conditions

A Pécsi Disputa szövegeiről

Der Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit der Vorbereitung der kritischen Textausgabe einer theologisch-philosophischen Streitschrift aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Der Disput wurde zwischen dem Antitrinitarier György Válaszúti und dem Kalvinisten Máté Skarica im Jahre 1588 in Pécs (Fünfkirchen) geführt und — fast sicher noch im selben Jahre — von dem ersteren niedergeschrieben. Die Darstellung ist höchst wertvoll als einzigartiges Dokument der Spätentwicklung des antitrinitarischen Radikalismus in einer eigentümlichen Situation: unter den Verhältnissen des relativ freien Meinungsaustausches christlicher Konfessionen und Gruppierungen — während der Türkenherrschaft. Zwei Manuskripte des Werkes sind erhaltengeblieben: das eine in der Nationalbibliothek „Széchenyi" (Budapest), das andere in Klausenburg (Cluj, Bibliothek der rumänischen Akademie). Die Priorität ist sehr schwer festzustellen. Das erste Manuskript — da es von einem höheren literarischen-stilistischen Niveau zeugt — kann besser für die Basis der geplanten Textausgabe gewählt werden