Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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In the first part of the study I will be briefly discussing the general
foundational issues of the relationship between contemporary critical
culture research and applied social science. Then I will briefly interpret the
tendencies of changeunderlining the significance of regional differences
taking place between the Hungarian Roma minority society and the society
of the majority after the turn of the millennium. In the final section of
the analysis, based on the research outcome I will briefly touch upon the
practical significance of applied social science knowledge in contemporary
teacher training.
location
population
Romanian
Hungarian
German
Gypsy
Ukrainian
Piskolt
2284
1127
722
7
428
(Picolt)
Tasnd
7495
3603
3300
70
507
10
(Tnad)
Hadad
912
72
717
44
78
(Hodod)
Hirip (Hrip)
651
277
243
1
130
Brvely
3614
1198
2256
10
150
(Berveni)
Mezfny
1882
53
935
783
110
(Fioen)
Csanlos
1296
84
775
335
102
(Urziceni)
Source: VARGA, E. rpd: Erdely etnikai es felekezeti statisztikja. (Ethnic and
Religious Statistics of Transylvania) Pro-Print Press, Cskszereda, 19982002.
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their system of values. Although its input in the history of this research
area may not be said to be especially significant, still the emerging issues,
supporting the other, corporate federation, development, and the issue
of the anthropologist completely siding intellectually and physically
with the life world of the researched area became ineludible subjects in
contemporary anthropology.10 In other words, the actionism of Sol Tax is
a kind of criticism of the behavior of classical anthropology, a summary of
the dilemmas of the benefits and damages of science essentially marking
the possible boundaries of performing anthropology in the scientific sense.11
From the perspective of the history of science the process accompanying
the recognition of the socio-political value of applied anthropological
knowledge is easy to investigateit is the development of the native,
insider standpoint that reevaluates the role of the source of knowledge
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having practical value and the role of the beneficiary of the application.
While in the beginning the native involved as an authentic data provider of
his own socio-cultural life world is only an enduring subject of the most
varied, and for him often unknown developmental projects, today according
to the methods of applied social scientific practice he is an active and equal
collaborator in the work.12 In other words the intervention based on the
knowledge of practical value of applied anthropologyit may be labeled
with all kinds of circumscribing terminology: development, inclusion,
integration, equal opportunity and all their corresponding synonyms
according to contemporary professional political principles accounts for
the active participation of those involved in each case.
According to our standpoint and experiences in Hungarian social
developmental tasks striving for solutionthose fields of high and key
importance requiring professional political consciousness, fields charged
with greater and greater tension such as the integration of Roma minority or
treating the social consequences of poverty compared to other countries
having high level of developmental culture the research and knowledge
having practical value and of applied anthropological perspective receive
regrettably little attention.13 The situational analytical effectiveness of
this knowledge field carried out on the level of small communities and
based on field work, and its concepts to integrate the connections of macro
processes are tools that may be made good use of. In the rest of my study
I will briefly examine the general tendencies of change following the turn
12 In connection to the process I cannot explain in detail here, see: SILLITOE, Paul: The
Development of Indigenous Knowledge: A New Applied Anthropology. in. Current
Anthropology, Vol. 39. No. 2. April, 1998. 223252.
13 In Hungary a good contemporary example of practicing action anthropology is the
work performed by Tessza Udvarhelyi among homeless people. (See UDVARHELYI
Tessza: Az igazsg az utcn hever. (Truth Lies in the Street) Napvilg Press, Budapest,
2014.)
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not be precise, already the processes concluded from the official data in
the geographical area and the socio-political tasks derived from them are
rather severe. Along the northern and eastern borders by today a peculiar
corridor has been established partly as a result of demographic processes,
partly as a result of the migrating Hungarian population from the area.
The majority of villages gives home to non-Roma population of the elderly
people who stay and to a younger generation, growing in number making
up an undereducated, mostly unemployed Roma community.15 This process
may be clearly identified by looking at the publicly available statistical data
provided by the Central Statistical Office in 2011.16
The evolving situation is obviously at the root of complex and mostly cointensifying effects. The economic and cultural deterioration of the marginal
areas (borderlands) spur the population capable of mobility to migrate.
However, mobility is already dependent on the economic, educational, age
and ethnic status. In the northern and northeastern, eastern borderlands
markedly standing outthe southwestern part of the country is also a
significant density areastatistical data clearly shows the correspondence:
the number of Roma population and unemployment is the greatest in those
villages from where the greatest migration happened in the past decade.
Furthermore it is also clear from recent research outcomes that at those
political prejudice is somewhat a distorting factor, however the conclusions supporting
the basic tendencies are clear.).
15 Please do not misunderstand it, poverty and being under educated are not ethnic
issues; it is also valid, even if to a lesser degree, for the Hungarian population of the
working age who stay in the same village.
16 See http://www.ksh.hu/interaktiv_moterkepek (The title of the charts providing the
basis of comparison: ratio of Gypsy (Romani, Beas) nationalities in 2011; The yearly
average of internal migration for a 1000 inhabitants, 20002012; Administered persons
looking for employment, 20. December, 2012; Number of Unemployed People by
100 Employed, 2011) These tendency-like connections may be further elaborated by
integrating housing data and data for households.
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field and the situative action plan worked out for it guarantees the success of
intervention. In order to reach this there is a need to be expected reflecting
a gross social interest: those institutions that are involved in dealing with
the situationsocial-political decision makers, networks of competent
political divisions, educational, training institutions of regional scope
of authority and their professionals, local governments, etcharmonize
their partial activities, the efforts they make for the integration of Roma
minority communities. Its first step is that the actants involved analyze the
sketched situation from their own point of view on the level of the local
cohabitating communities and they include the consequences to be drawn
in their activities.
The University of Debrecen is one of the largest higher educational
institution of the country that fulfils a special social task in its larger area
therefore it is forced to confront the process going hand in hand with the
changes in the structural features the socio-cultural system of conditions.
Among the many studies available at the university the students involved in
the education on the various levels of social sciences and teacher training
especially early childhood educationtransferring the knowledge connected
to the system of relationship between the minority and the majority, and the
preparation to adapt to the forming relations of social space are key questions
in education. In other words, being significant in the region, the schooling
area of students studying at the above mentioned faculties and departments
at the Debrecen University primarily includes Hajd-Bihar and SzabolcsSzatmr-Bereg counties, however, statistically we may see the effects also
in the South Borsod county region, and the North-Bks county region. A
significant number of those students attending university are from regional
small settlements or the small villages of the recruiting region. The natural
scenery of employment of the freshly graduated students is the institutions
of their own local socio-cultural life world. Accordingly we may see that
the recruiting region of the university and the scene serving to potentially
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locate the above mentioned trainings are practically overlapping with the
Eastern Hungarian region (East of the Tisza river) where the ratio of Roma
population, compared to the number of total population, is greater than
the average ratio in Hungary. In 2003 19,7% of the total Gypsy population,
120000 persons lived in the region.20 If we connect the statistical density data
to specific geographical areas and we correspond them to the recruitment
area of the Debrecen University then we may find a good overlap. Based on
these data the eastern part of the Szabolcs-Szatmr-Bereg county, the eastern
borders of Hajd-Bihar and Bks county and the mid Tisza river regions
are those where most Hungarian Gypsies live.21 In the region there are
smaller regions where the proportion of Gsypsy inhabitants reaches or even
exceeds 30%: the regions of Nyrbtor, Tiszavasvri and Vsrosnamny.22
Furthermore it is noteworthy that as opposed to the settlement structures of
the northern of south-western parts of Hungary, due to historical reasons,
in greater villages the absolute number of Gypsy population is also greater.
23
The result is that there are a number of settlements where the number of
20 KEMNY IszvnJANKY BlaLENGYEL Gabriella: A magyarorszgi cignysg
19712003. (Gypsies in Hungary 19712003) GondolatMTA Etnikai-Nemzeti
Kisebbsgkutat Intzet, Budapest, 2004. 14.
21 Compare CSERTI CSAP Tibor: Terleti-szociolgiai jellemzs a Magyarorszgi
cigny npessg krben. 5. (Regional-Sociological Features among the Gypsy
Population of Hungary 5.)
http://nti.btk.pte.hu/rom/dok/sal/Tibor_Cserti_Csapo_Territorial_sociology.doc,
Date of download: 20th, August, 2014.
22 TAKCS Eszter: Roma npessg Szabolcs-Szatmr-Bereg megyben. (Roma Population
in Szabolcs-Szatmr-Bereg County)
www.tiszavasvari.hu/files/old/Koncepciok/6.doc, Date of download: 20th, August, 2014.
23 It is noteworthy that regions of the Hungarian-Romanian borderland inhabited mostly
by Romas are identical with those regions that show the greatest ratio of migration.
Accordingly, apart from the immediate surroundings of the city of Debrecen, the
borderland basically has a low density of population, it consists of village settlements
whose migration indicators are the most severe in the country. In the case of Hajd-
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the Roma population is outstanding in itself. A good example for this is the
ethnic-statistic status of the city of Hajdhadhz, having the largest Roma
community in the Hajd-Bihar county: almost 12% of the population of the
12 000 inhabitants belong to the community of the minority.
Using a statistical or general demographic point of view we find a stack
of problems requiring a complex and differentiated approach behind these
socio-cultural processes and their consequences reflecting a homogenous
picture and behind the tasks that are seemingly self-evident and for which
the knowledge fields are responsible at the Debrecen University, fulfilling
the role of the leading regional higher institution.
In other words I am suspicious of the comprehensive solutions that may
be elaborated in some general thesisjust as it is barely suggested by the
homogenizing meaning content of the label borderland margins used
in a simplistic senseand I am suspicious also because of their failures.
I might say that since the turn of the political regimes, in the past two
decades the integration of Roma minorities, their general social, cultural and
economicextensively pauperizedsituation despite efforts to ameliorate
their position, is becoming worse.
The negative or to put it more mildly, the failure of the integrational social
politics capable of presenting little positive outcometo use a simplifying
and summarizing expressionbesides the above analyzed comprehensive
research outcome, social attitude studies related to the question also confirm.
In 2012 according to the general outcome of the representative research
aimed at the subjective attitude of public opinion, in Hungary two million
Bihar it oscillates from -5,3% to -3,5%, while in Szabolcs-Szatmr-Bereg county -6,2%
- to -5,6%. (See KOVCS CSABABAJMCY Pter: Magyarorszg hatrmenti
terletnek vizsglata a keleti s dlkeleti hatron. (Study on the Borderland of
Hungary at the Eastern and South-eastern Borders) In A fldrajz eredmnyei az j
vezred kszbn. (Geographical Outcomes at the Threshold of the New Millennium)
(CD) Szeged, Fldrajzi Konferencia (Geographical Conference), 2001.)
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Romas live which shows that the real numbers multiplied by more than
three is a great overestimation.24 The socio-psychological significance of the
data is further elaborated by the fact that 69% of those responding regard
the Roma issue a significant social problem that reflects a kind of feeling
of being threatened in the society of the majority and at the same time the
interest to have the question solved.
According to our standpoint and to the international experiences in
the case of integrating minority communities that had been pauperized,
marginalized, having a disadvantaged position the applied anthropological
attitude on the basis of direct experiences and the sophisticated mapping
of the differentiated, situative relations (needs) of the local scene may be an
effective starting point.
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Hungary applied anthropology may be an effective tool in treating sociopolitically the socio-cultural anomalies of the Roma minority communities
and the borderlands in general. An especially significant precondition for
this, related to higher education, is the knowledge transfer of relevant
information and knowledge on the various levels of teacher training.
Incorporating the applied anthropological approach into the educational
plans of the specific studies at higher educational institutions is an important
element of advancement. The aim is to acquire the methodological set of
toolsserving to acquire social scientific knowledge of practical valueof
this area in order to make it possible for experts to recognize the features
characteristic of the locality.26 Locality is the reference range of the spatial
separation of the situative social community that includes the complex
network of relations and contexts organized there. At the scenery of the
local social realityin our case in the cohabiting community of the villages
minority and majorityfeatures related to the activity power, tendency
of socializing, and community reproduction abilities of the members
are recognizable. 27 The ability to grasp locality is the elemental source
knowledge necessary to diagnose, analyze the social scientific knowledge
of practical value, or the socio-cultural processes of the sceneall this is
necessary for intervention.
Graduated expertsmainly teachers who become employed mostly in the
recruiting regionpartly being in possession of the competencies suitable for
interpreting locality, partly within the framework of their profession, partly
Rehabilitation and the Inheritage Tourism: International Experiences and the case of
the DIGP) (co-author Bnhalmi Lilla) in. G. Fekete va (ed.) szak-Magyarorszgi
Stratgiai Fzetek, Vol. 10. No. 1. 2013. 6371.
26 See APPADURAI, Arjun: A lokalits teremtse. (Production of Locality) In Regi, Vol.
12. No. 3. 2001. 331.
27 KOVCS va: Bevezet. (Introduction) In KOVCS vaVIDRA ZsuzsaVIRG
Tnde (ed.) Kint s bent. Lokalits s etnicits a peremvidken. (Inside and Outside.
Locality and Ethnicity at the Borderlands) LHarmattan, Budapest, 2013. 8.
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28 Today at the trainings and as part of the nationality early childhood education program
at the Balzs Lippai Special College within the Faculty of Child and Adult Education
at the University of Debrecen, applied anthropological attitude serves as an important
element of making the students more sensitive to locality. The international reference
literature of the connection between anthropology and pedagogy, as it follows from
the significance of the subject, is especially abundant. The most well-known scene of
the discourse is the journal. Anthropology and Education, edited by the American
Anthropological Association. (See http://www.aaanet.org/sections/cae/publications/
anthropology-education-quarterly/)
29 VATTIMO, Gianni: Transparent Society. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1992. 16.
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