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This study was written in the frame of a project that studied diff erent forms of residential segregation. Using an example it shows how spatial segregation and isolation is produced, and also the role segregation plays in shaping formal and informal everyday strategies in a context where the Roma, a minority group, live in the periphery of the Hungarian majority. The study is based on ethnographic fi eldwork and interviews with inhabitants of the slum. My analysis shows that in the context of spatial segregation the only solid basis of the large family’s livelihood was the aid received from the relatives, as authorities did not support them in solving their social problems (unemployment, dropping out from basic supplies etc.). Examples in this analysis show how the adaptation strategies have changed as part of the regime changes. While before 1989 they had access to more or less legal, formalized work, from the beginning of the 1990s informal adaptation strategies have become widespread in the community. 

Keywords: women and the labour market, family, spatial segregation, subsistence economy

Full text (in Hungarian)

The political turn in 1989 in East-Central Europe had an important impact on public thinking and even nowadays determines the way people think about themselves and form their identity. My paper focuses on contemporary Hungarian and Romanian movies, trying to reveal how these movies represent the turn, the years after the fall of the communism and how they represent women, men and the younger generation in these changing times. Most of the movies analysed are the works of the new generation of filmmakers (for example “Iszka’s Journey”, “Bibliothéque Pascal”, “Dallas Pashamende”, “White Palms”, “If I Want to Whistle I Whistle”, “Police, Adjective”, “Weekend with My Mother”, “12:08 East of Bucharest”).
In the case of Hungary and Romania the political turn did not mean a complete and immediate change of film industry. The new generation of filmmakers made their first long features after 2000. Their first movies reflect the recent past by presenting the power structures of the socialism and the life of people under political oppression. This is usually presented with minimalist film techniques: uncomfortably realistic approach, documentary-like surround-sound, hand-held shooting, real time narration.
Movies about the recent socialist past represent Eastern and Central Europe as an uninhabitable region that cannot off er a future for the growing generations, where they punish the victims instead of the delinquents, where women are oppressed, sexually abused, where men live from one day to the other drinking alcohol, to sum up: a place where people should escape from. My goal is to point out that this image is seen through the lenses of a Western perspective.

Keywords: gender representations, new generation, East-Central Europe, Hungarian and Romanian movies

Full text (in Hungarian)

This paper presents the analysis of female characters in leading roles and important supporting roles in films that have won the Oscar Best Picture Award from 1970 to 2013. It concentrates on the chosen female characters’ activity, goals, goal attainment and hierarchical relations with male characters and other female characters, in the private and public spheres. Looking into the women character’s perception of the border between their private and public spheres, I am interested in whether they experience the passing of this border as easy or difficult, as a one way possibility or as flexible, and how they reconcile their activities in the public and private spheres. A further question is which female characters occupy more favorable power positions and have better goal attainment: those who are active either in the public or in the private sphere, or those who take part in both. I conducted qualitative content analysis of the films based on a previously elaborated analysis schema and on narrative fi lm analysis aspects.
Keywords: film, gender, representation, public, private

Full text (in Hungarian)

The article aims at offering an empirical insight into the larger topic of female part-time employment in Central and Eastern Europe. The research was carried out in 2013 in Hungary and Romania, both characterised by low part-time rates. The study is based on 39 interviews
conducted with women with part-time work experience. In opposition to other studies carried out in this region within this theme it does not aim to look at atypical employment on a macrosocial level, but it attempts to understand the interpretations, social meanings and main narratives that frame these women’s experiences. It also emphasises the motivations behind these work choices, as well as the effects these have upon women’s private and work careers. The output is a model of four types of narratives of part-time work that are also informed by socially legitimate conceptions of gender roles.
Keywords: part-time work, women’s work, occupation and labour market in Hungary and Romania, gender roles

Full text (in Hungarian)

In this paper we are focusing on two important fields. First, we would like to explore if there is any relationship between diff erent forms of partnership on the one side and socio-demographic indicators and value options on the other. Second, we attempt to reveal conceptions about gender roles and family among the Hungarians from Transylvania. Our hypothesis is that people living in diff erent forms of partnership forms (marriage, cohabitation etc.) differ in terms of socio-demographic status and value options.
To verify our thesis we used data of National Institute of Statistics and two databases (from 2007 and 2010) of Kárpát Panel research program.
Keywords: second demographic transition, relationship stability, pluralization of partnerships, religiosity, traditionalism, division of household labor, gender egalitarianism

Full text (in Hungarian)

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