Folyóiratcikkek - idegen nyelvű (RKI)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://regscience.hu/handle/11155/111

Browse

Browsing Folyóiratcikkek - idegen nyelvű (RKI) by Author "Balogh, Péter"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Bridging the gap: cross-border integration in the Slovak–Hungarian borderland around Štúrovo–Esztergom
    (2018) Balogh, Péter; Pete Márton
    One of the main narratives of border studies in recent years has been that cross-border interactions rarely result in a thorough integration, with the border remaining a strong dividing line. While not questioning that grand narrative as a whole, this article contributes to nuancing the picture. Through the four analytical lenses proposed by Brunet-Jailly (2005. Theorizing Borders: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Geopolitics 10, no. 4: 633–649) we investigated the Slovak-Hungarian borderland around Štúrovo and Esztergom, where substantial developments towards a thorough integration of the two sides have actually taken place. The empirical material is based on personal interviews with 26 local elites, statistical data, field observations, etc. Two dimensions emerge as particularly important behind this integration. One is related to market forces: a long-lasting severe economic situation including high unemployment on the rather agriculture-dominated Slovakian side has pushed thousands to daily commute to work on the industrially oriented Hungarian side, where demand for labor has been high. The other key dimension is related to the local cross-border culture, where shared identities and common languages on both sides have led to intensive cultural and educational exchange. These developments were also facilitated by the policy activities of multiple levels of government and the local political clout. Our case contradicts the now common idea that increasing cross-border integration coincides with decreasing cross-border mobility.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    CEU’s fate a symbol of what went wrong
    (2017) Balogh, Péter
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Land of Storms and the region where the country´s heart beats: changing images of peripherality in Hungary
    (2015) Balogh, Péter
    Processes of peripheralisation have over the past years been studied from structuralist and discursive angles alike. There is at the same time a growing awareness that the two need to be studied together. This paper makes an attempt by showing how socio-material and discursive processes can co-constitute centre-periphery relations, on the example of Hungarian regions. Particular focus is given to Békés County as well as to Central Hungary. The empirical sources consist of sociographic books and popular scientific articles written mostly by geographers. The former show that images of peripheral areas have signifi cantly altered over time. While the "Land of Storms" - an epithet associated with Békés County - for instance has typically stood for toughness and combat-readiness up until the 1950s, it has been connected more with passivity and tardiness since the 1980s. Despite the changing nature of these images they have curiously always been attributed to the region´s peripherality, even though a rising spirit for instance has not been a typical feature of peripheries in Hungary. The analysis of popular scientific articles reveals that they are usually written from the centre´s perspective, targeting the centre´s audience. Further, certain places are peripheralised by being depicted as forgott en or remote; the natural endowments of rural and sparsely populated areas are not rarely exotified and romanticised. Such descriptions may make so-called peripheries more interesting for readers (in the centres), yet they also maintain old images of such areas that can considerably affect their development potentials.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    On the (geo)political salience of geographical imaginations: a central European perspective
    (2022) Balogh, Péter; Gál, Zoltán; Hajdú, Zoltán; Rácz, Szilárd; Scott, James W.
    This article introduces a Research Colloquium that investigates relationships between the production of Central European geopolitical imaginaries and processes of European integration. Specifically, we interrogate the ways in which Central European geopolitical imaginaries have involved the recasting of old and the emergence of new framings of regional identities, regional cooperation and geopolitical orientations. Our specific focus on Hungary is not coincidental; since 2010 the Hungarian government has pursued a strident and rather noisy ”geopoliticization” of its relations with the EU, its Central European neighbors and beyond. Together with Poland, Hungary has been an active producer of scenarios of national and European destiny according to conservative and often reactionary notions of identity and illiberal values. Contextual background explaining the rise of EU-skeptic imaginations of national purpose is provided and suggests that economic disparities as well as unresolved national tensions between liberalism and conservatism have been major drivers. As we will argue, stubborn reliance on fixed geopolitical ideas as a source of influence and power can lead to rigid commitments to identity politics that can both thwart more effective regional cooperation and harm national economic and political interests.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The outsider advantage: Interviewing planners and other elites in the Polish-German borderland
    (2013) Balogh, Péter
    As conducting interviews with elites is increasingly common, an important debate has emerged around the researcher’s positionality as an insider/outsider also in a geographic sense. Three standpoints can be distinguished. Initially, some emphasised the advantages of the insider in eliciting interesting and sometimes even sensitive information from informants. More recently, several scholars suggested that this position is never stable. Our experiences are however more in line with those who demonstrated the advantages of being an outsider. Coming from outside the study area may be particularly helpful when interviewing elites on sensitive issues such as contacts in a borderland with a troubled history, like between Poland and Germany. Our 38 interviews reveal three patterns. First, blaming the other side is not unusual on both sides of the border. Second, de-emphasising the importance of cooperation is more common on the Polish side, but also occurred on the German side. Finally, a discourse of re-establishing the historically coherent region is clearly present on the German side, but lacks almost entirely on the Polish side. It is doubtful whether we would have been able to elicit such attitudes from both studied groups had we belonged to either one of them.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Regional and border studies in Central and Eastern Europe: Interview with James W. Scott
    (2022) Balogh, Péter; Rácz, Szilárd; Scott, James W.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The revival of 'Central Europe' among Hungarian political elites: its meaning and geopolitical implications
    (2017) Balogh, Péter
    Over the past years, the concept of ‘Central Europe’ has been revived by Hungarian political elites and this study aims to find out how and why. It is based on a content analysis of political speeches and communications, compared with actual policies and statistical data. It is observed that the government is the only political force to engage in the new discourse of ‘Central Europe’. The study finds that both the geographic extension and the connotations of ‘Central Europe’ have changed fundamentally. Often associated with the territories of the Dual monarchy up until the early 2000s, the notion today appears to be used synonymously with the likewise reinvigorated Visegrad Four. Yet while the latter has kept its geographic confines intact, ‘Central Europe’ has no clear boundaries. Such a malleable concept can more flexibly serve various geopolitical goals, such as Hungary’s intention to include Croatia and Serbia. The meanings associated with ‘Central Europe’ have changed just as much. Not long ago a symbol for Hungary’s (and its neighbours’) ‘return to Europe’, Central Europe has re-emerged as a ‘channel of protest’ vis-á-vis the West. Disillusioned by the EU following the financial and refugee crises, Hungarian political elites have been envisioning ‘Central Europe’ as the continent’s new growth hub and a safe space free from migrants. Economic data contradict the former vision. As Euroscepticism and a hard-line stance against refugees are no (longer) unique stands of the Visegrad Four, the question is what remains of ‘Central Europe’.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Unexpected counter-movements to nationalism : the hidden potential of local food communities
    (2019) Svensson, Sara; Balogh, Péter; Cartwright, Andrew
    This article identifies a hitherto understudied element of local food communities, namely their potential as counter-movements to nationalist discourses, practices and policies. This potential should be particularly valuable in Eastern Europe, where European integration has been severely contested over the past years by political elites. We support our argument by a closer qualitative inquiry into two cases; one with urban-rural dimensions in the metropolitan area of Budapest and one in a more sparsely populated cross-border region at the Slovak-Hungarian border. Based on 18 interviews with coordinators, producers and consumers, numerous visits to both sites, and studying the organisations’ documents we conclude that the growth of local food communities contributes to strengthened solidarity in local communities. Although nationalist discourses on buying domestic are rarely contested explicitly, the lack of any reference to national movements and discourses testifies to the primary importance of the local.