After a Long March: the Results of Two Decades of Rural Restructuring in Hungary

Abstract

This paper aims to show the main processes of rural restructuring of Hungary after the change of political system and EU integration. It describes the changes of agricultural land-use, new dynamics of urban rural relations and rural development of the last 25 years. In the paper, we argue that the most dynamic changes happened in the era of post-communism, ended by EU-accession and the era of consolidation. A characteristic phenomenon of these changes was the urban demand for providing facilities related to rural landscape and culture. Therefore, permanent and temporary migrations into rural areas have become the most important element of development for rural places in the last decades. The introduction of a new Europeanised rural development system has shaped these processes and reconfigured local power relations, economic and social networks. These turbulent changes occurred at the same time with the collapse of the socialist-type co-operative and state farm system, along with the restitution and reprivatisation of land, resulting in the concentration of land use and agricultural production. The paper aims at analysing these processes by discussing the dynamics of urban-rural relationships and the new rural development system, while the final part focuses on land-use changes and its impacts on rural society.

The evolution of rural areas influenced by large-scale farming: four case studies from Hungary

“…On the global scale, we look at the large-scale farms' embeddedness in the world economy; in a broader sense, we trace Hungary's changing global integration. According to the appliers of world system theory (Böröcz 1992), Hungary has a semi-peripheral position, which results in dependency upon global political and economic power relations, and which has a major and in many cases direct impact on local processes (Ger} ocs & Pinkasz 2017; Pósfai 2018). The theory of global agri-food regimes (Friedmann & McMichael 1989;McMichael 2009) poses similar questions, as it scrutinizes the global dependency systems as major drivers of change within the argifood economy.…”

“…Re-organisations and the Stalinist period (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954)(1955)(1956)(1957)(1958)(1959)(1960) After World War II Hungary found itself in the Soviet geopolitical sphere of influence, which constrained the way of integration in the world economy. The goal of the Soviet leadership was to separate the countries under its influence from the other parts of the world economy and to export the 'Soviet model' of organizing the society (Böröcz 1992; Ger} ocs & Pinkasz 2017). During the first fifteen years, international trade and economic exchange took place in large part among the Comecon countries, the agricultural export headed primarily towards the Soviet Union.…”

“…Hungary was in short supply of western capital and up-to-date technology, hence the country started to look for the possibilities of Western partnerships and assistance. Besides the international trade on the capitalist world market, the acceptance of western loans started in this period (Böröcz 1992;Ger} ocs & Pinkasz 2017). The agricultural production became influenced by the global 'second food regime' (McMichael 2009), which meant the shift towards industrialised agriculture and changes in the goods produced.…”

“…By doing so we wish to discuss the relevance and applicability of these approaches in a post-socialist context. In the post-socialist countries, the social and economic transitions in the countryside during the second half of the twentieth century are often considered as restructuring processes (e. g. Csurgó et al 2018;Kovách 2012;Kovács 2005), which were primarily led by political decisions. However, to reveal the material appearance of these transformations, it is promising to pay attention to the processes on the local scale, by focusing on the changing strategies and practices of local actors.…”

‘Homeland farming’ or ‘rural emancipation’? The discursive overlap between populist and green parties in Hungary

“…Another visible trend in agriculture, relevant for understanding how authoritarian populism operates discursively, is related to permanent and temporary migration into rural areas by the 'neo-rurals'. These newcomers to the Hungarian countryside instigated a form of counter-urbanisation (Csurgó 2013;Csurgó et al 2018), opening an opportunity for rebuilding small-scale farming (but also attaining electoral support). The neo-rurals were at the core of the 2010 election strategy of Fidesz (as well as the National Rural Strategy -Nemzeti vidékstratégia), based on small-scale and family farms.…”