Discussion Papers

CENTRE FOR REGIONAL STUDIES OF HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES DISCUSSION PAPERS No. 33 Civil Organisations and Regional Identity in the South Hungarian Great Plain by István MURÁNYI–Judit PÉTER –Tibor SZARVÁK–Zsolt SZOBOSZLAI Series editor Zoltán GÁL Pécs 2000 Publishing of this paper is supported by the Research Fund of the Centre for Regional Studies, Hungary ISSN 0238–2008 2000 by Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Acady of Sciences Technical editor: Ilona Csapó, Zoltán Gál Typeset by Centre for Regional Studies of HAS Printed in Hungary by Sümegi Nyomdaipari, Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Ltd., Pécs Contents Perface / 5 I Features of Identity in the South Hungarian Great Plain Region / 6 1 Introduction / 6 2 Interpreting the notion of region and micro region /10 3 Elements of local and regional ties / 13 4 Features of local patriotism /19 5 Values of the domicile surroundings / 21 6 Expectations – region and the European Union / 24 II The condition of civil society in the South Hungarian Great Plain / 29 1 The changes of thinking about the civil society / 29 1.1 Civil society in Eastern Europe / 31 1.2 The non-profit sector in Hungary / 32 1.3 Civil organisations as reflected in the Hungarian legal system / 32 1.4 Some characteristic “civil problems” in Hungary / 34 2 The background of the investigation / 35 3 The main characteristics of the organisations / 37 3.1 Territorial distribution / 37 3.2 The year of foundation, founders / 37 3.3 Type of the organisations, the number of participants / 38 3.4 Territorial character and scope / 42 4 The functioning of the organisation / 43 4.1 Functions / 43 4.2 Goals / 44 4.3 Fundraising by grant application / 46 4.4 The role of public life / 48 5 The resources of the organisations /50 5.1 Management /50 5.2 Sources of income, sponsors / 53 5.3 Relations / 55 6 The opinions of the organisations / 57 6.1 The judgement of the role of civil sphere / 57 6.2 The knowledge of territorial development / 58 6.3 The judgement of the regional formation and development / 59 6.4 Future / 60 III Summary / 62 Bibliography / 68 Appendix I / 71 Appendix II / 77 4 Preface The practice of the South Great Hungarian Plain’s regional planning differs from other regions in two aspects1. First, while in the majority of Hungarian regions concepts and programs are dominated by economic employment policy and infrastructural development, on the other hand, in the South Plain besides economic development, employment policy, and infrastructural development, the region’s human resource development also claims to be equal – as it is layed down in documents under preparation concerning development plans of this region. Second, – as far as we know – there are no other operative programs that can be found in other regions of Hungary concerning the development of civil society. Our institu- tion, the Great Plains Research Institute of HAS, Social Research Group at Szolnok received a grant for preparing this program. While preparing the program – in identifying research objectives both for a re- port on regional development, and also to satisfy scientific ‘curiousity’ – we have examined the adult population’s local and regional identity in the region, mainly investigating sociological dimensions (interpreting the notion of the different areas e.g. region, micro region, dwelling, attachment to different areas, features of local patriotism, the scale of values in the surroundings, expectations of the EU) and also features of civil organisations in the region (basic features, function, resources, and support for regional development) We wanted to know people’s views on formation of the region. Having finished the research and making the first evaluation of the results, we think that we obtained much useful information relevant to preparing an urban development program. That is why it is important to continue such research and expanding it (towards, at least, the North Plains Region). This continuous research process gives us authentic information on regional ties, development in shaping the region, changes in the civil sphere’s composition, organisation, and opinion, and shows us how important a role citizens and civil organisations may play in shaping the region. Expansion of such research may reinforce or question the statement, made by researchers (Csatári, 1999), that supposes uniform (social, historic, traditional etc.) environmental attachments in the Plains. Our aim, in this executive summary, is to introduce the features of the South Great Plain’s identity and the position of civil society by a harmonizing (regarding the method and the contents) closing study. 1 By 1999, among Hungarian main regions the South Hungarian Great Plain’s longterm urban development has been made and later on – by adopting the EU’s methodical and practical requirements – regard to this longterm programme a middle term progress (7 years) and at the moment 12 operative programmes under development in this region. 5 ‘Not just space but time and history makes a region’ Paul Bois, 1971 – I Features of Identity in the South Hungarian Great Plain Region 1 Introduction Recently published monographs and volumes of essays and studies on identity problems substantiate their importance (Csepeli, 1992; Erős, 1996). This progress can be attributed to the fact the after the collapse of communism, people’s attitude changed immensely concerning identity: social roles can be chosen publicly, identity can be based on individual decisions (Dessewffy, 1996). We can not disregard the direct social historical precedents, because before the 90’s it was not allowed to utilize identity models differing from the political pow- ers’ expectations (national, ethnic, political, religions, socio-cultural etc), and identity problems could not appear in public discourses. Regarding traditional communities aspects, there were some elements that were accompanied by important con- sequences: state socialism and its social practice (coming to power after 1947) could not treat traumas of the two world wars, and this was loaded by disintegra- tion of traditional communities that existed before the period of state socialism, and uncertain Hungarian identity because of deformed internationalism (Hankiss, 1983). These factors led to the consequence that, at the beginning of the 1990’s, the majority of the Hungarians did not have identity patterns, however, this would have been essential for the fundamentally and constantly changing social environment’s requirements. Mainly sociological and socio-psychological studies – in the 90’s and before that – undertook to introduce and survey the main features of national identity (Csepeli, 1982, 1992; Lázár, 1996; Szabó–Örkény, 1998). Narrowing down identity to the dimension of national group-affiliation was also related to the assumption that within the one-party system loyalty to the nation was possible without overt political commitments. This contrasted with religious or deviant locally based groups that were suspect politically. There are just a few examples in Hungarian bibliographies where historical-geographical ties are taken into account when observing sociological or social-geographical aspects of identity (Bőhm–Pál, 1987; Köteles–Varga, 1988; Enyedi, 1991; Csatári, 1999). There are also few examples in internationally-published bibliographies in which sociologists observe the problems of regional identity. Lately published books, studies only dealt with nationalism, the national identity’s regional analyses, the weakening 6 national state status, strengthening regional – Quebec, Catalonia, Scotland – auton- omy that leads to the establishment of plural identity (Hargreaves, 1998), on problems of ethnic identity – as Zulu ethnic identity came into being in the African Kwa Zulu-Natal province (Muthien–Khosa, 1998) or with general problems such as – are there any communities in contemporary modern society (Robbins, 1999). In concrete empiric investigations researchers did not attribute importance to explore the elements of regional identity, but to problems such as the question of European integration and the way how different regions treat the problem (Diez- Medrano, 1999). Among these few studies emerges the work of Weakliem–Biggert, which analyses regional differences of political issues in the USA in the years of 1992 and 1996 (General Social Surveys). They separate two ways of investigating the problem: the first approach stresses social and economic relationships within a region, while the other one emphasises ethnic, religious identity, too (Weakliem– Biggert, 1999). Studies seem extraordinary, which deal with regional identity problems in countries where ethnic and religious aspects are lively such as India. There are detailed descriptions concerning the country’s coloured and multilevel regional and religious identity. Some writings also explain why it is pointless to argue that market economy homogenises cultural differences and why there is no sense in evaluating different language groups’ political debate (Swarup, 1997). However, writings on regional identity are missing from the scientific literature. These forthcoming paragraphs intend to define the notion of local identity. The starting point of the relevant definition of local identity can be the notion of personal and social identity. The psychical relationship between a person, being in the progress of socialization and the society can be described by the person’s inter- course with himself (personal identity) and by the formation

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