Judit Csoba - Revitalisation of the Household Economy: Social Integration Strategies in Disadvantaged Rural Areas of Hungary

Die Zunahme sozialer Unsicherheit und kultureller Verunsicherung in postfordistischen Gesellschaften erzeugt einen Status Quo, in dem Prozesse der Prekarisierung und der sozialen Entkopplung (Robert Castel) verstrkt das Zentrum der Gesellschaft durchziehen. Der Verlust sozialer Garantien fhrt dabei zur Aushhlung sozialstaatlicher Errungenschaften. Dadurch werden die Lebenskontexte und das Alltagsleben der Menschen stark verndert.

Das sozialwissenschaftliche Netzwerk S.U.P.I. beschftigt sich auf europischer Ebene seit Jahren mit den gegenwrtigen Formen von sozialer Unsicherheit, Prekaritt und Ungleichheit. Die Reihe, herausgegeben von Mitgliedern des Netzwerks, prsentiert transdisziplinre Forschungen zu den sozialen und kulturellen Transformationen in den sozialstaatlich geprgten Demokratien. Sie versteht sich als Forum fr die Diskussion in nationalen, europischen und auch globalen Kontexten. Ebenen einer kritischen Analyse aus multidisziplinren und feldorientierten Perspektiven werden dabei initiiert, aufgenommen und untersttzt. berschreitung und ffnung dienen programmatisch als Wegmarken fr theoretisch-analytische Beitrge und empirisch-angewandte Forschung.

The increase of social insecurity in post-Fordist societies effect fundamental societal changes. As a consequence Precarity and Disaffiliation (Robert Castel) affecting increasingly the center of society. The loss of social guarantees leads to an erosion of the welfare state. As a result, living situations and everyday life are deeply changed.

The S.U.P.I.-Project (Social Uncertainty, Precarity, Inequality) is an European Research Group established by European and international scholars and experts. The network has been concerned with present forms of social insecurity, precariousness and inequality at European level for years. Edited by members of the network, the book series presents transdisciplinary research on aspects of social and cultural transformations in the democracies which are characterized by the welfare state. The book series opens a discursive space for discussions in national, European and global contexts. The contributions of the book series provide critical analyses from multidisciplinaryperspectives, theoretical-analytical reflections and empirical-applied research.

Planung/Lektorat: Cori Antonia Mackrodt

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Following the fall of the communist regime in Hungary, in order to reduce the then increasing poverty in smaller villages of agricultural regions, the government was seeking local solutions for employment that combined the objectives and characteristics of both the private and the state sector. An additional goal was to create an alternative to passive benefits: an active social policy programme that could reinforce local communities as well as diminish social and economic tensions that had come into existence due to the lack of income. The Bureau of Crisis Management Programmes of the Ministry of Welfare aimed to reach these goals when developing the concept of the social land programme in 1992.

In the 25 years following its inception, the social land programme provided services as well as benefits for those socially disadvantaged individuals who did not have the means to engage in agricultural production, so that they could participate in backyard farming as well as livestock farming. The supported activities included the production of goods, their marketing, the planning of sales, reinforcing cooperation within a network, and the acquisition of needed tools, equipment, and machinery as well.The main objective of the programme was to enhance the ability of involved household to achieve self-maintenance and to assist their integration into the labour market and society.

The aim of this volume is to review the characteristics of the social land programme, the milestones of the past 25 years, the changing circumstances, survival strategies, and options for improvement. The analysis specifically targets the period following the 2008 economic crisis as well as todays framework and practice.

The study of the social land programme in the last three years was realised through the InnoSI(Innovative Social Investment: Strengthening communities in Europe)project of the Horizon 2020 programme. Throughout the research project, we had examined the model experiments of social innovation and social investment with the participation of ten European countries, through two case studies per country. During the analysis of the case studies, the international research community was studying the theoretical and practical traits of social innovation that aims to change the welfare paradigm, as well as the individual and community aspects, and functional peculiarities of active social engagement.