The Social Roots of Fears at the Start of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. An Online Study of the Ethnic Hungarian Population in Romania

The paper addresses the issue of contamination fear within the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The everyday lives and feelings of the ethnic Hungarian population in Transylvania, Romania, were investigated with an online survey in the middle of the lockdown, in April 2020. In the search for the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of perceived infection risk, we rely on descriptive and two-variable analysis as well as explanatory regression models controlling for covariates. The results show that respondents perceive public places to hold the highest risk of contamination from the virus. In the article, we also draw the sociodemographic profile of the “fearful” and “brave” attitudes towards the threat represented by the virus. Perceived infection risk is higher for the elderly, the more educated, and the non-religious people. The paper reveals that respondents’ concerns, beyond that of infection, are predominantly economic in character.

“Either We Start from Scratch, or We Close It”. The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female Entrepreneurs in Transylvania, Romania

Cross-national studies emphasized that female entrepreneurs have experienced a major decrease in income, and there was a decline in market demand as well. The pandemic crisis increased the workload of women, and mainly those who raise small children did not have much choice: they had to invest time and energy in the family. The success of the strategy that could be used during this period lays on the success of balancing the family–work conflict. The following research is based on an online questionnaire that collected responses and data between 2 April and 20 May 2020. Our questions focused on the situation caused by the pandemic, so that through this online survey we aimed to determine how women entrepreneurs in Transylvania coped with the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to get information regarding the financial reserves of the firms owned by female entrepreneurs, but also regarding the human resource reserves of these firms. We also aimed at learning if the pandemic period had an impact on the promoting and marketing practice of the firms and on their sale activities as well as whether there were any changes occurred due to the pandemic.

Trapped in the Gaze of Others. Discourses of Shame among Female Entrepreneurs in Austria

This article explores female entrepreneurs’ picture of self in the gaze of others. It relies on the narratives of female business owners gained via semi-structured interviews and focus groups, compiled in the framework of an international research project (iFEMPOWER)1 in Austria. The study reveals that the imagined and perceived gaze of others has a significant power on how businesswomen define both their professional and personal self and how they evaluate their self-worth. The gaze of others becomes a signifier of shame (for not being enough or being too much). The results of this study contribute to a more complex understanding of female entrepreneurship, and with the interdisciplinary character it aims at shaping the contemporary discourse on the gendered entrepreneurial sector.

Liquid Narrative of European Cultural Identity in the Time of Uncertainty (2008–2020)

As Leonidas Donskis (2016: 9) once wrote, “Europe has been saved many times by its narrative powers”. In this time of uncertainty and disasters, our public narratives are filled with gossips, conspiracies, intolerance, and hate speech that strengthen divisions in society. During pandemic lockdowns, when physical closeness is exchanged with social interactions online and when global identities and culture are uploaded on digital platforms, we ask: what does it mean to be European in a time of uncertainty and what binds our collective identities and helps us to overcome our fears and anxieties? Considering the past and present (2008–2020) global and European economic, political, healthcare, and cultural as well as personal crises, this auto-ethnographic essay raises these questions: How can personal narratives help to strengthen European cultural identity in these times of uncertainty? Do personal narratives weaken collective identities? By using an auto-ethnographic approach, this paper is an attempt to determine whether a holistic research approach can be used in the analysis of “liquid” European cultural identity and personal narratives. Therefore, this paper is not just for finding the right answers or right stories but is meant to act rather as a stepping stone for further discussion on how to communicate European cultural identity and how to raise self-identification, cultural solidarity, and unity during these times of uncertainty.

Scripts in Rural Élites’ Attitude as Narrative Barriers in the Hungarian–Roma Interethnic Relations in Szeklerland (Romania)

Relying on an interview-based research conducted in Romania’s Szeklerland area, in settlements with a significant Roma population where the majority of the inhabitants are of Hungarian ethnicity, the present study investigates the non-Roma rural élites’ attitude towards the local Roma population. The regional relevance of the topic is indicated by the fact that the importance of the Roma population’s social integration is present in social publicity, while at the same time the three decades following the 1989 socio-political turn in Romania witnessed only a few attempts at the planning and launching of programmes aimed at the Roma population’s social integration. In the course of the past three decades, the regional institutions and élites have repeatedly shuffled off the professional thematization and practical addressing of this issue, whereas in principle they emphasized the importance of social integration. This study aims to explore some of the components making up the background of the above-outlined ambivalent attitude. With the script analysis method, we intend to look into what scripts rural elite actors adopt in building the narratives on the Hungarian–Roma attitude and what role this narrative creation has in the case of the élite belonging to the Hungarian ethnic majority.

Natural Scientific and Ecological Environmental Education in the Training of Kindergarten Teacher Students at the University of Sopron, Hungary

The greatest challenge of the 21st century is to recreate the disturbed balance between people and their environment. The functioning of the changed global system warns us about the multiplying of today’s global and local problems, which are affecting the world’s population. International organizations deal with this issue. In their opinion, environmental education and environmentally conscious thinking can be a way out of the crisis. The efficiency of environmental education is influenced by the ratio of theory and practice as well as the appropriately applied teaching methods, which is confirmed by the experience of the Ecology and Environmental Protection in Kindergarten course of the Benedek Elek Faculty of Pedagogy at the University of Sopron, Hungary.

Gendered Norms and Family Roles in the Narratives of Hungarian Elite Members and Their Partners

Our paper contributes to studies on the enduring underrepresentation of women in elite positions through the analysis of elite members’ and their partners’ narratives on career and partnership. Using a dataset of 34 individual interviews (17 couples) among Hungary’s political, economic, and cultural elite, we explore how narrators project themselves in the context of their marital relationships and family roles. We identify three pairs of narratives during our analysis. Narratives show the positions from where narrators discuss the theme of career and partnership as elite member/partner, power couple/non-power couple, and male/female. Our findings show that narrative positioning is significantly gendered, and it is strongly connected to the traditional gendered role system. Having an elite position or pursuing a career calls for explanation only from women. In the meantime, a non-power couple position calls for explanation from men, which suggests the increasing presence of the norm of equality in the Hungarian elite.

Ifempower “Interactive and Mentorship-Based FEMale EmPOWERment in the Field of Entrepreneurship”: Background and the Way Forward

Although gender gap in the field of entrepreneurship is slowly decreasing globally and there is a consensus about the vital role of female entrepreneurs in the economy, the ratio of female entrepreneurs remains still below that of the male. Empirical research conducted by HETFA Research Institute reveals important findings regarding the situation, challenges, and strategies of female entrepreneurs. Among others, there are some particular themes and features which are more apparent in the case of female entrepreneurs than in that of men such as the lack of self-confidence, lower level of motivation, lack of a supporting environment, lower level of self-assessment as well as greater frequency of solo entrepreneurship, and working part time. As for starting and maintaining a business, entrepreneurship-related skills, knowledge, and mindset, opportunities for networking, support from peers as well as supportive environment are among the highly esteemed factors by female entrepreneurs already in business. This is what the project ifempower aimed to address by not only developing a university curriculum and innovative teaching material but backing them with a mentorship programme and an intensive training programme. ifempower was built on a complex approach with special emphasis given to the development of soft and hard skills, entrepreneurial mindset, networking skills, and supporting female students as potential entrepreneurs in meeting their aims. By piloting the activities in partner countries and then incorporating the lessons learnt into the project outputs, the project placed significant focus on ensuring their uptake by other entities in the higher education sector and beyond.

Hungarian Nationality Ethnic Minorities Living in Poverty and Social Exclusion in Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to give an overall description of the situation of Hungarian minority households with children in Ukrainian villages. The region is a marginal area both economically and geographically, being in a peripheral position with little attention falling upon it and even less of the development sources. Furthermore, there is a lack of information on welfare benefits, and no direct statistical data are available on the characteristics of the social policy system.As for the total lack of prior statistics on poverty, this essay is meant to be exploratory to show the area’s poverty features, focusing on the children. By the use of combined data collection, including quantitative and qualitative techniques, we gained information by questionnaire surveys of about 253 children in 139 households. There were carried out 23 exploratory interviews as well. The core of our analysis is the specific labour market situation, the earning opportunities, and forms of employment that provide for livelihoods for the households with children. Besides the backwardness of the area studied in the research, the strategies and life situations that characterize the Transcarpathian Hungarians are also presented, which are beyond the known European forms of poverty.