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Margit Feischmidt, Ildikó Zakariás, András Morauszki, Csilla Zsigmond and their co-authors will attend the hybrid workshop of the Karl Polanyi Research Centre of Global Social Studies on 3 April. Facebook event.
The title and abstract of their presentation: Solidarity with displaced people from Ukraine in Hungary: attitudes and practices. Based on a population survey from the summer of 2022 the presentation draws an ambivalent picture of Hungarian civil society in the context of the war against Ukraine. First, it highlights the exceptional momentum and mobilizing power of civil solidarity both in terms of practical involvement and expressed attitudes. At the same time, the results also reveal the limits and vulnerabilities of civil solidarity: its exposure to populist political discourses, which cherish or condemn moral economies of assistance according to its vested interests, as well as its embeddedness in a neoliberal reliance on citizens’ individual resources (disposable time and material means), and salient inequalities in sharing the burdens of humanitarian support.
The new open access article in Slovak by Csilla Fedinec and István Csernicskó was published in Jazykovedný časopis and is available at HERE.
Abstract. Along with portraits of historical figures, images relating to the culture and history of a particular nation, the presence (or absence) of languages on banknotes is also an element of symbolic politics and part of the manifestation of the language policy of a particular state. In this paper, banknotes are seen as an element of the linguistic landscape, and the linguistic landscape - as a reflection of language policy, its peculiar public expression. This paper analyses the way in which the text displayed on multilingual banknotes constructs and reproduces linguistic hierarchies, reflecting the relative status of the languages within two multi-ethnic states: the Czechoslovak Republic and the Soviet Union. The study explores which languages were represented in the inscriptions of the various series of banknotes issued, based on the assumption that banknotes participate in the official language practices constituting the linguistic landscape and as such mediate language ideologies. The authors conclude that even multinational states that issue multilingual banknotes guarantee that the state language should be in a dominant position.
The new article by Zsombor Csata, Attila Papp Z. and their co-authors is now published online in Regional and Federal Studies, and is available at HERE.
Abstract. Can linguistic diversity in the media impede state language proficiency? In this paper, we test the extent to which the availability of minority languages in the media affects state language proficiency for ethnic minorities. We take advantage of an exogeneous development: The rapid expansion of Budapest-originating media outside Hungary in the mid-2000s transformed the media landscape in neighbouring states. Using an original survey data of ethnic Hungarians in minority regions in four Central-Eastern European states over two waves, we find (1) the availability of minority language media means minorities are consuming less media in the state language, which in turn induces low levels of state language proficiency – i.e. through an exogeneous exposure mechanism; and (2) minorities with weaker state language proficiency choose to consume minority language media – i.e. through an endogenous selection mechanism. The results suggest a strong relationship between the language of media consumption and linguistic proficiency.
Eszter Neumann will present her current work on right-wing populism and nationalism in European politics in an online seminar ´Education for a Christian nation.´ The event will be organized by the Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation (TRANSIT) of the Tampere University on Friday, January 20th at 2:00pm (Helsinki time, EET). Registration is now open at HERE.
