Project description

How did socialism in Hungary differ from socialism elsewhere? What workplace cultures did it create, and what were the social and historical roots of the Hungarian model of socialism? Why was it possible to work and consume differently in the second economy (maszek, gmk, fusi, háztáji, kaláka)? This comparative research will center on the workplace, exploring how social and everyday relationships at different workplaces shaped broader patterns of social behavior, including consumption, political participation, and moralities. It will address how forms of organizing work (munkaszervezeti formák) defined social relationships in Hungary. The project will focus on how conflicts and negotiations among employers and employees (industrial and agricultural workers, professionals, experts, economic and political managers, bureaucrats and technocrats) produced forms of deference, authority, and autonomy. Because of the focus on the workplace, this is the first comparative investigation of the combined history of cultures connected to different forms of work. This research, therefore, breaks with the schematic image of society based on the worker-peasant-intellectual tripartite, the dichotomy of political and social history, capital and countryside, town and village, and will focus on the workplace as a shared site which connected all these. It will study the workplace from a longue durée perspective and will explore the historical roots of the cultures of the workplaces, focusing in particular on how they persisted during the socialist period in the context of the Hungarian model of state socialism and how state socialism in Hungary affected the meanings of work and workplace afterward. Finally, the project will further a nuanced understanding of the social and historical roots of the Hungarian model of socialism and will contribute to the history of the concept of work. Thus, it will provide muchneeded tools for a longue durée and comparative analyses of state socialist regimes in East Central Europe and will enhance opportunities for social self-reflection.