Bódy, Zsombor will work on the longer-term history of professionals in fields involving technology (technocrats, or technokraták in Hungarian) in the automotive industry. Bódy will also study the roles of these professionals as employers. He will address one of the most important branches of industrial production (cf. Fava) in socialist Hungary, which employed tens of thousands of workers and professionals and managed to build up extensive international trade relations (cf. Scranton). He will map the range of opportunities of professionals (see Kott 2018) on various levels: in individual plants, research institutes of branches, and institutions of political decision making. He will explore relationships at the workplace among professionals, waged workers, and the political leadership and the influence of professionals in making strategic decisions concerning the automotive industry in general.
His work will address the continuities and discontinuities of expert cultures (Kohlrausch et al), challenge the theses of Galbraith and the Post Keynesians regarding technological innovation and experts (Courvisanos), and of the patterns of workplace relationships among professionals between the socialist era and the period before the Second World War. Finally, he will compare workplace relationships among professionals in the context of socialist Hungary and similar relationships in market economies (cf. Link 2020). The main sources for his research are the Archives of the Automobile and Tractor Industry Trust 1952–1979 (MNL OL XXIX F – 1) and the archives of the Ikarus Bus Factory.
Keywords: technology, technocracy, workers' self-understanding, social power, state socialism