Oldal 26 [26]
24 — JUDIT FARKAS
EH in Hungary
Owing to the extremely broad theme and the interlacing of a wide variety of areas,
it is extremely difficult to demarcate EH’s exact field of scholarship. There are
diverse areas and profiles, mostly determined by the orientation and interest of
the researchers and the institutions. It is therefore hard to conclude whether EH
exists in Hungary, and if it does, what research and research teams can be included
within its remit. Robert Balogh takes a close look at this question in his paper and
cites works by Bertalan Andrásfalvy, Barna Éltes and János Géczi as examples that,
in his opinion, embody the spirit of EH.
Since at present there is in Hungary but a single research group that bears EH
explicitly in its name (Environmental Humanities Research Group at Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Pécs),”! we decided to list the research
groups and institutions acting in the spirit of EH. Only a few of them are given
a brief introduction here, as a detailed description of their activity can be read
on their websites, the links to which can be found in the footnotes.”
The first that deserves mention is the human ecology major at ELTE (Eötvös
Loránd University). It is more than a course. It is an important professional
workshop, the center of human ecology in Hungary. Its aim is to interpret
sociocultural processes from an ecological perspective, to study the social dimension
of environmental problems, and to explore the interactions between natural and
social systems.” Its former leader Andras Takacs Santa contributed two papers to
this volume (The Tragedy and Comedy of the Commons; Prophets and Local
Ecocommunities).
The EH perspective has been applied to the traditional ecological study by the
Traditional Ecological Research Group of the ELKH Ecological Institute and by
the closely connected “Momentum” Ethno-ecological Research Group of the ELKH
Ethnographic Institute.” In their interpretation, the landscape and the human
being constitute a single socio-ecological system. The institute aims to study the
interplay between rural communities and their natural environment in the
Carpathian Basin. (One of the papers in the book, by Anna Varga, is also devoted
to ethno-ecological research).
The ELTE Institute for Transactions between Humanity and the Environment
approaches EH from the direction of environmental psychology.” The
researchers use inter- and transdisciplinary paradigms to study the human
being’s interaction with its environment which forms the context of its behavior
at every moment.
MOME - MAGI/SEED, the project of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and
Design, has as its objective a “campus” outside Budapest, “a future spiritual center
https://btk.pte.hu/hu/pecsineprajz/human-kornyezettudomanyi-kutatocsoport-hkk
I owe my thanks to Anna Varga for helping me gather the Hungarian examples. She has played a
great role in establishing EH in Hungary.
http://humanokologia.tatk.elte.hu/
https://ecolres.hu/kutatocsoportok/hagyomanyos-okologiai-tudas-kutatocsoport/
https://nti.abtk.hu/hu/kutatasok/jelenleg-futo-intezeti-projektjeink
https://ekti.ppk.elte.hu/intezet