Oldal 252 [252]
THE KÓSPALLAG OLD HOUSE PROJECT
AS PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
AND ECOLOGICAL LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
Pal Géza Balogh — Luca Kaszäs — Rebeka Márta Kiss
Preface, definitions of our work
Perhaps the simplest definition of our work carried out in Késpallag within the
Köspallag Old House project is participatory action research. It differs entirely
from ethnographic research with traditional methods in several regards, though
undoubtedly that is also one of its aspects; we make interviews, take photos, digitize
archive photos, collect and inventory objects, and try to process and archive the
accumulated material continuously to make them ready for a future museum
collection. On the other hand, many of our activities belong to community
development: we organize events, recruit volunteers, collect donations, restore,
and perform other physical chores collectively. Seen from this angle, our project
is like a locality development process with an anthropological emphasis, because
it centers on the re-adoption of sets of knowledge closely tied to the locality (on
local knowledge, see Brosius 2006). It highlights the desires and intentions of the
local community by discovering and re-activating its capabilities (on the capability
approach, see Sen 1999; Mälovics 2020: 103-107; Bajmöczy — Gebert — Mälovics
2017). The central aim is to enhance local self-government and at the same time
decrease external dependence; to aid the emergence of a new, more community¬
centered way of functioning with tighter interpersonal relations for the bridging
of differences; and to contribute to the creation of a community living in harmony
with the endowments of the local natural environment.
At the same time, we regard all these elements of our presence in Kóspallag
besides the ethnographic research as part of a major process of cognition and try
to document as many moments of this process as possible. This is the motivation
behind producing documents on local adobe-making knowledge, dietary
knowledge, or, for that matter, on our experiences of the tender system and our
collective actions pointing beyond the locality. In addition, in processes like this,
every participant gains new knowledge about themselves and changes constantly,
acquiring new capabilities and recognizing their weaknesses (all this will be
discussed in more detail at the end of the paper). These elements all bring it close
to the concept of participatory action research, which is also characterized by being
engendered by local, grassroots needs that themselves determine the questions and
the whole process, just as in this case (on participatory action research, see
Udvarhelyi — Désa 2019; Pataki — Väri 2011; Mälovics 202: 75-108).
The ecological aspect is manifest in our work in several ways. An important
goal is to get to know the ecological elements of the peasantry’s former traditional
way of life and to restore it to contemporary practice. The creation of a local
country house is also typical of the eco-localist world view in general (on eco¬