The changing significance of class in comparative perspective

NKFIH FK131997
December 2019 – November 2022

By analysing the latest changes of the Hungarian class structure in European comparison our research project aims at providing a theoretically informed and an empirically well underpinned answer to the following three groups of questions: 1. How the Hungarian class structure has changed after the transition and what are its peculiarities in European comparison?  2. How open the Hungarian society is in terms of intergenerational social mobility and the heterogeneity of social relations? Can any change be observed since the transition? 3. How strong the effect of class is on different terrains of social life? To what extent does the social position of individuals determine their life chances, living conditions and socio-political attitudes in Hungary compared to the other European countries? Has it changed over time? The questions that our research raises are important questions of classical sociology. Important questions, however, that we can not properly answer based on our current knowledge. The purpose of our research project is to fill this gap.

Principal investigator: Ákos Huszár (Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences)

Research team: Péter Csizmadia  (TK SZI), Márton Gerő (TK SZI), Anikó Gregor (ELTE), Johanna Giczi (KSH), Endre Sik (TK SZI), Zoltán Vastagh (TK Gyerekesély)