Bereczki Ibolya - Cseri Miklós - Sári Zsolt: Ház és Ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 27. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2015)

BALÁZS-LEGEZA BORBÁLA: „Hát abba’ az időbe lehetett boldogulni”. A kiszámítható megélhetés. Stratégiák a szocialista korszak magyarországi falvaiban

Borbála Balázs-Legeza

“WELL, THOSE DAYS ONE COULD MAKE HIS WAY IN LIFE” THE CALCULABLE LIVELIHOOD. STRATEGIES IN HUNGARY’S VILLAGES DURING THE SOCIALIST ERA

For my paper I studied the livelihood opportunities and the individual surviving strategies during the socialist era in four selected villages in Hungary. Those times a kind of backyard farming provided an additional opportunity for the village population to make extra income. Further to individual ambitions, the potentials of and the circumstances in the given villages affected the scope of possibilities.

According to this, we can identify different types of settlements according to their development specified by different factors:

1. natural resources having their influence on agriculture - the size and quality of the land available for the village.

2. The division of land before the Second World War - state farms were created from the estates of former big

land-owners. These state farms affected the life of the village as providers of work and livelihood.

3. Surrounding infrastructure - industrial centres in the neighbourhood, geographical location within the country.

4. The community and the management of the big factories - their negative or positive impact on the community’s life.

Additionally, some factors influencing individual strategies also have to be considered: the possibilities of production in backyard farms in the village, communal tendencies and individual ambitions and working capacity.

By referring to concrete cases the study demonstrates calculability and stability - how it was possible to make a living in the country society during the socialist era.

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