Hardi Tamás - Tóth Károly (szerk.): Határaink mentén. A szlovák-magyar határtérség társadalmi-gazdasági vizsgálata (2008) (Somorja, 2009)

Esettanulmányok

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Summary

Figure 2. Cities and Towns along the Slovakian—Hungarian Border by Number of Inhabitants

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Source: By the author.

RELATIONS CAPITAL IN THE SLOVAK—HUNGARIAN BORDER REGION

Basic features of the cross-border social relations

In the Hungarian and the Slovak sample of the questionnaire survey (a total of 1,000 people in the Hungarian and 996 in the Slovak sample) there are significant differences as regards the cross-border personal relations. On the Hungarian side one quarter, on the Slovak side half of the questioned persons had some sort of contact in the neighbour country (Figure 3). Our expectation regarding the different ethnic composition was verified: in the Slovak border region the proportion of inhabitants with such contacts was 27% higher. This relationship index measures the existence of the connections, irrespective of their number and character. As regards the number of respondents, in the Hungarian sample 250, in the Slovak sample more than 500 persons were suitable for a more detailed analysis.

In the questionnaires filled out on the Slovak side, due to the overrepresentation of the social layers with secondary school and higher education certificates, the activity of relationship network is probably higher than the actual proportions, due to the conversion mechanism of the relationship capital and the cultural, and also the closely related economic capital. This phenomena is well described by Bourdieu (Bourdieu, 1997).

Relationships were measured in five forms: family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and business partners. The probability of the existence of relations follows the same logic in both countries, but the proportions are much