Archives
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Special issue No1
2024PRAISE FOR THE SHORT TERM, OR RATHER SUSTAINABILITY IN THE PRESENT
Perhaps the most interesting moments in science are the turning points when a truth that is taken as fundamental is questioned when it is discovered that something may not be so fundamental and may not always be true. The evolution of the concept of sustainability could be the subject of a study in itself. There have been changes in emphasis, interpretations, preferred frameworks and proposed solutions. There are many areas where the perception can be highly different from one point of view to another. For example, electric cars, nuclear energy or degradable plastics. However, some conceptual elements are persistently linked to sustainability. Probably, most people think that the central issue of sustainability is long-term thinking. However, despite the unquestionable importance of the long term, undeservedly little attention is paid to short-term solutions and the present choices.
I remember that when I was at school, after hearing the then fashionable educational cliché 'children are preparing for life', my mother - an excellent mathematician and teacher - used to say that 'children are alive, not preparing for life'. Sustainability is like that. Human life should not be made better and more liveable 'in the distant future,' but everything should be done to make it better, more beautiful, and happier now - for as many people as possible and as long as possible. We cannot change the past, the future is uncertain. We have only one moment, the present, to make amends for the mistakes of the past and to steer things towards a happier future to the best of our current knowledge. But as long as we are righting wrongs, learning lessons, building the future, we are living in the present. To survive in the long term, we must not just survive, but live the present with hope for the future.
The articles in this thematic issue provide colourful answers to various questions about endurability, making us think, surprising us, and offering new perspectives. Some of the topics are related to mobility through current issues such as electric cars and railways, but we also meet the hedgehogs of the East, who offer a new perspective on the challenges of urban ecology. An article in English gives us an insight into the Global Hunger Index and its context, while another study gives us an interesting perspective on the relationship between CRM and family happiness. Let's take the time to read, reflect on the issues raised, discuss with the authors and look for ideas that are useful to us.
Don't expect miracles; none of these studies will solve the big problems of sustainability on their own, but any one of them can start a train of thought that will bring us closer to a solution. In the meantime, let's not forget to live the present to the full, have a nice cup of tea, listen to music, use the moments of reading to relax and recharge. With these thoughts in mind, I offer you the latest issue of this magazine and wish you a pleasant and useful reading time.
Cecília Szigeti, PhD Guest Editor of the Special Issue
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Special issue No2
2023Foreword
The articles in current issue are based on some of the presentations given at the conference „Recession V.S. Business cycle 2023 - Opportunities, constraints, current affairs”. The conference was organised by the Institute of Commerce and Marketing of the Budapest Business University and the Hungarian Economic Association.
Speakers have recently examined a wide range of changing economic realities, looking at the dynamics of recession and the business cycle. Their research has focused on trade, marketing, logistics, tourism and hospitality. There is a huge range of issues behind the keywords in the title, and we are proud to share these research and findings with you in this special issue.
The articles published here provide a rich spectrum for understanding economic processes and market dynamics. Food retail brands, the importance of online wine shopping, food and grocery retailers, employee satisfaction surveys and modern tourism are all areas where the authors have done relevant research and analysed changes in depth.
The authors of these articles seek answers to key questions such as how to forecast economic cycles, how businesses can adapt to the current changing economic conditions, and the role of innovation in increasing efficiency and competitiveness. These issues are ever more relevant, and the articles published here provide valuable insights into the responses and opportunities to current economic challenges.
Our authors are committed to combining theoretical considerations and practical applications, and to using scientific approaches to help the Hungarian economy move towards a business cycle. We hope that the special issue will help to shed light on the situation in the areas of the Hungarian economy under study and provide inspiration for further research.
We hope that these articles provide an incentive to welcome you as an author in our future issues as soon as possible.
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Special issue No1
2023FORWORD
The staff of the Department of Pedagogy consider it very important to organise a regular scientific conference every six months, which provides a framework for the meeting of experts in the field of public education and academics, and for the exchange of opinions and experiences.
The conference "Heritage and Communities" took place on 13 October 2022 in the Markó Street Lobby of the Budapest University of Economics and Business Administration. It is of particular interest that after the opening of the conference, Dr. Andrea Lugasi PhD Habil, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the Budapest University of Economics and Business Administration and Dr. Erika Juhász PhD, Director of Professional Development of the National Institute of Cultural Affairs signed a cooperation agreement between the two institutions. Both parties expressed their hope that the formalisation of the agreement will further strengthen the already extensive cooperation.
After the plenary sessions, the presentations continued in two sessions, one of which focused on the tourism aspects of culture, and the other - in which the staff of the Department of Pedagogy presented their research - mainly on the public culture and community building aspects. The main objective of the conference and of the Pedagogy section was interdisciplinarity, i.e., to show the close links and impacts between community organisation, culture and public education and tourism.
Most of the presentations in the Pedagogy section also elaborated on the research material of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage's call for proposals, presenting the unexplored parts of the project.
The study analysing Palladio's work differs somewhat from this theme, but it also includes an important element of value research and analysis, illustrating the mechanism of the impact of cultural values across the ages.
In 2020, the Department of Pedagogy won the National Institute of Cultural Heritage's call for proposals for research groups entitled "The role of local treasure libraries and cultural heritage in public education and community building in the sub-regions of Vác and Dunakeszi".
During the research, we were primarily interested in how municipal libraries function at the local level. What other emotions do people have about national and local values. New, previously unclassified values that could be added to the municipal directories could be identified through a population survey.
The timeliness element of the study was given by the fact that because of extensive social and professional consultations, Act XXX of 2012 on Hungarian National Values and Hungaricums was passed, which gave a new impetus to the development of value libraries.
The research topic was also examined from the sociological, psychological, educational, and cultural science perspectives, building on a systematic presentation of the available domestic legislation and a more comprehensive international background analysis in addition to the domestic literature.
The complete research material was also used to produce a volume of studies entitled "In Search of Local Values", which was evaluated and praised by Dr. László Ponyi, the central research manager of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage.
We sincerely hope that this publication will be useful for the professional and interested audience and will give inspiration and ideas to our research colleagues for further public cultural research activities.
