Transformations of the Shape of the Káli Basin, Hungary 2.0

Old and New Elite, Entrepreneurs, Cultural Brokers and the Issue of Responsibility in a Rural Space

Abstract

Our paper investigates the transformation processes observed in the Káli Basin, Hungary from the perspective of immigrating social actors. We aim to find answers to the question of how and in which fields the social elites, who have been settling down in the Basin in different times starting from the 1970s with the intention to live there, contributed to the changes occurring in the local society and economy. Furthermore, we are eager to know what kind of interconnections can be found between the transformations and the responsibility felt for the place itself and its inhabitants. The newcomers’ impact on the basin is both symbolic and material. People moving into the villages of the Káli Basin not only played a substantial part in the production and popularization of the Káli Basin’s representation, but, in time, became significant actors of local economy. Our study makes a comparison between the narrative and the everyday sociocultural practice of the elite immigrating in the Káli Basin in two different times: in the 1970-80s and in the present (2019–2021). We focus on the continuities and the discontinuities of the elite’s narrative and everyday practice demonstrating the processes of change in the basin. We used various methods to collect our empirical data, such as ethnography and semistructural interviews, which were analysed in an interpretative way. The empirical data demonstrating the processes of change in the Káli Basin since the 1970s is interpreted in the framework of constructivist rural sociology and the terms used in sociocultural anthropology dealing with global flows.