“A much more unified country”
Interview with our colleague, Csilla Fedinec, published on the Magyar Narancs online platform and in the weekly magazine on October 30, 2025.

Authors of the best publications of our institutes are acknowledged each year. On 5 March, 2025, Zsolt Boda, General Director, handed out the awards at the annual meeting of the Centre for Social Sciences, followed by brief presentations of the research findings.
We inform our partners that due to a government decision, our research centre was integrated into ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. As of 1 August 2025, our legal name is ELTE Centre for Social Sciences
Featured news
Interview with our colleague, Csilla Fedinec, published on the Magyar Narancs online platform and in the weekly magazine on October 30, 2025.
Although negotiations on this issue began much earlier, the launch of local border traffic on the Soviet-Hungarian border dates back to the late 1980s. Csilla Fedinec's new study, based on materials from the Hungarian National Archives, presents the course of negotiations between the two countries and the extraordinary contradictions of this process. The study can be read here.
Our colleague Csilla Fedinec's new analysis published in Jelen Bookazine.
Our colleague, Eszter Neumann is the corresponding author of the newly published chapter on Hungary in the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Nationalism.
Neumann, E., Keller, J. Zs., Szőke, A., Virág, T. (2025) Religious Nationalism in Hungary: The Churchification of the Social Margins. In J Haynes (Ed), The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Nationalism (1 ed.). Routledge
The online launch event of the special issues will be held on 21th October.
Our collague, Eszter Neumann is a co-author in the recently published chapter in the book titled Education Policy in England 2010–2024. The chapter explores the impact of the neoconservative reform of the English Baccalaureate which made this exam much more focussed on academic content.
Towers, E., Gewirtz, S., Maguire, M., & Neumann, E. (2025). Education policy in England 2010-2024: A critical review of the impact of the EBacc and associated curriculum and accountability reforms on schools, students and teachers. In R. Morris, & T. Perry (Eds.), Education Policy in England 2010–2024 (1 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/978100352866
The study The future imaginaries and counter-politics of solidarity work: non-formal education for displaced Ukrainians in Hungary by Eszter Neumann, Ildikó Zakariás, Margit Feischmidt, Violetta Zentai, and Csilla Zsigmond was published in the journal British Journal of Sociology of Education. Based on interviews with Hungarian civil society actors assisting Ukrainian refugees, the study analyzes the educational infrastructure created by these civic initiatives. The paper summarizes the findings of the research project Helping Displaced People from Ukraine: Collective Forms and Social Contexts of solidarity.
The new monograph by Balázs Dobos entitled 'Cultural Autonomy and Political Participation: Minority Elections in Central and Eastern Europe' will soon be published by Routledge and is now available for pre-order at HERE.
Our colleague, Réka Marchut, will give a lecture in Bucharest on October 14 at 18:00, as part of the In memoriam Miskolczy Ambrus conference series. The title of her lecture is: “Between the Anvil and the Hammer” – Hungarian Catholics in Bucharest from the Beginnings to the Second World War.
Our colleague Csilla Fedinec will be participating in, and giving a plenary presentation at, the 'Development of relations between Ukraine and the European Union in the context of geopolitical turmoil, the Russian–Ukrainian war, electoral practices and the political participation of ethnic minority groups' conference at Uzhhorod National University on 10–11 October 2025
Our results
June 2026
Katona, N., & Gábriel, D. (2026). The quiet collapse: Authoritarian neoliberalism and the crisis of care of older people in Hungary. Economy and Society, 55(2), 301–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2026.2632445
May 2026
Written by Andrea Szabó, András Bozóki, and Zoltán Gábor Szűcs-Zágoni
March 2026
Benedek István (2026): Polarizing transition? Opposition strategies and the rise of Péter Magyar and the Respect and Freedom Party (TISZA) in Hungary. Comparative European Politics.