Research Interests

Bálint Hilbert, PhD is a research fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest. He earned his PhD from Eötvös Loránd University in 2023 with a dissertation titled „The Birth of Modern Urban Governance in Central Europe – A Legal-Geographical Study of the Cities of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867–1918).” The focus of his research lies, on the one hand, in urban governance, urban planning, and urban policies, and on the other, in the historical–geographical study of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, with particular emphasis on the socio-economic and legal interactions between Austria and Hungary, as well as on the comparative analysis of Vienna and Budapest from various perspectives. His research has been supported by several scholarships, including the New National Excellence Program for PhD students and the scholarship of the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna, which has provided him with multiple opportunities to conduct research in the Austrian capital. He is currently a participant in the NKFIH project Socio-spatial inequalities of energy transition, led by Lea Kőszeghy. His main publications are related to the aforementioned topics, but he has also published on other subjects such as the history of geography and the urban diplomacy of Central European capitals.