Tendencies in Electoral Behaviour of Hungarians in Slovakia
This study deals with the evolution of the willingness of Hungarians in Slovakia to vote, with their voter preferences and their opinions on the present political representation of Hungarians in Slovakia. The basis for the study is provided by the sociological surveys of the Forum Minority Research Institute conducted since the turn of the millennium. The latest such survey was carried out in June 2019, in 149 municipalities of southern Slovakia. The representative sample was made up by 1,000 Hungarian adults, chosen according to their proportion in the examined districts and the type of municipality, their sex, age, and school education level. In the opinion of 88 percent, it is necessary that Hungarians in Slovakia have their own political representation, 67 percent think that the most suitable form of it is the only Hungarian party, and, in the opinion of 21 percent, the best way would be a representation by several Hungarian parties which collaborate. If the parliamentary elections would take place now, 67 percent would go to vote, and 59 percent would vote for the currently existing Hungarian parties. If the Hungarian parties would team up, 75 percent would go to vote and 69 percent would vote for this corporate Hungarian political subject.
Saint John and the Village
The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between a religious object and a local community. The small sacral objects is a most well researched topic in relation with the Hungarians in Slovakia. Nevertheless, we do not have enough case studies when it comes to particular objects such as crosses, statues etc. In this study, the renovated statue of St. John of Nepomuk in the village of Ebed (Obid) is analyzed in its social context. The findings suggest that (1) there is a very close relationship between religious and local (but not ethnic) identities, (2) various layers of collective and individual meanings create a „field” around St. Johns’ statue, (3) more or less „static” meanings and features can change if they are prompted by extraordinary events, and that (4) the topic of small sacral objects is more complex than it seems at first sight.
Three in One. Multilingualism in a Family in Southern Slovakia
The purpose of my study was to examine the language habits and language ideology of a multilingual family in a southern Slovakian village. The language biographies of the mother, father and their children contain not only the characteristics of their language competences, but also their linguistic habits, their attitudes towards the individual languages and their subjective opinions, which I examined in the framework of three interviews. The research is of a psycho-sociolinguistic character. This approach has relevance from the point of view that it shows the Hungarian language use of a person with German mother tongue who had learnt Hungarian as a second language, and, further, with the help of language biographies, it offers a complex picture on my respondents of a young age about language education, and also about language ideologies of their family members.
On the State of Mother Tongue Textbooks of Hungarian Secondary Schools in Slovakia
The subject of this study are the mother tongue textbooks of secondary grammar schools and vocational schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction, in particular the study-aid for the second grade. In order to map the pedagogues´ opinion regarding the content, structure and methodological solutions of the examined textbooks, I conducted a survey in January 2019, and this study is intended to present the collected data.
The Economic and Social Situation of Southern Slovakia in View of Some Indicators (Part III)
Southern Slovakia has traditionally been identified with the region inhabited by Hungarians. However, for analytical purposes it is more appropriate to assume the administrative-statistical regions, and in Slovakia, the most suitable territorial entities are the districts. In Southern Slovakia there are 16 districts with a significant proportion of Hungarian population, and, for historical reasons, Bratislava and Košice can also be classified as belonging to the examined region. Looking at the aggregated data of this area, it can be concluded that its development is lagging behind the national average. Regarding industrial production, the southern region, in view of its gravity, accounts for a smaller proportion of the national output. Similarly, lagging behind can also be observed in respect of the corporate average wage, as well as in view of productivity. The economic development of the southern region is uneven, the western–eastern opposition is significant, although it is continuously decreasing. The economically most backward region in the long term is Gemer.
