Centre for Social Sciences

Background Despite growing scientific evidence and health guidelines, the global health paradox persists, with rising lifestyle-related diseases and escalating healthcare costs exposing the inadequacy of current efforts. Objective Three multidisciplinary congresses were held to generate evidence-based conclusions aimed at addressing the global health paradox. Methods A total of 58 experts from 62 entities participated in the international research and knowledge-exchange panels. Experts reviewed the latest findings to develop practical strategies and identify key research and policy priorities, focusing on the Healthy Eating & Active Living (HEAL) approach. Results, conclusion, and relevance The expert consortium endorsed a 33 evidence-based consensual-statement policy roadmap for addressing global health challenges, emphasizing that the HEAL approach can significantly contribute to the “Prevention First” appeal and broad ethical, social, ecological, and economic advantages, and ultimately supporting policy change.

Over the last 15 years, anti-gender discourses, the politicization of gender, and political attacks on gender studies have intensified in Hungary. Yet, limited research has examined how these factors have shaped the field of gender scholarship. To date, no review of the Hungarian academic literature on gender and gender-based needs has been conducted during the right-wing populist political era. This paper aims to fill this gap by addressing the following research question: How have academic narratives conceptualized gender and gender-based needs in Hungary under the governance of the right-wing populist party coalition since 2010? Based on a purposive sampling procedure combined with expert selection, we analyzed 67 articles published between 2010 and 2023 to represent the main theoretical approaches and empirical investigations on the multifaceted nature of gender-related research in Hungary. The findings indicate that the Hungarian academic literature on gender and gender-based needs has evolved significantly despite the adverse political climate. While most articles implicitly understand gender in its classical binary form as the roles of men and women and gender is predominantly understood through a constructivist lens in Hungary, the academic narratives continue to encompass a wide range of topics and approaches related to critical gender-based needs. The paper identifies both more traditional sex- and gender-based needs (such as those related to motherhood, fatherhood, the distribution of household chores, work-life balance issues, and combating labor market discrimination), in addition to more contemporary and politics-driven gender-based needs such as empowering women through civil society organizations, policies and practices for LGBTQ+ individuals, and the effects of anti-gender rhetoric. The paper concludes that policymakers should pay more attention to social science research, as scholars are actively mapping gender-based needs in the Hungarian context.

Sacred natural elements in traditional societies often function as effective informal conservation mechanisms. This study explores the Dewandaru tree (Eugenia uniflora L.) at Gunung Kawi, East Java, as a biocultural entity that integrates ecological functions, spiritual meanings, and community-based conservation practices. The research applies a qualitative case study approach with ethnographic elements, using a socio-ecological and biocultural framework. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and ecological field observations involving caretakers, community leaders, residents, and visitors from different cultural backgrounds. The findings indicate that the Dewandaru tree contributes significantly to environmental balance by supporting biodiversity, regulating the microclimate, and preventing soil erosion. Beyond its ecological role, the tree holds deep spiritual and cultural significance for both Javanese and Chinese communities, which shapes collective ethics and customary rules that prohibit cutting, harvesting, or commercial exploitation. These symbolic protections have functioned as an effective form of community-based conservation for generations. However, increasing tourism activities, cultural commodification, and generational change have begun to challenge the sustainability of this informal system. The growing demand for symbolic souvenirs and the weakening transmission of spiritual values reduce the effectiveness of sacred-based protection. This study concludes that conservation grounded in local spirituality remains valuable but vulnerable, and therefore needs to be strengthened through integrative strategies that combine sacred values with formal governance, intergenerational education, and sustainable tourism management to ensure long-term ecological and cultural sustainability.

ABSTRACT Politicization—the expansion of conflict in the political system—is often assumed to be associated with high levels of participation. Yet, this is not necessarily the case, especially in contexts of democratic backsliding. This study investigates how politicization of protest events affects individuals’ willingness to participate in protests, using Hungary as a most likely case. We examine three causal mechanisms that may mediate this effect: perceived risks of participation, political efficacy, and public support. Empirically, we rely on a pre‐registered survey experiment conducted in August 2024. To operationalize politicization, we manipulated the issue's salience, the polarization of positions presented, and the number of actors involved in the protest. Our findings challenge the prevailing assumption by demonstrating that increasing politicization leads to lower levels of protest participation. In addition, causal mediation analysis shows that this demobilizing effect is primarily due to reduced perceived political efficacy and expected public support.

Az online kommunikációs terek, különösen a közösségi média platformok az információáramlás domináns eszközeivé váltak, ám egyre inkább ki vannak téve a szélsőséges ideológiák, jogsértő, esetenként felkavaró tartalmak terjedésének. Az ilyen platformok egyre inkább mesterséges intelligencia alapú algoritmusokat alkalmaznak a tartalmak szűrésére és moderálására, hogy kezeljék ezeket a kihívásokat. E tanulmány célja röviden, de átfogó képet adva bemutatni az automatizált tartalommoderálás elterjedésének okait, technikai megoldásait, valamint társadalmi hatásait. A tanulmány részletesen tárgyalja a jogi környezetet, amely lehetővé tette ezeknek a rendszereknek a térnyerését, bemutatja a leggyakrabban alkalmazott technikai módszereket, és elemzi, hogyan befolyásolják ezek a szólásszabadságot, a társadalmi diskurzust, valamint a politikai polarizációt. Az eredmények rávilágítanak arra, hogy bár a mesterséges intelligencia jelentős mértékben növelheti a moderálás hatékonyságát, alkalmazása komoly kihívásokkal és kockázatokkal jár, amelyek hatással vannak a demokratikus értékekre és a közösségi média működésére. A tanulmányt javaslatokat zárják, kiemelve a szabályozás és az emberi felügyelet fontosságát, hogy biztosítható maradjon a szólásszabadság védelme és a társadalmi sokszínűség megőrzése is az online térben.

This contribution examines the need for European normative legal framework governing artificial intelligence implementation in parliamentary institutions. Using a three-pillar methodology—analysing soft law instruments (particularly Inter-Parliamentary Union Resolution and Guidelines), investigating European parliamentary AI use cases, and developing policy recommendations—the study reveals significant regulatory gaps. Whilst the EU AI Act provides limited coverage of parliamentary AI applications, several European legislative bodies (Estonia, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the European Parliament) have successfully implemented AI for speech recognition, document processing, and citizen engagement. Current soft law frameworks establish important principles including transparency, privacy protection, and sustainability, yet lack binding force. The research demonstrates that parliamentary AI's connection to democratic processes and national sovereignty necessitates stronger oversight. Two regulatory approaches are proposed: reclassifying parliamentary AI as high-risk under the EU AI Act, or developing dedicated European legislation addressing fundamental rights protection, national sovereignty, security concerns, and innovation promotion. The study concludes that establishing explicit European normative regulation would provide essential democratic safeguards whilst maintaining national sovereignty, parliamentary autonomy and fostering technological innovation in European democratic institutions.

Abstract Illiberal regimes show signs of mutual learning, which would need to be matched with similarly innovative solutions on the side of constitutional resilience. The paper, contributing to this process, looks first at illiberalism’s internal tension that could be exploited to the benefit of strengthening constitutionalist guarantees. The approaches of the CJEU and the ECtHR on what counts as effective remedy in national law could be turned into an effective conditionality instrument. Constitutionally consequential damages litigation can play an additional role as illiberal regimes seem to show more responsiveness to financial incentives than other forms of external pressure.

Our social lives consist of various circles, such as family, friends, and colleagues. Differences in norms and expectations among these circles can create tension in large online social networks (OSNs) due to blurred boundaries. It is unclear whether this phenomenon, known as context collapse, outweighs the convenience of having diverse communities in one place for OSN users. To explore this trade-off, we examined if ego network characteristics indicating context collapse could explain users’ decisions to leave iWiW, a defunct Hungarian OSN with over 3.5 million active users at its peak. We assessed context collapse based on two conditions: the absence of overlapping communities measured by network modularity and social differences between those communities. We find that users with fragmented social networks indeed leave the platform earlier if these distinct communities differ significantly in their age profiles and urban-rural composition. However, the highest probability of leaving was among those with non-fragmented networks and similar communities. These seemingly contradicting results are caused by the process that network fragmentation itself decreases the probability of leaving. Thus, our results demonstrate simultaneously how brokerage can be valuable and context collapse stressful for users of OSNs.

Humans cooperate across various contexts, despite the individual costs involved. Cooperation and prosocial behavior may persist because these costs are offset by reputation and other social benefits. Specifically, cooperators and prosocial individuals may receive more friendship nominations and be less likely to face exclusion or avoidance. We test whether such beneficial network dynamics are present in a unique dataset of twenty primary school classes in northern Italy. Cooperation and social preferences of 420 students in grades 4 and 5 were measured with incentivized social dilemma games, and the social network of the entire classroom was traced on two subsequent occasions. We modeled the dynamics of friendship and negative ties with Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models, and conducted a meta-analysis of the results. Our key finding is that, while we do not observe evidence of homophily based on social preferences in friendship nominations - and being prosocial does not lead to receiving more friendship nominations, individuals are significantly more likely to direct negative tie nominations toward peers who made different offers in the dictator game. These results suggest that social network dynamics support cooperation not by rewarding prosocial behavior with friendship, but through repulsion between prosocial and selfish students.

Rapidly evolving informational technologies have created great opportunities for students and teachers, but in doing so, they have also impacted upon all aspects of higher education (HE) learning and teaching. While the education community has made great efforts to facilitate this transformation, it will be beneficial to examine the phenomenon from different perspectives in order to gain a deeper understanding of it, and of how the education technology (EdTech) discourse has evolved. This article explores the transformative journey of EdTech integration in HE by analysing the narratives of students and teachers in HE, along with those of EdTech programmers and sales staff in attendance at the UK Bett Show, a global conference dedicated to educational technologies, from 2014 to 2024. This decade-long case study of the worldwide EdTech community highlights the key trends in the changing discourse of the relationship between education and technology, and offers educators different strategies to deal with this transformation in their teaching/learning practices. By positioning EdTech as a cornerstone of future educational objectives, the study contributes to the wider discourse on preparing higher education for future developments, thus fostering an environment of innovation and inclusivity.