Speculators and Travellers the Political Construction of the Tourist in the Kádár Regime

Dessewffy, Tibor

doi:10.1080/09502380110075252

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…(Glaub 2015: 58) 3 So, the odd situation emerged wherein it was the much-feared political leadership that provided the background which allowed the players to keep smuggling -which secured not only their material well-being, however, but also increased the dependence of those involved. A further perversion of this situation was that the smuggling business was rooted in the communist economics of shortage: The athletes would bring in nylon stockings, anoraks and other fashion accessories that were lacking in Hungary (Dessewffy 2002). Nevertheless, until the successes kept coming -up to the 1954 World Cup-the soccer players were cuddled by the communist party leadership and the entire Hungarian society alike.…”

Section: Diamonds In the Dustmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weaponized longing

Dessewffy¹

2022

alterites

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In this article, by analyzing the memory politics of the nativist Hungarian government, it is argued that instead of some Great Narrative about a Golden Age, a political patchwork is in work here. Instead of glorifying one particular historical period, any element used for the constructions of “Greatness” and “Proudness” is used freely. Then I explain the peculiarities of the Hungarian case: that is, Orbán builds a nativist, anti-European, and anti-enlightenment symbolic universe, whereas Hungary is a member of the EU and even heavily subsidized by it. Afterward, using the foundational text of the regime, I explain how central nostalgia, what in this context I call weaponized longing, is for the Orbán regime. Since there is neither specific political Golden Age nor obvious historic victories, the memory of sports successes becomes relevant constructing the memory of greatness. Therefore, in the next part, I illustrate how Orbán uses the sport to articulate and implement a macho worldview and formulate a nativist discourse on a wide variety of seemingly non-sport-related issues from the essence of modernity to gender roles. Then I explain that sport is not just a tool for Orbán, but in fact, a basic model and metaphor for his politics where “Triumph of the Will” is central. Finally, with the juxtaposition of two seminal institutions, the House of Terror and Cult of Puskás, I demonstrate the memory political endeavors of the regime and some of the built-in contradictions that come with these practices. In this nativist patchwork, the seemingly impossible could be achieved; the darkest times could produce the most glorious elements of history.

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Section: Diamonds In the Dustmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weaponized longing

Dessewffy¹

2022

alterites

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“…Later cohorts of transitionals learned about proper self-presentation already at school. the influx and subsequent consumption of western goods and youth culture (Garofalo 1992), there was an increasing outflow of students and travelers to the lands of plenty (Gayer 1998;Dessewffy 2002). Thus, the transitional generation is immersed in western culture to an incomparably greater extent than their older counterparts.…”

Section: The Transitional Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educate or serve: the paradox of “professional service” and the image of the west in legitimacy battles of post-socialist advertising

Vargha

2010

Theor Soc

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This article investigates a puzzle in the rapidly evolving profession of advertising in post-socialist Hungary: young professionals who came of age during the shift to market-driven practices want to produce advertising that is uncompromised by clients and consumers, and to educate others about western modernity. It is their older colleagues-trained during customer-hostile socialism-who emphasize that good professionals serve their clients' needs. These unexpected generational positions show that 1) professions are more than groups expanding their jurisdiction. They are fields structured by two conflicting demands: autonomy of expertise and dependence on clients. We can explain the puzzle by noting that actors are positioning themselves on one or the other side based on their trajectory or movement in the field relative to other actors. Old and new groups vie for power in the transforming postsocialist professional field, responding to each other's claims and vulnerabilities, exploiting the professional field's contradictory demands on its actors. 2) The struggle is not between those who are oriented to the west and those that are not. Rather, the west is both the means and the stake of the struggle over historical continuity and professional power. Imposing a definition of the west is almost the same as imposing a definition of the profession on the field. In this historical case, "field" appears less as a stable structure based on actors' equipment with capital, than as dynamic relations moved forward by contestation of the field's relevant capital.

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“… 7 The Kádár leadership rigorously maintained the moralizing distinction between “real needs and false needs” until the bitter end (Dessewffy 2002: 52).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, although invidious distinction prevailed throughout the socialist period, status display was curtailed by the limited range of consumer goods and housing stock, and was also at times discredited by socialist rhetoric condemning it. Third, the Hungarian sociologist Tibor Dessewffy has argued that the socialist consumer ethos was structured by “the impossibility of converting individual earnings into profit-producing property” thus increasing “the significance of personal consumption” (Dessewffy 2002: 49). Oana Mateescu has suggested that state-socialist consumer culture might require its own diagnostic (personal communication 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Goods and States: The Political Logic of State-Socialist Material Culture

Fehérváry

2009

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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In the two decades since the fall of state socialism, the widespread phenomenon ofnostalgiein the former Soviet satellites has made clear that the everyday life of state socialism, contrary to stereotype, was experienced and is remembered in color. Nonetheless, popular accounts continue to depict the Soviet bloc as gray and colorless. As Paul Manning (2007) has argued, color becomes a powerful tool for legitimating not only capitalism, but democratic governance as well. An American journalist, for example, recently reflected on her own experience in the region over a number of decades:It's hard to communicate how colorless and shockingly gray it was behind the Iron Curtain … the only color was the red of Communist banners. Stores had nothing to sell. There wasn't enough food… . Lines formed whenever something, anything, was for sale. The fatigue of daily life was all over their faces. Now… fur-clad women confidently stride across the winter ice in stiletto heels. Stores have sales… upscale cafés cater to cosmopolitan clients, and magazine stands, once so strictly controlled, rival those in the West. … Life before was so drab. Now the city seems loaded with possibilities (Freeman 2008).

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Speculators and Travellers the Political Construction of the Tourist in the Kádár Regime

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Weaponized longing

Weaponized longing

Educate or serve: the paradox of “professional service” and the image of the west in legitimacy battles of post-socialist advertising

Goods and States: The Political Logic of State-Socialist Material Culture

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