Péter Somlai:
Triads, mediators and coalitions

The author emphasizes the need for a new theory of equilibrium on the basis of his researches in the field of the sociology of family. This theory is also concerned with normative systems, but its ob ject is constituted not only by the analysis of the norms of behaviour, of its observation and violation, but also by trying to reveal how the participants choose their aims and how they def ne the rules.

The introductory part of the study gives a critical overview of the microsociological theories of the normative systems (the theory of E. Durkheim, the symbolic interactions, rational theories of behaviour). The author delienates the main structural features of the systems which are more complicated than the diads and then describes the conditions of operation, the normal and pathological states of these systems. He distinguishes between various pathological border situcuions (on the one hand stressing loneliness and the feeling of being superfluous and on the other hand forced integrations and the state of the "total institutions") and he also notes the existence of various pathological types of coalitions and mediators. He emphasizes the necessity of an equilibrium between the independence and integration of the members and also the fact that such an equilibrium can be the result only of the constant conflict between the actors.
 

Péter Róbert-Matild Sági:
WHEN "FAR BETTER" IS STILL "BAD ENOUGH"
Subjective Social Ranking in Hungary in Comparative Perspective

The paper aims to analyse subjective evaluation of social position and its determinants with special attention to intergenerational mobility.

We assume that 1. social mobility is a significant predictor variable for subjective social ranking even if its effect is controlled for other factors like sex, age, income, education, power or national variation; 2. social mobility has two aspects: the objective change of status and the subjective feelings about it and their effect is not the same.

We conclude that both social status determinants and national variation are stronger predictors for subjective social ranking compared to intergenerational mobility but the effect of subjective social mobility remains significant even it is controlled for the other predictor variables.

Hungary is a unique case in this comparison because Hungarians feel themselves much stronger upward mobile, on the one hand but tend to rank themselves much more to the bottom on the social "ladder", on the other hand, compared to the control nations. Thus, the well-known "Hungarian pessimism" is not simply due to the disappointment after the change of regime, but its roots go back to much deeper.
 

Attila Becskeházi-Tibor Kuczi:
On publicity

The main assumption of our paper is that there existed a public sphere even in the past decades in Hungary. Theorizing about society was realized primarily by intellectuals, by way of having discourses more or less independently of the state. We have íried to emphasize Ihat it was possible to theorize about the public sphere, although the basic institutions of the public sphere were lacking, first of all the independent press. We attempt to prove this statement by analysing - among other factors - the nature of secret. The state was in a position to control the borders between the public and non-public spheres; there were a lot of things about which one could not speak publicly. At the same time the public sphere as we conceive it does not mean only disclosing the secrets, it also means a kind of construction, the promotion of new discourses in the course of which the secrets may lose their significance.
 

Mária Heller-Dénes Némedi-Ágnes Rényi:
Public strategies and public rules

The paper touches on three issues in connection with the essay, written by A. Becskeházi and T. Kuczi. Ön the one hand it establishes the fact Ihat the boundary between the "public" and "non-public" spheres is not "given" once for all, it is not defined by explicit rules. The speakers niay modify this boundary in strategic interactions, but this possibility is strongly dependent upon their competence and "capital". This approach, based on the "theory of action", involves also Ihat the "guiding" norms of public appearance has to be interpreted on various levels: there are the norms which are conventional but nevertheless require interpretation, the rhetorical rules of speech and some general communicative metanorms. Finally, the paper emphasizes Ihat the public sphere of the state socialist system cannot be interpreted in the framework of an abstract duality of power and "intellectual discourses". The sphere of "limited publicity" was a system which was quite intricate and which provided large scope for strategic interactions.