Institute for Sociology, Research Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Hungary
Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA TK).
The Centre for Social Sciences incorporates 4 institutional, organisational units: Institute for Political Science (IPS), Institute for Sociology, Institute for; Minority Studies and Institute for Legal Studies. The Centre conducts research on theoretical, empirical and comparative level, focusing on the area of law, ethnic and national minority studies, political sciences and sociology. The Centre carries out basic and applied, as well as comparative research projects. The Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences conducts research on theoretical, empirical and comparative level, focusing on the area of law, ethnic and national minority studies, political sciences and sociology.
The Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was established in 1963. The researchers of the institute have been actively involved in various international and national research projects, including the following research areas: socio-economic inequalities and poverty; social inclusion, anti-discrimination and equal treatment policy-making; aging society; migration; social movements; gender, family and work-life balance issues; welfare policies; information and knowledge society; risk assessment and treatment; technology and knowledge-economy; culture and media; power, authority and social stratification; elites and civil society; sustainable development and consumption; environmental sociology and eco-politics; European integration and EU developmental policies; urban and rural social change.
The Institute is involved in regular exchanges of information, or in research projects with at least one institute (but usually more than one) in the following countries: Japan, Norway, Germany, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden, UK, Italy, Russia, Holland, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United States, the UK, France, Canada, Israel, Greece, India and Georgia.
One of the institute’s strengths is research on the elderly: the quality of life of older people, problems of care of older people, potential solutions of care of older people, their indoor and outdoor mobility, the role of technology in the life of older persons, ageing and the labour market, etc.
It has been a member of EU projects with old and new Member Countries in these research themes (Family Carers of Elderly People in Europe, EUROFAMCARE; Ageing and Employment – Good practice; Enabling Autonomy; Participation and Well-Being in Old Age: The Home Environment as a Determinant for Healthy Ageing, ENABLE-AGE; Enhancing mobility in later life, MOBILATE, CARICT, etc.) as well as in overseas projects (such as the large-scale international research program, Project on Intergenerational Equity (PIE), Japan).
Many books and collections of papers have been produced or are under publication from these research activities. The institute is the manager of Hungarian projects which put the results of international and Hungarian research into practice with the help of the Hungarian public sphere (ministries, governmental bodies, local authorities) and civil organisations. These projects include the elaboration of a model program for technical aids serving the quality of life of elderly persons which has been successfully integrated into the system of social services for the elderly.
Key personnel involved in the project
Zsuzsa Széman: senior researcher
Csaba Kucsera: researcher
Judit Acsád: researcher
Zoltán Tarna: researcher
Ildikó Laki: researcher
Main tasks attributed to them in the project
Zsuzsa Széman: Contribution to the following tasks.
Task 1 - Outlining the state-of-the-art in social support and long-term care (outline the conceptual boundaries of “social support and long-term care);
Task 2 - Analysing the role of individual life-cycle decisions in the context of public care policies;
Task 3 - Identifying main drivers of change in delivering social support and long-term care;
Task 4 - Building future scenarios.
Csaba Kucsera: contribution to tasks: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Judit Acsády: contribution to tasks: 1, 2, 3.
Ildikó Laky: contribution to task 3.
Zoltán Tarnai: contribution to tasks 2 and 3.
Short profile of all personnel and previous relevant experience
Zsuzsa Széman: She has been working on various EU projects since 1992 including ENABLE-AGE; MOBILATE; Ageing and Employment; Employment Initiatives for an Ageing Workforce, HAPPY AGEING, EUROFAMCAREand other international research projects (NISW; Japanese projects: PIE; Non-profit sector). Her main research interests include: eldercare, migrant care workers, ageing workforces, pension reform, social ageing, social policy and ageing, explore good practices, quality of life.
Csaba Kucsera: His main area of interest is the ageing society, especially the subjective quality of life of elderly individuals, with special emphasis on their social network and it’s impact (through support and participation) on their QoL. He has been working on various EU projects (e.g. (MOBILATE, ENABLE-AGE, HAPPY AGEING).
Judít Acsády: She has been working on several projects on gender issues and also on care problems of older people such as ENABLE-AGE.
Ildikó Laki: She is an expert on research on disable people, their integration into society.
Zoltán Tarnai: He has knowledge in methodology, impact assessment, has participated in several national and international research such as HELPS (2012).