Left Behind in the Hungarian Rustbelt: The Cultural Political Economy of Working-Class Neo-Nationalism

Nationalism is back with a renewed force. Hungary is a virulent example of the new nationalist ascendancy. As the country was a former liberal star pupil, Hungary’s neo-nationalist turn has been puzzling researchers for years. This study goes beyond the entrenched polarisations in the literature by...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSociology (Oxford) Vol. 54; no. 6; pp. 1159 - 1177
Main Author Scheiring, Gábor
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2020
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Anger
Commodification
Countermovements
Deindustrialization
Dominance
Globalization
Identity
Narratives
Nationalism
Political economy
Social classes
Social contract
Social reform
Students
Workers
Working class
Hungary
deindustrialisation
cultural political economy
Hungary
working class
neo-nationalism
narrative identity
countermovement
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Summary:Nationalism is back with a renewed force. Hungary is a virulent example of the new nationalist ascendancy. As the country was a former liberal star pupil, Hungary’s neo-nationalist turn has been puzzling researchers for years. This study goes beyond the entrenched polarisations in the literature by highlighting the dynamic interplay between culture, structure and identity. It proposes to conceptualise Hungary’s neo-nationalist turn as a Polanyian countermovement against commodification, globalisation and deindustrialisation. The article presents the results of a thematic analysis of 82 interviews with workers in four towns in Hungary’s rustbelt and highlights how the multiscalar lived experience of commodifying reforms violated an implicit social contract and changed workers’ narrative identities. In the absence of a class-based shared narrative and lacking a viable political tool to control their fate, working-class neo-nationalism emerged as a new narrative identity to express workers’ anger and outrage.
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/0038038520929540