Social structure

The InGRID project brought together 17 academic partners to provide the European scientific community with new and better opportunities to fulfil its key role in the development of evidence-based European policies on Inclusive Growth. Within this project, TÁRKI led the poverty research pillar. It also has developed IPOLIS - an Integrated Poverty and Living Conditions Indicator System. The indicator database relies on the concept of quality of life and includes children, young people, and the elderly.

As a continuation of InGRID, the objectives of the InGRID-2 are to advance the integration and innovation of distributed social sciences research infrastructures on ‘poverty, living conditions and social policies’ as well as ‘working conditions, vulnerability and labour policies’ in Europe. InGRID-2 extends transnational on-site and virtual access, organize mutual learning and discussions of innovations, and improve data services and facilities of comparative research.

The research project launched in December 2019 aims to analyse the causes of recent poverty decline in Hungary in a European comparison. We also plan to describe the segmentation of those living in poverty or social exclusion. The project lasts till November 2022 and is supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund. The research is coordinated by András Gábos and also involves Réka Branyiczki and István György Tóth.

(A medium-term (1980-2020) account of the mechanisms of social closure in Hungary - and elsewhere)

SUMMARY
The focus of the research is on the barriers to social mobility in the post-transition Hungary and (for comparisons) in several other countries. The central theme is the place and mechanisms of internal ruptures blocking greater merit-based fluidity in the society. Detailed micro-analysis of major social science datasets spanning through four decades will serve as a base of the investigation.