Research area and keywords of research:
Exploration, analysis and evaluation of the socio-economic processes of Hungarian metropolitan agglomerations and suburbs
(Keywords: Social geography, Urban geography, Segregation, Geography of crime, Decomposing social groups, R+D+I, Tertiary and Quaternary sectors)
Name of the researcher(s) and research group:
„Research into the geographical processes of agglomerations and suburbs” research group
Dr. Andrea Bányászné Kristóf (head of the research group)
Dr. Sándor Kókai CsC
Name of the Institute:
University of Nyíregyháza, Institute of Tourism and Geography
Research objectives:
Exploration, analysis and evaluation of the socio-economic processes of Hungarian metropolitan agglomerations and suburbs. Large cities have become the center of gravity of international and domestic socio-economic processes in the globalizing world. The processes taking place in Hungary's big cities and their agglomerations decisively transformed the morphological, structural and structural image of these cities. Social processes (e.g. deprivation, slums, ghettoization, horizontal and vertical segregation, etc.) and transformation of the economic structure (e.g. industrial parks, transport corridors, logistics centers, etc.) fundamentally changed the central cities and their agglomeration. The most visible process is the adaptation of central cities (e.g. smart city, creative city, etc.) and the formation and development of suburbs.
The research group conducts research covering the entire socio-economic processes taking place in major cities in Hungary, paying special attention to the socio-geographical and economic structural aspects. We treat the privileged areas of horizontal and vertical socio-economic changes as a priority.
Description and results of research:
The focus of the research is the exploration of the relationships between the agglomerations and the socio-economic processes taking place in their suburbs. The members of the research group publish their scientific results in refereed domestic and foreign journals and independent books.
The basic objective is to investigate how suburban changes affected the quantitative and qualitative elements of social groups living in the settlements of metropolitan agglomerations (e.g. occupational structure and social situation, differences in professional qualifications and activities, distribution of employees of different status, etc.). Closely related to this is the change in the housing market, the segments of which (e.g. housing mobility, regional and settlement center of gravity shifts, comfort, floor space, etc.) are different, but are good indicators of the population change that is still taking place today (e.g. segregation, gentrification, slums). Examining the sources of population mobility, we are also looking for the answer to which stage of modern urbanization the individual settlements/parts of the settlement show. All of this is related and can be seen, for example, in the above-average population growth, the rapid occupational stratification and the strengthening of daily connections with the central city.
The research group also examines how the objective and subjective factors affecting settlement development affect the different sectors of individual agglomerations. An important segment of the socio-economic processes is the devaluation and appreciation of these sectors, their benefit from development resources and the appearance and spread of modernization elements that have a marked influence on society, the economy and their texture.
Global processes take on a human face in the local space, and this is especially true for large cities and their agglomerations, all of which has also changed the ideas about the importance of geographical location. The people who live there react the fastest, mapping and transforming everything (e.g. the physical environment and spatial appearance of the city) that they instinctively and consciously have to do in order to protect and maintain their living space. The new situation requires new research methods to explore and map both social and economic processes, for which the database must be collected and compiled according to new aspects. Individual social groups actively shape the geographical space, so their effects on urban geography are tangible. In addition to statistical indicators, however, the so-called new acquisition opportunities for soft indicators (e.g. questionnaire, prominence survey, interview, etc.) (e.g. Internet, Meta, Messenger, etc.), accepting the associated pitfalls as well. The effectiveness and uniqueness of the research is due to the fact that in the last decade I explored - and published the results of my PhD dissertation in the form of specialist books - the socio-economic and infrastructural effects and characteristics of the suburbanization taking place in the Miskolc agglomeration.
Research partners from other institutions:
- Tamás Csapó, private university teacher (ELTE-SEK)
- Péter Gyenizse, associate professor (PTE)
- Luca Lenner, PhD student (ELTE-SEK)
- Péter Bajmócy, associate professor (SZTE)
Other information:
The research area and topic provide a versatile opportunity for the geography students of Nyíregyházi University to get involved in the sub-fields of the research independently or in groups, developing their independent research skills.
Publications (max. 5):
- Kristóf, A (2022): Szociálgeográfiai gyakorlatok: Egyetemi jegyzet, Nyíregyházi Egyetem Turizmus és Földrajztudományi Intézet 214 p. ISBN: 9786156032478
- Kristóf, A (2020): Tények és tévhitek a miskolci lakásárak változásáról (2008-2017) Településföldrajzi Tanulmányok 9: 1 pp. 135-149., 15 p
- Kristóf, A (2018): A szuburbanizáció társadalmi-gazdasági hatásai és következményei a miskolci agglomerációban, Nyíregyházi Egyetem Turizmus és Földrajztudományi Intézet 175 p. ISBN: 978-615-5545-98-6
- Kristóf, A (2018): The impact of suburbanization on social differentiation in Hungary: a case study of the Miskolc agglomeration In. Geographica Pannonica (ed. L. Lazic) 22-3, Serbia, Novi Sad. Pp. 176-188. ISBN: 9786155545986
- Kristóf, A (2017): The development path of the Miskolc agglomeration (1970-2015) ACTA Universitatis Sapientiae European and Regional Studies 12:1pp. 5-24. 20 p.
DOI: 10.5937/gp22-17081