Article Alert: Illiberal Environmentalism? The Case of Contemporary Hungary in Environmental History 4/2022

“A similar but slightly different theme emerges in Viktor Pal’s essay
about the Hungarian Fidesz Party, which, Pal suggests, has learned
how to use environmentalism as a tool in its governing strategy. As
Pal shows, Viktor Orban has not uniformly attacked environmentalism
in all its manifestations so much as made common cause with certain
outdoor activities that could be considered environmental while avoiding
economic regulation of the environment. For instance, trophy hunting
and hiking have gained the support of Orban’s government, while at
the same time Fidesz has gutted the Hungarian environmental protection
apparatus and opened protected areas for economic development.
Pal explains this apparent contradiction by placing Orban’s policies
the larger context of twentieth-century Hungarian environmental protection,
which was tightly linked to Magyar ethnic identity. Pal shows
that, aside from the period of Soviet control, Hungarian environmental
politics have always emphasized the connection between the Carpathian
Basin and its “rightful” Magyar managers, with the success of the
partnership measured in Magyar prosperity. In Pal’s telling, Hungarian
environmentalism has never been an ecumenical enterprise requiring
self-sacrifice in the service of nature, but rather an ideology inseparable
from ethnonationalism and the accumulation of wealth. As such, Pal
casts doubt upon Fidesz’s environmental policies—although, as is the
case for French and German right-wing populism, defining what constitutes
effectiveness contains a significant subjective component.”
Environmental History Journal Cover 4/2022

#Envhum Month 2022 – Roundtable Nature and the New Right

November 22 (Tuesday) 14.00-15.00 (CET)

Register HERE for link

 

The Patriot Ecology of the French Far Right

Venus Bivar, University of York

 

Environmental History of South Asia in the time of Hindutva
Rohan D’Souza, Kyoto University 

 

Authoritarianism, Populism, and the Environment in Turkey
Onur Inal, University of Vienna

 

Environmental and Climate Policies as the New Hobby Horse: The “Alternative for Germany” and the German Right-Wing
Julia Obertreis, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität

 

Illiberal Environmentalism? – The Case of Contemporary Hungary
Viktor Pál, University of Ostrava

Scorched Land: the Erosion of Environmental Governance during the Bolsonaro Administration
Lise Sedrez, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

 

Environmental History Journal Cover 4/2022

Reading Readers of Environmental History in Hungary – Roundtable discussions

Date: 11 November 2022. Time: 16.15 – 17.45. Venue: Budapest (Hungary), University of Public Service, Wing Building, John Lukács Hall.

The event takes two recently published readers of environmental history as its point of departure. Please note that the official language of the event is Hungarian.

The volumes that serve as the basis of discussion are:

Balogh, Róbert – Bodovics, Éva – Demeter, Gábor – Erdélyi, Mátyás – Eszik, Veronika – Vadas, András: Táj, ember, tudás – zöldtörténelem. Bevezetés a környezettörténet irodalmába. Budapest, Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, 2021. and

Balogh, Róbert – Bodovics, Éva – Demeter, Gábor – Erdélyi, Mátyás – Eszik, Veronika – Vadas, András: Tájátalakítás, járványok, vizek, birodalmak – zöldtörténelem. Tanulmányok a környezettörténet irodalmából. Budapest, Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, 2022.

Since the point of the publications was to facilitate access to the body of literature and approaches in Hungarian language, the discussions will also use that language. The event consists of two roundtable discussions with four participants each. The duration of discussions will be about 40-45 minutes each.

The first of these will address the importance and current state of disseminating knowledge about environmental history in Hungary. The confirmed participants of the first roundtable are:

Margit Kőszegi (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Karst and National Parks Project)

Anna Varga (University of Pécs, Department of Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology, post-doctoral researcher)

Gábor Demeter (Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest, Nation and Empire: Practices of knowing and transforming landscape in Hungary and the Balkans, 1850-1945 Project)

Veronika Eszik (Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest, Nation and Empire: Practices of knowing and transforming landscape in Hungary and the Balkans, 1850-1945 Project)

The theme of the second discussion is the way politics within empires and the politics of nation-building influenced human-environment relations in the 19th-20th century.

The confirmed participants of the second roundtable are:

Margit Kőszegi (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Karst and National Parks Project)

Gábor Demeter (Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Knowledge, Landscape, Nation and Empire: Practices of knowing and transforming landscape in Hungary and the Balkans, 1850-1945 Project

Veronika Eszik (Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest, Knowledge, Landscape, Nation and Empire: Practices of knowing and transforming landscape in Hungary and the Balkans, 1850-1945 Project)

Róbert Balogh (University of Public Service, Eötvös József Research Centre, Institute of Central European Studies, Budapest, Knowledge, Landscape, Nation and Empire: Practices of knowing and transforming landscape in Hungary and the Balkans, 1850-1945 Project)