Abstract

Petar-Emil Mitev
Dynamics of Poverty

The research basis is provided by the project Poverty, Ethnicity, Gender in Transitional Societies implemented under the leadership of Professor Iván Szelényi in six countries of the former Eastern block in 1999–2000.

The data have confirmed the initial assumption of the study: new poverty is being born, which is not an element of the life cycle of the individual but rather a socio-economic dependence affecting entire groups of people. The socio-biological factors (age, gender, children) are not pushed away but are rather transformed by the new dominant. The new socio-economic context even reinforces their effect, especially in some countries. A new, unexpected phenomenon is the formation of an age underclass in Southeast and Russia. All the countries surveyed, except for Poland, exhibit symptoms of poverty feminization. The number of children in a family is a primordial factor bearing on the family budget. However, the strongest dependence is ethnicity-based. The poverty of Roma in Southeast Europe is catastrophic and separates them into an ethnic underclass. Roma people in Hungary are losers as well but their poverty has a different macro-economic backdrop.

The differentia specifica of the research topic itself: it is not a static situation but a process in which reason and effect change places, a process that both shapes and is affected by the social structure. In parallel to the liberalization of economic initiative, powerful destructive processes are under way that tear the old social connections apart and turn the social status of immense groups of people upside down. The former middle layers are layered further. The income below average is the common denominator for many of them (in Central Europe) or for the majority (Southeast Europe and Russia), in contrast to the average income before. It could be foreseen that poverty will be irreversible for many and would entail declassation. This is already a fact for ethnic minorities in Southeast Europe and for elderly people there and in Russia. The further dynamics of the process could be traced at a new stage of the study.

Keywords: poverty, underclass, women, age groups


Henryk Domanski
Social Determinants of Poverty in Post-Communist Societies

The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on distribution of poverty within the social structure. Using comparable national survey data from Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Hungary we determine to what extent social determinants of poverty observed in the capitalist West are also at work in the specific context of East European societies. Second area of inquiry, here, concerns the formation of the underclass. In searching for a post-communist underclass this analysis attempts to figure out the social location of the poor relative to positions occupied by intelligentsia, other non-manual categories, working class, peasants, and owners. The distinctive characteristics of the Western underclass are labor market detachment, social isolation, and material deprivation. Using discrimination analysis we examine the placement of the poor within the social structure relative to occupationally based class categories. This analysis shows that in multidimensional space as defined in terms of social origin, educational achievements, housing conditions, material possessions, and ethnicity there is no significant differences between the poor and occupationally-based class categories in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland. Contrariwise, significant distinctions of this kind appear in Romania, Slovakia, and Russia. In interpretation of these findings we seek to answer the question whether after decade of political and economic transformations, unique features of poverty in Eastern Europe tend to intermingle with universal patterns.

Keywords: poverty, underclass, post-communist countries


Gail Kligman
On the Social Construction of "Otherness":
Identifying "the Roma" in Post-Socialist Communities

Gypsies, or Roma, are simultaneously among history's most romanticized and reviled of peoples. Stereotypically racialized and eroticized as "other" wherever they are located, prejudice and discrimination against Roma are currently heightened. This paper seeks to illustrate processes of identification by which Roma in post-socialist countries are classified as "other", as "different". Drawing on interview and observational data from the community studies of the project on "Poverty, Ethnicity, and Gender in Transitional Societies", this paper explores various discursive ways in which Roma are stereotypically "othered" by non-Roma populations as well as ways in which Roma understand themselves in relation to these historically persistent if situationally variable representations of their putative "identities". As is discussed, "Roma" as a category has been expanded in certain contexts to essentialize a purported relationship bewteen "race" and poverty.

Keywords: ethnicity, poverty


János Ladányi–Iván Szelényi
The Social Construction of Roma Ethnicity in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary during Market Transition

Who are Roma? What is the size of Roma population in a given country, a region of the world or in the whole world? To date, most social scientific research done in the Central European region on Roma populations operated with the assumption that one can arrive at an objective definition who Roma are and thus to come up with a accurate estimate of the size of Roma population. Rather than aiming at an "accurate" estimation of the Roma population, in this paper we hypothesize that ethnic groups are "social constructions". The boundary of any single ethnicity is "fuzzy": who is "inside" and who is "outside" this boundary will vary depending who does the classification. This paper tests survey results on two systems of classification: 1) self-identification by the respondents, and 2) and classification by interviewers in three countries, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania; and we show that there are substantial variation across countries. The paper offers strong support to the hypothesis that ethnic boundaries and various systems of classification are alterable across cultures. About two-third of those who were classified as Roma by the interviewers in Hungary and Romania do not regard themselves as Roma. In Bulgaria two-third of the respondent who were classified as Roma by the interviewer identified themselves as Roma. Therefore the task of social research is not to identify which classificatory system is "correct", or "accurate", but to understand the social processes how these various classificatory systems are created.

Keywords: ethnicity, the Roma


Éva Fodor
The Feminization of Poverty in Six Post-State Socialist Societies

Relying primarily on survey data from six East European countries, this paper seeks to answer two questions: 1) Are women over-represented among the poor population in Eastern Europe and if so, where? 2) What possible factors might explain the differences in the gender poverty gap across the countries under study? I find that three of the six countries exhibit significant gender differences in poverty: Russia, Romania and Bulgaria, and hypothesize that the speed of the economic transformations, as well as the resulting development of the welfare state will best explain the cross-country differences.

Keywords: poverty, gender, Eastern Europe, feminization of poverty, welfare state


Christy Glass–Janette Kawachi
Winners or Losers of Reform? Gender and Unemployment
in Poland and Hungary

In this paper we analyze whether and how unemployment patterns changed during the transition from socialism to capitalism in Hungary and Poland. Specifically, we test two competing theories that make predictions about women’s employment outcomes as a result of market reforms. First, Fodor’s theory of "revalued resources" predicts that women will have a significant advantage over men in the labor market as a result of attaining high levels of education and gaining substantial work experience in the service-sector under the socialist regime. Alternatively, the "re-traditionalization" theory predicts that women’s employment will gradually deteriorate as a result of traditional gender ideologies that have re-emerged throughout the transitional period.

In order to adjudicate between these competing theories, our analysis draws upon two major cross-national surveys conducted in Central and Eastern Europe in 1993 and 2000. By comparing labor market figures in Hungary and Poland in 1988, 1993, and 2001, our analysis maps the trajectory of men and women’s unemployment from the period immediately preceding market reforms to the current phase of transition. Overall, we find modest evidence for both theories depending on the country of interest. Furthermore, while women, as compared to men, have sustained a relatively strong position in the labor market after over a decade of reforms in Hungary, the employment situation for women in Poland is becoming increasingly bleak.

Keywords: gender, unemployment, market transition, Eastern Europe