Three decades of border studies in Hungary. A literature review

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, border studies have become a major area of research in both Hungarian and Western social sciences, especially human geography and related disciplines. Coming from the same roots, the development was largely parallel between the domestic and foreign scenes. From a Central and Eastern European perspective, however, regional particulars have led to significant differences between Hungarian and Western (mainly Anglo-Saxon) scholarship.

This paper aims to identify the pivotal influences on the distinctive evolution of Hungarian border studies from the emergence of the sub-discipline in the late 19th century until today, with particular emphasis on the years after 1989. To this end, the author begins with a presentation of how borders have become objects of interest and a relevant research topic for human geography and other disciplines of the social sciences. In this context, border is defined as a territorial construction which imposes distance on proximity.

An overview of the research history suggests that, over time, widely different aspects guided the exploration of borders. To highlight some timely change in current research questions, the author examines the evolution of the thematic and methodological foci of border research since the end of the 19th century, also shedding light on the economic, social and historical background.

The study then compares the international and Hungarian scholarly work for which the literature is first categorised according to the three most important research approaches as identified by Henk van Houtum. Applying this framework to Hungarian scholarship and evaluating other sources lead to the conclusion that Hungarian border research followed essentially the same path as the border studies of the West. However, Hungarian research progressed at a slower pace. Two aspects show significant differences: Recent Hungarian scholarship lacks the theoretical background of political geography, and often various thematic issues along a border are investigated but not the border itself. Finally, the author suggests that future scholarly work should make better use of both the knowledge capital of past Hungarian political and geographical work and contemporary theoretical work by international authors.