Social Analysis Vol. 11, 2021

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae The scientific journal of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) publishes original papers and surveys in several areas of sciences written in English.

Information about each series can be found at: http://www.acta.sapientia.ro.

Main Editorial Board Márton TONK Editor-in-Chief Adalbert BALOG Executive Editor Zoltán KÁSA Member Angella SORBÁN Managing Editor Laura NISTOR Member Csaba FARKAS Member Ágnes PETHŐ Member

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Social Analysis Executive Editor Laura NISTOR (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Editorial Board Zoltán AMBRUS (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Andrew BALAS (Old Dominion University, USA) Zoltán A. BIRÓ (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Julianna BODÓ (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Hajnalka FÉNYES (University of Debrecen, Hungary) Petru ILUŢ (Babeş–Bolyai University, Romania) Imre KOVÁCH (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) László ÖLLŐS (Forum Minority Research Institute, Slovakia) Zoltán ROSTÁS (University of Bucharest, Romania) Dumitru SANDU (University of Bucharest, Romania) Ágnes SÁNTHA (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Rafał SMOCZYŃSKI (Polish Academy of Sciences) Zoltán SZÁNTÓ (Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary) Imre TÓDOR (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Márton TONK (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania) Lilla VICSEK (Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary)

Sapientia University

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ISSN 2069-7449 http://www.acta.sapientia.ro

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Social Analysis Volume 11, 2021

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania Scientia Publishing House

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Social Analysis is indexed by the following main databases: Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL) DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) EBSCO Discovery Service Index Copernicus Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory/ulrichsweb

Contents Bernadett CSURGÓ, Luca KRISTÓF Gendered Norms and Family Roles in the Narratives of Hungarian Elite Members and Their Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Erzsébet Fanni TÓTH Trapped in the Gaze of Others. Discourses of Shame among Female Entrepreneurs in Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Virág ZSÁR Ifempower “Interactive and Mentorship-Based FEMale EmPOWERment in the Field of Entrepreneurship”: Background and the Way Forward . . . . . 43 Orsolya GERGELY, Andrea ZERKULA “Either We Start from Scratch, or We Close It”. The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female Entrepreneurs in Transylvania, Romania . . . . . . . . . . 60 Ágnes SÁNTHA, Balázs TELEGDY, Orsolya GERGELY, Laura NISTOR The Social Roots of Fears at the Start of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

An Online Study of the Ethnic Hungarian Population in Romania . . . . . . . . 79 Donata BOCULLO Liquid Narrative of European Cultural Identity in the Time of Uncertainty (2008–2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Zoltán BIRÓ A., Ágnes SÁROSI-BLÁGA Scripts in Rural Élites’ Attitude as Narrative Barriers in the Hungarian–Roma Interethnic Relations in Szeklerland (Romania) . . . . 116 Jutka NMARNÉ KENDÖL Natural Scientific and Ecological Environmental Education in the Training of Kindergarten Teacher Students at the University of Sopron, Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Book Review Ágnes SÁNTHA Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability. Editors: Javier Martinez, Claudia Andrea Mikkelsen, and Rhonda Philips, Cham: Springer, 2021 . . 144

Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 1–23 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0001

Gendered Norms and Family Roles in the Narratives of Hungarian Elite Members and Their Partners Bernadett CSURGÓ

Centre for Social Science – HAS Centre of Excellence, Budapest, Hungary csurgo.bernadett@tk.hu

Luca KRISTÓF

Centre for Social Science – HAS Centre of Excellence, Budapest, Hungary kristof.luca@tk.hu Abstract. Our paper contributes to studies on the enduring underrepresentation of women in elite positions through the analysis of elite members’ and their partners’ narratives on career and partnership.

Using a dataset of 34 individual interviews (17 couples) among Hungary’s political, economic, and cultural elite, we explore how narrators project themselves in the context of their marital relationships and family roles. We identify three pairs of narratives during our analysis. Narratives show the positions from where narrators discuss the theme of career and partnership as elite member/partner, power couple/non-power couple, and male/female.

Our findings show that narrative positioning is significantly gendered, and it is strongly connected to the traditional gendered role system. Having an elite position or pursuing a career calls for explanation only from women.

In the meantime, a non-power couple position calls for explanation from men, which suggests the increasing presence of the norm of equality in the Hungarian elite.

Keywords: elite, narrative, career, family, gender

Introduction There is considerable evidence that women in most societies are underrepresented in elite positions (Bass–Avolio 1994, Dahlerup 2006, Norris 2006). Scholars commonly argue that traditional gender attitudes have significant effects on the leadership positions of men and women. There are several explanations for why women have not risen to the top, including gender discrimination (Bertrand– Hallock 2001, Smith et al. 2013), internalized gender norms (Singh–Vinnicombe

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2004), gender-based stereotypes about attitudes and leadership style, etc. (Chang 2000, Cotter et al. 2001, Eagly–Carli 2007, Oakley 2000, Powell–Graves 2003).

However, elite literature mainly focuses on the work and leadership positions of men and women (i.e. glass ceiling and glass wall effects) and has lower emphasis on family roles and partnership.

The present research does not aim to deal with all the social, cultural, and institutional causes of gender imbalance in the Hungarian elite. The existing, though decreasing, social mechanisms of gender discrimination in the labour market (e.g. glass ceiling and glass wall effects) are well researched (see the works of Fodor 2009; Ilonszki 2004; Nagy 2009, 2007, 2001; Palasik–Sípos 2005; Várnagy–Ilonszki 2012, and others).

Instead, we focus on factors related to family life. In professions that have high social prestige because of high salaries and require high-level qualifications, the so-called “career advancement double standard” implies that women who have children are considered less serious about their career, while fathers are more likely to get promotion. Gender inequalities in career prospects are aggravated by gendered differences of family commitments. Several researchers argue that female career trajectories become very limited in the family-intensive life phase (Budig–England 2001, Leuze–Rusconi 2009).

This study aims to extend the reviewed literature that documents how family commitments of women result in inequalities in female career trajectories. We aim to explore the inequalities in everyday practices through elite couples’ narratives and how they discuss and perceive their career and family life as it affects experiences and status in the context of elite career. We aim to contribute to the explanations on the lasting underrepresentation of women in elite positions through the analysis of the elite’s narratives on career and partnership issues and related gendered norms. We use a dataset of 34 individual interviews (17 couples) among Hungary’s political, economic, and cultural elite. The method of interviewing both spouses of the chosen elite families allows us to identify the narrative of elite members and also that of their partners. Narrative analysis provides an alternative explanation for women’s exclusion from elite professions through the subjective aspects of social life. We argue that personal narratives can best reveal innermost thoughts, manifest norms and latent attitudes, frames of references and reactions to different life situations (Reis–Judd 2000, Reissman 2013).

The paper begins with a brief review on gendered norms and on women’s underrepresentation in the elite. Methodology is also presented in the first part of the paper. The second part explores the narratives of elite members and their partners about their career and family life. Three pairs of narrative roles have been identified: elite member/partner, power couple/non-power couple, and male/ female. These pairs of narratives show three different bases of points of view: status-based, career-structure-based, and gender-based narrative perspectives.

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Different narratives show the differences in perceptions and meanings of gendered norms and family roles among elite couples.

Gendered Norms and Attitudes Gendered social norms are important factors that maintain unequal relationships between women and men (Marcus–Harper 2014, West–Zimmerman 1987).

Gender systems define expectations and prescribe the proper behaviour for men and women. They emphasize differences between men and women as the basis for gender inequality (Ridgeway–Smith-Lovin 1999). In family life, gender systems establish the caregiver norm for women, which restrains them from a professional career. This norm prescribes that in families women should be the ones that primarily take care of children and elderly family members.

This mechanism contributes to gender inequalities in the following areas: in the family, the labour market, and policy making (Hobson et al. 2014). Gendered norms and inequality are constructed and reinforced in everyday practices and individual relations. Gender inequalities are often associated with the gendered division of domestic labour and gendered family roles (Crompton–Lyonette 2006).

Changes in division of household labour are rather slow. Several researchers show that women continue to do more household tasks than men, even if men’s activities have increased substantially (Falussy 2001, Sayer 2005, Sík–Szép 2001). Gendered norms are also institutionalized by occupational segregation and traditional division of household labour (Badgett–Folbre 1999).

Nevertheless, western societies are leaving behind the former common model of family life characterized by the specialization of women in housework and caregiving and men in paid work and are heading for more egalitarian gender roles (Esping-Andersen 2009, Milkie–Peltola 1999). Attitudes supporting gender inequality have shown a strong decline in value surveys (Cotter et al.

2011, Kaufman et al. 2016). In Hungary, although the dual-earner model became common after the Second World War, social attitudes towards family are rather traditional. In general, childbearing and childrearing are considered to be of prime importance for women, and gender inequalities in sharing the housework are commonly accepted (Dupcsik–Tóth 2014, Murinkó 2014). Based on the data of Generations and Gender Survey, Murinkó examined several dimensions of attitudes to gender and family roles in a comparative study (Murinkó 2014).

The analysis compared three Western European (Norway, France, and Germany) and three Eastern European (Hungary, Poland, and Romania) countries. The three post-communist countries were less egalitarian than the three Western European countries. In the three Eastern European countries, people tended to accept inequality between men and women. For Hungarians, childbearing and

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a two-parent family were very important, and, unlike in Romania and Poland, Hungarians thought that children’s interests are eminently important and that mothers should avoid paid work and stay at home with their pre-school children (Murinkó 2014).

According to recent value surveys, in Hungary, the prevalence of traditional values and gender roles is stable and still high, but compared to other European countries, the education and labour force participation gap between men and women is relatively low. This leads to some tension in the Hungarian society between attitudes, preferred gender roles, and practices shaped by economic reality (Hajdu–Hajdu 2018).

However, in line with European trends, several studies show that higher levels of social status correlate with more egalitarian attitudes in Hungary as well (Csurgó–Megyesi 2006, Shelton–John 1996). In her recent study, Gregor found that higher educated respondents had more egalitarian views in general, but in the meantime they were somewhat polarized in their attitudes: while some of them were coherently egalitarian, others, although they approved equal rights, prioritized family and motherhood in the life of women (Gregor 2016).

Women’s Underrepresentation in the Elite The Hungarian elite, like the elites of most European countries, consists mainly of highly educated, middle-aged males. The proportion of female elite members in all of the different political, economic, and cultural spheres are under 20 per cent (Kristóf 2012). According to the European Union’s Gender Equality Index,1 the general level of gender equality in Hungary is in line with other Central Eastern European countries. However, in the domain of power that measures the gaps between women’s and men’s representation in the political and economic spheres, Hungary performs the worst among new EU Member States. Although the chances of a woman getting into the elite have slightly increased over the past decade, there is still an unbalanced participation and access to decision-making compared to European averages (Kristóf 2012).

Topics related to gender norms are essential when we seek to understand women’s underrepresentation in the elite. Many studies argue that balancing work and family is a greater challenge in women’s lives than in men’s (e.g. Becker–Moen 1999, Blair-Loy 2005, Hochschild–Machung, 2012). A comparative elite study of 27 countries showed that women in leadership positions are much less likely to be married than their male counterparts (Vianello–Moore 2000). Besides, married women with traditional values do not want to outearn their husbands or work 1

http://eige.europa.eu/content/gender-equality-index. The index consists of six different domains of inequality: work, money, knowledge, time, health, and power.

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significantly longer hours than their husbands. This often causes that they choose to opt out from the labour market altogether or at least look for a job below their potential (Fleche et al. 2018). In a study concerning Hungarian female leaders, Nagy found that, unlike their male counterparts, female managers were “grateful” for the supportive attitude of their partner (Nagy 2016).

In line with these findings, a recent study explored serious gender-based differences in terms of marital status and the number of children within the Hungarian elite in 2018. 89.8% of male elite members while only 75.3% of elite women have children. 77.5% of men and only 41.2% of women are married in the elite group. The proportion of divorced status is significantly higher among women than men among the elite.2 These findings strongly suggest that becoming part of the elite is less reconcilable with traditional family life (marriage and childbearing) for women than for men.

According to Esseveld and Andersson, three main forms of family life could be distinguished in the elite. The most traditional one is often referred to as a “twoperson career”: a top leader with a non-working partner, usually a home-centred, family-making wife. In the case of a “dual-earner couple”, the partner of the elite member works but does not hold a leading position. Thirdly, in a “dual-career couple”, both partners pursue full-time and highly-paid, professional/managerial jobs (Esseveld–Andersson 2000).

An important characteristic of the first and partly the second couple type is a more traditional gender role division. These forms of life provide a supportive background for the elite member, who can hence afford more time and energy for work (Dribe–Stanfors 2010). Meanwhile, in the case of the dual career way of life, the partner of the elite member also pursues a career characterized by high professional standards, continuous progress through a hierarchy, and high degrees of challenge and commitment (Dribe–Stanfors 2010). It is likely that he or she also has an elite or sub-elite position, and thus this type is often called a power couple.

It has been reported in Hungary that family task sharing is more equal in highly educated urban families (Blaskó 2006, Falussy 2001, Sík–Szép 2001, Solera 2008). What is considered a fair division of household tasks depends on the values of the couples. According to a study comparing 29 countries, women in more egalitarian couples are more likely to consider doing a larger share of housework to be unfair (Jansen et al. 2016).

Nevertheless, specifically in the Hungarian elite, this issue has never been studied. A study concerning the USA showed that changes towards a more equal family task sharing are slower in families of elite professionals than in the society as a whole (Coltrane 2004). This may be linked to career types: among couples 2

Data source: NKFIH OTKA Circulation and Dissent in the Hungarian Cultural Elite research project (Principal Investigator: Luca Kristóf).

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in the elite, non-working spouses are more common than in the lower strata of society. Moreover, the symbolic distinction of separate gendered spheres is linked to male dominance throughout society, and individuals in elite professions are characterized to a great extent by these gendered norms. This provides a possible explanation why women are underrepresented in elite professions and why gender equality is progressing more slowly among the elite (Coltrane 2004).

Data and Methods During our research in the Spring of 2014, we conducted 34 individual semistructured in-depth interviews with members of the Hungarian political, economic, and cultural elite and their partners.3 In line with the mainstream of Hungarian elite studies (Csite–Kovách 1999, Csurgó–Megyesi 2011, Kristóf 2012, Szelényi et al. 1995), the sample of the political elite was taken from the Handbook of Hungarian Public Life, which registers members of the government, leading bureaucrats of ministries, mayors, and leaders of the most important social organizations. The economic elite sample contained top managers of the biggest firms in Hungary, taken from the Hoppenstedt-Bonnier firm register. The cultural elite sample included members of the Academy of Sciences, university rectors, heads of research institutes, leaders of publishing houses and the media, and holders of the most prestigious state-sponsored art award (i.e. the Kossuth Prize). The sampling method was not representative; we sought respondents who fulfilled the sampling criteria and could be contacted via personal acquaintances in one or two steps. Without a recommendation from a common acquaintance, none of the elite members were willing to take part in a research that concerned their private lives. Nevertheless, one must be aware that this method caused selection bias in our sample.

Our 34 respondents formed 17 heterosexual couples: 17 elite members and their spouses. It was a condition for entering the sample that both partners consented to being interviewed. However, interviews were conducted individually. The interviews averaged around an hour in length. After clarifying the respondent’s age, marital status, and number of children, we asked questions on his or her professional background, career history, and family life.

From the 17 selected elite members 7 were politicians (2 former ministers, 3 state secretaries, 1 MP, and 1 mayor), 5 were top managers, and 5 were cultural elite members (2 university rectors, 1 member of the Academy of Sciences, and 2 artists awarded the Kossuth Prize). Some of our respondents shifted between various segments of the elite society throughout their lives, such as top manager/ 3

We conducted another analysis with different analytical focuses based on this research. Results are published in a previous article in the Journal of Family Issues (Csurgó–Kristóf 2018).

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state secretary in finance or minister/university rector. They were categorized by their latest position. Eleven of the selected elite members were male and six female. In 6 cases, partners of the elite members turned out to be also members of the elite in their own right (3 women and 3 men). Nevertheless, in all of the remaining 11 couples, partners were also highly educated professionals (i.e. academics, physicians, or managers). The age of our respondents varied between 37 and 70; the majority of the interviewees were in their fifties. All couples had child(ren), most of them still living with their parents. All but one couple lived in Budapest or the suburban region of the capital.

Interview data were analysed by Atlas.ti content analysis software. We conducted a qualitative thematic text analysis and analysed the spouse narratives separately, but we also focused on the relationships for husband–wife dyads during the analysis. We generated codes related to work–family themes and collected the descriptions and stories on career, everyday life, and work–life trade-offs into 70 starting codes produced through the terminology used by the interviewees. During the analysis process, we grouped the codes into analytical themes, which concerned attitudes and values towards family norms, roles and work–life balance. We then created 11 themes, including modern and traditional family norms, work–life balance, elite lifestyle, career trajectories, and family and also grouped the texts into six code groups of narrative points of view: elite, partner, power couple, non-power couple, male, and female. Analytical themes organized and structured the analysis of narratives. We intended to identify identity constructions in the content of our interviews by using a positioning approach for a discursive analysis (Reissman 2013). Positioning is understood here as a discursive construction of personal narrations (Harré–Langenhove 1998).

We did not only focus on the themes related to family and career coordination, but we also paid attention to how the narrators position themselves, perform, and present their family roles and norms in the situation of the interview. Our analysis presents how elite couples negotiate the question of career and partnership from different points of view, which are seen here as the narrative positions of narrators.

Narrative positions are related to different perceptions of work–life balance. In addition, our results show that the narratives are significantly gendered.

Through the analysis of elite couples’ narratives on career and partnership, our paper aimed to contribute to studies on the enduring underrepresentation of women in elite positions. We analysed narratives on career and partnership, applying a performative analytical approach (Reissman, 2013) to explore how narrators projected themselves in the context of their marital relationships and family roles and how this is related to their attitudes, norms, and expectations of roles and role combinations. We found that narratives, the points of view from which our interviewees perceive and discuss their career and partnership, are significantly determined by their attitudes and norms of gender roles. Attitudes,

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feelings, norms, and personal expectations for work–life balance are involved in a narrative positioning expressed through their storytelling.

Results of the Content Analysis Narratives on Carrier and Partnership Women’s underrepresentation in the elite is often associated with role conflicts and gendered family commitment (Becker–Moen 1999, Coltrane 2004). To understand this, the present section focuses on our interviewees’ experiences of career and partnership, how they perceive the impacts of the elite career on their partnership and everyday family life.

Personal narratives can be analysed in several ways. Here, we use a performative analytical approach, which regards narratives as the performance of the storytellers on their identities and roles (Reissman 2013). This approach is based on Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor on how individuals (actors) develop their identities through social interactions (performances) with others (audiences) (Goffman 2000). During the analysis, we seek to explore how narrative identities are developed by the discourses on career and partnership. We apply here the approach of Harré and van Langenhove (1998:17) on social positioning, who claimed that “fluid positioning and not fixed roles are used by people to cope with the situations they find themselves in”.

Thus, narratives and projected identities are strongly determined by the interview situation and the request of the interviewers to talk as a member of an elite couple. Narratives that are constructed and presented in the situation of storytelling are only restricted parts of the interviewees’ identity. Narratives are regarded as discourses of elite spouses in our research. Elite spouses can position themselves during the storytelling as elite members or partners, and they can also perform the role of power couple or non-power couple. In addition, we have also classified male and female narrative perspectives that imply a special discussion on career and partnership, including gendered demands of individuals.

According to the content analysis, we classified three opposite pairs of narratives (elite/partner, power couple/non-power couple, male/female) constructing different narrative roles that present different approaches on the professional and family life of elite couples. Using these pairs of narratives by our interviewees was not exclusive: for example, during the interview, they could position themselves first as an elite member and then as a member of a power couple, or some of them could choose first the narrative role of power couple and later shift to the female one, and so on. Nevertheless, all the narratives are strongly determined by the narrators’ gender norms.

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Narratives of the Elite Member and the Elite Partner

Graph 1. Coded themes in elite member and elite partner narratives

Source: authors’ results based on the content analysis of the interviews

Elite member and partner as two opposite narratives were identified related to the positioning of self in our interview situation, where we contacted them as elite spouses (see Graph 1).

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Interviewees who have positioned themselves as elite members discussed the theme of career and partnership through the stories of their own career trajectories and privileged status. The narrative of elite members consists of a long explanation on how they have reached their position. At the centre of the narrative is the speaker as an agent of their professional life. They evaluate their current situation according to their career interests and experiences.

Most of the elite member narrators direct the interview to the topic of career commitment, including the topic of role of networking, for example. They highlighted that strong commitment is needed and that it has resulted in unequal family roles. In most cases, elite career has been presented as a “one-person show”, where their spouse appeared as background and supporter.

Dora fulfils classical female roles. Starting with childbearing, childrearing, keeping the fire of the home, cooking, things like this. She never really tried to have a say in what I am doing. We mutually discuss stuffs. But related to my work, we do not make decisions together. I decide alone.

Of course, she is in it as a conversation partner and as someone who has a point of view. But, for example, my candidacy to be a mayor was not a common decision, it was mine, and she accepted it. (Zsolt (M), 44, mayor, his wife is an assistant professor in law)4 This kind of hierarchical relationship was presented as the downside of an elite career; however, it was regarded as a necessary consequence of an elite form of life. Narrators who have regarded themselves as elite members claimed that “elite career needs egoism”.

Here, the elite partner’s narrative complements that of the elite member.

Speakers positioned themselves as elite partners through the storytelling about their partner’s career trajectories and the formation of their privileged life. Elite life-form, elite networks, and financial safety were highlighted in the stories of the partners. Narrators described themselves as the background and supporter of their elite spouse. Invisibility was claimed as the main characteristic of the elite partner in their narratives, and it was also expressed by the neglect of their own professional trajectories. They regarded the partner’s career as their main capital for an elite lifestyle. From this perspective, family roles and difficulties were hardly discussed. Even if narrators reported downsides of the elite position (lack of free and family time), these were eclipsed by positive aspects of an elite lifestyle.

4

Names of the interviewees were changed for the sake of anonymity. The language of the interviews was Hungarian. The excerpts presented in this article were translated into English by a native speaker.

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It is rather a disadvantage that he is my husband. I did another degree after the kids were born, but not even my current job is independent of him. Everybody is an acquaintance or colleague or enemy of him. No one looks at me for who I am, but it is as if there were a cloud behind me and they talk to that cloud. (…) Financial safety feels good because I am paid peanuts here. It is a luxury to work so hard for so little money. However, I can do it because he makes money for our living. (Emma (F), 38, archivist, her husband is a reputed historian) Elite partner narrators built their narratives through the presentation of an elite way of life and their background position, as it was presented as a result of their common decision to have a family. Traditional family roles with a positive attitude towards the manifest or latent statement that “family is the main resource and support of an elite career” also appear in this discourse (see Graph 1).

Status-based perceptions of career and partnership are strongly connected to a hierarchical partnership presented as a consequence of elite status. Both elite member and elite partner narratives are strongly characterized by traditional gender norms. Work–life balance is not a focus of the discussion in either narrative.

Since work–life balance does not appear as a problem in these narratives due to this hierarchical partnership, we can say it does not cause narrative tension.

Work is related to the sphere of the elite member, while family life is the sphere of the elite partner. This separation results in the lack of demand for balancing work and life. It is important to highlight that mostly male narrators position themselves in the elite member narrative role, while elite partner narratives are exclusively female narratives. These gender differences in the narratives confirm the significant impact of the ideology of separate spheres on the exclusion of women from elite professions (Coltrane 2004).

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Narratives of the Power Couple and Non-Power Couple The second pair of narratives found in the interviews were the power couple and the non-power couple narratives (see Graph 2).

Source: authors’ results based on the content analysis of the interviews

Graph 2. Coded themes in power couple and non-power couple narratives

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Some of our interviewees concerning their career and way of life positioned themselves as a power couple. Topics arising from the narratives of power couple are strongly connected to their career life. The most important and significant topics of their talks are career decisions (their own and their partner’s) and balancing career phases. The question of independence mainly concerning spouses’ career life is very much highlighted in the power couple narrative.

Women’s career (“women at the top”) was also significantly discussed in power couple narratives. In the context of family life, they talk about short but intensive participation and the importance of domestic help.

I think that some people can give a lot to their children by giving them plenty of attention, by always being with them. Perhaps we give them less attention, but at the same time we can give lots of other things in exchange. It is not always good for a child if his or her mother gives him or her attention 24 hours a day. Instead, she goes and sees her mother on the stage. Often the quality of family life is more important than the quantity.

(Tamás (M), 43, top manager; his wife is a pianist) Modern family roles with egalitarian attitudes are strongly emphasized.

Narrators introduce themselves as partners who care about their spouse’s career but also pursue a career with a leading position. They emphasize the importance of equality and successful work–life balance as a basis for and a main characteristic of their well-balanced career and partnership.

Non-power couples’ narratives were in many respects the opposite of those of power couples. Partners of elite members who position themselves as a non-power couple discussed at length their partner’s job and especially the career success of their spouses. They claimed that “the partner’s career is more important”.

In contrast with elite members’ narratives, narrators using this non-power couple narrative emphasized their partner’s important role in family making.

Attitudes and emotions that are expressed in this non-power couple narrative on the partner’s career are ambivalent, unbalanced, and unequal. However, being a non-power couple was presented as an independent, rational personal decision. Non-power couple narrators discussed why they had chosen this type of partnership and what the possibilities of a different life are (“dreaming or not of a different life”). They rationalized the fact that in their family one partner has the leading and the other has the following career and that their specialization in breadwinning/caregiving with earning inequalities caused by external factors.

This is especially true for the elite, where economic stakes can be very high, and our interviewees do not want to risk their high standard of living. Economic reasoning and gendered views on parenthood were often combined.

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Bernadett CSURGÓ, Luca KRISTÓF Yes, there are two careers, and it is not easy to harmonize them. But to tell you the truth, when there is a hard conflict and someone has to compromise, it used to be Kriszti who compromised. Partly because of the rather prosaic reason that the financial existence of our family was always based on my earnings. She also earns well when she works, but she has never had such stable career prospects or a long-term contract so that we could rely entirely on her earnings. In my opinion, this was the reason why when we could not manage duality any more, she was the one who had to step back eventually… (Péter (M), 44, state secretary; his wife is a researcher)

In the non-power couple narrative, an elite career was presented as the result of the couple’s mutual efforts. Career success and elite membership were perceived as common success. Unequal career structure (non-power couple situation) was perceived as a consequence of their individual choice of a “two-person show”, where one is the member of the elite and the other is the invisible partner.

I give her some stability. I do not want her to feel that her work endangers the well-being of any member of our family. For example, it is a weekend and the phone rings, within an hour she has to be on television. We do not make a fuss or feel upset, but instead we arrange everything so that she can leave calmly. Sacrifice? It is rather an agreement. I have spent a lot of time with family, certainly I had to take this time away from something and that was my work. So, that is why self-employment was good because I could work flexibly. And that is some kind of a sacrifice because I saw that if I could invest more energy, my firm could develop more rapidly, and I could make more money. (Daniel (M), 39, entrepreneur; his wife is a Member of Parliament) However, in non-power couple’s narratives, family roles and norms were discussed in a more egalitarian way than career structure. Narrators usually emphasized the importance of both partners’ egalitarian position in the family, their independence, and their personal interests. The non-elite members of the couple usually highlighted their partner’s involvement in family tasks (both in childcare and in domestic duties), even if they were the main organizers of family life. According to their narratives, inequalities in the career structure of spouses have not necessarily resulted in inequalities in family positions: traditional family values and modern family roles were simultaneously emphasized.

In the power couple and non-power couple narratives, career and partnership were discussed from the point of view of couples’ career trajectories. Power couple narrators emphasize modern family norms and personal independence in the

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context of work–life balance and elite lifestyle (such as domestic help, financial security), and they regard elite lifestyle as a helpful factor for it. On the other hand, non-power couple narrators emphasize the importance of compromise and common decisions, and they regard an elite life course as an external factor that complicates their otherwise egalitarian partnership. Nevertheless, the issue of family life results in a narrative tension in both cases.

Narrative tension is connected to gendered norms in both cases. In the case of power couples, mostly women in leading positions apologize for their partnership situation and their career decisions, while in the case of non-power couples mostly male narrators offer excuse about their non-egalitarian partnership structure.

Narratives of Men and Women The third pair of identified narratives were the male and female ones. Some of our interviewees positioned themselves as a woman or man when they talked about career and partnership. Thus, we could identify clear male and female narrative positioning concerning career and partnership.

One of the topics that arose when the narrator talked from the position of a male involved fatherhood. They also discussed the importance of compromise in a partnership. Informants who discussed career and partnership from a male narrative also discussed and reflected on traditional family roles. Traditional attitudes were regarded as an aspect that could make everyday career commitments easier; however, they could cause conflicts between partners and interfere with the harmony of a partnership.

You are looking for a modus vivendi, what is the best for the children and also for yourself. And I’d be a liar if I said that sometimes it would not be good if I had a different kind of woman beside me. A woman whom I could tell: go for a walk with the children, I am busy. And she would not ask any questions, just do what I asked. But actually I know well that it would not be good for me or for the kids. (Henrik (M), 46, communications consultant; his wife is a state secretary) Equal partnership and work–life trade-offs were presented as crucial for partnership harmony in this narrative. Interestingly, a very cooperative attitude was constructed here through the involvement of “modern” male interests (such as fatherhood) in family life. It is important to say that interviewees who discussed their situation from a male narrative role emphasized modern gender attitudes.5 5

Male interviewees expressing traditional gender attitudes did not use the narrative of a male, but they positioned themselves in different ways, mostly as elite members.

Bernadett CSURGÓ, Luca KRISTÓF 16

Source: authors’ results based on the content analysis of the interviews

Graph 3. Coded themes in male and female narratives

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A traditional family model is very unhealthy; I do not support it. It would be terribly frustrating if I came home to a housekeeper, who talked about what she bought in the supermarket. Sooner or later the horizon of these women gets so narrow that it becomes detrimental to marital relationships.

I would be demotivated if I had to come home to a woman who spends the whole day at home. (Pál (M), 46, businessman; his wife is a CEO) Some women in our sample discussed the topic of career and partnership using a female narrative (Graph 3). The themes discussed from the female narrative are “motherhood” in the context of career trajectories, “family and career together”, and “family cohesion”, which is realized with the help of the partners’ work–life trade-offs. Female narrators presented themselves here as “modern mother and wife”, and they emphasized that “family tasks are not enough for a woman”.

If I am not using my brain, I feel awful. I feel I am wasting my time hunting for low-cost fruits and baby-soups. I feel I could do much more useful things. Somehow I am ashamed of this because it is not a nice thing to say, but for me the point of life is not based on how shiny the bloody nursing bottle is! (Réka (F), 45, state secretary; her husband is a communications consultant) Female narratives consisted of a long discussion of “egalitarian family task sharing”. In the case of young mother interviewees, female narratives involved the question of maternity leave and the career possibilities after it. Interviewees who talked about career and partnership from a female perspective emphasized the importance of cooperation between the partners.

My husband is not the type who wants me to stay at home. Moreover, he is definitely happier if I am really busy, just like him. There was never a moment when he told me not to work. I never cook or anything, or I am only willing to do basic stuff, but my husband is very good at cooking.

Usually, he is the one who cooks. (Brigitta (F), 45, businesswoman; her husband is a businessman) They presented themselves as modern women for whom balance between work and life is crucial. The value and experience of egalitarian partnership are very much emphasized here. Only women having modern family attitudes focused on female interests when they discussed career and partnership. The lack of female interests in the narratives seems to be related to traditional gender attitudes.

Gendered dynamics in the narratives were strongly connected to modern family norms. Both male and female narrative roles were expressed. Gendered

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narrative roles reflect gender interests. This means that the different demands of men and women are negotiated and accepted. We suggest that here gender aspects are associated with modern, egalitarian family relations, and gender roles are no longer interpreted as only traditional family roles.

Discussion During our analysis, three pairs of narratives were identified. Narratives show the positions from where narrators discuss the theme of career and partnership as elite member/partner, power couple/non-power couple, and male/female.

Table 1. Narrative roles and perspectives linked to gender norms Perspectives/ Narrative roles Gender norms Status-based Elite member Elite partner Career-structure-based – Power couple Non-power couple Gender-based – Female Male Source: authors’ results based on the content analysis of the interviews

Identified pairs of narrative roles represented three different points of view. The first is a status-based point of view, where the narrators perceive their career and partnership from the elite members’ or from the elite partners’ point of view. Elite partner narratives are exclusively female narratives. Status-based perceptions are strongly connected to traditional gender norms and separate sphere ideologies.

The second perspective is based on the experienced career structure. Narrators perceive their career and partnership from the power couples’ or from the nonpower couples’ points of view. Many of the male narrators without an elite career status position themselves in the non-power couple narrative role. Work–life balance is the focus of the discussion, career and partnership are presented as different ways and forms of work–life balance, but modern gender norms are significantly emphasized in both narratives. However, some narrative tension also emerges when narrators explain their modern family roles, especially in the case of male non-power couple narrators. The latter one is the gendered point of view – narrators who discuss their career and partnership from the man’s or the woman’s point of view show significant gender consciousness and sensitivity.

Narrative positioning is strongly determined by the actual situation and also by the attitudes and expectations of gender roles. Gender differences appeared strongly in the presented narratives. Male and female elite members discussed

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career and partnership and their family roles in different ways. Male interviewees more frequently positioned themselves as elite members and presented their partners in a subordinate position, which was strongly connected to traditional family roles (Singh–Vinnicombe 2004). Partners in female elite member’s narratives appeared as supporters and background, but markedly as equal ones.

These differences are deeply embedded in the traditional gender role system in general (Leuze–Rusconi 2009). Furthermore, gender differences were also shown in narrative positioning through the family’s career-based form of life. When men positioned themselves as members of a power couple, they gave less emphasis to their spouse’s career than women did. This is also connected to the general gendered role system where the career success of women has to be explained (Mayrhofer et al. 2008).

Non-power couple narratives showed similar gendered differences. Traditional family norms were more internalized (Thébaud et al. 2019) in women’s narratives, while in male partners’ narratives there was a stronger emphasis on their contribution to their partner’s career and to privileged lifestyle. Men presented themselves as equal and cooperative members of their family.

Conclusions Our findings show that narrative positioning is significantly gendered, and it is strongly connected to the traditional gendered role system. Having an elite position or pursuing a career calls for explanation only from women. In the meantime, a non-power couple position calls for explanation from men, which suggests the presence of the norm of equality.

Our findings also suggest that gendered perception and perspectives for career and partnership do not evidently result in traditional gender attitudes. These results show that a more open discussion on gender interests can be the base of egalitarian partnerships and more equal family commitment, which may strengthen women’s career aspirations and their involvement in elite professions (Usdansky 2011). Further analyses are needed to understand the incoherence of attitudes and practices and the way that egalitarian norms have been experienced by elite spouses (Csurgó–Kristóf 2018).

The results may also show that narrative analysis – despite its limitations – provides information that is not accessible via other methods. This approach is more reflective of individuals’ constructed and contextual organization of experiences. A new aspect of gender has arisen from the application of this narrative analysis approach, which shows that an open discussion of gender issues and interests may contribute to and help strengthen women’s career aspirations and their motive to achieve elite positions.

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Trapped in the Gaze of Others. Discourses of Shame among Female Entrepreneurs in Austria Erzsébet Fanni TÓTH

Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, Austria erzsebet.toth@sfu.ac.at Abstract. This article explores female entrepreneurs’ picture of self in the gaze of others. It relies on the narratives of female business owners gained via semi-structured interviews and focus groups, compiled in the framework of an international research project (iFEMPOWER)1 in Austria. The study reveals that the imagined and perceived gaze of others has a significant power on how businesswomen define both their professional and personal self and how they evaluate their self-worth. The gaze of others becomes a signifier of shame (for not being enough or being too much). The results of this study contribute to a more complex understanding of female entrepreneurship, and with the interdisciplinary character it aims at shaping the contemporary discourse on the gendered entrepreneurial sector.

Keywords: female entrepreneurship, qualitative analysis, shame, self-worth, the gaze of others

Introduction and Theoretical Overview Anna (name altered) is a therapist with a private practice in Austria. She has established her one-person company right after finishing her studies at the university and obtaining her professional licence from the Ministry of Health.

As a single woman with a migration background and a student loan to pay back, she struggles to make the ends meet. The fact that she is not yet fluent in German does not help her find new clients, even though the international community is quite big in this Central European capital city. Anna, to maintain herself, decides to take a part-time job at one of the tourist sites, where she sells postcards to visitors. When one day she encounters one of her clients there, she becomes completely devastated. She realizes that she does not owe an explanation to the person yet feels that her professional reputation has been broken into pieces in a glimpse of a moment. She is ashamed and wishes she could just disappear. The 1

Funded by Erasmus+.

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seconds while she is serving the client at the cash desk feel like ages, and even though months have passed, she can still feel the burden of that short encounter up to the present day. The gaze of the client stayed with her. Ever since she feels very bad about her inability to hide her private sphere from her client, the financial hardship and the need for a second job. Moreover, she blames herself for losing her professional credibility (since, according to her inner monologue, a “really good” entrepreneur has enough clients and does not need to work in such a “low-status place”).

Anna is only one of the female entrepreneurs trapped in the gaze of others, whom we encountered while studying women running their businesses in Austria. From a communication expert in a rural region to an IT specialist working from home office in a big city, we could find traces of shame, which resulted in self-blame, self-questioning, and reflection of self-worth(lessness).

Shame is, however, a phenomenon that we rarely want to discuss when we are asked about our professional identity. We try to avoid it by all means – just as we avoid being spotted while having a shower, and if revealed, we cover ourselves right away. Our strong effort for self-presentation is made for a reason: with an attempt to control how our environment sees and perceives us (Rochat 2009). We tend to have others in mind and see ourselves from their perspective, trying to estimate what they would like us to be and to act. We believe that if we manage to estimate it well, we imagine having control over our reputation, thus, on the image people have about who we are.

This major drive for self-preservation in us exists for social reasons given that our reputation contributes to our social acceptance and determines whether or not we might belong somewhere. If we manage to demonstrate qualities, which are highly valued by our society, we believe to have control over our affiliation (Rochat 2014). Therefore, from very early on, we learn to measure our worth through the gaze of our environment. An approving look will make us believe that we have the right to be part of our community and will contribute both to our self-confidence and what we call social well-being. A disapproving or questioning look, on the other hand, can be a humiliating experience. If it stems from a public display of a part of our self that we prefer to hide or keep to the closest environment, it becomes a social experience: „A man is shamed either by being openly ridiculed and rejected or fantasizing to himself that he has been made ridiculous. In either case it is a potent sanction.

But it requires an audience or at least a man’s fantasy of an audience” (Benedict 1946/2005: 223).

In the context of Austria, where male entrepreneurs still outnumber females, establishing an enterprise for women still inevitably involves the gaze (and the judgement) of the environment. Businesswomen on the territory of Austria still have lower income, tend to have smaller companies, and, what is more,

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they constitute the absolute majority of the country’s self-employed population (Bögenhold–Klinglmair 2015). In a country where the overwhelming majority of the population is employed (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2017), many female entrepreneurs engage in the business activity only part-time, mostly to keep the security of an employment and to balance their work-related responsibilities and the responsibilities of their home environment (ifempower 2019). The company might be set up and then also ran part-time even for a longer time period (Sieger et al. 2016, ifempower 2019), which can be hypothesised to save the new entrepreneur from the full exposure of the gaze and consequently also the judgement of the other.

Past research on female entrepreneurs (Bloch 2011) pointed out that the regular renegotiation of traditional gender roles, expressions of power, and the meanings attached to the breadwinner roles in the families are inevitable. This negotiation process, however, is not easy, as it occurs under a strong radar of both personal networks and professional society. Upon stepping into a self-employed role, besides being watched and seeking for approval (Rochat 2014), managing the demands of the professional and personal life constitute a burden for many women (Noor 2004, Welter 2004, Frone et al. 1992). This often results in negative consequences for the welfare of women (Hammer et al. 2004).

In the past decades, scholars have described how women deal with emotions emerging from the double burden of having to perform well in care-related (private) areas and at the same time having to manage a profitable business. Numerous authors also discussed the coping mechanisms of entrepreneurial women as well (Stoner et al. 1990, Greenhaus–Beutell 1985, Ashforth et al. 2000, Edwards– Rothbard 2000, Greenhaus–Parasuraman 1999, Kossek et al. 1999). We know how tactics, such as segmentation, compensation, accommodation, and boundary management, are frequently applied in search of balance between profession and private life (Lambert 1990), and we are also aware of the importance of social support as well as psychological resources in coping with these challenges (Ruderman et al. 2002). Postponing childbearing, employing assistance with the household and care, or reducing working hours have been identified as common strategies internationally (Becker–Moen 1999, Moen–Yu 2000).

Nevertheless, much less is known about the sources of the conflict that emerges within the individual when working towards a leading position in her field, let alone the methods of dealing with it. If the conflict between profession and family is likely to be significantly higher for those female business owners who aim for high growth (Shelton 2006) and if start-up entrepreneurs in general have to deal with a higher workload than those employed in white-collar, bluecollar, or professional positions (Harris et al. 1999), then how do they reflect on themselves, on their personal and professional self? If their newly established business requires them to invest more time in their new projects to attract clients

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or accessing capital (Bates 2002), yet the outcome of the investment is highly questionable, then what meanings are attached to the entrepreneurial lifestyle and work–family conflicts? How important role does the gaze of the other play in self-narratives? These were the questions that have mostly fallen out of the scope of past enquiries and motivated this research.

Methods The research was conducted within the framework of an EU-funded international project (iFEMPOWER) and aimed to map the lived experiences of female entrepreneurship. The current article, however, focuses only on the data collected in Austria.

Purposeful sampling with maximum variation (Palinkas et al. 2015) was applied, whereby researchers could rely on their networks (convenience sampling) yet mind aspects of diversity. The objective was to reach women who have been active in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a year in Austria. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted in the homes and workplaces of the Austrian female entrepreneurs. The interviews lasted from 40 to 120 minutes. Besides that, two focus groups were organized, with an average length of 2 hours.

The female entrepreneurs selected in the sample worked in various fields, ranging from the healthcare industry to art management and food production, and all had been self-employed or running their own companies for more than a year. Due to purposeful sampling with maximum variation, a proportion of them came from urban environments, while others lived and worked in rural areas of Austria. Their marital status also varied: part of our sample was married or lived in partnership, and many of them cared for at least one child. The sample also involved single participants as well as women who were single parents at the time of data collection. All but two of the interviewed Austrian entrepreneurs worked locally or within the boundaries of the country.

All participants of the study were informed about the aim of the meeting, its approximate length, consent and confidentiality criteria. Written informed consent was obtained by the researchers at the beginning of each meeting. The names of the subjects together with names of their companies and exact places of residence have been replaced by pseudonyms to preserve anonymity.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith–Osborn 2003) was applied to understand what the lived experiences are and to map the dynamic meanings that participants attach to their entrepreneurial experiences. The texts were coded for explicit and implicit mentions of the gaze of others. These descriptions of the “essence” or core commonality of the lived experience of entrepreneurship were then further studied to understand the relationship between the subjects and their

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environments. For the interpretations to stay grounded within the narratives of the interviewed subjects, a selected set of criteria was adopted from the repertoire of grounded theory (Corbin–Strauss 1990). They helped the researcher to structure the emerging ideas and conceptualizations from data to theory.

Results In this section of the article, the results will be divided into subcategories and will all be illustrated by quotations from the respondents. Three overarching “Gaze of the others”-related themes emerged during data analysis: 1. self-representing in the light of powerful gendered stereotypes about entrepreneurs, 2. shame felt about struggling to achieve a work–life balance, and 3. shame over struggling to become independent and self-sustaining in a long-term perspective. Each theme is described in detail below.

Self-Representation in the Light of Existing Social Structures and Stereotypes The participants’ longest narratives in both the interviews and the focus groups depict how the individual has to adjust as a person (I) and as an entrepreneur (me) in a social structure, where she becomes gendered (the woman), and depending on her partnership and parental status might also face the roles of the wife/ partner and/or the mother (among other relational aspects that are beyond the scope of this article). When asked about the characteristics of an entrepreneur, the discussions immediately started to revolve around the topics of contrasting the “female” vs. “male” entrepreneur. The participants intensely discussed their perceived gendered and relational characteristics, habits and traits, and what it means in their perspective to do business with an ascribed gender.

The majority of them revealed that the “typical” female entrepreneur is selfconfident, organized, vision-based. Someone who is not self-centred, but who has a higher meaning behind her business. A person who wants to make the world a better place. Even though they agreed that most of the mentioned traits and characteristics could also be applied to a male entrepreneur, the majority of their descriptions of businessmen still revolved around stereotypes of all-male-clubs of “Millennial” Start-Uppers seeking to “change their bank accounts”. They also saw them as “super-isolated while working” in contrast to women, who “care about many things in parallel”.

This portrayal of female versus male entrepreneurs inevitably created a strong binary opposition between “female” vs. “male” businesses as well. The described self-centred male entrepreneurship and the partially lived (and experienced)

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– partially envisioned self-sacrificing female counterpart turned out to be a paradox. The female interview subjects expressed that they were aware that, theoretically, there was only one business, without gender, yet they could not describe themselves and their endeavours in any other light than women who are ought to be focusing on “changing a community or a society for the better”.

Female entrepreneur

Busy Dedicated Persistent Flexible

Open-minded

Resistant Diplomatic Curious Focused

Hard-working Agile Creative Active listener

vs

Male entrepreneur

Risk-taker

Doer Super-isolated worker

Self-confident Independent

Outspoken Presenting ideas early on

Cool

Source: author’s graph based on the narratives

Graph 1. Narrated characteristics of female versus male entrepreneurs in Austria Having to cope with the requirements of the social structure they live in (thus ought to have a social mission, and caring for family members, mostly children, is also required) results in a frequently articulated, business-oriented characteristic feature, named by almost all of the interview subjects first: being busy. If the female entrepreneur wants to accomplish her gendered entrepreneurial mission, she has much on her shoulder and her working time includes endless hours of service. She has to be dedicated, persistent, resistant, and flexible, yet optimistic, diplomatic, actively listening, and persevere to succeed. Whether she will be considered an entrepreneur by others in the entrepreneurial scene is, however, still questionable: The ones who earn more in the family are allowed to focus more on the job, and the girls, when they are at the start-up phase, are just girls. They are not considered entrepreneurs yet. When I’m at those pitching events, and I say that I want to open a psychotherapy praxis, they are like… how are you going to prove that you can make money with that? (…) It seems to me

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that women have more idealistic projects in mind, while men think more in terms of money-making. (M., female entrepreneur in her late twenties) I know that I should be doing something else or maybe work in a diverse team with men. Because getting funding is really difficult if you are not the next Google or Facebook, even though those idealistic projects would deserve it even more because they are trying to change society. (E., female entrepreneur in her mid-thirties) In both of these narratives, female entrepreneurs express that what they do and what they wish to represent is considered by the majority (and business) society “not enough”. They acknowledge that they are being looked down on and devalued by the male-dominated business environment based on the mere assumption that their envisioned business will not be profitable. Their abilities to prove and present that their social business will be profitable are also questioned.

The fact that as a consequence these interviewed women borrow the perspective of (significant) others and even call their own business ideas “idealistic” indicates that they might have to cope with internalized shame. They make up the possibility of “doing something else”, thus hiding what they wish for. Instead, in order to be approved, some of them are prepared to change their objectives in a way that their environment expects them to. Others, such as Renate,2 who is determined to accomplish her business idea with a visually impaired female business partner, has to deal with the severe disapproval of her environment: “It was a horror. They were telling me that I should not even try establishing a company with a partner who is disabled because it is very risky. It is very risky for healthy people too, but in this case, they were telling me that I really should think twice about it. I should not do it. They were asking how I would manage it.

It was a horror. Really. It was a horror” (R. entrepreneur in her mid-30s).

In search of social and financial approval, some of the respondents spoke about situations when they associated with others in their businesses and thus gave up their independence – a quality that is highly valued by them in entrepreneurial men. The interpretative analysis shed light on the phenomenon of a sense of losing control and the lack of choice exercised. When women in the early phases of their entrepreneurial careers feel anxiety about being seen as “not capable enough”, “dreamy”, or “way too social” and want to gain control over their image, some consider teaming up with a male entrepreneur even if they originally wanted to accomplish their goal alone. This way, they seemingly exercise their own choice. Nevertheless, they act upon an image they think the world has about them when they finally decide to be partners of a “born” entrepreneur, a selfconfident man. Therefore, the often-articulated qualities of female entrepreneurs, 2

The names of the interviewees were changed/altered.

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such as being able to actively listen to (the requirements of) the environment, being always nice, flexible, and diplomatic, come in handy in re-evaluating their entrepreneurial image in the gaze of others and then also when reshaping their self-representation as a businesswoman. The perceived gendered qualities of female entrepreneurs at the end of the day might become both the inhibitors and the catalysts of personal entrepreneurial success.

I have a marketing agency, and it is quite funny to say, but I have never spent any money on advertising. Me and my husband, who is a photographer, by the way, live in a small region, where everybody knows each other. We know each other from school, we know how the other person is. So, when you meet someone, you always have to be nice because you never know who your next client is going to be. You have to be nice but not too nice because that is also not too good. (K., an entrepreneur in her early 40s, coowns a company with her husband)

Shame Felt about the Struggle to Maintain Work–Life Balance “But no one has ever told me that if I become a business owner, I have to face and deal with such things. They do not teach you at the university what you will be doing as soon as you become independent. They teach you to draw and paint, but they never prepare you for managing and promoting yourself” (A., entrepreneur in her mid-30s).

Anita, an entrepreneur in the art sector, voices the struggle of many of the respondents. In a lengthy narrative characterized by a circular argumentative style, she tries to justify her unpreparedness for juggling personal and business obligations.

The (lack of) work–life balance is a theme that emerged in all of the narratives, irrespective of the age, marital status, number of children, place of residence, and professional orientation of our interview subjects. And “I should have known it before…” is how shame appears on the scene. They are searching for covering up, thus explanations, why – even though holding a number of university degrees and having international work experience – they are still unqualified, untrained for running their business, and, as a consequence, they still struggle to manage their time.

Work–life balance, that is a really hard thing. The hard part is that you do not have a 9-to-5 job, so you can work anytime, so it is very hard, in the beginning, to just divide between free time and working time. And in the beginning it is not possible. So you work every time and anytime, whenever it is possible. But then you feel it is not possible to do this

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for more than a few months, or a year or so, and then you need to cut out time for yourself. And it is a cutting out. So you always have the feeling that you should work, but you have to do things for yourself. And that is a really really important and a really hard part to let go. (K., an entrepreneur in her early 40s) Having a feeling that one has to work all the time, experiencing guilt for not being available at times when personal obligations take over, and having to deal with shame when “you have to do things for yourself” is a lived experience of our respondents. What is more, the seemingly supportive entrepreneurial/ start-up scene of Austria even accentuates the problem by offering free events during such parts of the day when many women traditionally still have care obligations. For example, the popular wine down events, which involve pitching sessions, networking opportunities as well as project presentations in front of potential investors, all happen after the conventional working day, thus, in the late evening hours. Renate disclosed that having to perform well in all areas of her life creates an incredible burden for her. She acknowledges that working on her doctoral research, having a full-time job, and, parallel to that, developing and promoting her start-up “is crazy”, while at the same time, internalizing the gaze of others, she blames herself for not being able to perform equally well in all areas. Consequently, guilt appears whatever she does because if she focuses on her research, she is not working on her business, which then appears to be “less advanced” than the enterprises of those who are privileged to manage their start-ups only. Feeling shame for not being enough becomes a constant and significant variable in her life: You know, it is already very challenging, writing a business plan, pitching, going to these crazy networking events, having a job, because neither of us have quit our jobs yet, so we are also working, and then me writing a dissertation at the same time. This is crazy, a lot at the same time! If we could also quit our jobs and focus only on the business, we would be already far away. But this is an awful lot at the same time. (R., an entrepreneur in her mid-30s) A dense net of beliefs and convoluted requirements is traceable in the female entrepreneurial narratives connected to not being present at (mostly predominantly masculine) networking events.

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Source: author’s graph based on the narratives

Graph 2. Trapped in the gaze of others and a dense net of beliefs The analysis also pointed out that those female entrepreneurs who juggle the responsibility of their business and being single parents at the same time face even harsher inner criticism when trapped in the gaze of others. Anita describes how the day before the interview she failed, actively caring for her kindergartenaged daughter, and had to miss an important children’s programme that happens once a year and which is very much awaited by the youngest generation in Austria. Anita could not participate in the spectacular procession, even though her daughter had been preparing for it for weeks with her teachers and friends, and the small girl could only attend it because the neighbours volunteered to accompany her. Without the active assistance of a partner or the extended family, her entrepreneurial life is filled with experiences of “hopeless juggling”: Yesterday I was working for 16 hours, could sleep 5 hours, and unfortunately I could only actively attend my daughter for a mere hour. I had many appointments, and I was dragging her everywhere in the city until my neighbours pitied her and told me that “Hey, there is the Lantern festival today, let us take your daughter there.” And by the time I was back from my last appointment, she fell asleep on the couch of the neighbours, and I had to carry her all the way up to the 3rd floor so that she does not wake up.

Well, this is how it is. (A., an entrepreneur in her mid-30s)

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Struggle of Becoming Self-Sustaining, Successful, and Recognized Professional in the Long Run The interviewers asked every participant to talk about their past, which led them to start their companies. The majority of the interview subjects chose entrepreneurship after having gained experience in various sectors (e.g. state institutions or big corporations) and had hoped for “something better and easier” upon becoming independent. For some of them, it was the struggle of long and unpaid internships in the public sector, where they were appreciated neither financially nor professionally. Eva’s narrative below also shows the strong wish for being seen, noticed, and respected by others as the major force behind starting her business. Being trapped in the gaze of others is also emphasized by claiming the strong urge for being able to satisfy the needs of others: I was so tired of working for free – I did that for five years in X [big state institution, name hidden]. (…) So, it was not that much the wish for freedom and independence. And I realized at the beginning that I still needed employment on the side to sustain myself, but the fact that I could give someone something and that was appreciated was really good.

So that was my motivation first and foremost. (E., female entrepreneur in her early fifties) In other cases, it was the continuous failure in various sectors that led women to entrepreneurship. Iris wholeheartedly believed for many years that she could contribute to the well-being of her country after it had experienced a war. After finishing her studies at the university, she worked at the non-profit sector, then at a powerful state institution, and finally at a multinational corporation, having concluded everywhere that she was not able to succeed in what she had aimed for. After migrating to Austria, gaining another degree, and opening her company, the fear of disappointment leaves its marks on how she defines her business and how she prevents herself from growing. She turns away from her primary wish to “give something to society” (a mission to which she was fully devoted) and claims that by now she has achieved her goal by “having a small child” and “not taking up much space”. (…) And Ok, I am self-employed for six years now, but I do not imagine it as a business. I am not really developing my business. (…) My dream was exactly this: to be self-employed (…) to be able to develop myself but not too much. (…) And I have a small child, and I reached my dream. I do not want to take up more space and to develop. I was never thinking about this big business as being an entrepreneur. (I., an entrepreneur in her late 40s)

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The decision to remain small, to do business, but not “such” kind of business might be an indication of buried shame in the individual. Remaining small is a metaphor for covering and protecting oneself and holding onto a false belief that if one does not even see and position herself as a competitive business, if one does not grow big and dream about changes on a social level, then she will not have to be ashamed (on a personal and social level) for not being able to succeed and triumph. Paradoxically, if her muted desire is still to contribute on a higher level, then “remaining small” purposefully will further fuel her dissatisfaction and guilt that she could have done something but failed. If her definition of success remains connected to measurable results on the social level, if she still believes that her reputation as a professional is dependent on her actions on a group/societal level, her self-evaluation might suffer in the long run.

Taking into consideration the articulated message (“what was told”) and taking a further step to reveal the meaning behind the narrated segments and strategies, one can shed light on a strong, approval- and appreciation-seeking pattern.

After leaving behind the academic and/or corporate world and launching their own companies, it is much more difficult to gain professional recognition and appreciation from others, especially if the person also has to juggle responsibilities of care and professional work without particular external support. Their multiple roles and often contradictory social expectations attached to these roles make it increasingly difficult to maintain well-working strategies, which might lead to such recognition, as they received previously. As entrepreneurs, the women in our sample feel that they are required to start new projects, build up a strong professional network, and be present with their product everywhere to attract prospective customers. Yet, at the same time, they also perceive the contradictory pressure to be humble and caring with their environment (professional and private) and be present for their families whenever needed.

These narratives refer to such belief systems that are articulated on a personal level but relate to a complex system of social norms and behaviours.

For example, Anita, an Austrian entrepreneur, explains how her presence in the art scene is sometimes interpreted wrongly and how her entrepreneurial, maternal, and sexualized self can coexist yet occasionally even create tension and make her decide between self-respect or urge to generate rapid income. She disclosed a story of a recent event when a sudden decision had to be made and when the possibility of making a profitable business was pushed to the second place. Interestingly, in the depiction of the situation, she also relies on rather stereotypical, gendered characteristics. Firstly, she portrays herself as a talented and beautiful woman who invests in her physical appearance. Then, she refers to the image of a supporting male, her own (already elderly) father, whose presence and caring help enabled her to focus on her business. She also positions herself as a caring mother who does not neglect her child but brings her along to

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venues of her enterprise, even internationally. The fact that she has arranged the exhibition and manages a team puts her in the shoes of a gifted leader. Besides, she is dominantly present in the narrative as a sexualized subject and object. On the one hand, her emphasized femininity is a result of a conscious and carefully constructed self-representation, while, on the other hand, her female body also becomes objectified and almost even monetized as an act of misinterpretation and symptom of toxic patronizing and machoism.

Table 1. Utilized strategies, ascribed meanings, and aims in the gaze of the other Strategy

Meaning

In the gaze of other

Aim to be

serve the needs of my family

a good mother

nice and kind to all always there for my children working all the time, everywhere start a new venture, project

please all be seen as caring, loving be productive

a good person a good entrepreneur a successful entrepreneur a good, kind, loving person

always avoiding conflicts

I can

If I (am)

flexible

be seen as moving forward, growing

And I will be considered

doing all the housework on my own

remain kind and caring

a good wife

smiling and nice all the time

please my husband and save resources

a “feminine”, kind woman

not materialistic at all

save my husband from shame

Meaning

Consequently, I deserve to be loved and appreciated.

and HE will and I a good wife be seen MASCULINE Source: made by the author based on the narratives

In the spring, we were at an international art fair in Saint Tropez. I arrived there with my father – who always comes with me to help me with babysitting –, my small daughter, and an assistant. I prepared very much for this event: I collected the artefacts of many international artists, let them transport to France, prepared catalogues in English and French. And you know, I pay much attention to how my exhibition looks and also how I look. I always wear a tight black dress, high heels. As you see, I have long dark brown hair, and I always let it and my make-up done by a make-up artist before I board the plane. And then this young French guy, he was around 40 or so, rushes there. He is dressed in Gucci and Louis Vuitton, makes three rounds in my gallery to check everything, but I know he

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Erzsébet Fanni TÓTH spotted me right away. You know, we had two mobile galleries there, right next to each other. My daughter was playing with a puzzle on the ground, my father just left for the restroom, and my assistant was busy with a client. And then this young French comes up to me and says that he will buy my entire gallery if I have dinner with him that night. And then I told him that I was very sorry but I was not for sale. I sell art but not myself.

He was very pushy and was becoming aggressive. He gave me his business card, but I did not want to take it. When it fell to the ground, he raised his voice, so that the male owner of the neighbouring stand came over and asked whether I needed help. And then I told this young French that I was very sorry, neither I nor my daughter can be bought, because he kept pushing and telling me that he saw my daughter and that I did not have a wedding ring on my finger. (…) This is just one example of many from the past sixteen years. I got many invitations and offers. If I accepted it all, I would have become a millionaire. Whatever my artist made, I could sell them all at any price. But my self-respect is very high, and I never went into such a business, and I tell every woman and girl that they should not do it either. If you can reject such offers, you will become stronger. Believe me, you will be able to make better decisions in the future, but you will not be filthy rich. This is why I established an art project on sexuality so that men can keep themselves busy with that and can invest rather in that than me. (A., entrepreneur in her mid-30s)

Her strong wish to be respected as a woman, a business owner as a mother is articulated as the opposite of easy business success and long-term financial wellbeing. She continuously apologizes to the intruder even when she narrates the (for her seemingly upsetting) story in the interview setting. She utilizes the idea of the good mother and daughter, who serves the family and conducts the business in parallel. Yet, she acknowledges that by rejecting sexualized offers she also fails to generate income and sell the products of her subcontractors. The woman, who is proud to be supported by an elderly male and (offered to be) protected by another man (colleague) when feeling anger for having been objectified seeks the empathy of the audience: she builds the image of a good, caring mother and a supportive fellow businesswoman by providing lifestyle and entrepreneurial advice to her peers. Fearing to lose the business opportunity, nevertheless, she proposes to sell art to the (again, stereotypical) hungry male eye, in the longrun contributing to the same toxic masculine culture which objectified her and robbed her of a correct business opportunity.

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Discussion and Implications The Austrian female entrepreneur interview subjects have expressed their various coping responses either overtly or covertly with regard to the toxic work culture, which requires them to work all the time and everywhere. The analysis pointed out that many of the interviewed individuals pay a relatively high toll for having to adjust to and cope with the overwhelming pressure of the convoluted net of social requirements on the personal and professional level.

When initiating their enterprises, they all needed to reconsider their psychological and social contract with their past identities. Having learnt from past failures and challenges and having mapped the gendered expectations of their environment, some participants of this study decided to let the highly stressful pressure go by a freeze (Selye 1936, 1937) or role reduction response (Moen–Yu 2000, Becker–Moen 1999). By defining their business as non-competitive and by living with this highly restricted definition of what they are as entrepreneurs, they also prevent themselves from growing. They will continue working but by avoiding taking risks and avoiding going into situations, which might contain conflicts to preserve their preferred “small and invisible” status. In the long run, in the competition-based entrepreneurial environment, the freeze mode will inevitably result in decreased income (besides “wasted” degrees and misspent funds), which will then further increase the stress level and the unspeakable but powerful inner wish to be seen as a good entrepreneur.

Others opted for renegotiating their newly emerged entrepreneurial identity through trying to obey the imagined needs and rules of the predominantly male business (and start-up) scene. These subjects reacted to the long-term and anticipated stressors of their environment with a fight response (Selye 1936, 1937): they tend to work endless hours, are available all the time, and try to achieve more and more, which might lead to an even more elevated stress level, and, if not able to find the balance (e.g. with the cooperation of a supporting environment, therapist, a more experienced mentor, etc.), they might demonstrate exhaustion and burn-out (Selye 1936, 1937; Hammer et al. 2004), particularly when lacking social support. If the situation occurs across a longer time-span, affected individuals might leave the entrepreneurial scene.

Observing other female entrepreneurs’ struggle and feelings of fear could also be spotted among the respondents of this study. Afraid of not being able to make it, of not being able to combine all, and of losing more than gaining are among the frequently mentioned fears. In this situation, which is also characterized by a continuous and elevated level of stress, next to the above-mentioned freeze and fight response, some react with a flee (Selye 1936, 1937) or role reduction (Moen–Yu 2000, Becker–Moen 1999) response. The subject will either quit her company early on or not even launch an enterprise to protect oneself from the

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seemingly dangerous situation. If the sense of helplessness is coupled with a high level of stress (Seligman 1975), prospects of entrepreneurship might also be affected negatively.

Being trapped in the gaze of others, thus, internalizing stereotypical and socially prescribed characteristics of women doing business, and not living their true identity but trying to estimate the needs of their environment and act accordingly is a lived reality of our respondents, where feelings of shame (e.g. for not being enough) and guilt (e.g. imagining that they should have tried harder) are constant companions on their entrepreneurial journey. When being explicitly asked about their private lives or the “life” in their entrepreneurial work–life balance, most answers included details of housework and care work. In other words, private life was considered to equal invisible and unpaid work. If further questioned by the interviewer what constituted life, a few responses of not sufficient sleeping hours were enclosed, along with rare mentions of visits to beauty treatments, such as hairdresser’s and cosmetics salons. In this latter case, the need for spending time at such venues instead of working was always supported by the argument that appearing physically beautiful can also contribute to success in business. Hence, even self-care is sacrificed on the altar of the gaze of the other in the search for approval, self-preservation, social acceptance, and belonging.

How can one escape from the maze of searching for approval? Role sharing, such as delegating venture roles or outsourcing family obligations (Hornsby– Kuratko 2003), could be helpful, yet they are not enough. If the toxic work culture can stay outside the homes of individuals, if one does not need to gain much money and be highly successful in order to receive a look of approval and love, then there is a chance that the content of life can be reconsidered in the work–life balance duo, achieving as much appreciation as work gets nowadays. If the toxic environment changes, and not only the “best of the best” get positive feedback but also the existence itself (irrespective of the entrepreneurial performance), if the society approves also of role models without particular (world-leading) accomplishment, the corresponding social discourse can serve as a compass for all who consider stepping on the pathway of entrepreneurship.

Conclusions This paper elaborated on the results of a study on the lived experiences of female entrepreneurs in Austria. Specifically, it illustrated and discussed the meanings that female business owners attach to their enterprise and zoomed into how the glimpse of others is incorporated, verbalized, and reflected upon. By relaxing the assumption that female entrepreneurs are homogenous, relying on maximum variation sampling sheds light on the complexity of psychological consequences

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that female business owners face in contemporary Austria. When studying this population in the future, it seems inevitable to apply a multidimensional and multidirectional framework that can indicate the complex set of processes and factors, internal and external to the individual, which can influence the reality of this group during planning, establishing, or running a company. Based on the findings, the article suggests that a more complex interpretative repertoire is needed to understand and then design measures (including offerings of incubation centres, school curricula, or mentoring programmes) aiming to assist this highly specific group.

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Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 43–59 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0003

Ifempower “Interactive and Mentorship-Based FEMale EmPOWERment in the Field of Entrepreneurship”: Background and the Way Forward Virág ZSÁR

HETFA Research Institute Ltd., Budapest, Hungary zsarvirag@hetfa.hu Abstract. Although gender gap in the field of entrepreneurship is slowly decreasing globally and there is a consensus about the vital role of female entrepreneurs in the economy, the ratio of female entrepreneurs remains still below that of the male. Empirical research conducted by HETFA Research Institute reveals important findings regarding the situation, challenges, and strategies of female entrepreneurs. Among others, there are some particular themes and features which are more apparent in the case of female entrepreneurs than in that of men such as the lack of self-confidence, lower level of motivation, lack of a supporting environment, lower level of self-assessment as well as greater frequency of solo entrepreneurship, and working part time. As for starting and maintaining a business, entrepreneurship-related skills, knowledge, and mindset, opportunities for networking, support from peers as well as supportive environment are among the highly esteemed factors by female entrepreneurs already in business.

This is what the project ifempower aimed to address by not only developing a university curriculum and innovative teaching material but backing them with a mentorship programme and an intensive training programme. ifempower was built on a complex approach with special emphasis given to the development of soft and hard skills, entrepreneurial mindset, networking skills, and supporting female students as potential entrepreneurs in meeting their aims. By piloting the activities in partner countries and then incorporating the lessons learnt into the project outputs, the project placed significant focus on ensuring their uptake by other entities in the higher education sector and beyond.

Keywords: female entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, educational programme, mentorship

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Introduction Although gender gap in the field of entrepreneurship is slowly decreasing globally and there is a consensus about the vital role of female entrepreneurs in the economy (Kelley et al. 2015), the ratio of female entrepreneurs remains still below that of the males (Elam et al. 2019). For many years, women entrepreneurs were not covered by the research agenda (Carter–Marlow 2007) and statistics on female entrepreneurs are still not gathered regularly (Bobák et al. 2017).

Therefore, it has been considered important to go beyond the literature as well as the available statistics and carry out empirical research. The investigation attempts to focus on the situation, challenges, and strategies of female entrepreneurs in Hungary and beyond to identify those aspects that can give a boost to female entrepreneurship. Besides these attempts, it was similarly important to look at those schemes that can facilitate overcoming the current situation. To do so, it was necessary to gather experiences on existing training and educational programmes as well as on specific services and support schemes.

Most findings of the empirical research are reflected by the project ifempower consisting of a complex methodology to empower female students at universities to start entrepreneurship after their graduation. Building a balanced geographical coverage of countries showing diverse picture of female entrepreneurship, the project partnership was composed of nine partners from seven European countries, including Hungary, Romania, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Iceland. It included four universities and four businesses and business support partners, i.e.: The Corvinus University of Budapest (HU), Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca (RO), Sigmund Freud Privat Universität Wien (AT), and Bifröst University (IS); Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (PT), Steinbeis GmbH & Co. KG für Technologietransfer (DE), ONECO Consulting, S.L. (ES), and Andalucía Emprende Fundacion Publica Andaluza (AEFPA) (ES). The project was initiated and coordinated by HETFA Research Institute Ltd. from Hungary, running for 3 years starting from 1 September 2018 to 31 August 2021.1 The main objectives of ifempower were the following: 1) empowering potential female entrepreneurs among university students of any field in order to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills (both soft and hard) to successfully launch their enterprise; 2) developing innovative tools, educational and training methods for the empowerment of female entrepreneurs in higher educational institutions (HEIs); 3) promoting an entrepreneurial mindset: making entrepreneurship attractive for young people and raising awareness about the importance of improving conditions for female entrepreneurs by building a strong network among HEIs and businesses.

1

ifempower received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme under registration number 2018-1-HU01-KA203-047766.

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Female Entrepreneurs across Europe According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) Special Report on Women Entrepreneurship (Elam et al. 2019), the entrepreneurial activity of women grew by 1% globally in recent years, whereas the gender gap decreased by 3%, from 31% to 28%. In Europe, a 7% decline is reported in women’s TEA (total entrepreneurial activity) rates but an overall 5% decrease in gender gap.

As regards the literature, female entrepreneurs have appeared recently in the research agenda of social science scholars (Bobák et al. 2017). According to Carter and Marlow (2007), female entrepreneurship gained credibility and respect enabling the start of a critical debate only from the 1990s. The literature review of Carter et al. (2001) – which found about 400 peer-reviewed academic publications and media articles – argued that the topic of female entrepreneurship was not neglected but underdeveloped. The examined articles lacked the theoretical focus and development of previously published studies.

Based on a discourse analysis of 81 research articles, Ahl (2006) also confirmed that research on female entrepreneurs faced a number of shortcomings. Besides the identified discursive practices, Carter and Marlow (2007) underlined that studies mainly focused on female business owners for the past two or three decades. The research of women’s entrepreneurship ran on multiple levels following different pathways. The majority of the studies focused on the individual level, while others questioned the structural conditions within which individual actors live and work. Little research tried to depict a longitudinal picture of entrepreneurial activity (Carter–Marlow 2007).

Regularly published statistics are hardly available, specifically on female entrepreneurs, and can be found only in a few special and focused analyses. Such analysis was published by the European Commission in 2014, relying on data collected in 2012 in EU Member States (EU 28) and in nine additional countries (Albania, North Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Turkey, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, and Serbia, altogether Europe 37) (see European Commission 2014).

Accordingly, at the EU level, a gap of 9% could be identified between the percentage of male and female entrepreneurs within the active labour force (see Graph 1). Among the countries covered by ifempower, the most significant gap was identified in Romania (13%), whereas the slightest in Austria (5%), followed

by Germany and Hungary (6-6% each).

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Source: author’s computation based on the data of the European Commission (2014)

Graph 1. Percentage of entrepreneurs in total active labour force (entrepreneurship rate) by gender and country in 2012 The gender gap in entrepreneurship is more apparent in the figure below (Graph 2), which illustrates the percentage of male and female entrepreneurs at the EU level and in the countries covered by the project.

Source: author’s computation based on the data of the European Commission (2014)

Graph 2. Percentage of entrepreneurs of the total number of entrepreneurs by gender and by country in 2012

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The report also yielded relevant information on the share of part-time entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs with a second job, educational level, sectoral coverage, and so on, providing detailed overview on the situation of female entrepreneurs in the 37 European countries covered. However, given the fact that the data were gathered almost a decade ago, it can hardly depict the current situation. Opposed to the European Commission (2014) report, EUROSTAT collects data on self-employment, providing more up-to-date information on a yearly basis.2 Accordingly, the global tendency of the increased percentage of self-employed women can be witnessed in EU countries too, starting from 30.80% in 2010 and reaching 32.78% in 2020. Among the countries covered by the project ifempower, there is almost a 15% difference between the country with the highest (Portugal) and the lowest (Romania) percentages of selfemployed women (Graph 3).

Source: author’s computation based on EUROSTAT data3

Graph 3. Ratio of self-employed women in the countries examined in the last 10 years

2

3

When examining data from EUROSTAT and OECD, it must be highlighted that data are available for a slightly broader category, namely self-employed persons. Self-employed is defined as those who own and work in their own businesses, including unincorporated businesses and ownaccount workers, and declare themselves as “self-employed” in population or labour force surveys. The self-employed category consists, therefore, of the sum of employers and ownaccount workers (see OECD 2017). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/LFSQ_EGAIS__custom_950417/default/ table?lang=en.

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Between 2011 and 2017, OECD published the Entrepreneurship at a Glance Report on a yearly basis, dedicating a section to female entrepreneurship. Besides data on the differences in self-employment rate, it also included data on earnings and entrepreneurial attitude. In addition, in 2016, the Policy Brief on Women in Entrepreneurship was released by the OECD and the European Commission. The document presented the gender gap in entrepreneurship, the differences between men- and women-owned businesses, and the unique challenges faced by female entrepreneurs when starting a business. Relying on data from EUROSTAT and OECD, the policy brief formulated recommendations to improve related policies in favour of female entrepreneurship.

Some relevant statistics from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) Special Reports on Women Entrepreneurship can also be mentioned with regard to the situation of European countries too, published in every second year. The aim of the reports is to highlight the existing gaps, challenges, and opportunities worldwide. However, besides the unavailability of data and methodological issues, the problem of country coverage makes the comparison and assessment of data difficult.

Thus, the empirical research carried out by HETFA Research Institute presents important findings about the situation, challenges, and strategies of female entrepreneurs based in Hungary and in several other European countries. First, a series of interviews were carried out among Hungarian women leading their own enterprises or involved in their family’s businesses (see Bobák et al. 2017).

Second, as a background investigation for the project ifempower, desk research and interviews were conducted in seven European countries (HU, PT, ES, DE, RO, IS, and AT) with female entrepreneurs and experts on female entrepreneurship (see ifempower 2019). The most important findings can be grouped according to the different phases of doing business: the planning phase, the starting phase, and the operation and management phases.

Planning Phase As regards the planning phase, harsh differences cannot be tracked down between men and women: the global average for women’s intentions to start a business within the next three years is 17.6%, only about four points less than for men (Elam et al. 2019).

Interviews carried out in Hungary confirm that the greatest constraints for women to business formation and success are 1) lack of capital, 2) lack of business and management training and knowledge, and 3) financial drawback or discrimination (Bobák et al. 2017). Experts also unanimously underline that male investors are more likely to invest in men-led companies, whereas it must be noted that men are overrepresented among investors and business angels (ifempower 2019).

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Researchers and experts working on the field (see Gergely 2010, OECD 2016, Elam et al. 2019, ifempower 2019), however, emphasize the lack of another important strength, which is self-confidence. Compared to men, women significantly lack self-confidence to start a business and realize their dreams, claiming that they lack hard resources (i.e. lack of financial capital and capital capability) and soft resources (i.e. management experiences, personal network, etc.) (ifempower 2019). Thus, in most cases, the lack of self-confidence and financial resources allows only small-scale enterprises for most women (Gergely 2010). Even the most recent report of GEM on female entrepreneurship confirms that women have lower confidence levels than men in their capabilities to start a business, and there is no region in the world where women would be ranked higher than men (Elam et al. 2019).

This is still an issue despite the fact that women are increasingly more educated than their male counterparts – representing 54% of students in higher education in Europe (EUROSTAT).4 Similarly, the ratio of female entrepreneurs having accomplished higher education amounts to 33% compared to 24% of their male counterparts (European Commission 2014).

Previous research underlines that, especially in the case of women, role models encourage them to start their enterprise (Bosma et al. 2011, Bijedic et al. 2014, Elam et al. 2019). However, the majority of the interviewees in the ifempower report do not mention such a role model when starting their entrepreneurial careers. They emphasize the value of moral support, understanding, and guidance provided by relatives and friends who know what entrepreneurship means. But in the few cases when women had role models in their environment, this was highly esteemed (ifempower 2019).

Starting Phase In general, women report lower levels of motivation to start a business, while among the factors that facilitate and predict an entrepreneurial career there are socialization, personal skills, experience, and access to capital (Greene et al. 2003). Women have a number of motivations to start their own businesses.

Empirical research has revealed and confirmed the following ones: – raising their flexibility and evolving a good work–family balance (Bobák et al. 2017); – seeking for self-fulfilment, personal development, recognition; – seizing the mission and needs, helping others, making impact; – lacking job or ability to reintegrate into the labour market after maternal leave; 4

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tertiary_education_ statistics.

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– realize what they have always been longing for (ifempower 2019); – looking for an alternative to the glass ceiling, corporate discrimination, and a solution for other employment-related difficulties (Still 2005).

The interviewees generally confirm that acting upon these motivations is achievable, even if entrepreneurial lifestyle requires more effort and resources to meet the desired goals (ifempower 2019). However, the presence of the motivation does not automatically ensure the overcoming of the lack of self-confidence: women as entrepreneurs significantly self-assess the level of innovation, the scope, financial capacities of their businesses lower than their male counterparts (OECD 2012).

The listed motivations can be mainly perceived as examples of opportunitydriven motivations. Besides, necessity-driven motivations are also considered significant in the case of female entrepreneurs (ifempower 2019). At the global level, women are 20% more likely than men to mention necessity motives to start their own businesses (Elam et al. 2019). 2015 GEM Special Report on Women’s Entrepreneurship also shows that necessity-based entrepreneurship activity rises with higher levels of unemployment, as established companies and formal economy are unable to meet the demand for jobs (Kelley et al. 2015).

It must be also underlined that female entrepreneurs are less motivated by economic growth than men are (Greene et al. 2003), and businesses created by female entrepreneurs tend to have less growth potential (EC and OECD 2016). However, female entrepreneurs play an increasingly vital role socially, professionally, and economically in turning developing countries into more knowledge- and innovation-driven economies (Kelley et al. 2015).

Another important finding is that women generally start their enterprises only gradually; either besides university studies or as part-time employment or during maternal leave. Women tend to delay setting up a business because they strive for stability at the beginning of their careers (ifempower 2019). In addition, they are more likely to start off with less capital, borrow less and use family savings, rather than resorting to debt or equity financing. In the case of female entrepreneurs, the chance that they discontinue their business activity is higher than in the case of men (Ahl 2006).

When looking back to the starting phase, the most often mentioned resource that contributed to the successful start of female entrepreneurs is the support received from peers, family members, and mentors, the availability of personal networks, and the trust and reputation they have gathered previously. The second most significant factor is pursuing economic (especially marketing and business) studies at the university, while the third was access to bank loans (ifempower 2019).

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Operation and Management Phase There are some common features in businesses run by women. 36.4% of female entrepreneurs work as solo entrepreneurs, operating on their own without cofounders or employees, compared to 26.9% of men falling into the same category (Elam et al. 2019). A common characteristic of the firms interviewed in the case of the ifempower report is that they mainly target local markets. It is also reported that once in the market, female entrepreneurs put enormous efforts in developing either themselves or their companies or their products/services (ifempower 2019).

Various challenges faced by female entrepreneurs reaching the operation and management phase are also revealed by the ifempower report such as: – at personal level: the so-called “double burden”, according to which women are taking care of a significant amount of unpaid work in housework or family life; – in management and decision-making, difficulties in employing reliable and good workforce; – in access to capital; – from their family and broader social environment, including negotiations with male counterparts, being acknowledged in the profession as a woman, and so on.

Should female entrepreneurs face any kind of disadvantages (being sole parents or another type of disadvantageous social background), these challenges are perceived even harsher (ifempower 2019).

Social norms regulating people’s behaviour and expectations transmit a double standard towards men and women: most interviewees report that women have to put in more effort and prove more to be acknowledged in business life and in their social environment (ifempower 2019). When operating their businesses, female entrepreneurs develop various strategies to ensure emotional support, equal division of housework or outsourcing, and reinforcing a supportive environment (Bobák et al. 2017).

The gender gap in self-employment earnings is also apparent: it is partly deriving from the fact that the average hours worked per week by the self-employed are generally higher for men than for women (EC 2014, OECD 2016). Overall, the selfemployed tend to work longer hours on average than employees. Statistical data on Women Entrepreneurs in Europe, published by the European Commission in 2014, reports that in 2012 31% of female entrepreneurs in Europe-37 and 30% of them in EU-28 were working part time in their enterprises, compared to 12% of male entrepreneurs (EC 2014).

Moreover, interviewees of the ifempower report also highlighted that customers tend to pay smaller fees to female service providers than to male ones, which has important drawbacks for the growth of the company (ifempower 2019).

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Underlying Principles of ifempower: Requirements towards an Educational Programme The background research for ifempower covered the investigation of educational and training programmes supporting female entrepreneurs, who themselves confirm the relevance of the following support programmes: a) programmes and trainings organized at universities, aiming at shifting universities to entrepreneurship-friendly spaces; b) courses and trainings targeting women, providing new knowledge, new skills and mindset necessary for the business world; c) start-up accelerators with additional services such as boosting presentation skills, budgeting, and other valuable skills in the entrepreneurial life; d) organizations of female business angels encouraging female investors to prioritize female start-uppers in their financing decisions (ifempower 2019).

Studies from the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) also highlight the crucial role of economic and entrepreneurial content as well as the importance of a supportive university climate in directing young people’s interest towards entrepreneurship (Sieger et al. 2016).

Opposed to the real needs, education is considered to be outdated promoting lexical knowledge instead of entrepreneurial mindset. The necessity of changing mindset is confirmed by several experts. It is also recommended to make a distinction between “teaching about entrepreneurship” (defined as economic literacy) and “teaching FOR entrepreneurship” (ifempower 2019).

Thus, the following recommendations were formulated providing the basis for the development of the ifempower activities: 1) developing a curriculum reinforcing practical entrepreneurial, financial, and marketing skills and improving self-knowledge to build self-confidence, 2) transforming university environment into a more entrepreneurship-friendly one, 3) providing mentoring, internship and networking opportunities, and 4) providing greater visibility to female entrepreneurs already in business, who can become role models for future female entrepreneurs.

Reflecting on the dilemma of whether to carry out activities in mixed-gender groups, some of the interviewees are in favour of a “gender-blind” approach, claiming that there is no significant difference in terms of opportunities, social conditions, and challenges between male and female entrepreneurs. Other interviewees consider female entrepreneurs as a specific group with specific needs, which should be taken into account in designing policies (ifempower 2019). Subsequent discussions with experts resulted in that the most efficient training programmes should be two-staged: first targeting only women and then working with mixed groups.

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The Value Offers of ifempower The above listed findings and recommendations paved the way for boosting female entrepreneurship through the project ifempower: Interactive and Mentorship-Based FEMale emPOWERment in the Field of Entrepreneurship. ifempower aimed to develop an internationally useable complex and transversal curriculum backed by an interactive teaching methodology to support female entrepreneurship, strongly relying on mentorship and project-based learning.

This comprehensive module offering ECTSs reflects on the obstacles of female entrepreneurs and empowers university students to overcome them successfully.

The elaboration and the piloting of the different activities aimed to ensure their transnational transferability and sustainability, making it possible to any entities in higher education or beyond to adopt them, favouring female entrepreneurship.

Following the logic of strategic partnerships funded by the Erasmus+ programme and going beyond them, the activities carried out through the joint work of the partnership were centred around the following intellectual outputs, considered as main results of the project:5

Research on Female Entrepreneurs and Their Enterprises across Partner Countries To gain a better understanding of the various situations and good practices regarding female entrepreneurship in partner countries, the research report investigates the main roles, hindrances, gaps, and market needs to support the empowerment of female entrepreneurs and women in SMEs. It is built on the analysis of the 57 semi-structured and the four focus group interviews conducted in Hungary, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, and Iceland. It needs to be highlighted that due to the convenience sampling technique applied during the selection of interviewees, none of the descriptions is statistically significant either for the individual countries or for European female entrepreneurs in general. Thus, the results provide an understanding of the situation of female entrepreneurs as seen by themselves.

International Curriculum for the Complex Module Answering the need of hard and soft knowledge related to entrepreneurship, the curriculum set up the frame for the module to support the empowerment of female university students of any scientific field, including humanities, social and economic sciences. The curriculum includes knowledge on entrepreneurship, sales and marketing, business plan and risk management as well as launching 5

All outputs are available on the project website at: www.ifempower.eu.

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and financing SMEs – each topic focusing on women’s situation. The module, as an elective course lasting for two semesters, was tested at each partner university.

Most of them continue the teaching of the module in the upcoming academic years due to the significant demand coming from students.

International Teaching Material for the Complex Module The teaching material provides support for teachers giving lessons in the ifempower international module. The study material consists of many different methodologies aimed to enable skill development, including transversal skills and competences, promote entrepreneurial mindset and creative thinking, and facilitate reflections on situations and challenges faced by future female entrepreneurs. Based on students’ evaluation, the learning and teaching activities were motivating, interesting, and in most cases of high quality – despite the fact that in both semesters the courses took place online due to COVID-19.

Intensive Study Programme: Winter and Summer Schools The methodology of the intensive study programmes sets the frame for the in-depth training supporting students in launching their own enterprises and improving their skills on how to sell their ideas and attract investors. The one-week-long programme brings together selected students from partner universities and beyond.

It ends with a public event with the attendance of stakeholders, where students pitch their business ideas, then network and establish connections with business angels and business support organizations. Due to COVID-19, however, the two intensive study programmes were held online. This resulted in certain difficulties in attracting students and delivering each part of the originally planned programme. Following certain adjustments, a 5-6-day-long programme was delivered to participants with the involvement of experts from and outside the project partnership. Based on the feedback forms, the participating students highly appreciated the opportunity for international networking, the testimony of female entrepreneurs already in the business, the tailor-made suggestions and recommendations of experts on their business ideas, the self-awareness group, the opportunity for pitching, and so on.

More networking, more international experts, and the possibility to meet more active female entrepreneurs would have been also appreciated.

Professional Mentorship Programme As part of the international module, students are involved in a specifically designed mentorship programme: working with successful (women) entrepreneurs, assisting their work, and getting familiar with the general way of leading an

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entrepreneurship. The dedicated handbook drafts the scheme of the mentorship programme and supports mentors to become role models for students. Despite the well-structured setup and the evidence-based necessity of the programme, the partnership faced significant difficulties in implementing it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides the fact that the originally planned face-to-face consultations had to be moved online, the engagement of mentors and students proved to be difficult, though doable. Those who had finally completed the programme were highly satisfied with the knowledge, experience, and practical insights received from the mentors. Nevertheless, it is highly encouraged to continue the mentorship programme in the future, including face-to-face meetings due to the necessity of confidence building and overcoming difficulties in communication and so on.

Female Entrepreneurship Support Points Beyond the specific focus put on students in HEIs, ifempower aimed to provide support for any woman interested in starting a business. The support points have been set up at each partner organization, delivering free and tailor-made professional counselling for women. However, the pandemic affected this service too: consultations had to be moved online. Another important lesson learnt was the incompatibility of the service with certain partners’ profile and main activities. Accordingly, universities, especially those covering economic studies, as well as business support organizations can easily attract interested women via the support points. However, universities active in other scientific fields, such as psychology, or research institutes and business organizations with different portfolios had to put extra efforts to attract clients. This aspect significantly influences the sustainability of the support points at partner organizations.

Online Toolkit The online toolkit was developed with the same mindset as the entrepreneurship support points: securing the availability of all the knowledge gathered in the project for women who are interested to launch enterprises or who had already launched their own businesses. The toolkit is available online and is free of charge. Beyond developed materials, motivational videos recorded with female entrepreneurs are also available, offering insights into the start-up and day-to-day management of businesses led by women. Despite the rich content, significant efforts are needed for the promotion of the toolkit. Moreover, due to the vast offer of similar knowledge bases on entrepreneurship, the value offer of the ifempower online toolkit will be further formulated to ensure its long-term attractiveness.

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Final Study, Including Policy Recommendations The final study summarizes the outcomes and lessons learnt from the project, evaluates the activities and outputs of the project, assesses feedbacks from target groups involved in the activities, including students, teachers, stakeholders of businesses and the HE field, and showcases good practices and case studies.

Based on this, the final study formulates policy recommendations for national and EU-level decision makers.6 In addition to the developed outputs, specific trainings were designed and carried out to ensure that users (i.e. teachers, consultants at support points) get a thorough understanding of and professional support, hints, and good practices for the activities to be done.

From the planning phase, the project ifempower dedicated significant efforts to ensure that all lessons learnt during the implementation of the activities and the feedbacks received from target groups are built into the developed materials.

For that reason, each output was finalized in the last year of the project by updating the content based on the realities and feedbacks. New realities created by the COVID-19 pandemic had to be taken into account. Though yielded several obstacles necessitating additional efforts by the partnership when striving for the achievement of the original goals, they also widened the transferability of project outputs. Furthermore, the multi-location piloting of the activities ensured that the project as such and each output could be easily transferred and adopted by other entities outside the partnership.

In addition, the visibility of the project, its activities, and the transferability of developed outputs are backed by strong and targeted dissemination activities.

The partners organized and attended several events offline and online to gather stakeholders, receive their feedbacks, and tap into synergies to further reinforce initiatives with overlapping aims.

As the project is in its final phase, the evaluation of the project activities and the finalization of the developed materials are in progress. However, it is already apparent that the partnership plans to work with them in the future, introducing certain adjustments. Due to the high interest of students, almost all partner universities are committed to keeping the developed module in their course offer, backed by the mentorship programme and the intensive study programme. The sustainability of the female entrepreneurship support points is also secured in the case of business support organizations and universities. All these efforts meet the original goals by making a more entrepreneurship-friendly environment at the universities involved.

6

As this output is in progress during the finalization of the paper at hand, instead of a thorough assessment, only the preliminary outcomes are included with regard to the rest of the outputs, based on the feedback forms collected following project activities and events.

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The toolkit and all developed outputs remain available on the project website and will be useful for most partners’ future activities. Reflecting on the need of potential female entrepreneurs not enrolled in higher education institutions, a new project has already been generated and submitted for funding. It is designed to transform the curriculum and the teaching material for the adult education sector, i.e. to enable their use by business support organizations and training centres to support female entrepreneurs who are planning or have already started their businesses. In case of receiving the grant, the usability of the ifempower module will be expanded with the possibility of being taken over by a broader group of entities beyond the HEI sector.

Conclusions As the literature highlights, there are some particular themes and features which are more apparent in the case of female entrepreneurs than in that of men such as the lack of self-confidence, lower level of motivation, lack of supportive environment, lower level of self-assessment as well as greater frequency of solo entrepreneurship and working part time. Moreover, female entrepreneurs are generally less motivated by economic growth than their male counterparts (OECD 2012), but for them social impact matters more significantly.

As for starting and maintaining the business, entrepreneurship-related skills, knowledge, and mindset, opportunities for networking, support from peers as well as a supportive environment are among the highly esteemed factors.

Thus, any programme aiming to boost female entrepreneurship should take these findings into account. This also means that a complex approach is needed that puts a special emphasis on the development of soft and hard skills, entrepreneurial mindset, networking skills, and supporting the person in meeting their original aims such as work–life balance, flexibility, fulfilling their dreams, and so on.

This is what ifempower aimed to address not only by developing a university curriculum and innovative teaching material but by backing it with a mentorship programme and an intensive training programme. It was considered important to establish a direct connection with entrepreneurs running already their businesses, who might become role models for the students. Moreover, group works with peers and pitching own business ideas provided even more life experience for students.

Feedbacks collected from target groups, including students, teachers, mentors, and trainers, appreciate the innovative and complex approach of the project. The more information on the pilot activities are gathered and incorporated into the project outputs, the better are the chances for their uptake by other entities in the

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higher education sector or beyond. Obviously, even such a complex programme cannot ensure that each female university student will start an enterprise following her graduation; nevertheless, it can still provide an appealing carrier path for them. Exploiting synergies with numerous initiatives sharing the same goals at the national and EU level will further reinforce the impact of such actions in the long run.

References Ahl, Helene. 2006. Why Research on Women Entrepreneurs Needs New Directions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 30(5): 595–621.

Bijedic, Teita, Maas, Frank, Schröder, Christian, Werner, Arndt. 2014. Der Einfluss Institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen auf die Gründungsneigung von Wissenschaftlern an deutschen Hochschulen. Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn, IfM-Materialien Nr. 231.

Bobák, Fanni, Geambaşu, Réka, Radnai, Zsuzsa, Zsár, Virág. 2017. Female Entrepreneurs – Women in Enterprises: Motivation, Work–Life Balance, Challenges (http://hetfa.hu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/hetfa_wp_27_ bobak_geambasu_radnai_zsar.pdf).

Bosma, Niels, Hessels, Jolanda, Schutjens, Veronique, Van Praag, Mirjam, Verheul, Ingrid. 2012. Entrepreneurship and Role Models. Journal of Economic Psychology 33(2): 410–24.

Carter, Sara, Anderson, Susan, Shaw, Eleanor. 2001. Women’s Business Ownership: A Review of the Academic, Popular and Internet Literature.

Annual Review of Progress in Entrepreneurship: European Foundation for Management Development, pp. 116.

Elam, Amanda B., Brush, Candida G., Grene, Patricia G., Baumer, Benjamin, Dean, Monica, Heavlow, René. 2019. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2018/2019 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report (https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/ gem-20182019-womens-entrepreneurship-report).

European Commission (EC) 2014. Statistical Data on Women Entrepreneurs in Europe (https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2769/34288).

2016. Policy Brief on Women’s Entrepreneurship (https://data.europa.eu/ doi/10.2767/50209).

Fielden, Sandra L., Davidson, Marilyn J. (eds.). 2005. International Handbook of Women and Small Business Entrepreneurship. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Gergely, Orsolya. 2010. Vállalkozás női módra. A székelyföldi női vállalkozók profiljának és motivációjának vizsgálata. Budapest: Corvinus Egyetem (http:// phd.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/558/1/gergely_orsolya.pdf).

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Greene, Patricia, Hart, Myra, Gatewood, Elizabeth J., Brush, Candida, Carter, Nancy M. 2003. Women Entrepreneurs: Moving Front and Center: An Overview of Research and Theory. Coleman White Paper Series 3(1): 1–47. ifempower. 2019. Women Entrepreneurs in Europe. Challenges, Strategies and Policies (https://ifempower.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ifempower_ intellectual-output_1_FINAL_EN.pdf).

Kelley, Donna, Brush, Candida, Greene, Patricia, Herrington, Mike, Ali, Abdul, Kew, Penny. 2015. GEM Special Report. Women’s Entrepreneurship 2015 (https://gemconsortium.org/report/gem-2014-womens-report).

Marlow, Susan, Henry, Colette, Carter, Sara. 2009. Exploring the Impact of Gender upon Women’s Business Ownership: Introduction. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 27(2): 139–48.

OECD. 2012. Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship: Final Report to the MCM (https://www.oecd.org/employment/50423364.pdf).

2016. Policy Brief on Women’s Entrepreneurship (https://www.oecd.org/cfe/ smes/Policy-Brief-on-Women-s-Entrepreneurship.pdf).

2017. Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2017 (https://www.oecd.org/sdd/businessstats/entrepreneurship-at-a-glance-22266941.htm).

Sieger, Philipp, Fueglistaller, Urs, Zellweger, Thomas. 2016. Student Entrepreneurship 2016: Insights from 50 Countries. International GUESSS Report 2016 (https://www.guesssurvey.org/resources/PDF_InterReports/ GUESSS_2016_INT_Report_final5.pdf).

Still, Leonie. V. 2005. The Constraints Facing Women Entering Small Business Ownership. In: Fielden, Sandra L., Davidson, Marilyn, J. (eds.), International Handbook of Women and Small Business Entrepreneurship. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. 55–65.

Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 60–78 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0004

“Either We Start from Scratch, or We Close It”.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female Entrepreneurs in Transylvania, Romania Orsolya GERGELY

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania orsolyagergely@uni.sapientia.ro

Andrea ZERKULA

MA student at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania zerkulaandrea@uni.sapientia.ro Abstract. Cross-national studies emphasized that female entrepreneurs have experienced a major decrease in income, and there was a decline in market demand as well. The pandemic crisis increased the workload of women, and mainly those who raise small children did not have much choice: they had to invest time and energy in the family. The success of the strategy that could be used during this period lays on the success of balancing the family–work conflict. The following research is based on an online questionnaire that collected responses and data between 2 April and 20 May 2020. Our questions focused on the situation caused by the pandemic, so that through this online survey we aimed to determine how women entrepreneurs in Transylvania coped with the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to get information regarding the financial reserves of the firms owned by female entrepreneurs, but also regarding the human resource reserves of these firms. We also aimed at learning if the pandemic period had an impact on the promoting and marketing practice of the firms and on their sale activities as well as whether there were any changes occurred due to the pandemic.

Keywords: female entrepreneur, Transylvania, online survey, pandemic

Introduction Among the most significant social changes taking place worldwide in the last 30–40 years, we can quote the transformations in the roles of men and women in the labour market, including the growing prestige of female workers (Bokányi– Bauer 2019). In particular, an increasing number of women have started their own businesses (Castrillon 2019, Geambaşu 2019a, Gergely 2019a, Bokányi 2019).

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This decision is often motivated by the desire for financial independence. Some women want to work part-time because they want to care for their children or because they do not want to return to a full-time programme. Entrepreneurship is considered a career path for women because it offers better social and economic opportunities for them (Szekeres 2014, Gódány 2018, Gergely 2020).

Although differences in employment, wages, and education have decreased significantly, women are still less active than men in the labour market, and they are overrepresented in low-wage occupational sectors. They work as employees rather than being self-employed, and they are underrepresented among entrepreneurs and in leadership positions (Bokányi–Bauer 2019). Because of the phenomenon of the “glass ceiling” in the workplace, the ability of women to advance is much limited. However, as entrepreneurs, they have a greater opportunity for selffulfilment (Gódány 2018). The central elements of female entrepreneurs’ social narratives target the possibility of choice and the fact that the only conditions for success are assertiveness, good planning, and perseverance. Thus, failure itself is associated with the personal lack of assertiveness and perseverance, and not with macro-factors such as social bias and double standards (Geambaşu 2019a).

Being a Woman, Doing a Career The idea of a career woman is still subject to negative attitudes. According to the public opinion, a woman who desires a career is suspicious because she is likely to neglect her maternal “vocation” (Koncz 2016). Moreover, female stereotypes and traditional social norms contribute to challenging the everyday lives of ambitious women. According to the literature, female entrepreneurs often encounter these prejudices (Geambaşu–Gergely 2019).

Although significant changes towards gender equality have taken place worldwide in the recent decades, gender segregation is still present in Western societies: although women have become increasingly active participants in the labour market (Crotti et al. 2020) and in the entrepreneurial sphere (Gergely 2011), they still bear a significant share of household and childcare responsibilities (Geambaşu–Gergely 2019); regardless of their professional commitment, they often work part-time or have a flexible work programme, which, however, is associated with lower pay (Gârdan–Gârdan 2014); in almost all sectors of activity, women face a wage gap, unequal advancement opportunities, and a higher amount of time dedicated to work; although the wage gap exists in almost all areas of activity, occupations traditionally associated with men tend to pay better than occupations traditionally associated with women (Gârdan–Gârdan 2014).

In the labour market, women with small children or young women who are about to have children still face discrimination. Women with small children

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have been shown to have the highest rates of inactivity (Bokányi–Bauer 2019).

Measures are in place to enable women to care for their children and stay at home in the first years of their children’s development (i.e. maternity leave and parental leave). Labour law is also aimed at ensuring the protection of women in the pre- and post-natal periods. However, discrimination against women’s participation in the workplace persists, which is greatly influenced by social stereotypes. Thus, a common stereotype is that productive roles are associated with men, such as leadership, education, and cultural creation, whereas women are (often exclusively) assigned reproductive roles such as childbirth, parenting, and household management (Gârdan–Gârdan 2014).

Furthermore, the social classification of work differs for women and men. Such categories devalue the work done by women and privilege paid work, endowing it with prestige in the forms of ranking, promotions, and rewards, from which a significant number of women are excluded. Society does not appreciate the huge amount of work done in the household, even though it requires the same or greater amounts of time as the number of hours worked in industry. As a result, this lack of recognition weakens a woman’s positive sense of life, her self-importance, selfsatisfaction, self-knowledge, and self-esteem, thus lowering self-confidence and limiting the freedom to choose a career path (Koncz 2016). Social and individual assessments of careers are mostly consistent in the case of men, but they differ in a large group of women. On the one hand, men, in accordance with their social role and socialization patterns, identify with maintaining family, holding power, and prioritizing paid work, which are behaviours that are valued by society.

On the other hand, a significant number of women consider that childbearing and raising children are of equal value or more important than paid work and employment status. However, the labour market and society do not reinforce these beliefs, which has led to decreases in the desire to start a family and raise children, thus limiting the healthy reproduction of the population (Koncz 2016).

Although social norms have changed significantly, many people still find it difficult to accept a woman in a leadership position, which indicates how women are valued both economically and socially (Bokányi–Bauer 2019).

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic In late December 2019, the coronavirus spread so widely and rapidly from Wuhan in China to other countries that on 11 March 2020 it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). To alleviate the spread of the coronavirus, the governments of the countries concerned introduced measures of social alienation, widespread isolation, and restrictions on travel, movement, and public gatherings. Consequently, public, social, community, and

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private life have moved to online spaces (Liguori–Winkler 2020). According to analysts, the COVID-19 pandemic not only has caused a huge health crisis (Derderian 2020) but also has presented a major test for the world’s economy, which is closely linked to China, which is a major player in international trade chains. Examples are growing supply problems and significant fluctuations in resource tariffs such as oil and gas. Furthermore, the effects of the pandemic are likely to include a potential global economic crisis exacerbated by a significant decline in consumption (framesmedia.ro 2020).

Entrepreneurs have been no exception to these effects. They had to transfer their business to online platforms or to suspend the activity of their firms for short or long periods. Despite the shift to doing business online, not all problems can be solved online. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the entrepreneurial commitment of self-employed people: some entrepreneurs have had to close their businesses temporarily because of government restrictions; others have had to take precautions in continuing their activities. They also have had to find innovative solutions to all aspects of their entrepreneurial endeavours as the consequences of the pandemic continue to unfold. It has taken time for entrepreneurs to become oriented to the new situation and for governments to help them by developing concrete policies that provide information, advice, and financial support (Kuckertz et al. 2020, Turner–Akinremi 2020).

Specialists contend that entrepreneurs need to be prepared to lose 50–80% of their revenue and that the biggest challenge in the recovery of small and mediumsized enterprises (SME) is the lack of adequate financial resources (McCall 2020).

Most SMEs can cover their costs for less than a month before they need to lay off staff and reduce their costs (McCall 2020). Small businesses comprise a significant portion of the economy, and in some industries they are more vulnerable than in others: the most vulnerable companies are those that interact directly with customers, which involves personal contacts and gatherings such as the service industry (McCall 2020). Research has shown that service industry and the real estate sector are experiencing the largest declines. The tertiary (services) sector, especially transport and tourism, has been also drastically affected by the crisis, and the automotive industry may experience even more serious negative effects (Falchetta–Noussan 2020). According to the results of a survey including 1,000 micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises in Hungary, one third of them expected a decrease in production and services, and they did not plan to make major investments in the near future because of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (Századvég 2020).

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Without a Safety Net During 2020 March and April, many scholars and research institutes in Romania conducted surveys to obtain accurate data on the population’s attitudes and situations during the pandemic. According to the statistical results, 84% of the respondents declared that the pandemic would affect their financial situation.

Only half of the respondents (49%) had financial reserves in the spring of 2020.

Out of these respondents, 41% estimated that their reserves would be sufficient for one or two months. Only 10% of the respondents had sufficient financial reserves for more than one year (IRES 2020). Furthermore, the jobs of more than half a million Romanian residents were temporarily suspended, and 430,000 workers had been fired (COVID-19: Romanian Economic Impact Monitor 2020).

Two-thirds of the ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania (65%) stated that the epidemic would have a negative impact on their families and lives (Barna– Kapitány 2020). Entrepreneurs, self-employed, employees in the technical, clerical, sales, tertiary sectors, unskilled workers, and more than 70% of students have been negatively affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the spring of 2020, six out of ten (62.9%) Romanians were convinced that the financial crisis would be more severe than the 2008 financial crisis. Regarding financial reserves, 28% of the respondents had sufficient financial reserves for less than a month, and 21.4% had sufficient financial reserves for more than a year. If austerity measures would have continued, 42% of the respondents said they would become at risk because they may not be able to pay their bills, would not have enough money for food, would not be able to repay their bank loans, and would not have enough money for medicines. Furthermore, more than half of the population might become socially vulnerable if additional austerity measures were introduced (Barna–Kapitány 2020).

The situation was dire because the incomes were low. Another study concerning the ethnic Hungarians in Romania showed that half of the respondents reported an income between 2,000 and 3,999 RON in the month before the epidemic, and only two-thirds of the respondents had financial reserves. Every fourth person who had financial reserves declared that they would be sufficient for at least one year, and every third person (35%) had financial reserves for three months. These results confirmed that the amounts of income and reserves were significantly correlated (Nistor et al. 2020).

Being a (Female) Entrepreneur during the COVID-19 Pandemic Surveys from several developed countries showed that the pandemic has caused severe damage to the economy: for example, in the USA, the prognosis was that 24% of small businesses had less than two months to final closure, and 11% had

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less than one month (Fairlie 2020). Regarding the question of what risks have been identified during the COVID-19 pandemic, many investors have reported transportation problems, possible price increases, and increased financial barriers.

These statistics help in understanding the financial situation of the Romanian population. They also indicate that consumer potential has steadily deteriorated in the region, and consumer confidence has declined because consumers have prioritized basic needs (Gulyás–Nguyen 2020).

Studies also find that those firms were affected in a less negative or in positive way by the pandemic whose owners used online tools more often even before the COVID-19 period (Koltai et al. 2020). Therefore, COVID-19 restrictions had less impact on those entrepreneurs who worked in sectors where the activities made the introduction and usage of online tools possible. Anyway, three out of four (72%) of the surveyed Romanian entrepreneurs did not have a contingency plan for emergencies; therefore, it was recommended for businesses to create a new plan that would cover even the worst emergencies (Derderian 2020). According to another entrepreneurial survey conducted in Romania in the same period as our study, only one out of five (19%) entrepreneurs interviewed said that they had not interrupted or reduced the activity of their firm and that they could pay the salaries as well; and one out of ten (14%) are optimistic: they do not expect a decrease in turnover. All the other interviewees said they were heavily affected by the COVID-19 situation: they either reduced (20%) or partially interrupted (18%) or stopped (19%) their activity altogether. Further, every tenth entrepreneur had no production problems or interruption in providing their services; however, they had cash flow problems and could not pay the salaries in time (Sava 2020).

From the perspective of gender, the COVID-19 situation had a disproportionately large impact on women as they tend to be more vulnerable economically and socially as well (Lomazzi 2020). Some struggle to keep their company afloat, while others work as fast as they can to adapt to new business models (Teleki 2020). According to an American Express survey (Lin 2020), many womenowned businesses are in industries that are the most exposed to the economic and social effects of the pandemic: about a fifth (22%) of all women’s businesses were hairdressing, nail salons, and pet grooming, and 16% were catering and canteen-type businesses. A Canadian study found a similar result: businesses in the service industry, most of which were owned by women, were the most affected by the pandemic. The study contends also that female entrepreneurs were found to be more likely to assume childcare responsibilities because they no longer had access to kindergartens, nurseries, and day care. Thus, during the pandemic, compared with men, women entrepreneurs, regardless of their socio-economic status, have been at a disadvantage because they have been burdened by childcare and household chores (Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub 2020).

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A London-based study found that the majority of respondents (93%) had been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although 4% of the respondents said they had not yet been affected by the virus, they were unsure about becoming infected in the future. Of those already affected, 44% had temporarily ceased operations, and 3% had permanently ceased operations (Cherie Blair Foundation for Women 2020). Despite these difficulties, the findings of this study have also shown that adaptation and innovation are under way. Many people have reshaped and redesigned their businesses in the short term. This British qualitative study showed that because of declining income entrepreneurs needed to enter a new product line to earn an income and that they were working to create products that fit the current situation (Cherie Blair Foundation for Women 2020). Women are now exploring new ways of running, producing, and transforming a business, especially with regard to the most efficient use of technology. They are looking for online solutions, developing websites, and emphasizing online marketing. While the professional services, training, and education sectors are exploring online communication channels, the retail and food manufacturing sectors are trying to reach customers by offering delivery services. The subjects in this British study emphasized that they were concerned about the health and well-being of the staff (Cherie Blair Foundation for Women 2020).

Furthermore, the uncertainty and the risk had also a negative impact on female entrepreneurs (Del Simone et al. 2021): financial and administrative uncertainty but also uncertainty regarding home schooling and children’s mental condition (Geambaşu et al. 2020).

According to a cross-national study conducted in summer 2020 (Koltai et al. 2020), six out of ten female entrepreneurs experienced a major decrease in income (62%) and every second female entrepreneur experienced declining in market demand as well (52%) (Koltai et al. 2020). However, one of four female entrepreneurs (23%) introduced new products in this period, and every sixth female entrepreneur (14%) reported increase in online sales (Koltai et al. 2020).

According to other studies, the most successful female entrepreneurs – under the influence of neoliberal principles – tend to invest time and energy in the business and sacrifice the family (De Simone–Priola 2021); they cannot overcome the gender barriers otherwise (Adamson–Kelan 2019). But since the pandemic crisis increased the workload of women (Del Boca et al. 2020, Geambaşu et al.

2020, Koltai et al. 2020), they, mainly those who raise small children, did not have much choice but to invest time and energy in the family. And this means that they could give less time, energy, and dedication to their firms: those who had small children could work much less during the pandemic period (Koltai et al. 2020). Thus, the success of the strategy that could be used during this period lays on the success of balancing the family–work conflict as a main part of the entrepreneurial success (De Simone et al. 2021).

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Data Collection Initially, for March–April 2020, we planned a qualitative research focused on female entrepreneurs in Transylvania in order to find out more about the entrepreneurial motivations and expectations, their work–life balance strategies, as a continuation of previous research projects (Geambaşu–Gergely 2019, Gergely 2013a,b, Geambaşu 2019b). Due to the COVID-19 situation, the earlier research project had to be redesigned and moved to an online platform. However, we did not only change the platform of the research but also transformed it into a quantitative research, changing its focus as well: we wanted to capture and describe the specific situation of female entrepreneurs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the research is based on an online questionnaire that collected responses and data between 2 April and 20 May 2020. Our questions focused on the situation caused by the pandemic: through this online survey, we aimed to determine how female entrepreneurs coped with the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to get information regarding the financial reserves of the firms owned by female entrepreneurs, but also regarding the human resource reserves of the firms. We also wanted to know when the pandemic period had an impact on the promoting and marketing practice of the firm and on the sale activity. How did it work earlier and what kind of changes occurred due to the pandemic?

The questionnaire was shared on various1 online platforms and targeted Hungarian female entrepreneurs in Transylvania. Since we were able to reach primarily highly educated female entrepreneurs, who are also frequent Internet users, our data is representative only in this narrower subpopulation of female entrepreneurs, i.e. the core population of highly educated, Internet user female SME entrepreneurs in Transylvania,2 the northwestern part of Romania. In the online campaign of the research, we highlighted the fact that we were searching for female entrepreneurs running a business as their main activity and for whom the entrepreneurship is the main economic activity.

The questionnaire was completed by 84 female entrepreneurs, and this low number may have been due to the pandemic situation. Many female entrepreneurs had to redesign their operations, switch to an online interface, adapt to frequently changing laws, or stay at home with their children (Koltai et al. 2020). Thus, 1

2

The online survey was distributed throughout Transylvania. We promoted the questionnaire on Facebook in different groups where the members were mainly female entrepreneurs. It was posted several times in the Facebook groups of Female Entrepreneurs in Transylvania and Female Entrepreneurs in Ciuc.

A historical Romanian region. We chose to do our research in the same geographical area wherein several studies on female entrepreneurs were conducted in the last couple of years (see Geambaşu 2019a, Geambaşu–Gergely 2019) but also during the COVID-19 pandemic (see Koltai et al. 2020, Geambaşu et al. 2020).

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we believe that it was enough to deal with finding solutions to their difficult situations, and they did not want to get involved in another time-consuming activity such as answering a questionnaire.3 The respondents were aged 22–59 years, and they started their businesses between 1990 and 2020. The responses to the questionnaire were analysed mostly from a descriptive viewpoint, using the SPSS program.

Results Nearly three-quarters of the respondents had less than ten employees, i.e. the majority of our respondents were owners of micro-enterprises. There were a few who owned small businesses (the number of their employees are between 9 and 50) and only two persons whose businesses had reached medium size (their firm hired more than 49 but less than 250 employees). The proportion of the selfemployed is not negligible as almost a quarter of the respondents have this type of business.

The results of the data analysis showed a close correlation between changes in the operations of a firm and changes in its activity since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (p = 0.000). The respondents’ businesses declined during the pandemic. Of those who had to temporarily close or suspend their businesses, approximately 90% were unable to continue their activities the way they used to do before. These results indicate that the situation had negatively affected the production and services of all entrepreneurial companies regardless of how their operations had changed since the onset of the pandemic.

Moreover, the results showed that because of the pandemic situation not only businesses had to be temporarily closed or production had to be cancelled, but often employees had to be fired (p = 0.006). Employees were required to take compulsory leave mainly in the commercial sector.

3

An additional negative factor for not filling in the questionnaire may have been the limited amount of free time potential responders had. It is also interesting that most female entrepreneurs completed and sent the questionnaire during late night hours or after midnight, which can be mentioned as illustrative examples of the respondents’ workload (see also the results of several research studies conducted during the pandemic – e.g. Fodor et al. 2020, Geambaşu et al. 2020).

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Source: authors’ computation

Graph 1. The impact of the virus on the operation and activity of the firm (%). N = 81

Source: authors’ computation

Graph 2. Impact of the virus on employees by company profile (%). N = 80

Challenges and Difficulties before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic The data analysis revealed that one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs even before the pandemic were issues regarding administration and bureaucracy.

However, during the pandemic, these obligations (e.g. payments, tax requirements, tax returns) doubled. Moreover, the data analysis revealed that several other problems had emerged such as switching to online sales, keeping up employee morale, and producing for customers during this time, which had made administration even more difficult. The next most frequently mentioned

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problem was the suspension of activities, the ensuing financial difficulties, and the number of cancelled events.

Reduced sales and the associated loss of income were major concerns for female entrepreneurs. One respondent stated that she would have starved to death without her husband. Nearly half of the enterprises had sufficient financial reserves for one to three months, 15% for less than one month, and a small percentage had sufficient financial reserves for more than one year.

More than half of the respondents had another source of income. These results indicate that female entrepreneurs were not prepared for an income loss of this magnitude. These problems were exacerbated by clientele challenges. There was no opportunity to contact clients who had disappeared. Moreover, on the one hand, it had become more difficult to meet the needs of clients since the online networks were the only communication platforms. On other hand, it had become very difficult to find new clients since the face-to-face events, the local community events, and the networking events were cancelled.

The results showed a correlation between the difficulties encountered before and after the virus (p = 0.037); that is, they faced problems that were similar to those before the pandemic. Those who had not had any difficulty before the virus did not have severe business problems when they completed the questionnaire.

However, the responses to the open-ended questions indicated that it had become increasingly difficult to deal with bureaucracy. On a scale of 1 to 10, the respondents rated how difficult it had been to adapt to the newly issued laws, where 1 = very easy and 10 = very difficult. The respondents were judged to have an average difficulty of 5.46 in their ability to navigate the law.

Table 1. Difficulties faced by female entrepreneurs before and after the COVID-19 The main difficulty before the virus The main difficulty since the virus appeared appeared time management switching to online sales keep motivating the employees sales to produce products for which demand has increased bureaucracy, administration even more difficult administration and competition bureaucracy difficulties with products/services suspension/reduction of activity customer-related difficulties financial problems customer difficulties no particular difficulties #stayathome Source: authors’ data based on the open-ended questions

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We could encounter three types of crisis management according to the crossnational study conducted in the summer of 2020 (Koltai et al. 2020: 49): reduction, adaptation, and long-term development. Regarding reduction, eight out of ten female entrepreneurs decreased their firm’s activity: half of them put their firms on hold (39%), and half of them reduced the activity of the firm (42%). This is a much higher proportion than revealed by the cross-national, European survey, where the proportion of female entrepreneurs adopting this strategy was only 50% (Koltai et al. 2020: 5).

About approximately every fifth (21%) female entrepreneur can be said to have introduced an adaptation strategy due to the COVID-19 situation. The majority of them, as a novelty, moved their businesses to online platforms and started to promote their activities, products, or services. Among the female entrepreneurs who filled in the questionnaire, there were only a few who started to sell their products on an online platform because of the pandemic. This proportion is also lower than in the case of European female entrepreneurs, where 2.5 times more female entrepreneurs tried to adapt to this new situation (Koltai et al. 2020: 5).

One out of nine women said that they had used or would use this period as a recharge period so as to have time and space to rethink their activity, to redesign their product or service, or to find new inspiration. One person said that she had introduced home delivery as a new option for her clients.

Beyond Economic Challenges…

In many cases, the lockdown period, the lack of personal connections, and the inability to leave the house without any trouble have emerged. Implementing work–life balance during quarantine has also been a challenge for women (Del Boca et al. 2020, Geambaşu et al. 2020, Lomazzi 2020), and female entrepreneurs could not be an exception (Koltai et al. 2021). Several respondents indicated that it was difficult to work from home with young children and to manage their home schooling (Geambaşu et al. 2020). The majority of these female entrepreneurs could dedicate less time to their firm and business activities: mainly those with children (p = 0.04) are affected by the upset work–life balance. The main reason for this was that during our research period (April– May 2020) all educational institutes were closed and all programmes had to be assured by the parents, especially by the mothers. As several other research studies concluded, female entrepreneurs had to sacrifice their working hours because of their children’s learning activities, household duties, and caring responsibilities (Geambaşu et al. 2020).

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What about Tomorrow?

Most respondents mentioned the “uncertain future”: the uncertainty, the lack of prospects in the complicated situation caused by the pandemic, and the impossibility of knowing when they can restart their business activities.

But despite the problems and challenges listed, almost a third of the female entrepreneurs were positive about the future; the beauty workers were already waiting for clients, and business owners tended to be even more aware. Some respondents wanted to succeed with their new products, and some emphasized the importance of attitude and flexibility in this situation. Some respondents had experienced this situation as a creative period, and they made plans that they had not had time for to implement before. Some realized that in the future their businesses would need reserves in the event of a possible loss of revenue due to a similar crisis. Overall, the respondents expressed a positive outlook on the future, and many pointed out that it would be a long process until their prepandemic businesses could be resumed.

The next group, which was the largest, expressed that they had expected many difficulties, mainly material, in the absence of demand. They also indicated that they had had to accept the fact that their businesses might be terminated as a result of the pandemic. During this period (April and May), cancelled events had been a vital loss for some businesses. The respondents anticipated that in the future people would have less money, and they would spend less on things that were not necessary.

More than a quarter of the respondents said they needed to redesign their businesses in part or in full. Some had already decided that they would “step back” into the market in a new business. Some expressed that they were waiting to see how the fate of their current businesses would unfold but were preparing for the future by having a “plan B”. Some had asked a marketing expert to help with redesigning their business. Some others were expanding their businesses, products, or services to be able to continue operating if a similar event occurred.

The majority of the respondents highlighted the need to put more emphasis on online sales and promotion.

Several respondents stated that they did not know what would happen in the future or what the impact on their business would be. Some respondents expressed that they viewed the future of their businesses as unpredictable and subject to chance.

In another category, I classified respondents who said they were waiting curiously for what the future would bring and who stated that whatever it was, they would react to it. According to some respondents, companies that had not been able to keep up with the market would disappear, and those who survived this selection would be reinforced in their return. New opportunities would allow

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them to remain in the market. However, they would have to react as quickly as possible, and sometimes there would be no time to work out small details because of the intense competition. Some respondents said that they expected that their customers would be more responsible and prudent. Moreover, they expected that employees would be re-evaluated, particularly regarding flexible working hours.

Finally, some respondents expressed that they expected difficulties, but they tried to have a positive attitude towards the future, although it was difficult in the current situation. These respondents reported a sharp decline in turnover, hoped to have enough work to sustain themselves, and anticipated an economic crisis.

Source: authors’ computation

Graph 3. What can be expected from the next period? (%) N = 84 The results showed a significant correlation between how the activities of the company were affected by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the entrepreneurs viewed the future (p = 0.040). Those whose activities had not changed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic expressed a more positive outlook on the future than those who had been producing or supplying less since the appearance of the virus. The few who had increased their production or supplies during this period did not reflect on what would happen next, but they said they would rather wait and then adapt to the situation. Understandably, those who had closed their businesses during this period and had experienced a large loss of income expected material difficulties in restarting, such as fewer customers and lower income.

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Conclusions As previous research showed, the majority of the women-led businesses typically declined during the coronavirus (Koltai et al. 2020), and many of the owners had to send employees on forced leave due to reduced production and fewer services.

Even before the virus appeared, time management had emerged as a problem, but this has come to the fore even more since the beginning of the pandemic. And, as in other European countries (Koltai et al. 2020), our respondents emphasized that their firms’ promotion processes had also changed, with entrepreneurs having to move to the online space, which was not an easy task for some businesses.

The biggest problems had to be faced by those women whose firms had not sold online before the pandemic and had to close their stores due to curfew. This mainly affects the commercial sector as they are characterized by contact sales and do not have the opportunity to meet customers due to restrictions.

Female entrepreneurs not only reported financial and sales difficulties but also related how they were affected as individuals by the pandemic period (Koltai et al. 2020, Del Boca et al. 2020). Except for those who had to shut down their businesses and face a huge loss of income, overall, female entrepreneurs seemed to be optimistic regarding the future. However, many entrepreneurs point out that it will be a long process until their businesses could get back on track. During this period, several female entrepreneurs had to rethink their businesses. There are those who have already decided that they would “step back” into the market with a new business and those who are waiting to see how the fate of their current businesses would unfold but are preparing with a plan B. They stressed that they needed to put more emphasis on online sales in the future and that they needed financial reserves if a similar case were to happen again.

We can conclude that this period was very difficult for female entrepreneurs, among whom those were affected the most for whom online sale and online marketing had not been part of their business life before. At the same time, those with small children were also affected since they could work less because of the greater housework load. It seems that those who were familiarized with the online sphere (Koltai et al. 2020) or who could rapidly come up with a novelty were the ones to get positive results in this period. Our research shows that this period was very important in rethinking the entire entrepreneurial role and the entrepreneurial expectations and in redesigning the basic function of the firm and its principle of operation. We could define this time of pandemic as a game-changing period, an unavoidable milestone for female entrepreneurs, who are forced to take new decisions having arrived at the crossroads: going ahead with new “online” strategies, starting something new, or giving up on entrepreneurial life.

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Limitations This is an exploratory study that provides some first impressions and facts regarding the effects of the pandemic period on female entrepreneurs in Transylvania.

However, this study has several limitations. First, through our ad-hoc online research, we were able to reach primarily the highly educated female entrepreneurs, who are also frequent Internet users, and this fact has resulted in a narrower set of answers, which can be considered to be representative only of the core population of highly educated, Internet user female SME entrepreneurs in Transylvania. This could limit the generalizability of the findings and must be taken into account when interpreting results. Furthermore, we could only capture one snapshot of this long COVID-19 period, i.e. the second month of the Romanian lockdown.

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Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 79–99 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0005

The Social Roots of Fears at the Start of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. An Online Study of the Ethnic Hungarian Population in Romania Ágnes SÁNTHA

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania santhaagnes@ms.sapientia.ro

Balázs TELEGDY

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania telegdybalazs@uni.sapientia.ro

Orsolya GERGELY

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania gergelyorsolya@uni.sapientia.ro

Laura NISTOR

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania nistorlaura@uni.sapientia.ro Abstract. The paper addresses the issue of contamination fear within the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The everyday lives and feelings of the ethnic Hungarian population in Transylvania, Romania, were investigated with an online survey in the middle of the lockdown, in April 2020. In the search for the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of perceived infection risk, we rely on descriptive and two-variable analysis as well as explanatory regression models controlling for covariates. The results show that respondents perceive public places to hold the highest risk of contamination from the virus. In the article, we also draw the sociodemographic profile of the “fearful” and “brave” attitudes towards the threat represented by the virus. Perceived infection risk is higher for the elderly, the more educated, and the non-religious people. The paper reveals that respondents’ concerns, beyond that of infection, are predominantly economic in character.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, fears, infection threat, personal concerns

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The General Context of the SARS-CoV-2 in Romania The existence of the pandemic was officially declared on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). In Romania, the lockdown started after a short delay, on 16 March 2020, when the president decreed a state of emergency.

As for the opinions and feelings at this time, the initial period of the pandemic can be described rather as one of confusion, as there were many more questions than answers at both the individual and societal levels. In this social context, as Juheon (2020) concluded, uncertainty and the perceived risks of disaster among the citizens had a negative impact on the out-group and generalized trust, while the disaster experience is positively associated with trust. As our research focuses on the first period of the pandemic in Romania, especially during the lockdown period, between March 15 and May 15, for most of our respondents – as the results will show –, the perceived risk was much more real than the disease itself.

The solidarity among the citizens had various degrees during the lockdown.

As Voicu et al. (2020) reveal, at the beginning of the lockdown period, solidarity in Romania and Hungary decreased, while after a longer period of several weeks it started to increase. From these results, we can conclude that the first period of the pandemic outbreak and lockdown created a specific state of mind among the citizens, which negatively affected people’s trust, solidarity, and mental health. Therefore, our paper focuses on the personal, subjective perception of the pandemic during its first period in Transylvania, Romania. This paper addresses the issue of the self-rated risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the issue of possible infection mediators, and further threats as perceived by individuals during the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020.

The Perception of the Risk and Personal Fears In the first period of the pandemic, numerous authors conducted research among different groups of healthcare workers (e.g. Kinariwala et al. 2021, Urooj et al.

2020). At the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2, initial simple measurements of the fear of contamination were performed. For instance, in Canada, approximately every third person was afraid of infection (Angus Reid Institute 2020); other surveys measured about 40% (Pollara Strategic Insights 2020), whereas in the rates USA were assessed between 37% (Morning Consult 2020) and 56% (Aubrey 2020).

Papers analysing the fears of the population during the pandemic focus on the different aspects of it. Generally, at the personal level, several experiments have shown that uncertainty increased anxiety, which then increased the perception of threat (e.g. Endler et al. 2000, 2021). Also, at the personal level, a subjective perception of the threat, which can result in fears and worries, shows some specific

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manifestations. As Pakpour and Griffiths (2020) reveal, there are significant differences among the individuals regarding the information, knowledge, and personal, subjective sensitivity when facing a threat, which influences their perceptions and reactions towards infection threat.

At the time of our survey, there was hardly any literature on the social determinants of self-perceived infection risk. Therefore, in an attempt to identify these, we draw on the existing literature on the fear of death and death anxiety, of which the perceived infection threat may be one element, even if not a perfect indicator. Literature suggests that the intensity of religiosity is associated with less death anxiety, as religious convictions work as a buffer against such fear, offering consolation in the face of death (Malinowski 1954). A further plausible explanation is the integrative and regulative power of religions reaching back as far as Émile Durkheim’s 1897 work on suicide (Durkheim 2005). According to this theory, the more integrative and regulative power a religion has, the less likely it is for its adherents to suffer from anomie and commit suicide. From this point, it is plausible to assume that religious people experience a lower contamination fear than their non-religious counterparts do.

A meta-analysis of the literature on the concepts fear and anxiety reveals that although these two terms often overlap and are used as synonyms, they are in fact two distinct emotions and only moderately correlate with each other (Sylvers et al. 2011). With a large base of evidence from the neurobiological and clinical literature, it is claimed that in spite of their similar defining characteristics, these two emotional states are separable constructs. Kranz et al. (2020) make the same differentiation regarding coronavirus anxiety: the somatic anxiety, which they identify with the level of emotionality and increased psychological arousal, and the cognitive component, which refers to the worries and negative expectations.

In our analysis, we focus on fears, and we use the term fear as distinct from anxiety. Although a large body of literature in the context of the pandemic focuses on the anxiety aspect, in this paper we depart from the conceptualization of the state of fear as a cognitive response to threat and of anxiety as an emotional response to threat (Beck–Emery 2005). Literature suggests that the subjective experience of fear can best be assessed by self-report (Gray–McNaughton 2000), as proceeded in the present research. In our endeavour to address contamination threat and subjective perceptions of infection risk, we use the notion of fear.

Besides contamination fear, there are some other existential and interpersonal fears strongly related to the pandemic’s consequences. In a Canada-wide study, the main fears are of economic character, both with respect to the country and to personal lives (Pollara Strategic Insights 2020). Across Europe, 16% of the workers were afraid of losing their jobs in the near future, and among those without a permanent contract, this rate rose even to 20% (Eurofound 2020).

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At the interpersonal level, as the lockdown is targeted at constraining human interactions, negative effects are the consequence of lifestyle and personal freedom limitations. This situation generates different types of fears and states of mind. People experienced the escalation of loneliness and anxiety, and mental health indicators dropped (Eurofound 2020). As Casale and Flett (2020) point out, one of the negative effects of the lockdown is the fear of missing out – after Pryzbylski et al. (2013) – and the fear of not mattering – after Rosenberg and McCullough (1981). The “Fear of Missing Out” (FoMO) is a subjective experience that a person might encounter when his or her need for relatedness remains unsatisfied (Pryzbylski et al. 2013). The fear of not mattering to other people is likely associated with the fear of missing out because they both reflect a negative or uncertain sense of self and a need for validation through connection with other people. Mattering is both a need and a feeling that involves knowing that you are significant to other people, and it is a stronger predictor of distress and poor adjustment than self-esteem (Rosenberg–McCullough 1981). Mattering is a psychological resource that should prove highly protective in terms of buffering anxiety during SARS-CoV-2 pandemics (Flett–Zangeneh 2020). Casale and Flett (2020) point out regarding the two fears (i.e. missing out and not mattering) that although they both reflect a negative or uncertain sense of self, they have different mechanisms, as missing out is not more than a fear, but mattering is both a feeling and a need. As both concepts can be derived from an interpersonal perspective, lockdown and social distancing can be the roots of these fears, too.

Research reveals that the different types of fears cannot be discussed homogenously as their effect is differentiated within the population. Fitzpatrick et al. (2020) contend, for instance, that women and families with children under 18 years of age reported a higher level of perceived fear and distress than the other segments of respondents. Younger people were reported to struggle psychologically to a greater extent than older ones did (Eurofound 2020).

Materials and Methods Research Design and Data Collection This study proposes to identify the social roots of perceived infection risk experienced by ethnic Hungarians in Romania in the time of the first lockdown in the spring of 2020. Our survey addressed the way of life and several pandemic-related issues in ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania, Romania. Thus, perceived infection risk and the potential sites for contamination are only a small part of the questions we addressed. Implemented in April (between 16 and 26) 2020, in the period of the first lockdown in Europe, the survey had

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a cross-sectional design. The anonymous questionnaire was made available online, on social media sites.

As we conducted our research during the lockdown period, the sole option to collect primary quantitative data was the online questionnaire. This type of questionnaire has a great many limitations; however, it is now a valid and widely accepted data collection tool. As Evans and Mathur (2018) state: “Internet-based research has come of age” (Evan–Mathur 2018: 855). This statement can be argued by three major developments: increasing broadband connectivity, the increasing spread of the smartphones, and the increasing number of social media and social network sites (Pew Research Center 2018).

At the beginning of the questionnaire, our adult respondents were informed about the data collection purpose and about the fact that their answers would be processed for statistical purposes. After having read this information, interviewees gave their consent to filling in the questionnaire and then proceeded to completion. Inevitably, the opt-in survey design entails a selection bias (Dutwin–Buskirk 2017).

Instruments The present paper is part of a larger research study carried out on various pandemic-related topics. Our questionnaire entailed standardized and openended questions related to everyday activities, work–life balance, information sources about the pandemic, trust in people and in the authorities, values, selfrated health, and wellbeing.

We addressed the perceived contamination threat with a quite simple question, which asked respondents to self-rate the probability of getting contaminated on a scale from 0 to 100. This methodological decision is due to two considerations.

First, we aimed at addressing several issues connected to the way of life during the pandemic, and we needed a brief measure of contamination fear. Second, more elaborated and validated measurement tools were non-existent at the time of our study, i.e. at the very beginning of the pandemic.

There were attempts to standardize this new type of stress syndrome. After our survey had been completed, the COVID Stress Syndrome (Taylor et al.

2020a, 2020b) and the Fear of COVID (FCV-19S) scale were elaborated, validated, and tested (Ahorsu et al. 2020). The COVID Stress Syndrome consists of five dimensions: 1 – COVID danger and contamination fears, 2 – COVID fears about economic consequences, 3 – COVID xenophobia, 4 – COVID compulsive checking and reassurance seeking, and 5 – COVID traumatic stress symptoms (Taylor et al.

2020: 3). The second standardized measure, the FCV-19S was validated in relation to other psychological tools. The scale scores were significantly and positively correlated with instruments assessing depression and anxiety. Besides these

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harmful dimensions, the fear of COVID-19 also has its positive side, particularly compliance with public health measures: the FCV-19S score was associated positively with a behaviour change assessing preventive behaviours (Harper et al. 2020). In spite of the complexity of these latter measures, our study assessed contamination fear with a one-item rating scale of subjective perceptions.

Analysis Descriptive analyses are performed to reveal the perceived infection risk altogether and in different settings. Two-variable associations are used to assess the differences in perceptions across respondents’ sociodemographic categories.

To identify the pure determinants of contamination risk, linear regression is performed with the perceived infection threat as an outcome variable and sociodemographic features as potential explanatory variables. The stepwise method is used.

Sample Characteristics 1,269 respondents provided fully completed questionnaires, out of which 80% were women and 20% men. The age of respondents ranged from 18 to 87 years, with a mean of 37.1. 70% of the respondents were married or partnered, 21% singles, and 9% widowed or divorced. Preceding the pandemic, 57% were employees, 9% self-employed, 15% students, 16% inactive, and 3% performed occasional work.

Source: authors’ computation

Figure 1. Self-perceived economic status of respondents (%), N = 1,269 Most respondents had a university degree (66%), 25% had finished high school, and the rest of 3% had only a primary school degree. This bias is due to the survey design and the online data collection procedure in the sense that our respondents were more educated and better integrated in the labour market than

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the national average. The figures below display the subjective economic status of our respondents and the labour market status of those of active age among them.

Source: authors’ computation

Figure 2. Labour market status of active age respondents (%), N = 1,121 The self-rated financial situation and the eventual job changes – as reflected in the figures above – indicate that even in this relatively affluent population segment, there are substantial economic risks brought about by the pandemic.

Results The Probability of Getting Infected In our research, the fear of contamination was measured on a self-rated probability scale ranging from 0 to 100%. On the average, respondents established a 42.1% probability of not getting infected; however, there is a huge dispersion (32.6%) in the perceptions.

Respondents were asked to assess the probability of getting infected through different mediators/settings. Table 1 displays the possible mediators of infection and their probabilities as assigned by respondents from 0 to 100%.

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Table 1. The self-rated infection probability in different settings (%, means), N = 1,121−1,269 Medium Mean SD Shop 44.2 28.4 Street 24.0 25.2 Family 27.4 28.0 Neighbour 17.6 20.7 Friend/acquaintance 17.2 19.9 Workplace 19.0 26.4 Other (courier, volunteer) 21.4 22.7 No infection risk

42.4

32.7 Source: authors’ computation

Taking a look at the mediators (Table 1), respondents attached the highest probability to becoming infected in shops. On the other extreme, we found a reduced probability of contamination through friends and acquaintances as well as through neighbours and from the street.

In the two-variable analyses below, we consider the most and the least probable scenarios as well as that of not getting infected, and we compare their probabilities across sociodemographic categories and respondents’ pandemicrelated news consumption profiles.

Older respondents found it the least probable to get infected through any of the listed mediators. Their perception difference is significant with respect to the “shop” medium. However, the elderly also rated as lowest the probability of not getting infected at all (37.5%). The youngest respondents are overrepresented among those who find their infection unlikely.

Infection risk in the “shop” setting is homogeneously perceived across educational attainment levels. Nevertheless, the risk of infection in the street decreases with the increase in educational level. Most remarkably, the least infection risk is perceived in the less educated respondent groups. Disparities across settlement types only appears with respect to overall risk perception, that is, village dwellers find it less probable to get infected than town dwellers do.

With respect to gender, two-variable analyses reveal no significant difference between men and women in perceived infection risk in any of the settings discussed.

When asked about the overall risk perception, there are significant differences across religious affiliation. Adherents of neo-Protestant religions find it almost twice as unlikely to get infected than non-religious people do.

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Table 2. Perceived infection probability from the street and in the shops across sociodemographic categories (%, means). T-tests and analysis of variance. N = 1,121−1,269 Setting: Street Mean SD Setting: Shop Mean SD Total 24.1 25.3 44.2 28.4 Age Age < 25 26.0 26.8 < 25 48.1 29.6 25–34 25.3 26.4 25–34 46.6 28.4 35–44 23.8 24.0 35–44 43.9 28.2 45–55 23.2 24.9 45–55 43.0 27.3 > 55 17.9 22.6 > 55 31.1 26.7 F: 1.68, p: 0.151 F: 5.842, p: 0.000 Gender Gender Male 23.9 23.3 Male 44.9 27.6 Female 24.3 25.7 Female 44.3 28.7 t: -0.581, p: 0.561 t: 0.287, p: 0.774 Religious affiliation Roman Catholic 24.9 Protestant 22.4 Neo-Protestant 16.1 Non-religious, not 26.9 affiliated Atheist 25.5 F: 1.491, p: 0.203 Education* Low 42.4 Middle 25.2 High 22.6 F: 10.744, p: 0.000 Settlement type Rural 23.9 Urban 24.0 t: -0.051, p: 0.960

25.4 24.2 18.2 32.3 29.6

31.8 25.7 24.2

25.3 24.6

Religious affiliation Roman Catholic 44.7 Protestant 43.9 Neo-Protestant 34.5 Non-religious, not 40.6 affiliated Atheist 51.7 F: 1.602, p: 0.171 Education Low 48.2 Middle 45.1 High 43.8 Settlement type Rural 44.3 Urban 44.4 t: -0.034, p: 0.973

28.5 28.1 27.1 34.6 25.3

29.9 28.2 28.5

28.5 28.6

Note: significant differences are marked with *.

Source: authors’ computation

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Table 3. Perceived probability of not getting infected at all across sociodemographic categories (%, means). T-tests and analysis of variance.

N = 1,121−1,269 Self-assessed probability of not getting infected Mean SD Total 42.1 32.6 Age* Education* Mean SD < 25 52.1 34.4 Low 54.5 33.7 25–34 40.1 32.7 Middle 46.7 34.3 35–44 40.4 31.6 High 39.8 31.6 45–55 41.4 30.3 F: 7.330, p: 0.001 > 55 37.5 33.8 F: 5.894, p: 0.000 Settlement type* Rural 46.3 32.8 Gender Urban 41.1 32.4 Male 42.5 32.7 t: -2.183, p: 0.029 Female 42.2 32.6 t: 0.130, p: 0.897 Religious affiliation* Roman Catholic 42.6 32.7 Protestant 42.0 32.3 Neo-Protestant 56.1 38.2 Non-religious, 39.1 35.1 not affiliated Atheist 30.4 23.5 F: 2.390, p: 0.049 Note: Significant differences are marked with *.

Source: authors’ computation

The Social Determinants of Perceived Infection Fear As the results have shown, significant, large differences were revealed across respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, so that we now proceed with linear regression models to assess the controlled effects of these variables upon the overall perceived infection risk.

Sociodemographic variables introduced stepwise in the model are: gender, age (continuous), level of education, settlement type, and religious affiliation (dummy variables). These are considered potential determinants of the perceived infection threat, the latter being the outcome variable.

Table 4 displays the model with the largest explanatory power and the variables with significant effects.

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Table 4. Sociodemographic determinants of perceived infection risk. Linear regression β Explanatory variables B p Perceived risk (0–100%) Educational attainment -4.783 0.015 -0.076 Neo-Protestant vs. other religions 13.821 0.016 0.074 Age -0.192 0.027 -0.069 Atheist vs. others -14.697 0.039 -0.063 Constant 61.822 0.000 Adjusted R2 = 0.147, f2 = 0.17, F = 5.840, p = 0.000 Source: authors’ computation

Sociodemographic variables explain a total of 14.7% of the variance of perceived risk. Cohen’s f2 value reflects a rather small explanatory power (effect size f2 = 0.17) of the regression model. The F statistic is significant, and there is no indication for multi-collinearity among variables according to VIF and tolerance measures.

After controlling for covariates, four variables prove to impact upon the perceived infection risk, and all of them have quite similar effects. First, educational attainment is the best predictor: with its increase, the perceived risk increases.1 Neo-Protestant religious affiliation compared to all other convictions predicts in itself an infection probability decrease of 13.8% (B = 13.821).

The older the respondent, the more s/he finds an infection probable. Lastly, controlling for other variables, atheist respondents rate their infection risk 14.7% (B = 14.697) higher than religious people of any kind or non-believers. The rest of the sociodemographic variables introduced in the regression model have no significant effect on risk perception.

Further Threats Far and Near Respondents were asked to freely name those phenomena/issues/problems they find most worrisome for mankind in general and for our country and themselves as individuals in particular.

Participants wrote down their concerns in their own words, without predefined choice options. The answers in the tables below were coded according to the first concern mentioned by each respondent.

1

Note that the statement was formulated in a negative way (“I will not get infected.”), i.e. the increase in the numbers indicates that the probability of infection decreases.

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Table 5. Dangers for mankind beyond the pandemic (%). N = 1,0202 Danger type Relative frequency (%) Moral and value crisis 17.5 Environmental pollution 16.1 Climate change and global warming 13.7 Economic crisis 13.5 Ignorance, belief in fake news 10.1 Certain groups of people or mankind itself 9.3 Social inequalities and rights restrictions 5.1 Secret interests, lies, false information 4.8 Illnesses (other than COVID-19) 4.0 Fear 3.1 War and arming 2.5 Other 0.3 Total 100 Source: authors’ computation

Respondents rated human weaknesses as the biggest problems for mankind (17%). Features such as selfishness and greediness were coded into this category.

These environmental issues are listed second and third in the row: pollution and its consequences (16%), climate change and global warming. These were followed by the economic crisis envisioned as the result of the pandemic (13.5%). Human ignorance, lack of information, and manipulability through fake news were also mentioned by a relatively high number of respondents.

The importance of religion shows significant (χ² = 82.619, df = 33, p < 0.000) differences among the nominated threats, even if this variable has no strong predictive value (Cramer’s V = 0.169, p < 0.000). For instance, among those respondents who marked religion as “very important”, the biggest threats were war and arming (32%) followed by illnesses (other than COVID-19) (30.8%) and 5G technology (28.6%). On the other hand, among the respondents who marked religion as “not important at all”, the biggest threats were ignorance and belief in fake news (33.7%) followed by certain groups of people (33%) and climate change (26.9%). Religious affiliation is not responsible for significant differences among respondents, so we concluded that in our case it is the importance of religion rather than affiliation that differentiates among our respondents with respect to their biggest concerns.

2

The slight decrease in the number of cases is due to the fact that open-ended questions are not too popular among respondents in general. However, in this case, a large proportion of our participants answered these questions, too.

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Gender is also a significant (χ² = 41.435, df = 11, p < 0.000) variable regarding the different dangers which threaten mankind, as women feel threatened by the general fear (93.8%), followed by social inequalities and rights restrictions (88.5%) and other diseases (i.e. besides COVID-19) (87.8%). Male respondents perceived certain groups of people or mankind itself as the greatest danger (33.7%), followed by war and arming (32%), ignorance and belief in fake news (31.1%).

Finally, educational attainment also led to significant (χ² =19.818, df = 11, p < 0.048) differences among our respondents. Due to their low number (N = 21), we excluded those respondents from our analysis who had only finished primary school, and we tested the differences between those people who possess a university degree and those who do not. For respondents with the highest educational level, the biggest threat was represented by environment pollution (82.2%), followed by ignorance and belief in fake news (80.6%) and by secret interests, lies, and false information (75.6%). On the other hand, respondents without a university degree regarded the general fear as the biggest threat (43.3%) as well as social inequalities and rights restrictions (36.7%) and certain groups of people or mankind itself (34.5%).

We asked respondents to list the problems and threats for our country as well.

The categories following the coding process can be found in Table 6.

Table 6. Dangers for the country, beyond the pandemic (%). N = 1,000 Danger type Relative frequency (%) Economic crisis 22.8 Incompetent governance 20.4 Politicians and political parties 15.9 Corruption 9.7 Poverty 7.7 Ignorance 7.1 Certain groups of people 5.9 Balkan mentality 3.5 Environmental problems 3 Other 4 Total 100 Source: authors’ computation

Respondents found economic crisis to be the most serious threat for the country (22.8%). Governance incompetence and the conflicts in the political sphere were mentioned with high frequency (20.4% and 15.9% respectively), revealing a high rate of mistrust in state institutions. Almost every tenth respondent (9.7%) names corruption as the most considerable threat for our country.

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The intensity of the religious belief shows also significant differences regarding the dangers the country is facing (χ² = 63.298, df = 36, p < 0.003). For those who consider religion very important, the biggest threat for the country is war (45.5%), followed by the environmental problems (33.3%) and the Balkan mentality (23.3%). On the contrary, among respondents for whom religious beliefs were not important at all, the biggest threat for the country are ignorance (32.9%), corruption (31.1%), and environmental problems (26.7%). As far as religious affiliation is concerned, there were no significant differences from this perspective either.

The perceived intensity of the threats faced by our country also differ significantly by gender (χ² = 33.425, df = 12, p < 0.001). Among male respondents, the biggest dangers are represented by certain groups of people (42.9%), followed by the environmental problems (34.5%) and by the Balkan mentality (28.6%), while the female respondents enlisted three different problems not mentioned by their male counterparts – namely war, crime, and emigration.

Educational attainment also creates significant differences (χ² = 24.060, df = 12, p < 0.020) among the respondents: for those who possess a high school degree, the biggest danger which faces the country is a possible war (50%), followed by poverty (32.9%) and by certain groups of people (32.7%). For those who hold a university degree, the biggest threats are the background powers (100%), followed by ignorance (85.7%) and corruption (81.1%).

Finally, our open-ended question attempted to identify the threats individuals perceive with respect to their private lives.

Table 7. Dangers for the individual, beyond the pandemic (%). N = 951 Danger type Relative frequency (%) Economic problems 25.9 Possible new health problems 10.5 Uncertainty, stress 9.7 Existing health problems 9.1 Isolation, loneliness 6.0 Environmental problems 6.0 Wrong political decisions 4.9 Own bad decisions 4.7 Ignorance 4.7 Certain groups of people 3.0 Deficiencies of the health system 2.1 Total 100 Source: authors’ computation

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As seen in Table 7, most respondents (25.9%) name economic concerns such as price inflation, job loss, or wage cut-offs, followed by possible health problems.

At the individual level, neither religious affiliation nor the intensity of religious beliefs (the importance attached to religion) caused statistical differences among respondents. In this case, gender was also a significant differentiating variable (χ² = 27.265, df = 13, p < 0.011): among the male respondents, the biggest perceived individual threat was represented by the background powers (50%), followed by the own bad decisions (31.1%) and the consequences of bad political decisions (27.7%). Female respondents perceived accidents (100%), uncertainty and stress (93.5%), and the consequences of isolation and loneliness as the biggest individual threats.

Discussion Based on the two-variable analysis above, the typology of the fearful and the brave in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may be drawn carefully. The fearful are middle-aged/older, have high educational attainment, and are typically nonreligious or atheist persons and town dwellers. The brave, on the contrary, are the young village dwellers with low education, frequently of neo-Protestant religion.

Our dichotomous categorization of settlement types is somewhat arbitrary, and a more nuanced differentiation based on the number of inhabitants might provide more accurate information. Nevertheless, it is plausible that differences across settlement types practically reflect differences in the educational attainment levels of the respondents. This is the more probable as the impact of settlement type disappears when controlled for covariates.

Comparative studies from the period of the first lockdown (March–May 2020), i.e. the exact time of our research, refer to a series of indicators regarding the emotional status of the European population. Uncertainty, helplessness, and fear were common feelings throughout Europe, with considerable variations across sociodemographic categories. Throughout Europe, women were more worried than men (European Parliament 2020). However, this gender difference does not appear with respect to the infection fear among our ethnic Hungarian respondents.

Evidence from Europe is inconclusive as to the correlation between age and negative psychological emotions during the pandemic. In the whole of Europe, younger people were more frustrated than older ones, and there was evidence that, particularly during the lockdowns, younger people struggled psychologically more than other age-groups (Eurofound 2021). However, younger people also experienced less uncertainty and more hopefulness (European Parliament 2020). In our survey, younger respondents rated the probability of infection lower than older ones did.

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When controlled for covariates, education and religious affiliation are further variables that significantly impact upon our respondents’ perceived infection risk.

Put simply, the more education, the more worry. Neo-Protestant religions provide the most support for their adherents in terms of infection fear, whereas atheists rate infection as much more probable than religiously affiliated respondents do. Explaining the impact mechanism of religious affiliation upon fear, and particularly the low levels of fear experienced by our Neo-Protestant respondents, would exceed the scope of the present paper. However, in an attempt to do so, it is plausible to draw on the Durkheimian theory of religions’ integrative and regulative power (Durkheim 2005). In Romania, some neo-Protestant religions with rigorous rules for their membership’s conduct and lifestyle – most particularly, the Pentecostal cult – have experienced a skyrocketing increase in the last three decades, and others, such as the Adventist or the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church, also grew larger, while traditional Christian churches experienced a loss of membership (Kiss 2014).

A further explanation for the association of infection fear and religious affiliation is not hard to find. Infection fear belongs to the category of worry, unlike anxiety, and as such – as pointed out by Lucchetti et al. (2020) in a research conducted among the Brazilian population – the lower level of worry is associated with a higher level of private religious activities. This significant association was also true for the level of fear and the level of private religious activities, as more private religious activities reduce the level of fear. These results were also confirmed by a study conducted by Kranz et al. (2020) in a USA-based research: here, the highly religious respondents scored higher on coronavirus anxiety but lower on worry.

A strength of this cross-sectional, non-representative research is the answers to some open-ended questions with respect to the threat perceptions of our ethnic Hungarian respondents. From these notes, it can be inferred that fears related to economic and health issues were primary in relation to their own lives, whereas social connectedness fears (missing out and not mattering) were only rarely mentioned. Human weaknesses and value devaluation were primary with respect to mankind in general; however, when coming closer to their everyday surroundings, economic concerns gain in importance. As far as concerns for mankind and our country are concerned, the intensity of religious beliefs – but not religious affiliation – showed a significant differentiation among respondents, as the perceived fears besides the coronavirus showed a particular order.

To our knowledge, in Europe, this research was the first and one of the very few addressing the interconnections of religiosity and fear in the context of the pandemic. In a larger context, Bentzen (2020) proves that the online research for prayers has risen by 50% in comparison with the pre-pandemic period, which can be the consequence of the absence of the physical church presence, but this alone does not explain the high demand for online prayers. Bentzen concludes

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that the high demand meant that people would cope with the virus and the pandemic – at least in the first period of the pandemic – through prayers.

Regarding the biggest concerns for the country as a context for our results, we could use the findings of other researchers. All in all, according to the worldwide study of IPSOS (2020) carried out at the beginning of April 2020, besides the spread of the coronavirus, other big concerns of people around the globe are mostly of an economic character: unemployment (35%), poverty and social inequality (27%), financial and political corruption (22%) as well as healthcare (28%). However, variations of these rankings are revealed. Unfortunately, Romania was not among the participating countries, but the case of Hungary offers some insights in this respect, even more so as our respondents are ethnic Hungarians and share similar cultural values and norms with residents of Hungary (Veres 2015). In Hungary, people ranked the most frequent concerns in a slightly different order, being most worried by healthcare (59%), followed by financial and political corruption (38%), poverty (34%), and unemployment and jobs (28%). Moral decline is perceived as worrisome for the country by only a minority of the Hungarian population (8%).

Although the worldwide study of IPSOS was carried out with a different methodology than our survey, its results reinforce some of our findings with respect to the biggest concerns of people. The answers provided by our respondents to the open-ended questions of the survey revealed that Transylvanian Hungarians, too, find economic problems, corruption, uncertainty, and health issues worrisome.

In the time of the first lockdown in spring 2020, in most EU countries, people tended to perceive the health benefits of the lockdown as greater than its economic damage. On the contrary, Eastern Europeans in particular shared the view that, in spite of the health benefits brought about by the period of confinement, its negative economic impact on their countries’ economies exceeded its benefits (EP 2020). The workplace of the future is definitely a digital workplace with yet unsolved legal regulations and immeasurable consequences upon employees in Romania (Vallasek 2021). Further, in our region, precariat is not limited to people with low education, but it also prevails among graduates (Fedor–Erdei 2019).

These worrisome phenomena provide the context for our respondents’ fears and worries of predominantly economic character.

Summary and Limitations This paper provides some insights into the fears and its social determinants of a sample of ethnic Hungarian respondents in Romania in the context of the first months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Results based on a cross-sectional online survey carried out in April 2020 reveal a social gradient in the selfrated infection risk perception. Besides socio-economic status as a widely

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acknowledged determinant of socially relevant issues (here approached by educational attainment), religious beliefs have proven to be equally strong predictors of infection probability perceptions. Further, the older a respondent is, the more likely s/he finds his/her own infection to occur. Respondents claim value devaluation and environmental concerns as the most important threats for the world; however, with respect to the country and to private lives, economic concerns emerge as primary.

This study has some limitations to consider besides the ones mentioned in the methodology chapter. Thus, the explanatory power of our regression model is not very high, which indicates that contamination fear is impacted by other social and individual factors, too. In a future paper, we intend to address respondents’ pandemic-related news consumption profile and to complement our model with this element in the hope of a more accurate understanding of the nature of self-perceived infection risk. Further, had we conducted our research at a later point, the question on SARS-CoV-2 infection history and eventually death within the family and microsocial environment might have influenced the self-rated contamination probability. However, in April 2020, there were only very few known cases of the disease in the country, and this issue could not be addressed.

Further, the generalizability of our results is restricted due to the bias resulting from the online opt-in survey design. In spite of these limitations, this study provides some valuable insights into the lives and fears of a segment of the ethnic Hungarian population in Romania at the outbreak of the pandemic.

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Liquid Narrative of European Cultural Identity in the Time of Uncertainty (2008–2020)1 Donata BOCULLO

Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania donata.bocullo@vdu.lt Abstract. As Leonidas Donskis (2016: 9) once wrote, “Europe has been saved many times by its narrative powers”. In this time of uncertainty and disasters, our public narratives are filled with gossips, conspiracies, intolerance, and hate speech that strengthen divisions in society. During pandemic lockdowns, when physical closeness is exchanged with social interactions online and when global identities and culture are uploaded on digital platforms, we ask: what does it mean to be European in a time of uncertainty and what binds our collective identities and helps us to overcome our fears and anxieties? Considering the past and present (2008–2020) global and European economic, political, healthcare, and cultural as well as personal crises, this auto-ethnographic essay raises these questions: How can personal narratives help to strengthen European cultural identity in these times of uncertainty? Do personal narratives weaken collective identities? By using an auto-ethnographic approach, this paper is an attempt to determine whether a holistic research approach can be used in the analysis of “liquid” European cultural identity and personal narratives. Therefore, this paper is not just for finding the right answers or right stories but is meant to act rather as a stepping stone for further discussion on how to communicate European cultural identity and how to raise self-identification, cultural solidarity, and unity during these times of uncertainty.

Keywords: European cultural identity, time of uncertainty, auto-ethnographic narrative

1

The present article is a revised version of the paper presented on 17 April 2021 at the Crisis, Change and Perspectives – Online Conference organized by The Intercultural Confluences Research Centre of the Department of Human Sciences, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania.

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Donata BOCULLO

Introduction Conceptualizing European Cultural Identity from the Auto-Ethnographic Perspective “We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, flowers of the same garden.”

(Seneca)

This quote from Seneca was written on boxes of medical supplies delivered to Italy by the Chinese company Xiaomi during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This philosophy, or narrative of unity, in the time of uncertainty is essential as, physically distant from each other, we try to keep our socio-cultural solidarity. However, what we see in our societies during this time of crisis is that people tend to focus more on their individual liberties, myths rather than on the culture of solidarity, science, and common fight against the virus. In his works on collective conscience, Durkheim (1893) wrote about anomie, loss of attachment to society, and the division of labour in society. This concept can be traced back to Classical Antiquity: In Classical Antiquity, Thucydides referred to anomie, impiety and absence of law, of humanity without law or rule to characterize the “plague” of Athens (430 and 427/426 BC): It was not only a health crisis, it was also a major moral crisis. Nosos, that is, “disease”, infection does not destroy just the body; nosos, that is, “dementia”, also destroys, even if momentarily, a society, institutions, traditions. An epidemic is not only the devastation and suffering caused by the spread of infection; it is also the brutal chaos that follows the weakening of the State, the disintegration of authorities, social structures and mentalities. (Serpa–Ferreira 2018: 689) In the time of health or moral crisis, individual interest overshadows collective conscience and strengthens the feeling of detachment. Just like “disaster fosters people’s ability to narrate” (Donskis 2016), a crisis also strengthens our fictional forces or fears.

“These are dark times, there is no denying. Our world has perhaps faced no greater threat than it does today. But I say this to our citizenry: We, ever your servants, will continue to defend your liberty and repel the forces that seek to take it from you! Your Ministry remains, strong” – writes J. K. Rowling (2010) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This speech of Rufus Scrimgeour, the Minister for Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, represents both institutional and fictional narratives during the dark times as he talks about liberties that are being taken from us.

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The same narrative can be seen in protests against COVID-19 restrictions. As we are in the second year of this pandemic, the philosophy of solidarity seems to be shifting: “Anti-lockdown protests erupt across Europe as tempers fray over tightening restrictions.”2 Writer and community artist François Matarasso, during the session The Role of Culture Defeating the Crisis (The European Capital of Culture Forum 2020: Culture in the Time of Corona), also presented three possible scenarios, or approaches, for dealing with the crisis (Graph 1).

Source: Kaunas 2022: The Role of Culture Defeating the Crisis.

Presentation by François Matarasso (https://youtu.be/NtprjODt140)

Graph 1. Future hopes and fears Some of us are hoping that things will go back to normal, while others, like in the 2016 Brexit narrative, want to take back control. But there is also hope for a new world and visions for the future and culture of solidarity. During the same session,3 Rytis Zemkauskas, journalist, TV producer, and curator of the Kaunas 2022 programmes, said that “culture, as recent events have shown, can help save lives”. Zemkauskas is referring here to the culture of solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people from different countries of Europe were dancing and singing in their balconies. Can the same unity in diversity of European cultural identity save lives both physically and mentally? What was it like during the 2008 global economic crisis and what about identity and unity 2

3

France 24: Anti-Lockdown Protests Erupt across Europe as Tempers Fray over Tightening Restrictions (https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210321-anti-lockdown-protests-eruptacross-europe-as-tempers-fray-over-tightening-restrictions).

Kaunas 2022: The Role of Culture Defeating the Crisis. Presentation by Rytis Zemkauskas (https://youtu.be/NtprjODt140).

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during the Brexit referendum and the migrant crisis in 2015-2016? Can we deal with this uncertainty by looking at the world through disruptive lenses? Gaviria and Bluemelhuber (2010) mention that perception of the current world through disruptive lenses leads to recognizing it as a place in which change and innovation rates are increasing tremendously, leaving behind obsolete, but familiar patterns. The acceleration of the world is very conspicuous in contemporary societies in which traditional reference points – such as the classic family model, the life-long working community or one’s own country – are evolving into less stable and more fluid structures. (p. 127) Therefore, to understand the shifts and liquidity of cultural narratives or future scenarios, we have to open up the “disruptive vocabularies” of post-modern and post-truth society, a phenomenon which in Cambridge dictionary is described as “Relating to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts”.4 We have to go back to the definition of culture and cultural identity in the time of uncertainty.

However, in this modern, liquid world, we tend to focus more on the speculative world identity and less on what it actually encompasses, what the story behind it is.

Donskis (2011: 5) wrote about identity as an imaginary solidarity, a political and moral examination or a mask that conceals our uncertainties and worries.

Therefore, it is essential to question ourselves: is identity a contemporary password, a trend? Is it a mask that we can take off whenever we like? Is it a well-structured PR campaign or a weapon of soft power? Today, we see different approaches towards the same philosophical problem: who are we, what is our story? One way, the far-right identity movement way, is trying to keep a fixed or localized identity homogeneous from the so-called threat of multiculturalism and diversity, while the other side is trying to fight this opposition with ethnopluralist identity rhetoric. Both sides are in echo chambers, wherefore there is no time for a dialogue in this fight. Would looking from a holistic perspective but writing an auto-ethnographic narrative help to start this dialogue?

Auto-Ethnographic Approach towards European Cultural Identity Research According to Katz Rothman (2007: 12), sociologists have moved closer to their own societies, brought their own values, and turned their gaze on their own lives.

Of course, such an approach has its limitations, but with auto-ethnographic or autobiographic approaches even such uncertain concepts as European cultural 4

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/post-truth.

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identity become more personal and hit closer to home, but this does not mean that it becomes more biased. Self-reflecting narrative actually helps the “researcher to deal with his/her own biases prior to interpreting and representing the perspectives of other participants” (Taylor–Settlemaier 2003: 233). In the timeline of personal and global uncertainties, these perspectives overlap (Graph 2).

Source: created by the author based on personal narrative and netnographic5 observations of recent socio-political changes in the EU.

Graph 2. The timeline of personal and global uncertainties (2008–2022) In a number of academic disciplines, auto/biography and auto/ethnography have become the central means of critiquing the ways in which research represents individuals and their cultures. Auto/biography and auto/ ethnography are genres that blend ethnographic interests with life writing and they tell about a culture at the same time they tell about an individual life. (Roth 2005) As I was scrolling TikTok, as an escape and comfort approach during the lockdown, I came across one video that said: When you are overthinking, write.

When you are underthinking, read.6 This says to me that a way of dealing with uncertainties is through narratives, either writing or reading them. While I was preparing for the Crisis, Change and Perspectives Online Conference, 2021 in my café of isolation, I flipped through the pages of my naïve, adolescent notebooks 5

6

“Netnography is a specific approach to conducting ethnography on the Internet. It is a qualitative, interpretive research methodology that adapts traditional ethnographic techniques to the study of social media” (Kozinets 2015).

Phillippa Horror “overthinking write underthinking read” (https://phillippahorrorunicorn. com/2021/05/28/overthinking-write-underthinking-read/).

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from 2008, where once I wrote poetry and reflected on my future scientific path.

At the same time, I reflected how European cultural identity has shifted since 2008. This is why, during these times of uncertainty, European cultural identity research is also personal – reminiscing about the times before I graduated high school and looking at my old journals where I tried to evaluate the attractiveness of university study programmes (Graph 3).

Source: picture taken by the author

Graph 3. Picture of my 2008 study journal Now I ask myself how naive my perception and evaluation were then; such an incomplete vision. Today, I would evaluate them differently, openly, but the most interesting thing is that all those study programmes still overlap within my fields of scientific interest. Even then, I felt a craving for socio-humanities. I was not interested in the popular study programmes at that time, I was not just looking for financial benefit (even though 2009 was still within the years of the Great Recession (2007–2009)). I was not looking for something tangible and easily measurable. I was looking for something liquid and fluid. Maybe that is why

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I have been stuck in this vortex of feminine, cinematic, political, and cultural identities since my bachelor’s degree. My openness, listening to the narratives of others gave me a lot, but I still have not yet learned to stop and prioritize and, when necessary, give up something along the way. I am like Amélie Poulain,7 trying to help everyone around me, and therefore my own bones are sometimes shabby, and my narrative is disruptive. I do not rebel in the streets, but sometimes I scream quietly in the dark.

As for my European identity research path, it started back in 2016, the year of the Brexit referendum, migration crisis, and reoccurring terrorism attacks. It was the year I got married and the year our great academic intellectual, liberal thought guardian, Leonidas Donskis passed away. It seems that as we almost crossed research paths, while not meeting in person, my head was filled with thoughts about European identity. Five years and two kids later, I am still “bearing” my thesis with a constantly changing narrative or approach. How did the pandemic change my academic life or prolong my thesis gestation? Well, we all got lost in digital translation or digital transformations. I was teaching both my daughters and my students, or rather learning from them how to cope with isolation and find happiness in the little things. My husband was locked in his home office, working with his students and projects, while I was balancing life, work, and academic ideas.

This is when I began to understand that, as a researcher, I am somewhere in the middle of conflicts. 2019–2020 was a dark year both mentally and academically, at a micro-level and an even greater challenge on a global scale. And this is not just my personal struggle. Those who had to save lives, those who had to balance distance teaching and close interaction with toddlers, teenagers, or even dementiasuffering seniors might have lost their minds. Lockdown also had its aftermaths on the mental health of both children and adolescents: “COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has brought about a sense of fear and anxiety around the globe. This phenomenon has led to short term as well as long term psychosocial and mental health implications for children and adolescents” (Singh et al. 2020).

However, in the midst of this chaos, there might have been a small light of hope. As I found a babysitter for my daughters, I had an opportunity to close the doors of my cold home office and continue “growing” my PhD thesis and research on European identity politics and culture in the time of transformations.

I fed my thesis with ideas, books, and narratives of Europeanness. It gave me comfort and peace, as if I were in my own George Steiner Café.8

7 8

Amélie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/).

Steiner (2015): The Idea of Europe: An Essay (https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europemake-it/idea-of-europe/).

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Culture and Cultural Identity in the Time of Uncertainty Europe is made up of coffee houses, of cafés. These extend from Pessoa’s favourite coffee house in Lisbon to the Odessa cafés haunted by Isaac Babel’s gangsters. They stretch from the Copenhagen cafés which Kierkegaard passed on his concentrated walks to the counters of Palermo. No early or defining cafés in Moscow which is already a suburb of Asia. Very few in England after a brief fashion in the eighteenth century. (Steiner 2015) I spent a lot of time in Kaunas’s coffee houses, writing my bachelor and master’s theses. This is where I tried to find my own narratives as well as read research stories of other scholars.

When scholars narrate European cultural identity, they talk about collective identities and the construction of collective identity stories. According to Scalise (2013: 52), “public debate and civic participation are also fundamental elements of a narrative construction of European society because the narratives of Europe that circulate in the public sphere make EU citizens ‘feel united’, linking them to events in the past and allowing for reciprocal recognition”.

In these times of fluid uncertainty, we are experiencing not just economic and political crises, but also a cultural-existential crisis. In times of uncertainty, we are asking “who we are”, “who we were”, and “what binds us together”. However, as has been said before, this narrative is not just for finding the right answers but acts as rather a stepping stone for further discussion on how to strengthen and narrate European cultural identity during the time of uncertainty as well as how to raise self-identification, cultural solidarity, and the unity of European citizens. One way is by looking at the current situation through “‘disruptive’ lenses that leads to recognizing it as a place in which change and innovation rates are increasing tremendously, leaving behind obsolete, but familiar patterns” (Gaviria–Bluemelhuber 2010). This idea complements the concept of “liquid modernity”, i.e. Zygmunt Bauman’s (2013) term for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the “solid” modernity that preceded it.

Culture in such a society only finds a sense if it abandons its traditional, fixed understanding and adopts the liquid approach. If we go back to the Middle Ages or to historic chapters of plagues, there was a different philosophy of life and death present. When we listen to old lullabies or children’s stories, they all have an uncertainty and fragility in their narratives.

“There is a special physical bond between mother and child in the first year of life, in which mothers feel they can sing to their child about their own fears and anxieties, but in the safety and comfort of physical togetherness.”9 9

Why are so many lullabies also murder ballads? PBS News Hours (https://www.pbs.org/ newshour/science/many-lullabies-murder-ballads).

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As I myself sang lullabies to my daughters in the postpartum period of anxieties, I felt closer, just like I narrated the uncertainties of the current pandemic. Therefore, to understand culture and identity in constantly changing times of uncertainty, we must abandon traditional definitions and fixed cultural identity models. Instead of fixed models, we can try out and understand cultural narratives and the power of narrative through the saddest melodies and most melancholy texts as when, in 1920s, the poet Federico García Lorca heard a woman in Granada sing a lullaby to her child, as it was also a year of global pandemic.

As we “read” narratives and stories, we must understand who the main narrators are. In the case of European cultural identity, is it institutions, the culture sector, or maybe small stories from the civic society perspective, i.e. European citizen’s stories? Is the narrative a top-down or bottom-up model of culture or is it maybe a circle where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning, a cultural ecosystem, a culture of sustainability, but not a cultural ecosystem?

The Power of Narratives and Culture in the Time of Crisis “We argue that the ‘traditional paradigm’, with three dimensions or pillars of sustainable development (environmental balance, economic growth, and social inclusion) is in crisis today because it is incomplete and fails to integrate a key component: the cultural aspects of society” (Duxbury et al. 2012).

In 2013, at the UN General Assembly, one of the thematic debates was on Culture and Development. Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova emphasized: “We need to fully acknowledge the power of culture, as we shape a new global agenda to follow 2015. No society can flourish without culture and there can be no sustainable development without it.”10 In the time of crisis, we tend to forget culture, and, usually, the culture sector is the one where funding gets cut. We might have heard an urban legend, a contemporary myth, that during World War II, when Churchill was asked to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort, he responded, “Then what would we be fighting for?”11 Sadly, it is just a romantic story, a fake narrative circulating on the Internet. However, such stories, and culture itself, have power.

Once we face times of uncertainty, we start creating stories, possibly false but romantic narratives. In fact, culture, or what Claude Levi-Strauss terms cultural identity, becomes a weapon against political domination.

10 11

http://www.lacult.unesco.org/noticias/showitem.php?lg=2&pais=&id=4267.

No, Winston Churchill Didn’t Say “What Are We Fighting For?” about the Arts. Politifact (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/apr/02/viral-image/no-winston-churchill-didntsay-what-are-we-fightin/).

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Donata BOCULLO Ever since Claude Levi-Strauss changed the concept of culture to that of cultural identity, the word “identity” itself has come to be used in very different contexts and has caused many misunderstandings. Identity was a necessary weapon in the struggle against the domination of strangers. In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that fought against imperialism, national identity was mostly used, and in the Third World countries that fought against colonialism, it was more often referred to as cultural. (Czyżewski 2021)

Can cultural narratives and a common identity be used to fight off this pandemic and its psychological aftermaths? Who should the main narrators be? Kryztof Czyżewski, a Polish philosopher and a friend of Leonidas Donskis, somehow took over the role as the main narrator and extended Donkis’s thought: “The death of a friend is an event that frees a book stuck in his mind” is one of Leonid’s most sensitive aphorisms. He often returned to the attitude of changing the perception of loss in creation, trying to say that the death of our closest people – so as not to leave us with the absurdity of emptiness – is a peculiar sacrifice for the construction of our future. When a friend died, he extended my life, extended and tore the mind map, “which became the impetus for a new book”. Loyalty to friendship, as I guess Leonid would say, is not a commemoration of remembrance, but a sequel.12 Czyzewski in his book Little Centre of the World/Mali Centar Sveta – in a way a book that was freed after Donkis’s death – writes about the culture of coexistence and dialogue: The little centre of the world does not want to be the only one, it thinks of itself a quantum that coexists with other quanta. Their strength is its strength; it does not feed on the weakness of others; it does not need to dominate the environment to develop. It makes no claims to exclusivity, uniqueness, or championship in anything except dialogue, empathy, and responsibility. (Czyżewski 2021) During the COVID-19 lockdown, I rediscovered the writings of Leonidas Donskis and also found the connection within writings of his “European, liberal thought brothers and sisters”: Krzysztof Czyzewski and Irena Veisaitė,13 who helped me in asking the question: do we feel more European in times of uncertainty?

12

13

In English: Leonidas Donskis, or The New Book to Be Written (In original: Leonidas Donskis, arba Nauja knyga, kurią reikia parašyti; Bernardinai.lt) (https://www.bernardinai.lt/2017-1005-leonidas-donskis-arba-nauja-knyga-kuria-reikia-parasyti/).

Theatre and literary critic Irena Veisaitė (1928–2020).

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Do We Feel More European in Times of Uncertainty?

“Realizing the dangers of nationalism, after World War II (1945) Europeans sought to weaken the dimension of nation-states and gradually replace it with the European Union (EU), a community of supra-nationalist institutions that would eventually create a supranational European identity” (Manurung 2015).

Europe as a continent has changed its geographical, geopolitical, and ideological boundaries during major transformations centuries ago, but how did Europeans go through the transformations, and how did they perceive themselves at that time? Did they feel as citizens of ethnically created nation-states or as representatives of the culture of a united “Great Europe”?

How can we strengthen the sense of Europeanness during the time of uncertainty, or is the question that should we keep replacing or hiding nationstate narratives for the sake of a united Europe? If, during the crisis, we tend to ask ourselves who we are, should we also ask with whom we are close and what binds us together? As the European Commission Eurobarometer (2013)14 survey shows, culture, history, and economy are the elements that really unite Europeans and create a feeling of community among EU citizens.

Following the major political and economic metamorphosis faced by Europe during the last sixty years, it can be said that the very identity of Europeans has changed. The social and cultural life of EU citizens is no longer necessarily linked to a specific place[,] and the removal of borders, thanks to the processes of Europeanisation and globalisation, is giving way to an institutionalised “post-national condition” on a political, economic and social level. (Scalise 2013: 52) How can personal narratives help in the times of uncertainty? Do Eurobarometer surveys represent the real narratives of EU citizens? What is behind this abstract feeling of EU citizenship? By asking different questions and trying out different approaches, can we open up further discussion or narrate European cultural identity out of small stories without one dominant storyline?

This fluid and changing narrative of European identity and Europeanness is as debatable as EU politics and policies. Current conflicts between EU and its Member States Poland and Hungary on the Union’s next seven-year budget or law against LGBTQ content in schools or kids’ TV15 put core EU values at 14 15

European Commission. 2013. 40 Years Eurobarometer (https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/ publicopinion/topics/eb40years_en.pdf).

Hungary Passes Law Banning LGBT Content in Schools or Kids’ TV. The Guardian (https:// www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/15/hungary-passes-law-banning-lbgt-content-inschools – last visited on: 25 June 2021).

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risk (Dempsey 2020).16 In order to understand the process of EU policy making and implementation of policies in various ways, we need to analyse the core EU values. Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union lays out the collective vision, tying internal values such as “‘economic and social progress’, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘an area of freedom, security, and justice’ to the exterior, where the Union must not merely defend its interests but ‘assert its identity’” (European Union, 2002: Article 2). Different EU cultural policies and articles communicate internal values of Europeanness. However, this is usually an institutional, topdown strategy of European (cultural) identity. What if we try to tell this European cultural identity story from another perspective, one that is less institutional and more personal? Is there an identity formation model that fits this liquid concept, this constantly changing narrative?

Models of European Identity Formation Solidity and liquidity are the distinctive features of two eras: modernity and postmodernity, which becomes liquid modernity as it relates to contemporary existence. It is an existence where the need gives way to the desire that dismays men in the constant changes and transformations that affect their lives and that turn identity from fact into a task: each of us runs into the self-building, which replaces the project itself. (Palese 2013) In his paper, Recchi (2014) drew a map of research on European identity (Graph 4), where he connected “European identity to a ‘psycho-sociological or socio-political process of citizens’ attachment to the European space or to the political community designed by integration” (Duchesne 2010: 7 – transl. by Recchi 2014: 119). Identity stories are political, institutional, but at the same time private and psycho-sociological. What is interesting in this narrative of cultural identities is – with apologies to Raymond Carver – What We Talk about When We Talk about Europe.17 If I am a narrator, but at the same time treating myself as a research subject, I have to raise these questions: Do I naturally think of myself as European? Who are my European thought brothers and sisters? Do I feel European? (Table 1). Of course, self-reflection is always critical and has its limitations. It will not reflect the entire European cultural identity. It will be just one small narrative of the bigger European story.

16 17

Judy Asks: Can the EU Solve the Budget and Rule-of-Law Crisis? Carnagie Europe (https:// carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/83324 – last visited on: 25 June 2021).

Reference to What We Talk about When We Talk about Love, a 1981 collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver, as well as the title of one of the stories in the collection.

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Source: Recchi (2014)

Graph 4. A map of research on European identity Table 1. Conceptual definition and operationalization of European identity Variable General identity Civic identity Cultural identity Conceptual Do respondents Do respondents Do respondents summary naturally think identify with identify with of themselves as European Union as a Europe as a cultural Europeans? political institution? community?

Target Do I feel Does it mean Do I identify with elements European? anything for me to Europe as a shared How strong do be a “citizen” of the heritage?

I identify with European super-state? Do I think of Europe Europe?

Do I identify with the as a concentric symbols of European identity level, finding political integration? Europeans less close Do I identify with than fellow nationals the civic aspects of but closer to me than European integration? non-Europeans?

Source: Bruter (2004: 196)

In his last two books, Didžioji Europa: esė apie Europos sielą (The Great Europe: An Essay on the Soul of Europe) and Mažoji Europa: esteto žemėlapis (The Little Europe: A Map of an Aesthete), Leonidas Donskis combines politicalhistorical narratives. In his books, civic and cultural identities, or political and cultural identities, intertwine. In one of these books’ annotations, it is written: “where scholarly language fails, fiction comes as a way out of the predicament with an interpretation of the world around us. The funny thing is that politics does not work without our stories. Without travel accounts, humor, laughter, warning and moralizing, political concepts tend to become empty.”18 Even if this 18

The Great Europe. An Essay on the Soul of Europe. Leonidas Donskis Foundation (http://www. donskis.lt/en/11/2418/the-great-europe-an-essay-on-the-soul-of-europe).

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is not a paper about Donskis’s narratives and ideas of Europe, it is an inspiration for further research on how to combine the politics of European cultural identity and cultural narratives, how, out of small, personal narratives, we can build up a greater Europe.

Conclusions and Future Narratives How do we analyse these small stories of Europeanness and how should we be looking for them? One way is by looking at the digital public sphere and comparing how EU institutions communicate their core values in comparison to EU citizens? Is it possible to install a European consciousness and an idea of Europe?

The public sphere and civil society are dynamic elements of the bottomup construction of European society; they are driving forces of the process of Europeanisation, driven forward by those who themselves feel in some way involved at a supranational government level. Public debate and civil participation are also fundamental elements of a narrative construction of European society because the narratives of Europe that circulate in the public sphere make EU citizens “feel united”, linking them to events in the past and allowing for reciprocal recognition. (Scalise 2013) But how does it work? Does narrative have the power of uniting people in the time of crisis? Piasecki and Woroniecki (2016) wrote about the human dimension of European integration. “Isn’t it high time at last to examine this issue in-depth and in a novel way, and to launch practical measures in order to deepen a human dimension of the European integration: bringing together EU citizens and instilling European consciousness and pride in being a European – something that various European institutions <…> have been fighting for?”

(Piasecki–Woroniecki 2016: 58).

Can personal stories, or narratives created by citizens, strengthen the idea of united in diversity in Europe? – like The Mythical Beast of Kaunas, part of the artistic programme Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022, an interdisciplinary project aimed at creating a unifying narrative for the city. “The creation of the Beast and its story involves citizens of all ages and of all walks of life and creates participatory experience for people from near and far away. The Mythical Beast of Kaunas will become an avatar or allegory for the City, where the Beast = Kaunas”.19 19

Mythical beast of Kaunas, Kaunas 2022 (https://kaunolegenda.lt/en/ – last visited on: 25 June 2021).

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Should the narrative approach towards EU identity be technocratic, institutional, participatory, or maybe it should be a holistic ecosystem? It might be speculation, but coexistence and sustainability during the time of uncertainty is essential, just as essential as leaving behind hierarchy and top-down models of culture and cultural identities. It is also about switching from “take back control”, i.e. fighting for the individual liberties narrative, to the narrative of unity and solidarity in a cultural ecosystem. If we do so, culture might help save lives or at least help to deal with these liquid times, just like narratives help to raise selfidentification. Of course, auto-ethnographic research might have its limitations, but it can also help: – navigate times of uncertainty and researchers understand their own biases and to be open for dialogue; – understand cultural identity narratives in the time of uncertainty as coexistence and the ecosystem of cultural identities, or, in other words, to hear other stories and perspectives; – understand the cultural impact on individual and collective regeneration after the crisis.

Therefore, my future narratives/research of European cultural identity will switch from the personal to collective stories of Europeanness on a public sphere.

As T. S. Eliot once wrote: “The end is the beginning: What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from” (T. S. Eliot).20

References Bauman, Zygmunt. 2013. Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Bruter, Michael. 2004. Civic and Cultural Components of a European Identity: A Pilot Model of Measurement of Citizens’ Levels of European Identity. In: Hermann, R. K., Risse, T., Brewer, M. B. (eds.), Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. 186–213.

Czyżewski, Krzysztof. 2021. Mažasis Pasaulio Centras. Idėjų Praktiko Užrašai.

Vilnius: Versus.

Dempsey, Judy. 2020. Judy Asks: Can the EU Solve the Budget and Rule-of-Law Crisis? Carnegie Europe (https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/83324).

Donskis, Leonidas. 2011. Modernity in Crisis: A Dialogue on the Culture of Belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2016. Didžioji Europa: Esė Apie Europos Sielą. Vilnius: Versus Aureus.

20

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/t_s_eliot_101421.

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Durkheim, Emile (1893/1984). The Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Free Press.

Duxbury, Nancy, Cullen, Catherine, Pascual, Jordi. 2012. Cities, Culture and Sustainable Development. In: Anheier, H. K, Isar, Y. R., Hoelscher, M. (eds.), Cultural Policy and Governance in a New Metropolitan Age. London: Sage.

73–86.

Gaviria, Pilar Rojas, Bluemelhuber, Christian. 2010. Consumers’ Transformations in a Liquid Society: Introducing the Concepts of Autobiographical Concern and Desire Assemblage. Journal of Consumer Behaviour: An International Research Review 9(2): 126–138.

Katz Rothman, Barbara. 2007. Writing Ourselves in Sociology. Methodological Innovation Online 2: 11–16.

Manurung, Hendra. 2015. The European Identity Crisis on European Integration.

SSRN Electronic Journal (December). DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2703867.

Palese, Emma. 2013. Zygmunt Bauman. Individual and Society in the Liquid Modernity. SpringerPlus 2(1): 2–5.

Piasecki, Ryszard, Woroniecki, Jan. 2016. Europeanness: A Path to Unity within the European Union. Comparative Economic Research 19(1): 45–63.

Recchi, Ettore. 2014. Pathways to European Identity Formation: A Tale of Two Models. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 27(2): 119–133.

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Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 116–131 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0007

Scripts in Rural Élites’ Attitude as Narrative Barriers in the Hungarian–Roma Interethnic Relations in Szeklerland (Romania) Zoltán BIRÓ A.

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania birozoltan@uni.sapientia.ro

Ágnes SÁROSI-BLÁGA

WAC – Centre for Regional and Anthropological Research, Miercurea-Ciuc, Romania agnesblaga@gmail.com Abstract. Relying on an interview-based research conducted in Romania’s Szeklerland area, in settlements with a significant Roma population where the majority of the inhabitants are of Hungarian ethnicity, the present study investigates the non-Roma rural élites’ attitude towards the local Roma population. The regional relevance of the topic is indicated by the fact that the importance of the Roma population’s social integration is present in social publicity, while at the same time the three decades following the 1989 socio-political turn in Romania witnessed only a few attempts at the planning and launching of programmes aimed at the Roma population’s social integration. In the course of the past three decades, the regional institutions and élites have repeatedly shuffled off the professional thematization and practical addressing of this issue, whereas in principle they emphasized the importance of social integration. This study aims to explore some of the components making up the background of the aboveoutlined ambivalent attitude. With the script analysis method, we intend to look into what scripts rural elite actors adopt in building the narratives on the Hungarian–Roma attitude and what role this narrative creation has in the case of the élite belonging to the Hungarian ethnic majority.

Keywords: scripts, narrative barriers, interethnic relations, Roma integration

Introduction The present study makes use of the script analysis method with a view to investigating the non-Roma rural élites’ attitude towards the local Roma population. In the rural social context we study, from the point of view of local

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society, the leaders of institutions are considered élites, usually with a higher education degree (heads of institutions, teachers, doctors, priests).

Among the analytical procedures developed based on the concept of script introduced by Erwing Goffman (1959), approaches addressing the issue of individual identity building (see: Berg 2008) as well as studies in rural research (Silvasti 2003a,b; Vanclay–Enticott 2011) were considered as starting-points. Our paper relies on the analysis of interviews conducted in Romania’s Szeklerland area in settlements with a significant Roma population where the majority of the inhabitants are of Hungarian ethnicity. The regional relevance of the topic is indicated by the fact that the importance of the Roma population’s social integration is present in social publicity, while at the same time the three decades following the 1989 socio-political turn in Romania witnessed only a few attempts at the planning and launching of programmes aimed at the Roma population’s social integration. In the course of the past three decades, the regional institutions and élites have repeatedly shuffled off the professional thematization and practical addressing of this issue, whereas in principle they emphasized the importance of social integration. This study aims to explore some of the components making up the background of the above-outlined ambivalent attitude. Drawing on interviews conducted among the rural élite (heads of institutions, teachers, doctors, priests), the attitudes towards the Roma population were investigated based on the scripts found in the narratives. Literature on rural development particularly stresses the role local élites play in local development (for example Marsden 1998, Murdoch 2000, Ward 2002, Shucksmith 2010). On the other hand, the role of the local élite becomes even more relevant upon the rise to prominence of the new rural development paradigm (Van der Ploeg 1994, Van der Ploeg et al. 2000, OECD 2006, Almstedt et al. 2014) and of the neo-endogenous approaches (see Shucksmith 2010) aimed at the utilization of local values. With regard to the region under study, the programme-based social integration of the Roma population has not even started yet, and the local élites’ attitude can be of vital importance as to whether or not such programmes will be launched at all, and if so, then how effectively they will work out. In this context, we intend to look into what scripts rural elite actors adopt in building the narratives on the Hungarian–Roma attitude and what role this narrative creation has in the case of the élite belonging to the Hungarian ethnic majority.

Professional Context Erwin Goffman (1959) called attention to the phenomenon that in situations involving interaction people often and willingly adopt procedures kept at the ready and tailored to the situation at hand. According to Goffman, this has to do

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with individuals playing various roles in their social interactions, and he contends that identity should be considered as the totality of roles undertaken during these interactions. He goes on to stress that the use of scripts is not necessarily a conscious act. Goffman’s approach proves to be of crucial importance in terms of our topic since it highlights that an investigation into the attitudes towards the Roma population should not place its primary focus on the explicitly appearing prejudices and stereotypes but rather on the essential elements the attitude towards the Roma population contains and the forms it takes in the specific situations arising from the relationship with the Roma people as well as in the narratives addressing these situations. Bibi van den Berg (2008) also underlines in her analysis of the issue that scripts are abstract social entities developed along the shared cultural meanings and dependent on the situation, wherefore they can be captured in the context of everyday activities.

Research has made use of the concept of script first of all in the field of gender roles and sexual behaviour (see on this: Gagnon–Simon 1973). These studies also pointed out that in typical situations human behaviour would follow a predetermined pattern, and the resulting predictability bears great significance for social actors.

The diverse applications of script theory suggest that scripts are useful problemsolving tools in the management of challenging situations, and they also play an important part in the development of both individual and group identity. In their study addressing cultural scripts, Goddard and Wierzbicka (2004) provide a description and analysis of the various groups’ norms and practices. The authors argue that speech techniques and the norms of interaction are culture-specific even when it comes to a globally used language such as English. Meng’s (2008) study rests on the comparison of American and Chinese situational schemata.

The researcher examines the role of social scripts in everyday situations (e.g. eating in a restaurant, giving gifts, talking on the phone, etc.) and maintains that in everyday situations involving communication and interaction people use “internalized situational concept” in their discourses, i.e. scripts that are culture-specific. Analysing migrants’ motivations for returning home, Benjamin Ross (2016) points out that the interview subjects’ return to their home country, finding employment and starting a family there are all determined by cultural scripts. An example of such scripts that can be identified in narratives is that men are to start a family by the end of their twenties or that they must return to take care of their elderly parents or that it is much easier to buy a house in one’s hometown. In their research based on focus group interviews, Aguiar et al. (2013) distinguished various ideal types according to cultural scripts and confirmed that scripts defining one’s attitude to death (and the ideal types emerging along these) depend to a large extent on age, beliefs, level of education, and self-assessment.

Sallaz (2016) argues that Goffman’s theory on interpersonal interactions can

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be used to analyse globalization processes. To confirm his view, the author discusses micro- and macro-approaches alike and lays stress on the simultaneous importance of global and local scripts.

Studies in rural sociology (Silvasti 2003a,b; Vanclay–Enticott 2011) provide a new model of scripts that proved to be useful for us both conceptually and methodologically. In relation to the topic of agriculture, these works reveal the structural role of scripts and how they can influence through these roles the development trials aimed at overriding the already existing practices. Vanclay and Enticott identified four types of scripts: (1) a socially perceived routine or expected sequence of events; specifically an understanding about how things should or will unfold; (2) a catch-phrase, metaphor or allegory that is frequently recited in response to a particular issue or situation; (3) a mini-story, narrative, or parable that has particular significance in a social group (irrespective of whether it is true or not); (4) a commonly used line of argument (thread, theme) that is widely invoked in response to a particular issue or situation. They stress the essential fact that scripts always contain a normative component, while their use is a fundamental aspect of identity production both at the individual and group level and strengthens solidarity between group members. Also, they point out the importance of concrete situations in the use of scripts (Vanclay–Enticott 2011: 260, 267). These considerations acted as decisive factors in our analysis.

Regional Context The census (1992) taken after the 1989 regime change in Romania recorded a total of 409,723 Roma inhabitants, whereas the leaders of the Roma representative body spoke to the media about a population of 3–4 million. In this period, experts estimated a number slightly exceeding one million. A clear-cut, professionally reliable overview of the situation has not been realized to this day, while the image of the Roma population’s living conditions (extremely low labour market participation, low level of education, high birth rate, standard of living below the poverty line; see in this regard Zamfir 1993) has not undergone any substantial changes either. As experts on the subject point out, it is not the ethnic but the social dimension (Achim 2001: 241) and the process of social isolation that determine the relationship between the Roma people and the majority population.

The above-described nationwide features also apply to the rural area under study, with the addition that the social distance between the majority Hungarian population and the Roma people as well as the associated social isolation – as a result of sociohistorical processes – has an even stronger presence. However, there are only case studies, micro-research, and researchers’ field experiences available in this regard (Oláh 1999, Gagyi 1996, Bodó 2002, Biró et al. 2017).

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Relations between Roma and Romanian population in the region are of a completely different nature than Hungarian-Roma relations for socio-historical reasons (Pozsony–Anghel 1999, Bárdi–Hermann 1999).

Over the last two decades, several analyses have been carried out about the situation of the Roma population (Pozsony–Anghel 1999; Fosztó 2009; Kiss et al.

2009; Szabó 2016, 2018; Szabó Á. 2020), but they do not deal with the analysis of the interlocking narratives.

The last thorough statistical recording of the Roma population’s number and living conditions took place in the year 1893. All official censuses organized since then revealed a considerably lower number of Roma minority as compared to the situation on the ground. However, the data from later censuses (e.g. 1930, 1941, 1966, 1992; see Varga 19981) differ substantially from each other. According to official data from the 2011 census2, the rate is 4.4 percent. According to researchers on the subject, the Roma population in the region could be approximately twice as large as the census figures3. Statistical research conducted in the framework of the SocioRoMap programme in 2016 (Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities) in 2015-2016 showed that the Roma population in the region is 9.4 percent. Experience from fieldwork based on personal participation shows that the proportion is even higher.

In terms of living conditions, we can rely on researchers’ personal experiences and case studies.

Only recent years have seen a progress with respect to the various official registers including the personal, medical, etc. records of all Roma inhabitants as far as possible. In the presentation of the regional context, two professional experiences are considered: a) the first one concerns the nature of the relationship between the Hungarian population constituting a majority in the region and the Roma inhabitants, b) while the second one is related to the regional thematization of the Roma issue. a.)

The relationship between the Hungarians and the Roma population in the region is basically conveyed by the model described as “living next to someone else/another one” and by the highly asymmetric nature of this relationship (Oláh 1999, Bodó 2002). This means that degradation, expulsion, and depreciation act as decisive factors in the attitude of the majority to the Roma population, while the social barrier between the two ethnic groups is virtually insurmountable (some typical examples are: the complete absence of mixed marriages, seeking spatial 1 2 3

http://www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002.htm.

Institutul Naţional de Statistică România – 2013: Recensământul Populaţiei şi al Locuinţelor – 2011. Bucharest, July 2013.

Hungarian-speaking Roma in Transylvania. Spatial location and residential segregation: http:// statisztikak.erdelystat.ro/cikkek/magyarul-beszel-romak-erdelyben-terleti-elhelyezkedes-eslakohelyi-szegregacio/60.

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and social isolation, linguistic stigmatization) – this cultural pattern is passed down from generation to generation (Biró–Oláh 2002: 31–32), and the processes of change are slow-paced and include but a few aspects of social life (Biró–Bodó 2002, Biró et al. 2017). Our research conducted in the region suggests that for the rural élite the reference framework of the attitude towards the Roma inhabitants is made up by the above-outlined asymmetric relationship, which has developed and consolidated throughout the region’s social history. Here we are dealing with a model perceivable at the local scale, wherein the Roma population is almost surgically separated within the physical and social space of the settlement, and the relations between the two groups have an implicitly codified order respected by everyone and expressed by linguistic-symbolic means. This model of the Hungarian–Roma relationship functions as a point of comparison/reference in the narrations of the élite, in the sense that this model is the “good” one, and should it change, reversion must be made to the state predating the change.

Of course, the practice of the relations between the two ethnic groups is undergoing certain changes these days. A major sign of this is that a complete separation cannot be applied anymore in the use of the physical and social space, the shared use of space becoming prevalent in a growing number of areas (Biró– Bodó 2002). This process greatly increases – in a mutual way – the knowledge of each other and enriches the experiences they have with each other. However, in everyday speech events, the rising number of interfaces continues to promote the asymmetry-based relationship among the Hungarian ethnic population.

Interpretations generated in contact situations are formulated as oppositions (we – they, own – other, good – bad, valuable – not valuable) – with very few exceptions – on the part of the Hungarian majority; these oppositions include the Hungarian side rated as positive and the Roma side as negative. The above provided brief presentation is meant to indicate that the number of contact areas in the Hungarian–Roma relations in the region is on the rise, increasingly more segments of the physical and social space being involved in the relations between the two groups. However, this process generates oppositions rather than points of connection in everyday practice and speech events. b.)

A second relevant feature of the regional social context is linked to the discursive practices, which have two separate levels in relation to the Roma population within the region under study. An important task in the analysis of the situation of the Roma population in the region is the analysis of media discourses, policy discourses and everyday discourses, which could be usefully applied in this region as well. Critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk 2005) and analyses in different regions (Nordberg 2006, Richardson 2014, Olesen–Karlsson 2018) are good examples of this.

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The Roma issue is seldom present in the public, official discourse (professional fora, policies, media) in the region; however, when it appears, it can be usually found in connection with one of the following topics: the Roma population’s unfavourable social situation, low school attendance, law-breaking, infringements, conflict situations, and so on. On the other hand, the issue is a very common element of the everyday discourse (especially in informal speech situations and more specifically in speech events whose participants or opinion leaders are men), and the criticisms formulated with regard to the Roma population are – with very few exceptions – negative. The speech events, criticisms, and linguistic terms that dominate the everyday discourse are inadmissible/untenable for the public figures and the public discourse.

Experience shows that representatives of the regional élite are willing to address this issue publicly only when forced by some external factor or challenge. Such a challenge may be a speech situation when members of the majority rural elite actors are asked to give an interview for the purposes of a research programme and provide a statement on the situation of the Roma population. This is in effect a double challenge. Obviously, this is not an easy topic for the interviewed elite actors (teachers, doctors, priests, entrepreneurs, local leaders, etc.) to talk about. For one thing, the structure and word-stock of the institutional narrative associated with the interpretation of the Roma people’s situation is yet to be developed, while the interviewees have certain institutional responsibilities due to their roles played within the given institution. They cannot disregard the expectations placed upon the elite (i.e. institutional) role they have, which, although do not offer any established narrative for the persons making the statement, but impose the representation of strict principles and norms (primarily in the form of “what must not be said, what is improper to say” with respect to the Roma issue). On the other hand, it is not easy to make a statement also because in an interview situation they obviously cannot take an approach or use a language that characterizes the everyday speech events associated with this issue, that elites operating in the rural environment are also well aware of, and that they can even identify themselves with in a non-official role, in their everyday personal relations.

It is in this dual context where rural élites holding institutional positions (managers/directors, teachers, doctors, priests) form their attitudes and behaviour towards the Roma population. Considering the local élites’ increasing influence on the operation of local institutions, on the elaboration and implementation of development programmes, it may be an important professional task to recognize what attitudes and behaviour rural élites develop and adopt in this dual “force field” in relation to the Roma population and their social integration.

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Methodology The present study rests on the analysis of 15 interviews conducted with rural élites between 2017 and 2018 in settlements with a significant share of Roma population. In the rural social context we study, from the point of view of local society, the leaders of institutions are considered élites, usually with a higher education degree (heads of institutions, teachers, doctors, priests). These interviews aimed to outline the overall situation in every case (description of the Roma population, attitude towards the major local institutions, labour market situation, attitude towards the Hungarian population, etc.). Whenever their attitudes to local institutions came into focus, the interviewed local actors (teachers, local government leaders, priests, entrepreneurs, doctors) would always enhance the role of the institution or activity they were representing.

The survey followed the semi-structured interview model, which allowed for the expression of various opinions, giving examples, or telling short stories. The script analysis drew on the typology developed by Vanclay and Enticott, who distinguished four types of scripts in their analysis of rural sociology, indicating the overlaps between the individual types as well as the importance of their combined use (Vanclay–Enticott 2011: 261). The script analysis method has been used in several areas before, besides rural sociology: for example, in the field of gender roles and sexual behaviour (see on this: Gagnon–Simon 1973), cultural scripts (Goddard–Wierzbicka 2004), everyday situations (Meng 2008), migrants’ motivations (Ross 2016). Interpreting the situation of the Roma population is not an easy undertaking for the persons who have agreed to give an interview. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, there is no standardized terminologicalconceptual toolkit readily available for the local élite to formulate the institution’s official position, while there is also an ambition on their part to have their position somewhat aligned with the local community’s opinion. Therefore, the analyst will not find well-rehearsed, standardized, terminologically fixed scripts in the fixed narratives but will instead be confronted with statements that – implicitly or allusively – refer to a well-defined underlying content. The very same script can be expressed in several ways, but its content can always be clearly defined. For example, the content that the Roma people “are completely different from the local majority” can be regarded as a script – this content can appear explicitly, as an allusion, or in complex sentences describing actual situations (e.g.: “if they moved into a house, into a palace, I’m sure it would be reduced to a pile of junk within a month” or “they do not do any farming, just loot around”). The use of script is always connected to a concrete situation, a specific personal experience and has an interpretive/explanatory power that reaches beyond any given contact situation.

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Analysis In the following, we will provide a presentation of the scripts that can be identified in the analysed narratives. We should point out that the presented scripts cannot be treated as a standardized language toolkit of the scripts formulated by the rural élites under study – they may take several forms, and this refers to the searching, pondering nature of narrative creation. We tend to share Vanclay and Enticott’s (2011) view that scripts are first of all responses to a specific challenge, which is why their primary function is the communication management of the given situation and, as a corollary, building the individual as well as the relevant group identity. We believe that it is not the dictionary meaning of script (which could be otherwise relevant for analysts of interethnic relations or for analyses of political science) that determines its importance for an analysis of development policy. What is crucial for development policy analysis is in what challenging situations a specific script is prioritized, to what extent it works well as a means for interpreting a situation, and how often this takes place. Since the mode and frequency of use strengthens or generates, on the side of the user, individual as well as group identity and the attitude to challenges, it may be difficult to initiate or implement successful development policy processes, new development policy thematizations without actually knowing the scripts of the particular topic.

It will be necessary to perform our analysis on a larger text corpus and extend it to further groups of the rural élite.

1.

One of the most common scripts is associated with the Roma population’s attitude towards the local institutions. The most recurring topic of teachers’ narratives is the Roma community’s attitude to school as an institution. This attitude can refer to learning in general, the educational institution in general, some of the institutional rules, or the established order of the activities.

Some typical forms of narratives are as follows: “they cannot be integrated into the established order”; “The children come here, but in fact they are not interested in school.” “The child used to attend [the school]… could even read and count, but s/he dropped away… dropped away because s/he no longer liked first grade.” Doctors’ narratives also include linguistic forms conveying such attitudes: “The pregnant women… we try to identify them, which is quite troublesome because there is little willingness to show up in time…”

“They announce the enrolment of their child, but sometimes they forget about it altogether because they do not get married, and the rest of them just live together.” Disregarding the rules set out by the institution was again a topic of utmost importance throughout the interview conducted with the priest: “… from the point of view of the church, if approached normally, these marriages are not marriages”; “Most of the children are not baptized…”

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The content that these attitudes appearing under various forms share is that the Roma people do not accept the rules set out by the different institutions.

These scripts include criticism and conclusions as well: criticism in the sense that rejecting the school or the institutional rules is clearly an injurious, wrong attitude according to the speaker and conclusion in the sense that this situation cannot be changed, all the struggles and efforts are in vain. At the same time, such scripts convey opposition, asymmetric relationship, and depreciation: they indicate that while the Hungarian population complies with these rules, the Roma people do not.

2.

The interview subjects often report on situations where they encountered the unique, particular features of the Roma people’s lifestyle. In situations of this kind, we can find that the interpretation of the situation is replaced by describing the peculiarity thereof. In their indication of otherness, speakers often resort to attributes, metaphors, associated with negative ratings as a rule.

The narrative forms carrying the script show a diverse picture in this case.

Some typical examples are as follows: “He is twelve years old, and he has already stolen a bride for himself.” “They still have this pagan thing ingrained into them.” “… all they know is temporary survival”; “… they have a certain way of life, it’s terrible, starting from the stench all the way to the housekeeping, the environment… it’s a disaster for the neighbourhood”; “this is their way of life, but it appears that this is the way they like it”.

The content that these attitudes appearing in diverse linguistic forms share is that: They are very different. This script reveals in particular the distance lying between the two groups, namely in the sense that this distance cannot be bridged.

Even if there are some positive examples, it is not a general phenomenon. These scripts condense the speaker’s distrust and previous negative experiences into a definite attitude and at the same time increase the distance from the Roma group as by the repetition of the expression conveying the script, the speaker is sending the message that it appears unlikely that any change may happen on the part of the Roma community.

3.

Interviewees take the view that the bulk of the initiatives concerning the improvement of the Roma inhabitants’ situation are persuasion attempts aiming to help. The subject matter of these is usually that they should change their attitude towards the local institutions, or, less commonly, some form of collaboration or job opportunity is offered. Examples of the latter can be found in entrepreneurial narratives. In their persuasion, speakers always point out their personal commitment, the investment in the project, the willingness to cooperate, while at the same time they clearly formulate, as some sort of rule, that the persuasion or cooperation effort is futile.

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The narrative forms carrying the script are as follows: “… there are promises on the part of the Roma families… regrettably, they haven’t kept their promises”; “I’m trying to reason with the parents in my own way… they always promise they’d come, but they don’t come…”; “I explain it to them; they tell me I’m right and this is the way it should be done, yet they don’t act on it; it’s all over once they leave the office…”

The content that these attitudes appearing in diverse linguistic forms share is that: They do not keep their promises; one cannot reason with them. These scripts do not only suggest that the initiatives were futile but also that, based on the personal experiences appearing as particularly authentic, any further attempts or persuasion is absolutely useless; it is not worth dealing with such matters as it will not yield any result. The statement as well as the attitude behind it are confirmed by the reference to the personal experience.

4.

Besides the teachers’ narratives, we are encountering a similar issue with great frequency in some other narratives as well, more specifically that positive phenomena experienced among the Roma population are not really to be taken seriously since they are nothing more than casual, random incidents. These positive phenomena should not, cannot lead us to the conclusion that in terms of the specific attitude, the behaviour of the entire Roma community will change in a positive direction. The content that these linguistic forms share is that this population is not going to change.

The narrative forms conveying the script are: “This is from where the children come to us, but not all children, unfortunately…” “The children go to school, but only some of them.” “There are a few who stand out, but the majority are in a very poor situation.”

5.

The diverse linguistic forms convey the content that: They are out of control.

Some typical narratives are: “They have become a lot more audacious… they are much more insolent than they were thirty years ago…” “They are causing more trouble than the entire settlement.” “Over time, they become more and more loud-mouthed…”

Summary In our study, we aimed to use the script analysis method in order to investigate the attitude of the rural élite towards the Roma population. Certain scripts were identified in the narratives of the rural élite (teachers, managers/directors, priests, doctors, entrepreneurs). We found that rural élites adopt scripts in communication situations focusing on the interpretation of the Roma people’s local situation, and

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they make use of these scripts in responding to the challenge that the creation of a discursive form – in our case: the interview situation connected to the officialpublic role – presented for them. The use of scripts in relation to the Roma population redefines the oppositional as well as asymmetric relationship and the social distance.

Two further observations need to be added to this line of thought, which at the same time point to future possibilities for analysis.

1) The representatives of each area – expressly or tacitly – argue that the Roma population (their way of life) should integrate into the “system” they represent.

They should have the same attitude to the functioning of the education system, healthcare, the church, the interests and life of the local community, and the economic and lifestyle-related activities – in terms of principles, norms, and practical solutions – as the majority local community has or intends to have.

This expectation is not exclusive in the sense that it does not require immediate and complete identification. They would even settle for seeing/perceiving that the Roma community is making progress in this direction. They observe and appreciate the positive examples and attempts that can be encountered in the Roma community, but they always point out that these are very rare and they are much rather exceptions than signs of an actual process of change. We are of the opinion that this attitude has development policy implications on a local scale as it indicates that rural élites do not see changes among the Roma population as a real possibility.

2) The texts clearly reveal that the speakers have acquired their knowledge of the Roma community through personal experiences and they link the scripts to these specific cases. At the same time, it is also a notable phenomenon that the speakers define the Roma community’s sporadic, individual manifestations as a message informing that we are not dealing with specific cases, persons, or situations but with an essential feature of the entire Roma community. The majority narrative attaches a general meaning to the concrete, occasional manifestations (e.g. school absenteeism, loud talking, non-compliance with certain rules, etc.) that covers an important segment of the Roma community’s operation. Through a synecdochic association (part–whole extension), the individual attitude refers to a practice, approach that characterizes every member of the Roma community. This type of generalization of the individual, particular cases, experiences, and examples is the procedure of generating distance and strengthening individual and group identity, and the use of scripts provides a framework for the communication manoeuvre involving substitution by the general (as opposed to the individual).

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Policy Implications This study allows two conclusions in terms of development policy.

Firstly, the use of scripts indicates that the rural élite – implicitly – excludes development policy work aimed at the Roma population or finds it unnecessary.

Sometimes they express that the situation of the Roma population is bad and something needs to be done, but the scripts used in their interpretation of the situation suggest that generating distance with regard to the local Roma population takes priority. Generating distance makes part of personal and community identity building, wherefore it can be established that a development policy involvement aimed at improving the Roma community’s situation is likely to take place in the case of the rural élite currently performing institutional roles only if their identity-building practices undergo certain changes. Evidently, this does not rule out that the younger generation whose members have not yet moved into a local leadership role would take a different approach, but there is no research experience in this regard.

Our second conclusion conveys a more positive message. The public-official narrative concerning the improvement of the Roma population’s situation is yet to be developed in the region. Our research indicates that the rural élite is facing issues of situation interpretation, definition, and linguistic choices when they need to incorporate their attitude to the situation of the Roma community into a publicofficial discourse. As a solution, they opt for the use of scripts. This state of affairs allows for a thematization work in the region that seeks the creation of a publicofficial discourse aimed at the improvement of the Roma community’s situation.

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Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 132–143 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0008

Natural Scientific and Ecological Environmental Education in the Training of Kindergarten Teacher Students at the University of Sopron, Hungary Jutka NMARNÉ KENDÖL University of Sopron, Hungary kendol.julianna@phd.uni-sopron.hu

Abstract. The greatest challenge of the 21st century is to recreate the disturbed balance between people and their environment. The functioning of the changed global system warns us about the multiplying of today’s global and local problems, which are affecting the world’s population. International organizations deal with this issue. In their opinion, environmental education and environmentally conscious thinking can be a way out of the crisis. The efficiency of environmental education is influenced by the ratio of theory and practice as well as the appropriately applied teaching methods, which is confirmed by the experience of the Ecology and Environmental Protection in Kindergarten course of the Benedek Elek Faculty of Pedagogy at the University of Sopron, Hungary.

Keywords: environmental education, environmental attitude, cooperation, creativity, recycling

Introduction From the mid-1900s, international organizations have recognized that environmental protection is becoming increasingly global. There is a need for long-term thinking and action on environmental issues. The development of environmental awareness, i.e. environmental education, appeared in most countries, as it had become clear that the maintenance and protection of the state of our environment could only be ensured in the event of a significant change in social perspectives (Havas–Varga 2006). The basic preconditions for this are environmental awareness, the development of environmentally conscious behaviour, values, and emotional attitudes, as well as the formation of thinking and the expansion of knowledge about the environment and society.

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In the 1930s, conservation education flourished in the American society.

Its aim was to draw the attention of the American people to environmental problems and the importance of conserving various natural resources (Victor 1998). Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published in 1962, in which the ecologist drew attention to the dangers of technological development (Carson 1994). After the publication of the book, many non-governmental organizations were established, and the state environmental protection got also started. In 1972, a world conference on the environment was held in Stockholm, organized by the United Nations and entitled United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. The right to a humane environment, the need for environmental education, and the renewal of educational tasks and methods were formulated here for the first time at the international level. According to Principle 19, environmental education broadens the horizons of students and adults, and therefore they will act responsibly to protect the environment (Stockholm 1972).

The first international event on environmental education was the Environmental Education Workshop conference organized by UNESCO in Belgrade in 1975.

In the Belgrade Charter, in relation to environmental education, UNESCO set out new knowledge, expertise, values, and attitudes for a new environment and quality of life (UNESCO 1975). The Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference was held in 1977, co-organized by UNESCO and UNEP, where recommendations were made on environmental education. According to their definition: A basic aim of environmental education is to succeed in making individuals and communities understand the complex nature of the natural and the built environments resulting from the interaction of their biological, physical, social, economic, and cultural aspects, and acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, and practical skills to participate in a responsible and effective way in anticipating and solving environmental problems, and in the management of the quality of the environment. (Victor 1998) In 1979, at the UNESCO conference, the Munich Recommendation document stated the fact that environmental education was a way out of the ecological crisis (Kováts-Németh 2010).

The World Commission on Environment and Development was set up by the United Nations and its members in 1984. The 22-member Brundtland Commission made a report entitled Our Common Future, which set out the concept of sustainable development. It states that a sustainable development is a form of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Commission has identified three pillars for sustainable development: environment, society, and economy. The 1987 UNESCO Conference in Moscow issued an action strategy

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entitled International Strategy for Action in Environmental Education and Training for the 1990s. The second part of the strategy formulates the principles, goals, and tools of environmental education. The 1997 conference, also organized

by UNESCO, set out the topics concerning environment, society, education, and social responsibility for sustainability in the Thessaloniki Declaration. In 1999, a conference on Environmental Education and Training was organized in Brussels by the European Union. At this conference, it was stated that environmental education and training were the basis for sustainable development in the Union.

In their final document, the participants stated that environmental education no longer only meant protecting and loving the environment and encouraging doing it, but it also extended to the topics of sustainable development and society.

In 2002, the UN General Assembly declared the ten years from 2005 to 2015 to be the Decade of Education for Sustainability. Its strategy encourages member states to integrate sustainability education into formal and informal education.

The Bonn Declaration summarizes the achievements and further tasks of the Decade of Education for Sustainability in 2009 (Kováts-Németh 2010). Nowadays, the concept, purpose, and task of environmental education have become clearer.

Accordingly, environmental education includes the following: environmentally conscious lifestyle, harmony between people and their environment, development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards environmental problems, effective prevention of environmental problems, and the management of current problems as well as the prevention of new ones (Ádám–Kuti–Kuti 2007). According to Lehoczky, the goal of environmental education is multi-layered: it is not just the transfer of environmental knowledge, but it also seeks to influence the whole personality, and so it influences the consciousness with knowledge, the emotions with experiences, and the will with purposeful activities (Lehoczky 1999).

According to Kárász, there are still significant shortcomings in teacher training today although the content of environmental (environmental protection, ecological and nature conservation, etc.) trainings have been analysed, its shortcomings have been identified, and the strategic elements have been determined by several national conferences since the 1980s (Kárász 2002, 2003).

This fact is also stated by Kiss and Zsíros: in higher education, the teaching of knowledge about environmental protection and sustainable development is not yet fully developed (Kiss–Zsíros 2006: 7).

The teacher has a big role to play in the educational process because it is not only that their task is to pass on the knowledge, but they also affect the students with their whole personality. The personal example and the attitude cause a change in students’ behaviour. In the context of social learning, we learn the most through imitation or model following (Bandura 1976).

In kindergarten teacher training, it is especially important that our students get to their future workplace, i.e. kindergartens, with the right environmental

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attitude, because by deepening their theoretical knowledge and methodological culture, they will be able to improve the efficiency of their science and ecological education. They will be able to convey and implement the expectations of environmental education and education for sustainability. It is very important that they know and apply the methods that help preschool children to think and behave in an environmentally conscious way. It is especially important that our students have all this by the end of the training because the national basic programme of kindergarten education defined by Government Decree 363/2012 (XII. 17.) lists the formation of habits related to the protection and preservation of the environment and the establishment of environmentally conscious behaviour among the general tasks of kindergarten education. Environmental education in kindergarten is linked to almost all areas of education.

The most important principle of the National Strategy for Environmental Education is that both the environment and the education affect every single person, which is why every citizen is interested in the learning process for the future. It also states that the effectiveness of environmental education and the preparedness of environmental teachers must be increased because this is the only way to achieve lasting and well-founded improvements in the state of the natural and human environment. Curriculum theory in Hungary needs to be renewed; the path of progress leads to practice. One of the ways of organizing the literacy material is a system that divides the subjects into larger units, which is organized by some kind of system (interest of students, their experiences). It focuses on problem areas, practical tasks, student activities, and comprehensive knowledge (Ballér 2003). Environmental education and the development of environmentally conscious behaviour are more effective with consciously applied task-oriented methods (Czippán et al. 2004: 21). Studies and research prove that environmental education can be implemented more effectively in projects (Kováts-Németh 2010).

Materials and Methods Ecology and Environmental Protection in Kindergarten Course – SoE, Benedek Elek Faculty of Pedagogy, Kindergarten Teacher Education The 2nd-year, full-time students of the Benedek Elek Faculty of Pedagogy at the University of Sopron study Ecology and Environmental Protection in Preschool Education as a compulsory course. The objective of teaching this subject was to expand the environmental knowledge of the students, increase their sense of responsibility, and develop their environmental awareness. We also aimed to increase the sensitivity of the students about solving environmental problems.

The task of the class was to introduce the students to the main conceptual fields

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and studies of ecology as well as the development and history of environmental protection, the global problems in detail, the topics of international conferences, the characteristics of sustainable development and economy. Our task was to provide students with an understanding of the links between ecological and environmental issues so that they would think creatively and critically about sustainability and critically consider environmental issues.

We designed theoretical and seminar classes with a duration of 13 hours of theory and 13 hours of practice – a total of 26 hours. We used work forms and methods in rotation. In order to renew the pedagogical culture, we emphasized methods that promote creativity, problem-solving, development of critical thinking, student cooperation, and active participation. Individual work was the form of theoretical lessons used for individual knowledge acquisition, global and local exploration of environmental problems, recognition of problems, and independent search for solutions. We used the group and pair work form in the seminar classes. The task assigned at the beginning of the semester – making a toy from recycled material – could only be achieved by our students if they cooperated with each other. Together they discussed who made what kind of toy and what materials were used. This was the only way they could present different toys by the end of the course.

Our students received aids for the theoretical lessons, which were IT tools, writing pads, pencils, photos, and books. For the seminar classes, students brought from home the material of which the toy was made. Our teaching methods – the concept map, the questionnaire assessing prior knowledge, the discussion, the explanation, the data collection, the research, the creation, and the correction – were present from the beginning of the course until the end of it, i.e. the presentation of the product. When we chose our methods, we took into account which skills and abilities needed to be developed. Our aim was to develop the acquisition of knowledge and enrich the vocabulary. Additionally, we aimed at: developing learning and observation skills, development of visual memory, improving sensitivity to ethical norms and value-preserving behaviour, and development of cognitive skills: e.g. perception, retention, and processing of information, development of visual memory. We also aimed at developing constructive ability, problem recognition, and analysis and problem-solving skills during planning.

Assessment of Prior Knowledge with a Concept Map At the beginning of the course, students’ preliminary knowledge was assessed with a concept map (Graph 1). The central concept of the map was the “global environmental problem”, to which the students linked their ideas with free association. Our students worked in groups consisting of 4–6 people and had 15

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minutes to process. At the end of the work, the global problems were introduced and supplemented. Our task was to uncover and correct misconceptions and to fill in the missing knowledge. We stated that our students considered environmental protection important but did not see environmental problems in the context of causality.

Source: author’s drawing based on the project

Graph 1. Type 1 concept map

Assessment of Prior Knowledge with a Questionnaire Survey At the beginning of the course, we conducted an anonymous questionnaire survey, asking students about their environmental awareness in their daily activities.

The survey looked at students’ background knowledge and environmentally conscious behaviour, particularly focusing on energy and water use, their shopping habits, and how they collected waste. The primary aim of our research was to improve students’ environmental knowledge. Our further aims were to compare the results of students coming to each institution and to develop an adequate new subject programme based on the results of the survey. During the examinations, we chose the method of sentence starting. The survey included 84 of the kindergarten teacher students, 59 of the wildlife engineer undergraduate students, and 63 of the undergraduate medical students – a total of 206 firstyear undergraduate students. Our hypothesis was that the students who study or have studied environmental protection were more sensitive to act in order to

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protect their environment than the students whose curriculum did not include this subject. Thus, in their case, the lack of information and knowledge prevents effective action. A summary diagram of the study was prepared.

The results of the survey confirmed our hypothesis that there is a significant difference between the environmentally conscious attitude of the students studying environmental protection and the students who previously did not study the subject. The only similarity was found in the shopping habits of the surveyed students, namely the places where they shop. The results of the three surveyed universities showed that for most students their knowledge of the subject and their current lifestyle regarding their shopping habits and energy use required improvement. Based on their water use and waste collection habits, we came to the conclusion that they were willing to lead a more environmentally conscious lifestyle (Nmarné Kendöl 2019).1

Results and Discussion Theoretical and Seminar Classes Based on the results of the survey, we designed our theoretical and seminar lessons. We created a Power Point demonstration to convey new knowledge.

The environmental problems and topics were examined from the perspective of the kindergarten life, that is, how the relevant topics can be introduced into the kindergarten so that the students can integrate it into the everyday life of the kindergarten. We considered important to emphasize customs and traditions from the past, which have been forgotten but could be made relevant again with conscious attention. Our students were given assignments and were free to choose between a global environmental problem and a local one in their own area.

Students prepared a Power Point presentation of the issues and then presented the processing of the problem to their group. The students were given the opportunity to discuss their questions and listen to their opinions, as they did not always know the background of the many environmental problems that surfaced and, like the general public, they had superficial knowledge and even misconception about some of them. Discussing environmental issues helped students to understand that these challenges affect everyone in their environment, in their direct human relationships, and in their individual lives. We gave our support and helped to develop a holistic approach to environmental education, because it is very important that the surveyed age-group be aware of the problem about their home environment, community, or country (Molnár–Hartl 2017).

1

We wrote more about the results of the survey in the 17th issue of the educational journal Training and Practice in 2019.

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Recycling Options During the semester, our students were given a practical assignment: they made a recycled toy, documented the material needed for the toy and the technique of making it, and named the age-group to whom the toy was recommended. Toys were made of paper, cork, plastic, textiles, yarns, wood, foil, felt, toothpicks, and buttons (Graph 2). Our students took the task seriously – one of the toys was made over several days. They were creative and were developing problemsolving skills while making the toy. The task also put their patience to the test: there was a case where they had to rebuild one of the toys because they failed at the first attempt. Our students also developed their ability to cooperate, learned to work together and to help each other. The toys were presented to each other at the end of the course. Trying out each other’s toys and sharing the tricks of making it was a great experience for both the teacher and the student.

An environmental awareness lifestyle is characterized by a greater focus on our tiny, everyday environmental habits, such as energy and material management, the issues of drinking water and waste, and the relationship with our living nature.

This constant attention, or awareness, is primarily based on emotional attitudes (Havas n. y.). To protect our environment, it is very important that we know what we can recycle in our daily lives. In addition to experiencing the joy of creation, students viewed waste as a creative resource. According to the opinion of our students, this task posed the greatest challenge to them. The finished toys were exhibited at the end of the semester and were available for everyone to see and try out. At the time of the exhibition, our faculty held an International Week. The International Conference on Training and Practice in Education also took place during this time. We were pleased to see that many of the participants in both events saw and tried out our students’ toys.

Developing environmentally conscious lifestyles, saving energy, water and electricity, avoiding wasting, and waste management were given priority during the training.

By the end of the semester, our students were able to explain, analyse, and find solutions to environmental issues. They evolved a rich methodological repertoire that enables them to properly educate on environmental issues as preschool educators. We assume that through our project we managed to increase the environmental sensitivity of our students. They recognize environmental problems, look for possible solutions to problems, and see causal relationships.

A problem can only be solved by recognizing, defining the problem itself, recognizing that our actions have consequences, and then acting together to solve the problem. Our goal can only be to make environmentally responsible, valuebased, and sustainable behaviour – based on the knowledge and love of nature and environment – dominant in our students (Molnár 2015: 131).

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Source: photo taken by the author

Graph 2. Toys of recycled materials In the course of environmental education, we form environmental and emotional attitudes and expand the knowledge that can be formed about the environment and society. However, material knowledge of nature and society is not enough. It is very important that we feel a connection, love, and care for nature and are able to act effectively to protect our environment (Wilson 1994). Thus, in environmental education, we develop and shape all three parts of environmental attitudes – cognitive, affective, and behavioural. The environmentally conscious person and the environmentally conscious educator pays attention to their environment, have the knowledge, and are motivated. The goal of environmental education is not only to expand the cognitive domain but also to develop emotional attitudes and environmentally friendly behaviours. An environmentally conscious lifestyle and the pursuit of sustainability can only be achieved if people’s attitudes in their thoughts, knowledge, and human feelings and actions become part of the everyday life. This is when we will be able to talk about internalized actions (Molnár 2009, Abelson–Rosenberg 1958). Researchers also point out that changing the ratio between theory and practice and new forms of cooperative learning can make environmental education more effective. Thus, authors suggest experience-based, activity-focused, sensitizing, and interactive methods (Czippán et al. 2004: 21).

Working together with the students in the Ecology and the Environment in the Kindergarten course confirmed that the learning process was effective with

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properly chosen teaching methods. Students were successful and creative in their approach to solving problems. Environmental education, like all educational processes, also depends on the commitment of the teacher and on their commitment to the subject. According to Keith Wheeler (2001), teachers also have a role to play in preparing their students to recognize environmental problems, to be able to prevent them, to find solutions to problems that have arisen, and to take active action in solving them.

Conclusions In conclusion, we can see that effective and efficient education has a number of conditions: the law and the curriculum regulate some of them. Environmental education should cover all areas of human life. Environmental education starts in the family, and later, in the course of socialization, this education continues within an institutional framework, first in the kindergarten, then in primary and secondary institutions, and finally in higher education institutions.

Environmental education is a lifelong process, which has been emphasized by various conferences since the 1990s. Environmental education can take place in both institutional and non-institutional settings. Research confirms that the current form of education does not make the upcoming generation active so that they can be active citizens who improve their environment and society.

The goal of education is teaching specific environmental issues, which can ultimately lead to the development of environmentally responsible behaviour based on personal judgment (Carter 1998). Environmental education is characterized by complexity because analysis and synthesis are present at the same time, complementing each other and promoting the development of a holistic vision. It can be integrated into all subjects and is interdisciplinary in nature. It appears in all of the natural and social sciences, and it also deals with the frontiers of each science, but it can also appear as a separate subject.

Based on the results of the course, we set the goal of developing a new subject programme, in which we should place more emphasis on practical tasks, personal experiences, individual responsibility, opportunities to influence environmental problems, and increasing the skills and abilities needed to enhance the effectiveness of science-based environmental education. Paradigm shift and the formation of students’ environmental awareness are also necessary for environmental education. The more prominent role of the topics – energy, water use, waste management, recycling, wasteful lifestyle – would pave the way for their daily actions and more environmentally conscious thinking. Furthermore, we recommend that all graduates receive environmental education, as our survey conducted at the beginning of the course points to the fact that students studying

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the subject of environmental protection live more environmentally conscious in their daily lives, and a more environmentally conscious way of life is reflected in their daily activities.

Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Katalin Molnár, associate professor and doctoral supervisor, for her professional guidance.

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Molnár, Katalin, Hartl, Éva. 2017. Természetkapcsolat a norvég környezeti nevelésben. In: Tanulmánykötet Mészáros Károly tiszteletére. Sopron: Soproni Egyetem Kiadó (http://publicatio.nyme.hu/1345/1/08_Molnir_Hartl_ Termszetkapcsolat_a_norvg_kArnyezeti_nevelsben_u.pdf).

Nmarné Kendöl, Jutka. 2019. Hallgatói környezettudatosság környezetvédelmi témakörökben fiatal felnőtt korban. Képzés és Gyakorlat 17 (3–4): 195–210.

UNESCO. 1975. The Belgrade Charta – A Global Framework for Environmental Education (https://scholar.google.hu/scholar?q=1975+UNESCO:+The+Belgra de+Charta+%E2%80%93+a+Global+Framework+for+Environmental+Educati on.&hl=hu&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart).

United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. 1972. Stockholm (https://www.un.org/en/ conferences/environment/stockholm1972).

Victor, András. 1998. KN Szer-Tár – Műhelyszervezési kézikönyvek: A környezeti nevelés fogalma. Budapest: Magyar Környezeti Nevelési Egyesület.

Wheeler, Keith, Bijur, Anne (eds.). 2001. Sustainability from Five Perspectives.

Pedagogy of Sustainability – The Paradigm of Hope for the 21st Century. Cham: Springer. *** 363/2012. (XII. 17.) Government Decree on the National Basic Program of Kindergarten Education (https://net.jogtar.hu/ getpdf?docid=a1200363.kor&ta rgetdate=&printTitle=363/2012.+%28XII.+17.%29+Korm.+rendelet).

Book Review

Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 11 (2021) 144–147 DOI: 10.2478/aussoc-2021-0009

Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability Editors: Javier Martinez, Claudia Andrea Mikkelsen, and Rhonda Philips Cham: Springer, 2021

Ágnes SÁNTHA

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania santhaagnes@ms.sapientia.ro

The Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability (eds.: Javier Martinez, Claudia Andrea Mikkelsen, and Rhonda Philips), published by Springer in early 2021, addresses the issues of development beyond economic growth. Approaches to the quality of life have by now exceeded the financial aspects overwhelmingly present in the concept at the time of its emergence in social sciences, or even in the Human Development Index that, in a first attempt, surpassed the solely economic vision (Sudhir–Sen 1994, Sen 2000). Recently elaborated measures, most prominently the OECD Better Life Index, acknowledge environmental quality, safety, work–life balance, knowledge, skill, and civil engagement as dimensions of the quality of life (OECD 2020).

Accordingly, the Handbook places the quality of life at the crossroads of objective and subjective indicators, departing from seven sustainability dimensions and goals: environmental, economic, social, political, cultural, educational, and geographical (Castillo–Chaves 2016).

Twenty-six studies, different in their approaches, methodologies, and locations, provide evidence for the multi-dimensionality of the quality of life concept starting from very basic biological needs, such as land, water, and sanitation, as well as psychological needs such as the feeling of safety, culminating in modern notions such as smart cities.

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Due to the economic lag of the Global South, the environmental dimension of the quality of life research emerged there later than in the North. However, the issue of sustainability is marked by partly similar challenges in the two hemispheres, problems created by the unsustainable character of economic-driven urban development and by its consequences for climate change. Even so, the problems of the South are overrepresented in the Handbook. Case studies from Argentina, particularly from its urban areas, are the highest in number (6), followed by the analysis of different aspects of the quality of life in Africa, India, Oman, Peru, and Australia. Chapters presenting comparative or combined research from various countries also address issues specific mostly of the Global South. Much less in extent, the Global North is represented by six studies only: two case studies from the US, two from Spain, one from Switzerland, and one from Canada.

The chapters of the collection are grouped around three main topics: foundations and concepts; tools, techniques, and applications; innovations. All studies share the endeavour of contributing to the increase of human well-being and to the decrease of persistent social and spatial inequalities. In an attempt to highlight some of the findings, this review chooses to briefly present one chapter from each topic.

A pearl of the Handbook is a qualitative study conducted with children in the city of Grand Bourg in Argentina, a mid-lower class residential area, concerning their feelings of fear and safety (Chapter 6: A Theoretical Reflection Based on Children’s Opinions about Their Safety to Rethink Different Dimensions of Sustainability in Cities, author: Damián Molgaray). From children’s drawings and unguided answers given to open-ended questions, their feelings of fear and unsafety in the neighbourhood of a cemetery with a dark past as well as on the streets of the city were revealed. These feelings of unease in public places are elementary, and they bear the memories of the violent past and the violent present at the same time. Children’s accounts reveal a sense of defencelessness in their residential area. The cemetery is a metaphor of the unease that pervades the neighbourhood. Besides its sombre atmosphere, it evokes violent memories and preserves a violent identity, as mass graves with unidentified corpses resulting from mass executions from the last military dictatorship in the decades of 1970 and 1980 were found there. Many of the crimes against humanity committed back in those years are still unsolved and persist as a trauma in the collective memory. In eradicating violence and supporting social cohesion, in departing on the road to sustainability, children and their spontaneity play an important role.

An emerging endeavour of sustainable development is implementing the smart cities programme. Much is written these days on this popular topic. However, the other side of the coin, the contraction and depopulation of rural areas, is rarely the object of discussion with respect to sustainability. One of the most challenging papers in the Handbook is a study focusing on rural smart shrinkage

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and quality of life in the American Midwest (Chapter 20: Rural Smart Shrinkage and Perceptions of Quality of Life in the American Midwest, authors: Kimberly E. Zarecor, David J. Peters, and Sara Hamideh).

The authors offer a change of paradigm in addressing the issue of shrinking places by introducing the concept of smart shrinkage and providing examples. The paper is based on a two-year fieldwork and on longitudinal polling data analysis of the subjectively perceived quality of life in the towns of Iowa State over more than 20 years. Population perceptions on quality of life are completed by objective indicators on community services and jobs, demographics and economics.

An excellent example of mixed method research, the study shows how community resilience is an alternative to economic growth in those communities that face the typical problems of shrinking due to economic transformations to a post-industrial system: decreasing population size, young people moving out, ageing population, job losses, and ageing infrastructure. Instead of forced economic investments and development, as suggested by the current view, an adaptation to population loss and an acceptance of shrinkage as a form of community resilience is proposed. Investments in social capital, building of strong social networks, and community service protection are the keys to success.

Those depopulating towns where, in parallel with population loss, the quality of life had increased, were categorized as smart shrinking places as opposed to those declining towns which experienced both depopulation and decrease in the subjective quality of life.

More conservative in their values as dwellers of bigger towns, cities, and suburbs, the population’s perceptions of the quality of life in smartly shrinking towns are linked to local histories, attached to the places and lifestyle. Residents view their towns positively, on account of a strong sense of social ties and support, with civic engagement and participation indicators higher than in declining places and, in some cases, even higher than in smartly growing towns.

The low-budget actions of the smartly shrinking towns in the American Midwest are recommended for implementation in depopulating towns across the globe. First and foremost, these smart inputs are those collective actions that propose to achieve community goals. The case is being made for building bridging social capital, increasing civic engagement, and improving community services, which, however, require committed local leaders and engaged local civic leadership. Secondary recommendations are of an economic character: stabilizing agricultural employment and growing middle-skill jobs in goodsproducing industries.

Five case studies on innovations from Cape Town provide evidence for the beneficial effects of urban agriculture on social cohesion, food security and healthier diet, poverty mitigation, and environmental education (Chapter 24: Public Usable Space as a Catalyst for Quality of Life Improvement: The Case

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of Cape Town’s Social Farming Projects, authors: Astrid Ley, Kurt Ackermann, Silvia Beretta, Sigrid Busch, Jan Dieterle, Manal M. F. El-Shahat, Jilan Hosni, Franziska Laue, Yassine Moustanjidi, and Veronika Stützel).

In an urban context, green areas serve as recreational spaces and enable social contact, both being preconditions for a good quality of life. With municipality support since 2007, Cape Town has been the site for some urban agriculture projects with a double benefit: activating public usable space and public life.

In the violent context of South African city life, farms are increasing safety and enable social contacts. In one district with high rates of unemployment and food insecurity, mostly middle-aged and older women with a traditional farming background are employed as farmers, who compensate for their slower work by enhanced social skills and providing agricultural education to the younger generations. As main carers for their families, a better nutrition with organic food is ensured, and income insecurity is to some extent alleviated. Female farmers’ gardening activity and social interaction improve the stability of families, too.

Although not entirely successful for reducing inequalities and empowering marginalized groups, the case studies from Cape Town are examples of the snowball effect of small-scale projects with huge potential in using public spaces for community purposes with non-resource-intensive means while at the same time building capacity and empowering the population. Yet another instance of community resilience.

The emphasized dimension of the quality of life is, in this book, sustainable development and the quality of environment. Increasing quality of life is supposed to be less resource intensive and less demanding on the environment. In the context of climate change, this valuable collection offers clever local solutions to a global problem.

References Martínez Castillo, Róger, Martínez Chaves, Daniel. 2016. Perspectivas de la sustenabilidad: Teoría y campos de análisis [Prospects for Sustainability: Theory and Areas of Analysis]. Pensamiento Actual 16(26): 123–145.

OECD. 2020). How’s Life? 2020: Measuring Well-Being. Paris: OECD Publishing. (https://doi.org/10.1787/9870c393-en) .

Sen, Amartya. 2000. A Decade of Human Development. Journal of Human Development 1(1): 17–23.

Sudhir, Anand, Sen, Amartya. 1994. Human Development Index: Methodology and Measurement. New York: UNDP, Human Development Report Office.

DP(05)/O2/no.12. (https://ssrn.com/abstract=2294664).

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