Abstract Structures and Concrete Lives: Contributions to the Economic and Social History of Hungary (18th–21st Century)

<jats:p>This volume is the fifth installment in a scholarly series published by the Committee on Economic and Social History of the Pécs Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA PAB). The primary aim of the committee is to provide a platform for research that—either directly or indirectly—relates to the history of Southern Transdanubia, or is carried out by scholars affiliated with universities, research institutes, archives, or museums based in the region. This book is more than a collection of scholarly papers. It is the imprint of a living and continuously evolving research community, one that forms a dynamically shifting academic network. This organically developing network spans generations and national borders. In recent years, the community has expanded with the involvement of several national and international scholars who have contributed new perspectives and ways of thinking to the joint intellectual effort. The regular inclusion of young researchers—particularly PhD students—has become an integral part of this network. The presence of doctoral candidates and early-career scholars in this volume reflects our commitment to supporting their academic socialization and fostering professional collaboration, independent of career stage. The volume presents recent research in economic and social history connected to Southern Transdanubia, arranged into five thematic sections. The first unit, titled Estates, Land, and Structures in the 18th–19th Centuries, revisits classical estate history with new sources and approaches. Márta Fata investigates the "life-accounting" function of German and Hungarian peasant chronicles through a comparative analysis that uniquely combines perspectives from the history of mentality and microhistory. Judit Borsy, through the quantitative analysis of 1,349 lease contracts, examines the leasing structure and profitability of "regales" (seigneurial privileges) in the public foundation estates of Pécsvárad. István Hegedűs reconstructs the state of the Monok branch of the Andrássy family estates at the end of the 19th century. Norbert Péter Kiss explores the relationship between built heritage and social status through the case of manor houses in Somogy County. Eszter Katalin Kovács attempts a spatial reconstruction of the Vép estate. The second thematic section, Agriculture, Crisis, and Transformation in the 20th Century, investigates the transformations of agriculture during the 20th century. Zoltán Kaposi analyzes the reorganization of the Habsburgs' estate in Sátorhely following the Treaty of Trianon, and the estate’s crisis management during the Great Depression. Attila Tarnai follows the economic decline of Hungarian-populated settlements in the Drava region after the change of sovereignty and Serbian occupation. János Fritz reinterprets the large-scale versus small-scale farming debate in light of statistical data from Somogy County. Dániel Luka traces the transformation of Southern Transdanubian agriculture during the first Five-Year Plan (1950–1954). The third section, Industry, Trade, Finance, and Infrastructure, presents the development and operation of local economic institutions, ranging from cooperatives and savings banks to industrial technologies. Gábor Koloh examines the organizers of the Hangya cooperative movement in Baranya County, revealing the differences in motivations between smaller settlements (more altruistic) and larger ones (more economic). Imre Halász successfully documents the founding and first year of the Szigetvár Savings Bank despite the scarcity of surviving sources. Borbála Rózsa Zsindely reconstructs the technical and social adaptation of the milling industry in the Völgység region between 1885 and 1952 through the history of three watermills and two mill-owning families. Her study is particularly novel in its use of microhistorical and ethnographic methods to examine the interaction between individual enterprise and structural economic change. Éva Gál contributes to the history of local industrial innovation by analyzing a brick-making invention based on coal dust developed in Pécs. The fourth section, Elites and Social Structures, focuses on elite formation, power networks, and mechanisms of exclusion. Dániel László Kovács examines the theoretical and empirical boundaries of elite definitions through a case study from pre-Reform-Era Hungary. Tamás Pintér reconstructs kinship networks between county administrators and church institutions in Baranya County (1790–1850). Gergely Győrfi explores the history of the ghetto in Kaposvár as a case of property dispossession and marginalization of the Jewish community. The final thematic section, Culture, Identity, and Everyday Life, offers both empirical and theoretical novelty. It approaches economic and social processes through everyday experiences and individual life narratives, employing microhistorical and psychobiographical methods. Sára Czina compares two periods of the New York Coffeehouse’s clientele based on guestbooks and other sources. She demonstrates that the composition of the clientele was not spontaneous but the result of deliberate business strategies, whether literary or luxury-oriented. Emese Iván applies collective biography to reconstruct the story of a women’s basketball team during the Kádár era. The novelty of her study lies in highlighting the lived, often positive experiences of the players in contrast to dominant Cold War narratives. Virág Rab presents a psychobiographical analysis of a small-scale entrepreneur from Southern Hungary who successfully navigated both the socialist and post-socialist eras. Her contribution innovatively integrates psychological and economic-historical perspectives, emphasizing transgenerational inheritance and identity development in entrepreneurial decision-making.</jats:p>