Research & projects
| Sociology Faculty Research Interests | |
| Dujisin-Muharay, Zoltán | Zoltán Dujisin specializes in political sociology, media sociology, collective memory, and the sociology of expertise. His work examines the link between power and expertise in various fields, including post-communist memory politics, journalism, and counter-disinformation expert communities. |
| Gál, Róbert Iván | Róbert Gál researches social policy with a focus on the intergenerational nature of the welfare state and the statistically ‘invisible’ segments of the intergenerational transfer chain, such as intrafamilial transfers of money, goods, and time. |
| Hajdu, Miklós | Miklós Hajdu focuses on addressing methodological and statistical issues in his research domains. He examines corruption related to the use of EU funding and deviant social behaviors. Additionally, he has recently started researching protest cultures in various democracies |
| Katona, Noémi | Noémi Katona has been studying diverse topics related to gender, migration, and globalization from a political economy perspective, including care migration, the infrastructure of the senior care market, prostitution, human trafficking, and the sexcam industry. |
| Letenyei, László | Letenyei László focuses on economic anthropological and sociological topics such as the diffusion of innovations, ethnic economics, and, more recently, waste management. As a methodologist, he has introduced innovations in social network analysis, mental mapping, and the elastic survey technique. |
| Melegh, Attila László | Attila Melegh conducts research on global social change, international migration, population development, and its connections to attitudes and discourses. He also works on related theoretical issues. |
| Nagy, Beáta | Beáta Nagy currently investigates gender and executive search, women’s advancement in academia, and intensive motherhood during the pandemic. Her previous research focused on work-life balance and adolescents’ technology use. |
| Pachetti, Federico | Federico Pachetti researches the history of globalization in the 20th century, especially the role international financial institutions played in fostering it. He is also interested in China’s economic history and U.S.-China relations since 1949. |
| Pásztor, Adél | Adél Pásztor’s research focuses on higher education and international migration. Her interests include social mobility, disparities in access to elite universities, diversity and inclusion in higher education, international student mobility, the graduate school pipeline, and academic career trajectories. |
| Ságvári, Bence | Bence Ságvári’s research focuses on survey methodology and the use of digital behavioral and network data in the social sciences. His work encompasses various topics, including social attitudes, digital device and social media usage, and cross-national value comparisons. |
| Thomas, Jacob | Jacob’s research examines 1) why more people do not immigrate into societies, 2) the relationship between inequality/mobility/selectivity and migration/visa policies, 3) how representation of migrants and other controversial subjects affect public opinion and social interactions, and 4) critical normative theories about migration. |
| Varga, Attila | Sociology of science, economic sociology, computational methods |
| Vicsek, Lilla Mária | Lilla Vicsek has studied the social aspects of technology for nearly 20 years. Since 2018, her research has focused on AI visions, including expectations about the future of work and automation. She leads an NRDI-funded project on AI socio-technical imaginaries. |
MTA-BCE Social Epidemiology Research Unit
On 1 July 2019, the Social Epidemiology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Corvinus University of Budapest was established under the leadership of Zsuzsa Elekes. The aim of the Research Group is – in the tradition of Rudolf Andorka – to conduct studies that contribute to the exploration and understanding of the social patterns, characteristics, causes and correlations of addictive health behaviours.
The Research Group’s own website: devianciakutas.hu
Centre for Gender and Culture
The aim of the Centre for Gender and Culture is to coordinate teaching and research activities on the topic of gender at Corvinus and to integrate our university into national and international academic networks on the topic.
The Centre aims to act as an intermediary between colleagues from different departments and units and from other higher education and research institutions both in Hungary and abroad. In this sense, the Centre aims to engage in international, inter-institutional and interdisciplinary activities while striving to include doctoral students and junior researchers alongside more senior colleagues working on related topics.
Head of the Research Centre: Dr. Beáta Nagy
Visions of artificial intelligence and society
OTKA Research K-131733
The aim of this project, funded by the National, Research, Development and Innovation Office, is to investigate visions of artificial intelligence. It is essential to investigate how these expectations shape the future and the present. Ideas about artificial intelligence are present at many levels of society, and we therefore consider it important to study the topic sociologically. In order to achieve our research objectives, we use both the traditional sociological interview method and specific futures research tools.
Rather than focusing social discourse on what the impact of technology will be, and seeing technological development as a kind of inevitable phenomenon outside of society that cannot be controlled, we believe it is important to address questions such as: how can technological development help to create a desirable future state? What does a desirable future state even look like? Who could and should have a say in the development of artificial intelligence and how?
The research project included interviews, scenario building and backcasting with AI experts from academia, business and the civil sector. We wanted to know what possible future scenarios these experts envision for the development of AI and what their preferred vision of the future is.
Below is a link to a few minutes of video as part of the Fair Work Future Emerald campaign, in which the head of the research explains some of the project’s main ideas:
Head of Research: Dr. Lilla Mária Vicsek (Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Research participants: Dr. Alexandra Köves, Dr. Katalin Fehér, Ágnes Horváth, Dr. Tamás Tóth, Dr. Boglárka Herke, Dr. Tamás Bokor, Dr. Gyöngyvér Pataki, Dr. Roland Keszi, , interns
Main publications of the project so far:
Vicsek, L. (2021). Artificial intelligence and the future of work – lessons from the sociology of expectations, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 41 No. 7/8, pp. 842-861. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2020-0174
Vicsek, L., Bokor, T. and Pataki, Gy. (2022). Younger generations’ expectations regarding artificial intelligence in the job market: Mapping accounts about the future relationship of automation and work, Journal of Sociology, OnlineFirst, 29 March, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14407833221089365
Herke, B., Vicsek, L. (2022). The attitudes of young citizens in higher education towards universal basic income in the context of automation – A qualitative study. International Journal of Social Welfare, 1– 13. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12533
Vicsek, L., Tóth, T. (2022). Visions of human-centered artificial intelligence – Relations with ethics and power. In: Michael Filimowicz (Ed.) Algorithmic Ethics, Routledge. Accepted, in print.