The social impact of restructuring in rural areas of Hungary

IN THE EARLY 1970s Hungarian sociologists recognised that private production (the so-called second economy) played an important role in the Hungarian economy and society, mostly in the form of supplementary work after working hours in the main job and first of all in agriculture.1 The importance of the agricultural second economy was shown by the fact that, in 1972 for example, it numbered 1 700 000 small agricultural units. More than 5 million persons-about half the Hungarian population-lived in households having and cultivating a small agricultural unit. The second economy produced 31% of the gross agricultural output and 23% of the total marketed output. An important part of production was consumed by the producing households themselves. A subsequent time-budget survey of members of households having a small plot found that the men aged over 15 worked on average more than 2.5 hours daily and the women about 2 hours. The survey also showed that: (1) this small-scale agricultural production was performed after the regular working hours in the socialist sector; (2) among the members of the households operating in the agricultural second economy there were more commuting workers than peasants.2 Sociologists pointed out that the consequence of the second economy was the

Agricultural productivity · Agriculture · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Market economy · Political science · Population · Production (economics · Restructuring · Rural area · Scale (ratio · Social security · Sociology · Unit (ring theory · Hungarian Social, Economic and Educational Studies · Rural development and sustainability

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