A munkások lokális identitásának jellemzői Borsodnádasdon
The Characteristics of the Local Identity of Borsodnádasd Workers

Summary/Abstract: The main question addressed in this study is why the people of Borsodnádasd, formerly described as the ‘worker bourgeoisie’, failed to adapt to the changing circumstances in the settlement, which finally achieved city status in 2001. Along with the discussion of the structural and economic responses that lead to this failure to adapt (for example, the 1992 closure of the Sheet Metal Foundry, Borsodnádasd’s main employer, the subsequent mass unemployment, as well as the region’s economic and social depression), the paper also examines sociopsychological factors: the disintegration (confusion, cessation and lack) of the worker identity encouraged by the socialist regime, and that of the closely associated local identity. All this requires the interpretive framework and methodology of social representation, in addition to the traditional sociological paradigms and methodology. The fieldwork conducted for this research is connected to three university summer projects in 2006, 2007 and 2008. This entailed two surveys (in 2006 N=396, in 2007 N=201 probability sample of adults) and 38 narrative life story interviews. The present study examines the transformation of local and worker identity through the analysis this material.

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