How to Reveal the Constructed Worlds: the Budapest Riots 2006

• Authors: Fogarasi, Mihály , Kovács, István

Abstracts

EN

This empirical study is aimed at exploring one important social psychological aspect of two significant, politically motivated clashes that happened in Budapest in 2006. The multiple effects of these mass demonstrations can be detected even today. Both the 18 September 2006 event at the HQ of Hungarian State Television and the 23 October 2006 event in the inner part of Budapest gave rise to considerable and immediate interest across the whole of Hungarian society. The study represents the so called social representations both of the policemen and civilians who participated in the clashes. Through the results of this research the reader may understand the common interpretations – that have been created through social construction – of those who were involved in the events. Method: Some 42 interviewees were involved in the study. We used semi-structured interview-techniques. The texts were analysed according to the sequential-transformative-model, which combines both the qualitative and the quantitative techniques of content (text) analysis. Results: The groups have constructed some different representations constituting their interpretations relating to what happened there in Budapest, as well as how and why. Finally, the shared constructs constitute the partly differing realities of the members of those groups. Conclusion: The existence of those realities outlines the definitive aspect of the process of social construction, namely, it depends fundamentally on the nature of the social relations in which the actors are positioned, which in turn, through the perspectives taken, influences the process of applying different meanings and explanations to events that appear to be the same.

Keywords

EN

social representations; social construction; Riots; POLICEMEN; civilians

• Publisher: Wyższa Szkoła Policji w Szczytnie
• Journal: Internal Security
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 8(1)
• Pages: 19-40

Contributors

author

Fogarasi, Mihály

author

Kovács, István

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/20805268.1231497