Metropolitan Research Institute

Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest

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József Hegedüs’s publication in the Housing Finance International is availble

József Hegedüs has published a paper in Housing Finance International comparing the housing finance crisis of 1989 and 2008 and its policy response. The causes and management of the two very different crises provide a wealth of information on the nature of the transition from a socialist housing system to a market-based housing system. The interesting difference is that in the first case the risk was borne by the state, which forced the borrowing population to share the gains from inflation, but did so with very modest support for the low-income population. In the second case, the risk was borne by the borrowers and the state essentially forced the banks to bear part of the losses of the families. However, the loan bailout was very unfair, as it favoured the top 20 per cent of income earners but did little to support the wider middle class. Both schemes included an element to help the most needy families, but this only reached a small proportion of those in need.

Read the paper here.

MRI completed a case study report on life strategies of vulnerable young people in Pécs

The research focused on identifying the so-called “conversion factors” that lead to path-dependent choices of young people who struggle from poor housing conditions, low level of education or precariat working conditions.

In the framework of the research, MRI conducted interviews in Pécs with policy implementers, experts, and programme facilitators and 40 vulnerable young people (20 of whom are currently 15-29 years old, while 20 were at this age at the time of the financial crisis).

In the analytical phase, first the local structural and policy context was described: what are the theoretical opportunities of young people, that are provided by the local education and housing system and the labour market. Then individual, family based and institutional factors were identified, that divert young people to live with the local opportunities and to live a life, which they value. The main findings of the research process were:

  • With regard to housing, we concluded that social housing functions as a trap. Rather than providing a transitory solution, it is hard to enter and to leave. There is a big gap between the rent level of public housing and private rental, which few public tenants can afford, but even if they would have sufficient household income, they prefer staying in the sector, which is possible due to the non-transparent operation of the public housing stock.
  • In education, we found that public schools and supporting institutions are practically not able to counteract the lack of family support (including the positive attitude towards educational achievements) and can only support those ones who are already supported by their family. Even if there are innovative and relatively flexible educational solutions (e.g. Tanodas, Gandhi secondary school, “small 500” school that implements the Dobbantó and Orientation programmes) these can be successfully applied in case young people have proper information on them and supportive families to cooperate with the institutions. Thus, counteracting difficulties in education e.g. failing, missing out, getting pregnant before graduation, is rather remaining a challenge.
  • In employment, we analysed the reasons behind the high rate of inactivity of women having children and found that besides the low adaptation of the labour market to provide flexible solutions, paternalistic family structures (where men are wage earners no matter how low that wage is) also contribute to inactivity.
  • In addition, we investigated the perceptions on discrimination of Roma people in the labour market and found that education level is the most decisive factor that is able to reduce discriminatory behaviour against Roma youngsters.

After identifying the main factors behind the individuals’ path-dependent life choices, MRI formulated recommendations to improve the implementation of policies even under the current rigid and unfavourable legal and financial framework. These suggestions are focusing on 1) creating cooperations and more efficient information flow among the actors to provide comprehensive services and transparency towards clients, 2) creating transitory solutions and 3) implementing early interventions to prevent accumulations of difficulties.

The case study is available here: https://uplift-youth.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Pecs-case-study-report.pdf

More on this research including the case of other seven European cities can be found at https://uplift-youth.eu/research-policy/

Blogpost from Iván Tosics’s website: How to Make Cities Better Places for People? – an URBACT Guidebook on innovations in urban mobility and public space development

The article was originally published at Iván Tosics’s website: https://tosics.eu/en/hogyan-lehet-jobba-tenni-a-varosokat-az-emberek-szamara/

Are you a local politician, decision-maker, or a city practitioner? Or a citizen who is interested in making your city a better place for people and shift from car dependency to sustainable urban mobility? The Walk’n’Roll Cities initiative of the URBACT Knowledge Hub has just published a practical and concise guidebook presenting innovations in urban mobility and public space development.

One of the key challenges many cities across Europe face is the physical separation of the different components of everyday life, leading to significant mobility demand. This demand is met to a large extent by car use: people drive cars in order to shorten the time needed for moving between different parts of the city – to work or to use various services. However, car-oriented local mobility has a wide range of adverse consequences, many of which negatively affect the quality of life already in the short run.

While most cities understand the problem, its likely consequences and are committed to implement a shift towards more sustainable urban mobility and public space use, this is easier said than done. That’s why 28 European cities of different sizes from 16 countries have come together to face today’s mobility challenges. Partners of the RiConnect, Space4People and Thriving Streets URBACT Action Planning Networks decided to establish a long term cooperation and created Walk’n’Roll Cities – a platform to exchange ideas, inspirations and learn from each other.

Together, these cities explored visions and interventions that could contribute to massive reduction of car use in our cities. And, thanks to the Knowledge Hub initiative of the URBACT programme, an online publication has also been created that presents these visions and interventions.

As someone who has been actively involved in the development of this publication, I am proud to inform you that the online Guidebook is now available for download on the URBACT website. It is an accessible, practical and concise resource for local politicians, decision-makers, professionals, city practitioners and citizens, who are interested in urban mobility and committed to make their city a better place for people.

Go ahead, download the document, take a ride with us and make the most of your journey!

Click here to access the dedicated URBACT Knowledge Hub Walk’n’Roll Cities page.
Or go ahead and download the publication.

Iván Tosics participated in the “Kyiv Investment Forum” in Brussels

Iván Tosics participated in the “Kyiv Investment Forum” held in Brussels on 28 November 2022. One of the side events of the KIF was the “Kyiv Agglomeration Sustainable Rebuilding” meeting, organized by Eurocities. Mayors of settlements around Kyiv participated in the meeting in online form, due to the seriousness of the situation in their area. In the framework of the Ukrainian decentralization reform, the ‘Kyiv agglomeration’ territorial unit has been created with roughly 3.9 million inhabitants. 18 settlements from the 1.8-million oblast around Kyiv (consisting of 69 settlements) belong to the agglomeration, together with the capital city of 3 million people. The topic of the meeting was the operation of this agglomeration association and its possible further development, taking into account the planning related to the reconstruction of the region and the adaptation of the expected international assistance to local needs. During the meeting many European examples were mentioned, with special regard on the ways how the operation of metropolitan areas can be made more efficient.

Cover photo was taken by Peter Austin.

Session on the role of economic strength of cities in creating social (in)equality in the urban young population – UPLIFT project Synthesis Report results

The UPLIFT project is organising an on-line session on the 22 of November between 3-4.30 PM (CET) to share the results of a comparative research investigating how the economic strengths of cities and local policies influence social inequalities in urban young population. The research is based on two different methods: first a quantitative analysis was implemented from the dataset of the European Quality of Life Survey, and second, 16 urban areas of UPLIFT were analysed from the perspective of their labour market structure and local welfare systems based on desk research and interviews. While the quantitative analysis found slight connections between certain economic and welfare parameters, the qualitative analysis calls attention to those factors that may divert economic development to go hand in hand with social cohesion.

The session will be based on two short presentations on the research findings by Ábel Csathó from TÁRKI and Éva Gerőházi from Metropolitan Research Institute, and feedback will be provided by Yuri Kazepov, Professor at Department of Sociology, University of Vienna and Ruggero Cefalo, Post Doc Researcher at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna.

We would be happy to discuss with you our scientific results, on which you may find more details in chapter 6 of the Synthesis Report, and you can dive into each individual urban case by looking at the urban reports.

In case you intend to participate in the on-line event, please fill in the registration form in order that we can inform you on the details of admission.