Hungary:Caring Communities

12.11.2025

What happens when a village decides to revitalise itself by catering to the needs of aging people, marketing itself as a place where it's good to grow old? Discussing an example from rural Hungary we look into the ways in which village communities organize care for older people and how they go about patching the lack of central state support in this area.

GUEST of the episode:

Dóra Gábriel
Dóra Gábriel
ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest. Academic interests include: communitization of care, transnational care, international retirement migration, social care provision.
https://rki.krtk.hun-ren.hu/en/colleagues/dora-gabriel/
Village view
Village view
Residents of the elderly care home help each other
Residents of the elderly care home help each other
The chakra-harmonising machine is an integral part of the physiotherapy and holistic healing equipment in the village
The chakra-harmonising machine is an integral part of the physiotherapy and holistic healing equipment in the village
The AI cat has become popular among the residents at the care home.
The AI cat has become popular among the residents at the care home.
Morning greeting rountine
Morning greeting rountine
Salt-room therapy session.
Salt-room therapy session
The village’s celebrated views are visible almost everywhere
The village’s celebrated views are visible almost everywhere
  • Sources:
  • Photography: Viktor Nemeth
  • Gábriel, D. & Katona, N. (2025) [forthcoming] Caring Communities in Senior Care – Municipal Practices and Civic Initiatives in Rural Hungary. Berliner Journal für Soziologie.
  • Haubner, T. (2020). The Exploitation of Caring Communities: The Elder Care Crisis in Germany. Global Labour Journal, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v11i2.4090
  • Razavi, S. (2007). The Political and Social Economy of Care in a Development Context. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
  • Szőke, A., & Schwartz, G. (2018). Creating the State Locally through Welfare Provision: Two Mayors, Two Welfare Regimes in Rural Hungary. In T. Thelen, L. Vetters, & K. von Benda-Beckmann (Eds.), Stategraphy: Toward a Relational Anthropology of the State (pp. 141–158). Berghahn Books.
  • van Dyk, S. (2018). Post-Wage Politics and the Rise of Community Capitalism. Work, Employment and Society, 32(3), 528–545. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018755663
  • Wegleitner, K., Schuchter, P., & Prieth, S. (2020). ‘Ingredients’ of a supportive web of caring relationships at the end of life: Findings from a community research project in Austria. Sociology of Health & Illness, 42(5), 987–1000. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12738
Dr. Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M.
Campus Westend - PEG
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6
60629 Frankfurt am Main
HPF 55
+49 6978936588 e.pm@em.uni-frankfurt.de
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