„Korallosodás”

An attempt at a network analysis of the Hungarian social historian community

Abstract

This study uses the method of network analysis to map the development of the structure of the Hungarian social history community from the 2000s to the present. During the research, we sought answers to the following questions: how can the group of Hungarian social historians be described as a network based on the authors of a given journal and how can the institutional network be connected to them? how did this institutional network develop, and what networking and workshop tendencies can be observed?; what paths and alternatives were there for entering, remaining in or, in some cases, leaving the network?

In order to answer these questions, we have selected a resource base that can be managed by two researchers at the same time, while still being representative of this academic community. The research subjects were the authors published in the Korall Social History Journal between 2000 and 2020, the only academic journal that has defined itself as a social historian journal from its very beginning. The research results showed that a diverse network with few fixed nodes has been replaced by a narrower network with fewer, less diverse but stronger nodes. According to our hypothesis this transformation may have been due to changes in the institutional structure and the character of the journal, as well as to changes in personnel relations. Overall these factors were crucial in determining the possibility of setting up professional milieux and the movement of individuals within the network.