Caring Communities in Urban Hungary : A Civil Society Perspective

Abstract

This article examines the development and impact of caring communities in a Hungarian town, situating the analysis within debates about the neoliberal restructuring of care and the authoritarian neoliberal state of Hungary. Drawing on Joan Tronto’s ethics of care and various conceptualizations of caring communities as spaces of critical reflection and civic engagement, we investigate how civil society organizations act as facilitators and organizers of the local care landscape. Our empirical focus is a mid‐sized urban center in southern Hungary, where demographic aging, shrinking welfare capacities, and a diverse social environment shape potential stakeholder cooperation. Based on qualitative research methods, including participatory fieldwork, semi‐structured interviews, and focus groups, we analyze how local civil society organizations negotiate their roles in relation to municipal actors and other stakeholders, and the political impact they achieve on local governance through their work. The findings highlight both the potential and the limits of community‐based initiatives: A shift can be observed at the municipal level, where concepts such as conscious aging and empowerment are increasingly recognized. However, civil society organizations are not able to fully prevent the reproduction of existing inequalities, and the participation of older adults remains limited.