Thinking global, living local: Voices in a globalized world

  • Hungarian Politics and Climate Change – Can It Be Different?

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    In Central and Eastern Europe’s relatively new democracies, environmental consciousness and its political manifestations are generally weaker than in Western Europe. More than twenty years have now passed since the democratic turn in Hungary, but the revolution in the ‘hearts and minds’ – at least as far as questions of […]

  • Photo of a mythical Polish plumber, symbol of Polish labor migration to the Western Europe. Picture by jaime.silva

    A One-Way Ticket: Polish Emigration in the EU

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    Polish emigrants are safe and sound abroad. Government plan (or rather a slogan) of them coming back is a wishful thinking. Why? Poland doesn’t offer anything that would be beneficial for them, as you can earn for the whole year living in Poland just in 4 months in the UK.

  • Flower Power versus NATO

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    A recent case from Hungary shows how civil organizations and local governments can have an influence even on a mighty intergovernmental security alliance like the NATO: a vital democracy can sometimes be stronger than vested military interests. In recent years the Tubes hill in southern Hungary have become a symbol […]

  • Shale Gas in Poland: A Future Blessing or a Curse?

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    Two years ago news about the shale gas discovery in Poland electrified European public opinion. Rough estimates indicated amounts significantly exceeding the country’s internal market needs – resources that could make the whole region of Eastern Europe independent of outside imports. A New Energy Eldorado in Central Europe Investors from […]