Community Learning in Small Towns

This subchapter explores how community learning contributes to the transformation of settlements. Community learning has already been defined in the introduction (using new knowledge for the solution of communal problems). Through the example of the settlements we have researched we can clearly see what happens if community learning is successful and what happens if it fails.

Small towns with a population of 20,000 are characteristic to the Great Hungarian Plain, which is in the east of the country. The history of these settlements goes back centuries, which is quite long considering that this region has often been destroyed.

All of them have a more or less well-developed educational and cultural infrastructure and they also have the most important public facilities. However, the political changes in the 1990 have pushed them into circumstances harder than what they had expected.

During the years of state socialism agriculture in these regions declined, small-scale industries were closed down, and the factories built in this era were not compatible

with the modern circumstances. Mass unemployment threatened both skilled and unskilled workers, whose only way out was to leave these settlements.

The analysis of the current state of these towns clearly shows that some of them have managed to end this pressing situation and find a way out of it. This is demonstrated through the example of two neighbouring towns. (Forray, Kozma 2013, 2014).

One of these settlements became a town in the eighteenth century. Its catholic majority was meant to counterbalance the dominance of the Reformed Church in the neighbouring settlements. As a reward for its loyalty, it was granted a lot of opportunities to develop (they built a railway, a dam and developed their industry), which resulted in dynamic urbanisation. This process was interrupted by the Second World War and the communist takeover. In the 1960s there were renewed efforts for urban development. An important element of this was the building of the secondary school, which was completed but after a few decades it could not attract enough students to fill a class and is therefore threatened by closure.

As the most industrialised settlement in the region (Pusztai 2010) it was the first scene of communist activities and later, the communist party started its work here.

This, together with much more, disappeared after the political changes and gave way to conceived (constructed) or real historical identities. Only the Catholic Church stayed in its place during the communist era. It remained stable enough to continue its work and emanate self-consistency. After the political changes church activity gained noticeable strength and when the secondary school was threatened with closure, an option to save it was to transform it into a church funded school (though this plan was not realised). It is evident that instead of the secondary school, the parish is one of the centres of power in the settlement. Most activities that could be organised by a dynamic (secondary) school – social initiatives, hiking trips, civil initiatives, innovations of the labour market, creating and organising celebrations, communication with kindergartens and schools, etc.

– are successfully organised by the parish instead.

The other settlement is officially a town, yet, as one walks along its streets, it rather gives the impression of a big village. However, the businesses, enterprises and initiatives of this small town reach out to a wider geographical area than one would at first glance expect. The local factories, shops, trade and other enterprises frequently appear in other settlements 20-50 km away, which are sometimes twice as big. This settlement proves to be much more dynamic than what its administrative significance or prestige in the regional (county) hierarchy suggests.

This vitality and mobility – which is supported by the popularity of its website – elevates this settlement from its village atmosphere. Considering its busy trade and visitor traffic, it is evident how this settlement could compete with the previously described small town. Immediately after the end of the war, the town started to organise its own grammar school. The local museum of geography used to belong to the grammar school as it was founded by one of the geography teachers. Today the museum has transformed from an academic stronghold into a cultural centre. The Tiszazug Museum of Geography still has geographic rarities and local anglers still bring in mammoth remains from the eroding loess walls along the River Tisza. The focus of the museum, however, has shifted from academic interest to the service of the local community.

The latter small town was more successful in coping with its past problems, and, consequently, it is more successful in facing its history. The identity of the former settlement seems to be more prestigious, yet it is unstable. It could be displayed at an exhibition, yet it is not worth taking as an example for other communities.

The identity of the latter settlement is still more ‘rural,’ yet it offers what is necessary for its identity: it lays the foundations of the changing local communities. This dynamism dominates in the secondary school as well. The school aims to tie students to the institution even as young adults. This has a distinctive result: a latent or semi-visible post-secondary training organised in the secondary school which is a non-planned beginning of higher education or leads students towards higher education. This is a special ‘stronghold’ in the development of the town’s political strategy. The secondary school, which is one of the main employers in the town, together with its teachers and the headmaster comprise a critical mass in cultural, educational and town development policies.

In addition, the lay leader of the local Reformed parish also takes part in the organisation of the secondary school, and together with this, in the organisation of the local community.

Considering the above examples, we can make some significant conclusions. To solve its problems, a community needs somebody who recognises the problem, makes it explicit and sets goals. This person is traditionally called the local hero (or the agent of change in organisation studies, the key figure in social anthropology and the leader or leadership in political literature). The various names are based on the same realisation. Decisive power, if split among more members of the community (democracy), can sometimes extinguish itself and individual interest can stop the community from quickly responding to challenges and from successfully solving problems. The role of the local hero is to communicate the problem in a way the others

cannot or are not willing to do or do not dare to do. This person sets the goal so that the majority can accept it and identify with it. If the local hero fails and the community opposes them, they will be marginalised. But if they win (if they are accepted by the community), they bring new knowledge and competences into the community, which are supported by new interest groups. Through this, the local hero establishes a new balance (democracy) in the community.