CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2026
| Author | Sebály, Bernadett |
|---|---|
| Title | Why Some Housing Struggles Succeed: A Comparative Case Study of Movement Strategies in Hungary between 1987 and 2024 |
| Summary | When do housing struggles succeed? This question gains urgency amid a rampant housing crisis when the transformation of this vital asset into a lucrative commodity has left 40 million people in Europe, including more than 830,000 in Hungary, struggling with unaffordability. This dissertation explores possible answers by examining the effectiveness of movement strategies. I integrate Gramscian theory into the research on movement strategies and outcomes, and analyze the combination of two factors: (1) how social movement organizations engage political parties in social struggles (orientation to state power), and (2) how they bolster the position of their constituencies within emerging alliances contesting the existing order (orientation to constituency power). I analyze four strategic approaches along this state power – constituency power axes: (1.1) movement organizations engage in the long-term work of building an ideological alliance with a party, and operate in close alignment, almost in symbiosis; or (1.2) movement organizations consider political parties as constantly moving campaign targets, depending on their stance on a particular issue; while (2.1) movement organizations articulate constituency interest on behalf of a mass base; or (2.2) movement organizations articulate constituency interest without controlling a mass base but using other, cultural, policy, or organizational, resources. The research is designed as a comparative case study of Hungarian housing struggles between 1987 and 2024, examining movement impact through three hegemonic phases of housing economies: state socialist, neoliberal, and illiberal. I study the struggles of five constituencies: large families, public housing tenants, Roma people, homeless people, and indebted homeowners. The primary data sources for the five case studies are printed and online media articles (N=1,794), organizational documents (N=438), and semi-structured interviews with movement leaders and experts (n=16). My results show that movement organizations have the most potential to contribute to a systemic shift when they can utilize the potential dependence of political parties on movement constituencies and turn that dependence into influence over the structure of a new emerging historical bloc. Movement organizations can achieve this most effectively when they combine social and organizational embeddedness – a mass base – with a long-term strategic political alignment with a party. In this case, the mass base can lend a strong position to the movement organization and its constituency within the emerging historical bloc, and maximize the complementary potential of movements and parties in advancing an alternative vision of society. My analysis also provides a detailed account of the counter-hegemonic potential of the other examined strategies. I also find that strategic approaches determine how the political opportunity is perceived, and that the cooperation between organic and traditional intellectuals could compensate for severe inequalities between and within constituencies. This dissertation reinforces the idea that movement organizations, if they choose, can influence the emergence of new political and social alliances, and adopt an orientation to engage in conflict over the historical bloc that dominates the state and society. This perspective is particularly relevant in housing struggles, for the affordability crisis is unresolvable without effective state intervention. |
| Supervisor | Krizsán, Andrea |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2026/sebaly_bernadett.pdf |
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