The College for Advanced Studies in Social Theory (, ''TEK'') is the oldest independent college of leftist-intellectual orientation at

Corvinus University of Budapest Corvinus University of Budapest () is a private university, private research university in Budapest, Hungary. The university currently has an enrolment of approximately 9,600 students, with a primary focus on business administration, economics, ...

as well as in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

History

TEK is the second oldest, still operating, college in Hungary. It was founded in 1981 by young researchers and students. Its orientation can be divided into two parts: vocational work and community life. The first is well documented, the latter is somewhat more distorted, due to the effects of

collective memory Collective memory is the shared pool of memories, knowledge and information of a social group that is significantly associated with the group's identity. The English phrase "collective memory" and the equivalent French phrase "la mémoire collect ...

1981–present

TEK seceded from the first established college in Hungary, the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies. However, in the beginning - before the fall of the Iron Curtain - the college's main topic was the reinterpretation of

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

's ouvre, since liberal and alternative thinking was only possible if it was related to Marxist studies. With the fall of the iron curtain, this coercion disappeared, and since the college's main profile was its diversity and openness to new ideas, philosophies and theories, the college's profile now freely and rapidly ramified into diverse - and pioneering among the Hungarian colleges at that time - topics:

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, postmarxism,

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

Buddhist economics Buddhist economics is a spiritual and philosophical approach to the study of economics. It examines the psychology of the human mind and the emotions that direct economic activity, in particular concepts such as anxiety, aspirations and self ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, sociology of minorities,

queer studies Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBTQ studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, asexual, aromantic, queer, question ...

postcolonialism Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...

network theory In mathematics, computer science, and network science, network theory is a part of graph theory. It defines networks as Graph (discrete mathematics), graphs where the vertices or edges possess attributes. Network theory analyses these networks ...

. The college also dealt with the topic of

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

, the sociological causes of

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

and since the establishment the farmost detailed analysis of

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

Frankfurt school The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...

among other colleges.

Philosophical principles

Criticism

TEK is providing a critical approach to the economical theories that Corvinus University has in its educational program– among others, focusing on the social inequalities

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...

structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...

neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

, functionalism,

corporatism Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...

inherently bares -. TEK is also involved in highly regarded green activism, such as

critical mass In nuclear engineering, critical mass is the minimum mass of the fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction in a particular setup. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specific ...

gay pride In the context of LGBTQ culture, pride (also known as LGBTQ pride, LGBTQIA pride, LGBT pride, queer pride, gay pride, or gay and lesbian pride) is the promotion of the rights, self-affirmation, dignity, Social equality, equality, and increas ...

, many flashmobs, that are held in support of promoting a livable environment. Among the members of TEK are also permanent supporters of the anti- g8 anti-

g20 The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stabil ...

demonstrations.

Commune

TEK started a lifestyle experiment, by establishing - again firstly - the habit of an annual commune, in which the members apply voluntarily. These communes give the participants the opportunity to experience such a lifestyle that is hard to experience among European

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

societies. In these communities the members share all goods, live together in one place creating a highly tied community of a few.

Aims

TEK’s main aim is a critical approach to the topics taught in Corvinus University. TEK is more of a theoretical college, putting theoretical approaches to the questions of the society in front of bare statistical analysis, processing of data. However members of TEK – individually - are highly involved in diverse fields of practice – e.g. organizing conferences on behalf of the homeless, many voluntary work promoting the reintegration of gypsies into the labour market, helping the educational development of those from less developed areas -.

Vocational work

Tutorials

The base of the vocational work in TEK are the annual or semi-annual tutorials. The topics of these tutorials are given by the members of the college, which tutorials are to be held by the tutors after compiling a schedule. The participants analyse, discuss the literature together with the tutor. As a conclusion, at the end of every tutorial, the participants are to hand in an essay of one of the topics that were discussed during the Tutorial. The main frame for the tutorials are based on 5 main fields:

political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...

, economics of

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

, Frankfurt School,

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

and

ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...

economics, postmodern sociology. Every fresher has to participate in the Ground Tutorial, which provides a brief insight to the work and schedule of all five fields.

Related works

Fordulat
(meaning “pivot” or “revolution”) is the official periodical of the college, dealing with many critical and however yet not mainstream, but pioneering topics.

Conferences

Among many others,

Claus Offe Claus Offe (born 16 March 1940) is a German political sociologist associated with the Frankfurt School. Work Offe was born in Berlin. He received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt and his Habilitation at the University of Konstanz. In ...

, one of the leading political sociologists and of the second generation Frankfurt School attended one of the conferences held by the college.

External links

''official website''
– in Hungarian *

- in English
official periodical
– in Hungarian {{coord, 47, 29, 01, N, 19, 03, 54, E, type:landmark_source:kolossus-huwiki, display=title Corvinus University of Budapest Universities and colleges established in 1981 Marxist organizations Social theories 1981 establishments in Hungary