The weak civil society thesis in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been central to scholarly debates interpreting civil society from a Western lens. Touching upon the issue of food sovereignty, we contest this conceptualisation by revealing the wider networks and strength of food-related local practices in Hungary after the 1990s. In doing so, we rely on a qualitative study conducted between 2020-2021, based on 25 semi-structured ‘oral herstory’ interviews with women who have been actively dealing with food sovereignty issues. With the above study, we had three main objectives. First, to counter the widespread (mis)perception of local food production as a mere necessity in CEE. Second, we highlight the importance of rural local food production, to counter the understanding of home gardening as a practice without resistance. Thirdly, we wish to voice the experiences of women in the movement in their larger structural and historical settings. Our findings concentrate on two key areas: the movement's experience with recurrent crises and political-economic conditions from the 1990s onwards, and the subjective assessment of shifting hierarchical dynamics within the movement milieu. The paper's main goal is to illuminate women's experiences and positionality within the global food system from a Hungarian viewpoint.

The basic goal of ecovillages is to create a sustainable lifestyle and community. Many residents of Hungarian ecovillages consider traditional peasant culture the example of an ecological lifestyle; for them, traditional peasant ecological knowledge and practice is an important reference point. Therefore, the pursuit of ecological ideology and an eco-conscious, sustainable way of life naturally leads ecovillagers to peasant material culture. In this study, I present the revival of handicraft heritage in rural eco-communities. I provide an insight into how traditional artifact-making activities come to life, how the old tools of Hungarian peasant culture are used, collected, and copied, and I present the place and interpretation of these old trades and their masters in these communities. The study is based on my ethnographic-anthropological research conducted in Hungarian ecovillages since 2007.

One of the reasons for the spread of the Western Hare Krishna movement is that it offers several alternatives for the practice of religion: devotees can be full-fledged members of the church in congregations located in complex urban or in simple rural contexts. An example of the latter is Krishna Valley, where approximately 130 Krishna-devotees live austere lives. My paper presents the interpretations of this settlement concentrating on (multiple) internal (emic) views: On the one hand, I will show how the leadership of the church contextualizes and interprets Krishna Valley and how they wish the inhabitants to conceptualize it. On the other hand, I will also show what Krishna Valley means for its ordinary inhabitants and what interpretations those living there attach to it. When I was gathering material for the current paper, Krishna Valley was in flux. The settlement has always favored following a sustainable lifestyle but—due in part to the strengthening of the Hungarian eco-village movement—it was at this time that the conceptualization of Krishna Valley as an eco-village gained momentum. This was the heyday of the Eco Valley Foundation, which was to strengthen the eco-village aspect of the Valley, and in the communication of Krishna Valley the ecological aspect became paramount, drowning out all other interpretations. Not all inhabitants of the village welcomed this change and in response some began to emphasize the interpretation of Krishna Valley as a sacred place. In the current paper, I will present these two processes and the relationship between them through the lens of the interpretations of the members of the community.

Environmental Humanities is the product of the 21st century, an age in which it is no longer possible to grasp and manage environmental problems from a single viewpoint. This is why traditional humanities subjects such as philosophy, aesthetics, literary and religious studies, history, and linguistics have combined the natural and social sciences and the arts into an interdisciplinary formation to understand contemporary environmental issues. The book in the Reader’s hands is intended to become part of the body of literature – introductions, chrestomathies – about Environmental Humanities, adapted to the Hungarian context. Due to its nature, it provides a comprehensive description of a topic, such as environmental philosophy, environmental anthropology, nature art, nature conservation, the relationship between religion and ecology, environmental history, legal, political, and economic issues, social justice, overpopulation, or food dilemmas. In addition, the volume shows the community responses to contemporary ecological and social problems with examples from Hungary.