Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 429

Title

Mihály Csákó Personal Papers

Date(s)

1955 - 2018

Description Level

Fonds

Extent and medium (processed)

124 Archival boxes, 15.5 linear meters
2 Archival photo box, 0.66 linear meters
1 Oversized box (40 cm), 0.4 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Csákó, Mihály

Administrative / Biographical history

Mihály Csákó was a sociologist, director of and professor at the Institute for Social Policy and Sociology at Eötvös Loránd University, and at the John Wesley Theological College, renown researcher of Hungarian education sociology, initiator and head of the Sub-committee of Education Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the democratic opposition before the regime change in Hungary.

Mihály Csákó was born in Budapest on November 19, 1941.

He earned his university degree in Hungarian Literature and Grammar and Philosophy in 1964 and started to work as assistant lecturer at the Department of Philosophy at Eötvös Loránd University. When on a scholarship he travelled to Nancy, France to learn French and to research, he witnessed the student revolution in 1968 from close, which made a life-long impact on him. His doctoral thesis focused on Claude Lévi-Strauss, who despite being a renowned anthropologist, ethnographer and sociologist of religion, and a key figure of the structuralist movement was hardly known in Hungary at that time. The thesis was based on his own Diplôme d’études supérieures européennes written at Nancy.

When in 1971 together with Mihály Hamburger he proposed a new leftist concept for teaching Marxism, he was accused of leftist deviation and expelled from the university. He was hired by the Institute for Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, and under the supervision of Ferenc Gazsó, he, with Ilona Liskó, started to research vocational school pupils in 1972 and 1973 – the very first project in that field in Hungary.

Csákó could keep his job at the Institute for Social Sciences until the late 1970s. By that time, he became an active member of the underground opposition of the regime. In 1980 he was fired for helping distribute samizdat literature, including the periodical Beszélő, and for signing the Hungarian Charta ’77 petition.

For a while he ran a job agency called MUKI – short for both “Job Agency” and “Institute for Finding Jobs”, sometimes called KUKI “Institute for Finding the Fired” in Hungarian – from his home, primarily trying to help the members and sympathizers of the opposition get intellectual odd jobs such as translation, typing up papers or coding survey questionnaires. In the fall of 1981, the police confiscated all of the agency’s files.

In the early 1980s, Csákó regarded himself a free-lance sociologist; without a permanent job, he decided to get a training in computer sciences, a rather neglected area at that time. He earned a senior computer sciences diploma and started to work as documenter at the Computer Sciences Training Center of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (SZÁMOK, later renamed SZÁMALK).

What he was interested in was the sociology of computer sciences. In the 1980s, he interviewed literally every member of SZÁMOK/SZÁMALK, including the founders, the great old. One chapter was published in the volume compiled for Tibor Huszár for his 70th birthday under the title Csikócsapat (Herd of Foals).

In 1985 Csákó left SZÁMALK.

Both his skills in the area of statistics he had gained through the processing of survey questionnaires and his interest in education landed him the research project at the Ministry of Education entitled The Sociological Problems of Computerizing Schools, which he lead from 1985.

In 1987, he received a Soros grant and in 1988 he traveled to the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1988 he was a founder and member of the board of the Democratic Trade Union of Scientific Workers; from the beginnings he was one of the leaders of the League of Independent Trade Unions, an umbrella organization for the Democratic Trade Union of Scientific Workers among others, serving as a member of the steering committee, then as an international rapporteur. Delegated by the League, he was an observer at the Oppositional Roundtable negotiations.

In 1988 he was a founding member of the Hungarian Sociological Association, serving as President and Vice President between 1999 and 2001, and member of the Board throughout his membership.

After his rehabilitation in 1991, together with Ilona Liskó they had the opportunity to defend their doctoral theses based on the research of vocational school pupils in 1973.

Between 1992 and 1994 he was director of the Institute for Sociology and Social Policy, Eötvös Loránd University.

In a research project on political socialization of the 13-year-old, a survey was taken in 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2008 among 7th graders. This survey series became the compulsory field practice for sociology students at Eötvös Loránd University. Csákó intensively participated in the political socialization research from 1994 until his death.

In 1995 he spent three months at Harvard University as visiting researcher.

Returning home, he worked one more term as director of the Institute and taught there, too. He participated in setting up the Faculty of Social Sciences but did not undertake any senior position.

Together with researchers from across the world from Puerto Rico to China and to the Netherlands, in the 1990s he participated in a UNESCO research project on the development of metacognitive functions in children.

At the age of 68 Mihály Csákó became associate professor at the John Wesley Theological College, where he taught education sociology until his death.

In his last years he mentored the Students’ Independent Parliament set up in 2014 on the grassroot initiative of students.

He was also member of the editorial committee of Educatio; with Iván Bajomi he co-edited the last issue titled1968 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the French student uprising.

Csákó passed away January 10, 2019, in Vác.

Archival history

After his death in January 2019, Csákó’s library and documents related to the history of the democratic opposition and to sociological research were placed at the John Wesley Theological College. Rector Gábor Iványi asked university professor and teacher at the College Péter Tibor Nagy to handle Csákó’s library and papers. Technical literature was handed over to the College as the Mihály Csákó special collection while the papers were offered to the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Central European University.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Narrative)

The collection consists of Mihály Csákó’s materials on his activities as university professor, researcher of education, member of the democratic opposition, as well as of his personal papers.

The first subfonds comprises Csákó’s social sciences research material including the primary documents, questionnaires, interviews, spreadsheets, manual or computerized processing of research projects Skilled Workers and Vocational School Pupils (1970-2000); Use of Computer Tools in Education; Automating Offices (1982-1996), Political Socialization of Young People; Education Sociology, Trade Unions and Interest Representation (1973-1995)

Subfonds 2 is made up of the documents related to Csákó’s teaching at the Faculty of Humanities and the Institute of Sociology and Social Policy at Eötvös Loránd University, University of California (Berkeley), University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh), Faculty of Social Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University, and the John Wesley Theological College.

The third subfonds consist of the documents on Csákó’s public and oppositional activities including the job agency, trade union activities, the Students’ Independent Parliament, and education policy making.

The last subfonds contains Csákó’s personal papers including his professional and personal biographical files, correspondence, documents relating to his membership in various professional organizations as well as documents concerning his university studies.

Accruals

Not Expected

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Not Restricted

Languages

English, French, German, Hungarian, Russian

Description Control

Archivist's note

Arranged by Réka Heszterényi, Erzsébet Szöllősi, and Örs Lehel Tari. Described by Erzsébet Szöllősi. English translations by Judit Hegedüs and Iván Székely. October 31, 2023.