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Gombár, Csaba
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2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Csaba Gombár on opinion polling and history
Sociologist Csaba Gombár reflects in the left-liberal paper Népszabadság on the phenomenon of general moods and analyses the importance of opinion polling: "The opinion pollsters know a lot. From them we learn what mood the country is in, what we're afraid of and what hopes we cherish. Our individual opinions on concrete events and persons … are either reaffirmed or weakened by the general statistic results. How did we learn that we have no picture of what our future will be like? From the opinion pollsters who asked us and couldn't find one. … The prominent role that measuring public opinion has taken on has also changed the way history is written. British historian Eric Hobsbawm once remarked that there was a time when historians simply recorded events and the time they happened. From time to time they were able to explain the background to these events. Today we are curious - and the recording of history is also moving in this direction - about how people felt and what they thought. … The 'emotional structure of the past' has become an object of research, Hobsbawm writes."
» full article (external link, Hungarian)
More from the press review on the subject » History, » Hungary, » Global
The Olympic Games and politics
With the Tibetans' struggle for freedom and the Beijing Olympics in mind, Csaba Gombár reflects on the relationship between sport and politics: "The case put forward by those who defend the Olympics is as follows: let us not mix sport with politics. Fair enough. No one can claim that the high jump is a political act. However without politics the Olympic Games would not have been possible back in Ancient Greece and nor would they be possible today. The Olympic Games themselves, the preparations for them, their financing and their symbolic omnipresence are all the product of fierce competition between nation states - or in other words political communities. To classify an interpersonal and, more importantly, intergovernmental relationship of this nature as free of politics, borders on thoughtless ignorance, to say the least. As a framework for interpersonal relations, politics does not sully athletic competition. On the contrary, by guaranteeing peace politics makes such competition possible. Perhaps this is another way of looking at the relationship between politics and sport."
» full article (external link, Hungarian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Sport, » China
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