Building collective resilience in times of rising authoritarianism: Civil society organizations in Orbán’s Hungary

About the Research

Authoritarianism is on the rise globally, with significant repercussions on civil society. An emerging scholarship has started documenting how individual civil society organizations have managed to continue to serve disadvantaged groups and pursue human rights within these hostile contexts. However, our understanding of how rising authoritarianism challenges civil society at the field level, and how civil society fields in turn respond to these challenges, remains nascent. Our in-depth qualitative study of the evolution of the Hungarian civil society field since 2010 enables us to advance theoretical insights on this contemporary phenomenon. We offer a model that outlines the interplay between the central tensions experienced by the civil society field, the strategies employed to navigate these tensions through the development of a resilience infrastructure, and the resulting effects on the field’s collective resilience. Our study contributes to scholarship on institutional infrastructures and the literature addressing resistance within hostile contexts.

About Farah Kodeih

Farah Kodeih is an Associate Professor of Strategy at IESEG School of Management, France, and a visiting professor at Aalto University School of Business, Finland. Her research explores how organizations and individuals navigate institutional disruption and breakdown. Currently, her primary focus is on the dynamics of displacement and marginalization.

Date: Thursday 9 November, 2023

Time: 12:00-13:30 CET

Venue: Training Room (Zoom link provided to registered attendees)

Should you want to attend, please register at https://forms.gle/rYxqPmw7cZsCrsHU8