The achievements of the Creative City and Sustainable Region (KRAFT) concept were presented by Ferenc Miszlivetz (director of iASK) and Zoltán Gaál (coordinator of the KRAFT Centre) in the evening program of the M5 Cultural Public Broadcast Chanel on the 14th of September 2018.

The video content is available only in Hungarian.

The script of the interview can be read in English below:

Presenter of M5:

Welcome to “ESTI kérdés” (Evening Question) on M5!

Our topic today is the Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg (iASK) and the KRAFT Conference. Researchers were involved in the theoretical fundaments of the Creative City – Sustainable Region programme and developing the methodology of regional development for years. And in 2014, supported by government funding, the practical part of the programme started right in Kőszeg; through the example of the town, where, applying the KRAFT methodology, the purpose was to renew the Kőszeg micro area and the whole Pannon region by developing its material, cultural and social values.

My two guests tonight are Professor Miszlivetz Ferenc, sociologist, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, director general of iASK and Gaál Zoltán PhD, head of the KRAFT Centre of the Institute.

iASK defines itself as the institute of new questions. What are the most relevant new questions and could you provide an insight into the operation of the institute; since it might seem a little confusing for an outsider.

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

This is a new type of enterprise. We have been present in Kőszeg for a long time now. My colleagues and I founded the Europe House in 1994, and have been operating an international summer university since 1996 but our activities were more traditional and academic until the point of, around the recession in 2008, me, a sociologist, recognising the world’s increased expectations, locally and internationally, for what we call social sciences. It’s no longer enough to explain what happened and why only afterwards; it’s imperative to foresee and predict and to formulate proposals for local municipalities, governments and even the European Union. The most important is that we think together.

Presenter of M5:

What tools does sociology have to facilitate this?

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

Sociology has, as I saw it in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a more traditional approach; similar to political science. It forces thinking into boxes called disciplines, which enables “deep drilling”; an obvious advantage. I used to be a young colleague of Hankiss Elemér, who I regard as my master, similarly to a lot of research fellows of the institute. Hankiss was a living example of thinking outside these boxes, to which approach I added my practical common sense and soon we found ourselves receiving requests from multinational companies (namely IBM in 2008) to investigate the Hungarian labour culture and formulate proposals on how, if at all possible, to change it.

So we combined theoretical knowledge; Hankiss’s value sociology and the necessity to formulate proposals since we needed to develop a product. And this is how we outlined our proposal of developing different types of universities in the future; we needed so called future universities where practical approach and developmental skills, socio-economic innovation are interlinked with high standard, acknowledged theoretical knowledge and research.

Presenter of M5:

How is the KRAFT programme connected to this?

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of IASK:

I would like to add that at that time there was no institute; our activities were complementary parts of a small foundation, and together with another multinational company, we developed a material about the possibilities of saving small and medium-size towns in Central Europe, namely in Hungary, from bankruptcy and desolation and of making them a more attractive living environment for young people, which has always been a challenge. We, together with my colleagues, compiled a package of proposals between 2010 and 2012 This package made it all the way to the government, namely the Prime Minister, who found it fascinating. This is how the agreement of operating the Institute with governmental support was entered into. We then decided that one of the main pillars of the Institute should be the KRAFT Centre, an acronym from the Hungarian words meaning Creative City – Sustainable Region, the head of which is Professor Gaál Zoltán.

Presenter of M5:

Professor, what is the main objective of the KRAFT programme?

Zoltán Gaál – coordinator of the KRAFT Centre:

Based on the philosophy and concept, this is a truly genuine development strategy, which is different from its predecessors since it investigates potentials. This is crucial in terms of development. Actually, it investigates three pillars, three potentials. The potential of creativity and innovation, networking and relationship capital, and the potential of sustainability. In our model, that is the triple helix model of three actors, a very important issue is the cooperation of the academic sphere, the competitive sector and the governmental institutions. In other words, the concept is a cooperation based approach. Unlike previous concepts, everybody is a winner here. This is a win-win game instead of the previous zero-sum games resulting in only one party winning, the other losing. This is joining forces, a cooperation based concept.

Now that we started empirical investigations in this regard, I think this information might be crucial. We have certain hard databases at disposal: database of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), concerning NGOs, we researched the website birosag.hu (court) besides paying attention to health insurance portals since in terms of potentials, another crucial issue is health and services provided for residents.

Presenter of M5:

Let me put it more simply since I’m also in the phase of understanding the KRAFT programme. Basically, every social, economic and cultural aspect of a certain region is inspected and then, based on this, you try to make predictions about the future?

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

I failed to mention one important thing; the point is that these small and medium-size towns are basically invisible from a multinational perspective or with a centralised national approach. As a CEO of a multinational company, who delivered a presentation here, said ‘Ferenc, this is a village…’, since it is inhabited by 15,000 people only.

Presenter of M5:

But Kőszeg is a genuine jewellery box…

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

Yes, this is exactly what I’m saying; it is only insignificant from a certain perspective; for multinational companies only size matters. With a centre based approach, it is too far. (They used to say it’s worth considering poles; in the previous era, 5 major poles had to be established…) We found that despite the small size of Kőszeg, similarly to Nagykanizsa, when these towns concentrate on their local history and find the most interesting topic in terms of culture and identity, they will be able to shine like a star.

Presenter of M5:

Besides cultural potential, are there a great number of other potentials to mention?

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

Yes, since this is what a creative city stands for. This will jointly reinforce the identity of the residents and the town itself. There are a lot of communities in Western Hungary where people really need to learn to cooperate not just to talk about it. Unfortunately, there is a proverb in Hungary that “the country is not kept together by cooperation…” My reply is yes, small towns cannot be kept together by failing to cooperate; they will fall apart and become desolate otherwise. Actually, KRAFT provides a solution for this, since it tries to imagine units of towns, which might well be relevant even for a big foreign investor.

Presenter of M5:

Before talking about the conference, let us say a few words about the importance of the Pannon Cities Alliance and the University of Pannonia in the programme.

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

The right answer shall be provided by the former rector of the University of Pannonia.

Zoltán Gaál – coordinator of the KRAFT Centre:

This triple cooperation has primarily preferred towns where the University of Pannonia already had a campus. From this respect, research of Nagykanizsa, Kőszeg, Keszthely and Veszprém was brought into the limelight.

KRAFT Centres were established in these towns with a coordinator organising the related work. To further explain this concept, we focussed on researching eight areas. It might be crucial to utter them: economy, health, governing, networking, social vitality, education, culture, and natural and built heritage. They are the areas our research concerns.

Presenter of M5:

The 4^th International KRAFT Conference is scheduled for 24^th & 25^th September and I can see from the programme that almost every topic is covered by Hungarian and foreign presenters. It could be important to know whether these foreign presenters bring or take something with them.

Zoltán Gaál – coordinator of the KRAFT Centre:

Both.

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

A constant problem in Hungary is an inward looking attitude, which is independent from political regimes; we fail to realise that people somewhere else in the world might come up with something similar and might even get ahead of us. The penny has been dropped; this concept has been present in Portugal, Italy, in the so called Balkan States, Croatia… A way of thinking has been adopted to preserve cultural heritage and to make better use of it in terms of tourism; how to make our cities more liveable. We all have similar challenges, and it’s fantastic to see people arrive from eight countries in the world; Zaragoza, Naples, Bologna, Cluj-Napoca…

Presenter of M5:

What are the thoughts of these foreign presenters about the Hungarian example?

Ferenc Miszlivetz – director of iASK:

They are far from truly understanding it. This is what we’re working on, this is why they’re coming because they’re interested in our concept. The former mayor of Wiener Neustadt is going to deliver a presentation after Professor Charles Vörösmarty of the City College of New York, whose grandfather is from Köveskál, Balaton Uplands and who is a regular visitor of Kőszeg. He decided to join his New York research centre with us, the Institute of Advanced Studies.

We have just designed a pilot project about circular economy through the example of Kőszeg; this is an example they already understand. This also generated interest in the government and elsewhere. This circular economy is also a part of sustainability just like, say, preserving cultural heritage.

Presenter of M5:

Have you had any thoughts about where the next focal point will be? Where can the example of the Kőszeg micro area are integrated next?

Zoltán Gaál – coordinator of the KRAFT Centre:

Yes, it is empirical investigations, which have already been completed in Veszprém. The next step will be towards Nagykanizsa and the Mura region. Together with the small region, it includes Nagykanizsa and the 59 related communities. Then, we will move on to investigating the Szombathely-Kőszeg axis. As a result, researchers are optimistic to be able to develop some metrics, which we initially referred to as KRAFT index, based on which certain situations can be identified, and consequences of a development or an intervention can be measured.

Presenter of M5:

Basically, you are developing a measurement system. My smile when mentioning Nagykanizsa wasn’t by coincidence; as a citizen of the city, I do hope that this regional development programme will have tangible results at home, as well.

I wish you a fruitful conference and great success for your work.

Ferenc Miszlivetz (director of iASK) & Zoltán Gaál (coordinator of the KRAFT Centre):

Thank you.

You will find HERE the program of the IV. International Conference!