The modern Hungarian settlement was identified by the two initiators \u2013 P\u00e1l Beke and Tam\u00e1s Varga A. (from 1975) \u2013 as an \u2018open cultural home\u2019. This institution also evolved from a settlement type activity and idea to become a centre of local self-organisation. The \u2018open house\u2019 experiment was joined by cultural homes and professionals who were convinced that emphasis should be laid not on people\u2019s education by someone else \u2013 at that time this profession was referred to by the term \u201cadult education\u201d rather than \u201ccommunity education\u201d or \u201ccommunity culture\u201d \u2013 but on collective or joint (self) education. Those professionals thought that rather than the council or professionals it is the local residents themselves who are the most knowledgeable regarding their own education, since they are the ones who know about what, when and with whom they wish to receive education. And they were sure that this attitude and approach will make them not unneeded but rather indispensable; because through their profound knowledge of what people are interested in and what their interests are and their continuous updating of this knowledge they can work as partners of the members of the community in what they need, and in the way it is suitable \u2013 and consequently then probably becoming also important \u2013 for them. This was the professional experiment from which community development evolved in Hungary.
\nIt was by 1984 that the idea that the development of communities should be encouraged not at the cultural centre but at the level of the community (town or village). The initiators recognised that the Hungarian society was a mass of isolated individuals with hardly any bottom-up organisations or communities. They experienced the absence of democracy. So, they had to trigger and encourage the forming and evolution of communities and to do so on the basis of needs and requirements local residents actually felt were their own.<\/p>\n
This article based on the following document:<\/strong><\/p>\n Socialized Operation of Cultural Institutions : A methodological guide to community-based operation