Education
Horvath received a Doctorate in Law and an MA in Sociology (from the Budapest University of Economics) and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence. She has taught in Departments of Politics, Sociology and History in Budapest, Cork and Milan.
Concepts
The concepts that Horvath has developed in her publications include: Alchemy, Trickster and the technology. She has used case studies such as Metallurgy, Palaeolithic and Mesolithic paintings which analyse the transformative nature of technology in a manner that ties together political anthropology and comparative history. The main theme in her research is the concept of integrity and how this is threatened by technological change. She identifies the source of this as the extension of the division of labour, which is driven by technological innovation, which results in the growing fragmentation of social life. Additional themes in her research are: mimesis, schismogenetic moments, trickster formations, pilgrimage and long-distance walking as identity change.
Research
Horvath began her research with ethnographic research and sociological data collection in the Communist party apparatus in the 22 district level Communist party organisations of Budapest (1987–88), and was extended in 1989 with a study of mayors in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia (1991-2). Now, her research is multidisciplinary in character, drawing on anthropology, philosophy and sociology, and she is influenced by scholars and authors such Plato, Max Weber, Martin Heidegger, Bruno Latour and Arpad Szakolczai.
Publications
Books
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Modernism and Charisma: The Role of the Liminal in the Dynamics of Authorities
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Breaking Boundaries: Varieties of Liminality
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The Gravity of Eros in the Contemporary
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Plato’s Statesman: The Politics of Limit and Liminality
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Reclaiming Beauty: Collected Essays in Political Anthropology Vol. I
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Gli interpreti degli interpreti: l’Ione di Platone oggi
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The Dissolution of Communist Power: The Case of Hungary
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Senkiföldjén: A politikai instruktorok tevékenységéröl az állampártban (On the no man’s land: The activity of political instructors in the state party)
Articles and chapters
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The Fascination with Eros: The Role of Passionate Interests in Communism
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Schismogenesis, Liminality and Pathogenesis: a case study
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Silence and Obscurity of the Eastern European Revolutions
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A Népszolgálat a Szolgálat és a Nép között (The Problem of Serving the People)
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Beauty and Its Forgery
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Gabriel Tarde’s Underground Man
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Tarde’s ultimate paradox, or realism confronting erratic understanding
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Regression into Technology, or the First Mask
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Pulcinella, or the metaphysics of the nulla: In between politics and theatre
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Liminality and the unreal class of the image-making craft
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On liminality
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Néhány szó Brandolini Dialógus-áról (A few words on Brandolini’s Dialogue)
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Conclusione’ to Gli interpreti degli interpreti: l’Ione di Platone oggi
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L’interprete del’incanto divino’ (The interpreter of divine enchantment)
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Introduzione’ to Gli interpreti degli interpreti: l’Ione di Platone oggi (The interpreter of interpreters: Plato’s Ion today)
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What Kind of Political Anthropology? Turning Iconoclasm into Golden Age
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Az erénnyel teli tudás antropológiájához’ (On the anthropology of knowledge filled with virtue)
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Mimetic Errors in Liminal Schismogenesis: On the Political Anthropology of the Trickster
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Mythology and the Trickster: Interpreting Communism
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The Trickster Motive in Renaissance Political Thought
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Tricking into the Position of the Outcast: A Case Study in the Emergence and Effects of Communist Power
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The Political Psychology of Trickster-Clown: An Analytical Experiment around Communism as a Myth
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Du discours sur la société civile et l'auto-élimination du parti
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The Discourse of Civil Society and the Self-Elimination of the Party
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Political Instructors and the Decline of Communism in Hungary: Apparatus, Nomenclatura and the Issue of Legacy
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Information Management in Bolshevik-type Party States: A Version of the Information Society
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The Dual Power of the State-Party and Its Grounds
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A Sweet and Sour Victory in Eastern Europe
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Senkiföldjén’ (On the no man's land)
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A párt különös hatalma (The peculiar power of the party)
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The concentration of power and the self-defending society: Elements of a conceptual framework in the Works of Karl Polanyi and István Bibó
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Életesélyek aszimmetriája: Anthony Giddens struktura-elmeletéröl (The asymmetry of life chances: on the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens)
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Az egyoldalú hatalomkoncentráció és a társadalom védettsége Polányi Károly és Bibó István elméletrendszerében’ (The one-sided concentration of power and the self-defending society in the theoretical systems of Karl Polányi and István Bibó)
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Osztályelemzés: Vélemények és viták’ (Class analysis: opinions and debates)
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'Közönyösek': Csövesekkel készitett interjúk feldolgozása’ (‘Apathetics’: A study of high-school drop-outs based on in-depth interviews)