In Issue 4 of Társadalomkutatás (Social Research) - 2009, the "main rehearsal" of the Delphi debate volume, initially to be edited by Kálmán Kulcsár with Károly Varga's cooperation, chose the debate-launcher out of one of the main range in the senior editor's oeuvre, the theme of modernization. Due to aspects of professional and world-view multilateralness as well as volume limitations, besides Varga's answering article, Kálmán Kulcsár chose from several contributions only the studies of two authors who were able to pronouncedly mark the poles of this spectrum, broad in both its dimensions: from law sociological and progressive directions, he chose Antal Ádám's article, from value conservative and "inter-science" angles, he chose that of Gábor Náray-Szabó. Meanwhile, however, another momentous opponency to Kulcsár's introduction was completed, written by Rezso Lovas, atomic researcher; which, due to the death of the debate's initiator, can only appear in the present Kulcsár-memorial issue of the journal. This is what the present author is trying to respond to, in Kálmán Kulcsár's spirit. He recalls, on the one hand, Kálmán Kulcsár's "thesis", according to which "the modernisation of the decades following World War II can be truly applied as a concept with an explanatory power in understanding current social phenomena and processes"; on the other hand recalling Rezso Lovas's "antithesis" about the rather negative classification of this key concept, according to which "modernisation can no longer be a leading idea any more because it is not clear where it leads to"; and thirdly, recalls Varga's writing which, although not to be taken for a "synthesis", nuances and completes Kulcsár's thesis, as well as refines some of Lovas' suggestions. He states that whereas Kálmán Kulcsár's approach reckons with a basically positive ideal-type of the concept of modernisation, embracing the original idea, the requirements and certain facts of its realization, Rezso Lovas takes note of the dysfunctional concomitant phenomena, which emerge on it according to the laws of parasitism, formulated by Csíkszentmihá lyi, destroying power sources because of malfunctioning regulation. To determine the new direction, he also borrows from Csíkszentmihályi the concept of higher complexity, in which the moments of differentiation and integration have to maintain balance. He demonstrates that this clarified national strategy-building direction of modernization can bring the conceptions of the Delphi-debate-initiator and his powerful opponent closer to each other.

The Editor-in-Chief of Társadalomkutatás starts the debate from one of the main topics of his research oeuvre, from modernisation as a 'dress rehearsal' of the scale of pilot study for the Delphi volume of discussions under preparation and to be edited by Kálmán Kulcsár and the present author. The first response to the paper is the present one, reversing the perspective of Professor Kulcsár's paper which is progressing in the history of concepts, and the author starts from the fact of the present global crisis and goes back in quest of elements that contain crisis potential right from the outset and can be grasped in the set of values of modernisation. Listing the relevant theses of several authors he presents evidence that besides the undoubtedly evolutionary achievements of modernisation some problematic factors as parasitic side-effects have been maturing in the value control of the process. Based on Hellemans he presents that in the face of the initial resistance of the institution of traditionally conservative values (such as the Roman Catholic Church) some basic values of modernisation would continue to show the direction, while he stresses of the discussion of modernisation between Daniel Bell and Habermas of the '70s that the forecast of disintegration implied in "consume hedonism" condemned by Bell proved to be more realistic than the perspective of the "project of modernisation" defended by Habermas. The current statements of the two authors already support this. In harmony with Bell's line Hofstede makes the fundamentally short-term orientation of the American set of values for the global crisis, contrasting it to the Chinese par excellence long-term one. Wallerstein's theory of centre and periphery also originates the present crisis from old contradictions, among others from the schizophrenic situation of the periphery which can only expect to enjoy the advantages of getting organically included in world economy only at the cost of the rapid amortisation of its human capital. The human capital model of Schulz may be linked to this, while it directs attention to the trend threatening survival in Hungary in view of domestic male mortality. It is at this point that my paper joins the conclusions of Professor Kulcsár's opening paper namely that the modernisation of the globalised world liveable by us as well is the adaptation of the society by its own conditions, together with the continuous improvement of those conditions. Thus following the warning of Domokos Kosáry we may avoid the present variant of dual mistake committed in the 20th century: namely disregarding the current space of mobility in global politics, and self-exposure to the 'favours' of great powers as well as of multinationals. © 2009, Akadémiai Kiadó.

The present study forms an operational variation of the task undertaken in the outlook paragraph of the authors' earlier article to study with the help of the Sense of Coherence (SOC) as a group property, the health and general well-being of the Hungarian national community (in an international comparison). With Hungary being the only Eastern Central European ('Trans-Elbanian') country joining the EU-project with the title Corporate Culture and Regional Embeddednes (CURE), we Hungarians tried to help achieve this goal by making the following proposal to the researchers of the five Western-European ('Cis-Elbanian') countries partaking in the project: the drastically different Health Capital level of the Grand Regions situated on the two sides of the Elbe-Leitha boundary ('centrum versus semi-periphery') should be inserted as a control variable into the original research model of the project, which has propounded the hypothesis that the interaction between the organisational culture of the corporations operating in the sample region of the individual countries and the national culture of the respective regions has had an impact on the development of the region. We have presumed that this enormous difference between the Health Capital levels can bring to light the true underlying historical-social-economical impact factors which appear to be 'cultural' when approached for the first time. The leadership of the project allowed the Hungarian team to check, beyond the qualitative research design of the project, with the quantitative method of the research, the model variation enriched with a Health Capital variable. The conclusive results thus gained anticipate an affirmation of the results achieved in the original qualitative variation of the project design and may serve as an example for the whole research team to also implement an internationally exact investigation of the effect of the Health Capital as a control variable of the cultural impact in a possible follow up. The present study displays the first, pilot study results of this research undertaking, to be implemented in our country within the frame of the CURE project, and to be transferred into the international comparison if it proves successful. These preliminary results illustrate the interdependency of the cultural dimensions and the Health Capital apprehended in a salutogenic cross section. © 2009 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.

The subject of this study, the step forward-which the author felt to be 'of evolutionary value' - was occasioned by a Delphi discussion. The debate was opened by Varga's (2003, 2006a) contrastive exposition of diagnoses of present history with respect to Hungary's accession to the European Union, offered by some leading Hungarian sociologists (Henrik Kreutz, Kálmán Kulcsár, Iván Szelényi, Iván Vitányi), in which he tried to place the views of these authors in a value sociological system by Charles Morris (1956, 1964) and Geert Hofstede (1991). In Morris' case, this involved recourse to his combination of two systems: one semiotic, the other axiological; in Hofstede's, to his system of 'software of the mind' embracing axiology and organizational psychology. This synthesis was opposed by Kreutz (2006a) who offered a new ordering principle which he advanced as truer to life. The present confrontation between the value sociological synthesis advanced by Kreutz, on the one hand, and the trends hallmarked by the names of Morris and Hofstede, on the other hand, provided the author with an opportunity to find a resolution of the tension between desired and desirable, for which he has gained some side light from Robert K. Merton's (1957) theory of the different degrees of insulation of role-activities from observability by members of the role-set (and which has derived further refinement from Jean-Paul Sartre's conception of 'glance and shame').

We greet a scholar, politician and researcher of major format on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. During his life full of work Kálmán Kulcsár has introduced new disciplines in Hungary, as a science politician he made major efforts for the establishment and consolidation of the institutions of sociology and political science. As a professor he taught the theory of the state and of law, and the sociology of law to generations, as a politician and Minister of Justice he did a great deal for the legal preparation of the change of the political system. As a diplomat he represented our country in Ottawa to the satisfaction of all. Above all he is an extremely prolific researcher who publishes his interesting writings to this day. His interest extends over theoretical questions to the development of individual societies, from Europe to Asia, his profundity is legendary; his clear-cut style makes his writings enjoyable to the reader. We hope that he would surprise his associates, disciples and the Hungarian academic life with several new works to come. © 2008, Akadémiaí Kiadó.