What motivates you in your work?
At one point in my working life I understood that I am not only selling my manpower but also my lifetime and I figured that money cannot pay for that. This got me thinking about what I want to do with my lifetime, how I want to live and work. This is what I try to put into practice with Büchertisch.
During our activities we meet many interesting and important initiatives, projects and organizations in Hungary and abroad. We are most interested in finding the key individuals behind these efforts, who tend to be the initiators as well as the key drivers of the projects with their enthusiasm. The interviews focus on their motivational background, the results and the potential linking points to other projects both on a personal and organisational level.
The "Who can make the change" interviews try to provide a "bigger picture" about the leading figures and their out of the ordinary mindsets, which enabled them to make changes through their work within the nonprofit and also business sectors (2012-13). Our aim is to share their knowledge of bottom-up initiatives and inspire others to generate new projects or find potential partners, business in the future.
Photo: Fillmore Photography, bobchin1941
Who can make the change
How can the theories and research help effectively the transition processes in practice?
The transition theories are useful to think about these changes in a systematic, systemic way. We need to know that introduction of a hydrogen car in the streets of Budapest requires not only the production of such a car itself but also maintenance stations, refuelling posts, regulations.
What do you consider the greatest success in the past years?
I consider the international congresses organized and held in Hungary a great success (e.g. 2nd Pannonia Pathology Congress) and the communication channels were also renewed, where the patients can get information on task and role of Pathology as a discipline.
What inspired you to create a green website?
his is how the idea came to start our own “green” portal. Luckily in our circle of friends we had both a web designer, who could do the whole development on his own, and a professional, who wanted to try out journalism. The website became a great reference to both of them for their later jobs, so everyone has won with the “Clean Future” site.
How would you like to see yourselves in 5 years? What are your plans for the future?
In a more professional way, reaching even more people, would like to show to the widest audience possible that biking is cheap, easy, fast and is available for everyone. I would like to learn more about the city functions, urban development and commuting that I can integrate to my work.
What and when inspired the birth of the Retextil technique and method?
It came from my own life: I was at home after giving birth to many children and I somehow wanted to ease our financial situation and the difficulties caused by our old house. I started to weave rugs and after finishing around fifty of them the idea came to step out from this simple system. After 3 years of thinking I had the method in my head.
Can this technology cause socio-innovation changes in the future?
This technology will change the way of thinking also in the risky areas of natural catastrophes. For instance, nowadays if a dam breaks up, the houses on the other side will drown and be destroyed. But you could add some Styrofoam to the foundation of the movable houses, so the houses could easily float on the water and stay in good condition.
What do you consider to be the most important results from your work?
The growing number of cyclists. We did measure it in every 2 years in the same place and the number of cyclist is growing really fast (e.g. from 260 cyclists/hour in 2006 to more then 600 cyclists/hour in 2012). We realized new cycling infrastructure elements, we made changes in traffic organization.
When did you decide to work on urban gardening projects?
I published a book called The Farm in the City, in which I already wrote about agricultural practices applied in the urban context. I thought that these practices should be popularised in Hungary as well. I have been dealing with urban gardening ever since, in addition to my teaching position at the university.
