With the transformation of the role of the welfare state, the social engagement and active participation were taking the place of passive benefits. The importance of individual actions is becoming more and more prominent.With the reduction of welfare benefits and expansion of the workfare model after the crisis of 2008, the main objective of the local integration programmes was to strengthen self-sufficiency of social group with precarious life situations in rural areas of Hungary. The purpose of this volume is to give a brief overview of the most important local integration programmes of the past quarter century, focusing on the social land programme. The analysis, summarising the results of an empirical study, presents the main turning points of the local integration models, the changing environmental conditions, as well as the adaptation strategies and the possible directions of development of local communities in Hungary.

Dr. Judit Csoba is professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Debrecen, Hungary.

Theoretical and research framework.- The economic, social, and political background behind the establishment and operation of the social land programme.- The historical roots and main phases of development of the social land programme.- The social land programme in terms of related literature.- The social land programme in the changing realm of social policy.- The operation and characteristics of the social land programme today.- The impact of the social land programme.- Integration models complementing or competing with each other? The integration strategies of local society.- The characteristics of social cooperatives in Hungary.- Summary, conclusions.