Perception of environmentally generated conflicts in the society of the southern catchment area of lake Balaton

Abstract

 The paper presents the results of a 2013 survey about how the residents in the southern catchment
area of Lake Balaton, Hungary, perceive environmental issues and environment-related social
conflicts in their own settlements and their narrower geographical area. In conformity with earlier
surveys of the value system of the Hungarian society, we found that the respondents attribute only
moderate importance to environmental problems. Concerning the deep structure of their general value-
commitment, we detected four groups of respondents: a values-rich, a privacy-minded, a public-minded
and a nihilist group. A cluster analysis of the patterns of the respondents’ attitudes toward three
principal components of satisfaction with the environmental conditions of their settlement (feeling of
comfort, condition of the infrastructure and strictly environmental factors), distinguished an
urbanized, an uncritical, an idealist, and a complaining group. In general we can say that the
inhabitants’ assessment of the environmental condition of their settlements lacks dramatic elements.
They do not perceive significant environmental issues and conflicts, only isolated cases of putting the
natural environment at risk. They are generally content with their settlement and do not consider the
state of Lake Balaton endangered either. The only sphere where they detect problems is the lack of
employment opportunities. They do not believe, however, that developing tourism alone could offer a
solution to this problem in the long run.