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This article studies national-ethnic images and cultural distances utilizing contemporary network methodology. The conceptual framework related to cognitive maps of perceived in-group and out-group stereotypes builds on an extended application of the catnet concept introduced by Harrison White. Employing an adapted version of the classical comparative approach by Buchanan and Cantril, the survey took place online in 2016/17, in a joint project with Greek and Hungarian samples. The analyses build on a two-mode network approach of attributes attached to these two, and four other nationalities, highlighting emotional and competence dimensions and skills/knowledge styles in an attribute/nation perspective. The impact of recent crises is also treated by contrasting the cognitive maps of various segments of the Greek and Hungarian populations.

This chapter centres on polarised rearrangements of the imageries of ‘Others’ both in the Greek and the Hungarian public, during a period witnessing the impacts of the global financial crisis and the so-called ‘refugee crisis.’ We examined varieties of imageries of ‘Others’ in crisis situations, based on an online survey that was conducted in parallel in Greece and Hungary. Concurrently, we analysed the auto-stereotypical features of Greeks and Hungarians, along with their hetero-stereotype characteristics concerning some key nationalities (Americans, Arabs, Germans and Russians) to capture emerging patterns of sympathies, perceived skills and cultural distances. We found a substantial core of positive expressive auto-stereotypes among the Greek population. Hungarian auto-stereotypes reflected somewhat more instrumental-oriented self-images. The cognitive maps outlined by the two-mode network methodology displayed groupings of nationalities with related stereotypical attributes, such as ‘Western,’ ‘Eastern’ or ‘Peripheral.’ We also examined the beliefs of certain segments of the overall population depending on their exposure to financial and refugee crises. Media analyses of various activity domains conducted correspondingly for the respective countries highlighted substantial shifts between pre- and post-crisis patterns regarding both these countries’ positions and their characteristic features, as portrayed in the Greek and the Hungarian public discourse.

The paper presents an attempt to study national-ethnic images and cultural distances with a new conceptual approach and a revival of the Buchanan–Cantril-technique utilizing contemporary network methodology. The conceptual framework related to cognitive maps derived from perceived attributes of other nations and their own called for a renewed application of the catnet concept introduced by Harrison White. Our survey took place in 2016/17, administered online in a joint project with samples of Greek and Hungarian internet users. Respondents’ three choices out of sixteen adjectives for six national/ethnic objects (Americans, Greeks, Hungarians, Russians, Arabs, and Germans) provided the basic data for mapping national stereotypes and their configurations. The analyses build on the conceptual separation of ingroup and outgroup foci, the distinction of the stereotypes alongside the dimensions of warmth and competence, and the differentiation of cognitive–instrumental, expressive–self-presentational and ruling–symbolic skills/knowledge styles. The visual patterns outlined by Ucinet/Netdraw two-mode analyses manifest varieties of semantic networks under various sociocultural settings and historical-political backgrounds. Our findings, employing a selected set of segmentation criteria, show the impact of recent financial and migration crises on the cognitive maps of various segments of the Greek and Hungarian study populations.

Owing to the spectacular currency of information and communication technologies, the diffusion of innovations has become one of the most exciting research topics in the social sciences in the past decade. This study gives an account of the most basic types of growth functions, and then inspects the broad applications of this diffusion of technological innovations. The second half of the study surveys the endeavors which seek to apply the use of growth functions to the broadest possible areas of social change via the long waves of economic development and logistic substitution processes.

Our commentary focuses on juxtaposing the proposed science of intentional change with facts and concepts pertaining to the level of large populations or changes on a worldwide scale. Although we find a unified evolutionary theory promising, we think that long-term and large-scale, scientifically guided – that is, intentional – social change is not only impossible, but also undesirable.