In November, FinnAgora’s guest of the month is Helena Drdlová who has spent October at the Valóság-residency in Budapest. Helena is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, and is part of the Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Changes. Her research concerns the economic policy of Central and Eastern European EU member countries, focusing especially on their post-socialist industrial economic development.
FinnAgora sat down with Helena to discuss everything from economic policy to the Nokia phone, Central European folklore and daily life in Budapest.
Tell us a little bit about your background – where have you lived and studied?
I come from Brno in the Czech Republic, so not far from here. I did my bachelor's in my hometown, but for my master’s degree I wanted to study political economy. The University of Helsinki was one of the few places in Europe who offered this programme, so that’s how I ended up in Finland. But it was actually during my Erasmus in Norway that I realised I really like Northern Europe, and that Finland is a place where I could imagine living.
For our readers who are not experts on the matter, how would you briefly explain the economic challenges facing Central and Eastern Europe?
Since the 1990s, the big trends have been export and a foreign investment -based economic model. But the expectation that foreign investment would lead to knowledge spill-over for local people, and so a stronger local economy, never came. Foreign-owned companies do employ local people, but the profit keeps leaving the region. Now we basically have two economic spheres, the foreign and the domestic, but they are completely separate. The big challenge for the Central and Eastern European countries is to kind of bridge this gap. The old model is slowly coming apart, and the region stands at the crossroads of “Where will we head next?”.
The democratic backsliding and the rise of populism these days also affect the economic situation. The people who were left behind in the 1990s are now being listened to by some politicians who learned they can get loyal votes that way, but this relationship can be exploitative. It does not translate to jobs and improved standards of living. It’s important to keep asking if these people have gotten jobs? Do they have improved living standards? What are their expectations for the future, how economically secure do they feel?
How has leaving the region that you study affected your research?
It has made a huge difference. My master’s and PhD programmes in political economy have been much more critical than mainstream economics departments, and overall Finnish academia encourages more alternative views. In post-socialist countries, the people who put together the current economic model in the 1990s are now themselves professors, directors, politicians: the people in power. They probably believed in the model then, and at the time it might have been the only path forward. But today it means that new ideas and change comes very slowly. Stepping outside of the bubble of my home country has been really important, and makes it easier to discover new ideas on my own terms.
What other value do you think academic research gets from international collaboration like residencies?
Normally, academic research is about having really niche expertise, which means that then there are just a few people in the world who can talk about that issue on the same level. So it's amazing when there are resources that make it possible for researchers to work together in person. And coronavirus showed us that sometimes it's just easier and nicer to collaborate in person. Emails and Zooms help, but can only go so far. Also, reading abstract papers about a specific place is not the same as experiencing a longer stretch of daily life there.
Why did you apply for a residency in Budapest? What interests you about Hungary in particular?
Personally, it was kind of a spur of the moment decision. But I have Hungary as one of my case studies, and it seemed like a great opportunity. From an academic perspective, the current government has quite an interventionist economic policy, whereas in other countries the approach is still much more hands-off and market oriented. This results in many interesting questions, for example about the somewhat controversial green transition policy and the car battery industry. Another question is how the Hungarian state approaches foreign direct investment, and tries to keep some sectors domestic – which doesn’t really exist in other post-socialist countries. From a Czech perspective, we tend to see Hungary as our familiar, honorary neighbour who we feel closer to. But on closer inspection, there are still many surprising layers I need to learn more about.
What made you interested in researching post-socialist economies?
I wrote my bachelor’s thesis about production networks in the car industry. Personally, driving terrifies me and I know nothing about cars – I got my driver's licence five years ago and I’ve probably driven a car twice since then – but this sector employs so many people, and is economically very important for Central and Eastern Europe. Still, what I found was that everything is exported. After that, my master's thesis was more broadly about the role of foreign direct investment in the Visegrad Four countries, and my PhD research follows this path. Now I try to take a birds-eye view on the economic challenges of the region.
So what do you think the path forward could be?
It’s really about merging the dual economy’s foreign and domestic parts. We need local people to learn, local companies to emerge, especially in more knowledge-based sectors instead of manufacturing. What should change is how we view the state and public finances in all this. There is already somewhat of a paradigm shift, in some countries more than others. Overall, I think it will be really important for states to move resources and set goals, like focusing on a strong green technology sector.
Here we could learn from the Finnish case of the Nokia phone. The brick phone was a core childhood memory for so many people, but also an example of a unique, advanced technology combined with really smart industrial policy that made an impact on the whole world.
Finally, how are you filling your free time in Budapest?
I’ve seen parliament and walked in the city centre. There are so many beautiful buildings, and as an economist I am of course also thinking about why more building restoration projects don’t happen. Being here gives me a chance to think about how larger economic trends affect why the city looks certain ways.
I also look forward to hosting my family here, going to the thermal bath houses, and soaking in the atmosphere. I want to get to know the city so I reach a point where I no longer have to walk around with a map. Ideally, I would like to have time to visit other places in Hungary than Budapest too!
Who: Helena Drdlová
Place of residence: Helsinki and in October 2024 the Valóság-residency in Budapest
Occupation: Doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki
Education: Master of social sciences, global political economy
Hobbies: Travelling, Finnish folk dance, and creative writing - Helena has herself published two sci-fi books in Czech.
A book everyone should read: The Witcher books, as a gateway drug to Central European science fiction & fantasy literature.
Text: Cecilia Fewster