HOUSING ADVANTAGES FOR THE BETTER CONNECTED - INSTITUTIONAL SEGMENTATION, SETTLEMENT TYPE AND SOCIAL NETWORK EFFECTS IN HUNGARY LATE STATE-SOCIALIST HOUSING INEQUALITIES

This article contextualizes the ''market transition debate'' on the on going institutional transformation of former state socialist societies by examining the system of housing inequalities in Hungary three year s before the regime change. It demonstrates that, by then, the differe ntiation of private housing ownership had already been so advanced tha t the private-public distinction hides important institutional variati on within ''private'' ownership. As an alternative, we provide a four- category emic model of housing institutions for Hungary. The analysis shows that the rules of access to housing were quite differentiated by settlement type. Hence, the redistributive predominance of the social ist state weakens as we move from the urban to the rural context. Fina lly, we present empirical evidence that informal social network resour ces play a distinct role in structuring access to such significant ass ets as housing.