Fields of Power is a four-part podcast series is created by Ian M. Cook, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda.
In the final episode of Fields of Power, we step back from the land grabbing cases we’ve traced across Hungary and ask a deeper question: what does land have to do with democracy?
Episode 4: Land & Democracy
Péter and Ian begin on a small farm outside Budapest, where Katalin, an agroecological farmer, is experimenting with another way of living and growing food. Her garden is not just about vegetables, but about community, care, and reimagining what farming and life might look like beyond profit, fear, and extraction. From community-supported agriculture to seed saving and open gates, her story offers a glimpse of an alternative future rooted in local cooperation rather than control.
From there, a bigger picture emerges. Drawing together voices from across the series – Éva and Logan, organic farmers, Noémi the researcher – we explore how land grabbing, EU agricultural subsidies, and the concentration of land in the hands of politically connected elites undermine democratic life. Democracy, which is not just about elections or institutions, but about relationships: to land, to food, to one another, and to the possibility of living without fear.
This episode challenges the idea that Hungary is an exception. Instead, it asks what its story reveals about Europe as a whole and about the fragile ties between land, power, and democracy… everywhere.
This is not an ending wrapped in easy optimism. It is a call to pay attention, to question systems that concentrate power, and to recognise that the struggles over agriculture fields are also struggles over our collective future.
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Transcript_ Episode 4 Fields of Power
Show notes
Fields of Power was researched and produced by Ian M. Cook, Péter Bori and Noémi Gonda. The research for this podcast was financed by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development Formas under grant agreement numbers 2018-00442 and 2024-00448. The podcast has been narrated by Péter Bori and Ian M. Cook. Sound design and audio editing was Ian M. Cook. The music is Solar Fractal by Quarksstar and Xenas Kiss/ Medeas Kiss by MWIC. The executive producer of Fields of Power is Noémi Gonda.
Selected reading
Ágh, A., The Decline of Democracy in East-Central Europe. Problems of Post-Communism, 2016. 63(5-6): p. 277-287.
Ángyán, J., Állami földprivatizáció – intézményesített földrablás [ State-led land privatisation- institutionalised land grabbing]. 2015.
Antal, A., Authoritarian populism, environmentalism and exceptional governance in Hungary. Politologický časopis – Czech Journal of Political Science, 2021. 3: p. 209-228.
Bori, P.J. and N. Gonda, Shattering the Chains of Rural Repression, in Rural Europe Takes Action: No More Business As Usual, H. Lorenzen and O. Moore, Editors. 2022, Forum Synergies and Arc2020: Brussels p. 142-147.
Bori, P.J. and N. Gonda, Contradictory populist ecologies: Pro-peasant propaganda and land grabbing in rural Hungary. Political Geography, 2022. 95(2022): p. 1-3.
Bozóki, A. and D. Hegedüs, The rise of authoritarianism in the European Union: A hybrid regime in Hungary, in The Condition of Democracy. 2021, Routledge: London, UK. p. 143-165.
Czibere, I. and I. Kovách, State Populism in Rural Hungary. Rural Sociology, 2022. 87: p. 733-757 DOI: 10.1111/ruso.12407.
Fidrich, R., Hungary. The Return of the White Horse: Land Grabbing in Hungary, in Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe, J.C. Franco and S.M. Borras Jr, Editors. 2013, Transnational Institute: Amsterdam, Netherlands. p. 128-147.
Gonda, N., Land grabbing and the making of an authoritarian populist regime in Hungary. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2019. 46(3): p. 606-625.
Gonda, N. and P.J. Bori, Rural politics in undemocratic times: Exploring the emancipatory potential of small rural initiatives in authoritarian Hungary. Geoforum, 2023. 143: p. 1-13.
Gonda, N. and P.J. Bori, Energy justice without democracy? Energy transitions in the era of right-wing authoritarianism in Hungary. Energy Research & Social Science, 2025. 129.
Greenpeace. Fighting a government-assisted land grab with #peoplepower in Hungary, 2014.
Kay, S., Land grabbing and land concentration in Europe. A Research Brief. 2016, Transnational Institute: Amsterdam.
Krasznai Kovács, E., Surveillance and state-making through EU agricultural policy in Hungary. Geoforum, 2015. 64(Supplement C): p. 168-181.
van der Ploeg, J.D., J.C. Franco, and S.M. Borras, Land concentration and land grabbing in Europe: a preliminary analysis. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement, 2015. 36(2): p. 147-162.
Noémi Gonda is a researcher at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. She holds a PhD from Central European University. She is currently doing research on justice and conflict resolution in resource management as well as on the linkages between natural resources depletion and authoritarian populist political regimes. Her empirical research field sites are in Nicaragua and Hungary. Previously to becoming a researcher, she worked in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala with smallholder farmers, indigenous groups and international organisations. Noémi is particularly interested in exploring how radical social and environmental transformations towards justice and equity can emerge, and the role of scholar-activists in supporting the emergence of such transformations.
Ian M. Cook is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Dublin City University, a member of the Allegra Lab editorial collective, a volunteer at Budapest’s Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) and a freelance scholarly podcaster.
Péter J. Bori is a PhD candidate at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, working on climate change and environmental politics within authoritarian illiberal political contexts. He is a Europaeum Scholar, also conducting research on energy justice in Hungary within a project funded by the Swedish Research Council on sustainable development.
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Podcast | Fields of Power, Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary
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