Varga, Csaba; researcher of social theory, metaphilosopher

Csaba Varga (1946) is a sociologist, h. associate professor. He is the president of the Institute for Stra-tegic Research, Hungary. He graduated from the Department of Sociology at Eötvös Loránd Science University in the first half of the 1980s and studied full time at the Institute for Executive Training for two years.

Professional experiences:

Young Artists' Club (director, 1978-1980); Institute for Cultural Education (1984-1988); Association of Hungarian Writers (secretary, 1988); Institute for Strategic Research (president, 1992-). He teaches regularly at the University of Veszprém, Budapest Economic College and Századvég Political School. He compiles curricula for University of Veszprém about the theory of information society and the theory of e-government.

Research areas:

village and town research (1972-), area structure research (1986-) future research, future strategy (1976-), theory of conservatism (1992-1995), globalisation and localisation (1993-), theory of information society (1993-), knowledge society (1995-), metatheory and metaphilosophy, theory of the new science (2002-). Joint president of e-Government Research Group and leader of Future Research and Development Center at University of Veszprém. At Institute for Strategic Re-search he presently leads the metatheory-metaphilosophy research group.

Intellectual profile:

Csaba Varga has started his career as a sociologist and sociographer in the 70s, and published his first selected essays at the end of 80s. In the middle of 80s his brief Hungarian utopia titled Reform Castle-written together with István Kamarás-has made a big impression on the Hungarian in-tellectual. He was engaged in the Hungarian political transitions (1989-1990), but he criticized this political turn that time, finding strategically inadequate the choice of past capitalist world model, when the global world had been entering the information age. So it was no accident that in the 90s was known as a prominent theoretic of information and knowledge society, but his interest also turned to theoretical and philosophical questions. In the new millennium he focused on generating the metatheory-metaphilosophy, in which sciences, religions and arts are unified. In the blurb of his new book he is introduced as follows: "Csaba Varga is Philosopher of the Whole. As a new-conservative thinker he has been preparing to write a comprehensive metatheory. This book is an intellectual document of the preparations and it ensures him a new position in science and think-ing. On the one hand, this book is very new due to the interdisciplinary nature of metatheory, and on the other, it is unusual since it does not stop at the traditional boundaries of science." "So Csaba Varga cannot be classified in the traditional sense (into any intellectual boxes). Intellectu-ally novel, uses new language, he is a theoretician who likes experimenting and tries to integrate knowledge. As an outstanding creator of new theorise after the turn of the millennium, he reveals new theory-horizons." From the middle of 90s he is known as the leader of a research and intellec-tual workshop, the Institute for Strategic Research.

Major publications:

Azon túl ott a tág világ (The Wide World Beyond That, with Pál Bánlaky, Mag-vető, Budapest, 1979); Reformvár (Reform Castle, with István Kamarás, Magvető, Budapest, 1984); Duna-táji tudósítás (Report Off the Danube, selected essays, Gondolat, Budapest, 1988); Magyaror-szág eresz alatt (Hungary Under the Eaves, selected sociographies, Magvető, Budapest, 1989); Hagyomány és stratégia (Tradition and Strategy, Kapu Books, Budapest, 1998); Szabadság-kísérletek (Attempts at Freedom, V-Kiadó, Budapest, 1999); Vidékfejlesztés az információs korban, avagy a lokalitás esélyei (Country Development in the Age of Information - The Chances of the Local World, Agroinform, Budapest, 2000); A legutolsó utolsó esély (The Very Last Chance, with Endre Kiss, Stratégiakutató Intézet, Nagykovácsi, 2001); Új elmélethorizontok előtt (Facing to New Theory-horizons, Tertia, Budapest, 2004)

Major publications with others:

A mai világ és a jövő forgatókönyvei (The world today and future trends, HÉA Stratégiakutató Intézet, MTA Szociológiai Intézet, Magyar Kapu Alapítvány, 1997.); Magyar jövőképek (Hungarian Foresights, HÉA Stratégiakutató Intézet, MTA Szociológiai Intézet, Budapest Klub Alapítvány, etc.); Intelligens régiók Magyarországon 1. (Intelligent Regions in Hun-gary, Agroinform Kiadóház-Stratégiakutató Intézet, Budapest, 2001); Jövő mint egész (Future as a Whole, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2001); A tudás társadalma I-II. (The Society of Knowledge, Stratégia-kutató Intézet, Ipargazdaság Kutató Intézet, Nemzeti Ifjúságkutató Intézet, 2002).

Other activities:

INCO, theoretical and pragmatic journal about the information age (editor-in-chief) (www.inco.hu); e-Világ, review of information age (president of editorial board, www.evilagonline.hu) , own website (www.vargacsaba.hu), which proves Varga's theoretical versatil-ity. Editor of National Strategy Until 2020 Books, Information Age Books (from the second half of 1990's) and Metatheoretical Books series (from 2004)
Besides his social research work Varga has taken part in social development experiments and projects as well as organising reading camps (1972-1985), village experiments (1969-1999) and public acad-emies (1982-1987); by the time of the Hungarian political transitions he was a member of the Ellen-zéki Kerekasztal (Maverick Roundtable) as a representative of Magyar Néppárt (Hungarian People's Party, 1989-1990); civilian university (1996-); information society developments, intelligent region projects, designing knowledge-centric towns (1998-), e-government developments (2003-), Aba intel-ligent town development (2002-); designing the garden of Eden and future city in Zselic (2002-).
He first exhibited his own paintings in Piliscsaba in 2004.

Website: www.vargacsaba.hu,
Institute for Strategic Research: www.strategiakutato.hu
e-mail: vargacsaba@vargacsaba.hu; csaba.varga@metaelmelet.hu