Research Interests
Imre Kovách Research Professor at the Centre for Social Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, External Corresponding Member of the Académie d'Agriculture de France
His main research interests are rural, environmental and settlement sociology, social stratification and integration, elite studies, sociology of development and projects, power relations, and the use of artificial intelligence. He has led 43 national research programmes and participated in 16 international research projects. He has published 290 papers and books in six languages.
He was full Professor and Head of the Institute at the University of Debrecen, and founder and Head of the doctoral programme in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Debrecen. He has held seminars and lectures in PhD programmes at 17 universities abroad.
He has also served as President of the European Society of Rural Society and Vice President of the Rural Sociological Association and the EU COST 12/A Rural Innovation Management Committee. He has been awarded the Széchenyi Professorship Scholarship, the Polányi Károly Prize of the Hungarian Sociological Society, the Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary and the MNVH Lifetime Achievement Award. Honorary Professor (Abo Adademy, Vaasa), Associate Researcher at the Swedish School for Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Visiting Researcher at the Sorbonne (LADYSS, Sorbonne, Paris).
Vice President of Hungarian Academy of Sciences Division IX, member of the HAS Doctoral Council, President of the Social Science College of the Bólyai Fellowship, the Hungarian Sociological Society, and the HAS Sociological Committee. He also served as Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Currently Head of the CSS Mobility Centre.