Distinct mental structures in transitional culture: An empirical analysis of values and identities in Estonia and Sweden

Abstract

This article examines the structures of value consciousness and self-identification in two EU countries: Estonia, a representative transitional society, and Sweden, a representative stable welfare society. The study is an attempt to operationalize Sztompka's concept of “cultural templates” on the meso-level of analysis, by revealing latent mental structures. Our main conclusion is that the transitional culture in Estonia can be characterized by three specific mental patterns: nostalgic resignation, striving for success, and an escapist Western orientation, represented by different social groups. The process of individualization, characteristic of Western welfare societies, has taken place in transitional Estonia with delays and significant modifications.     

Citizenship status and social exclusion in Estonia and Latvia

Abstract

Findings from the Norbalt living conditions surveys in Estonia and Latvia are used to examine whether persons without Estonian and Latvian citizenship are at greater risk of social exclusion than citizens in these two countries. the level of integration into the labor market, participation in civil society and political life, degree of social isolation, and the level of economic resources among the two groups are analyzed. In Estonia non-citizens are more at risk of social exclusion compared to Estonian citizens, while in Latvia one finds no statistically significant difference between the groups. In both countries educational level is much more important than citizenship status in explaining social exclusion.     

The State-Legal Administration and the Politics of Redundancy

The main aim of this study was to investigate whether the competition and cultural theoretical models that have received solid empirical support in the context of Western European societies can explain anti-foreigner sentiment in post-socialist Russia as a society searching for new national identity borders. Data obtained from the third round of the European Social Survey (2006) indicate a high level of anti-foreigner sentiment in contemporary Russia – more than 60% of Russians claimed that immigrants undermine the cultural life of the country, and almost 60% claimed that immigration is bad for the economy of the country. Our multivariate analysis showed that the two sets of individual-level predictors of anti-foreigner sentiment – the socioeconomic position of individuals (as suggested by the competition model) and conservative views and ideologies (as suggested by the cultural model) – are not meaningful in predicting anti-foreigner sentiment in post-socialist Russia. The results are discussed from a comparative sociology perspective and in the context of the Russian society.     

Iveta Silova. From Sites of Occupation to Symbols of Multiculturalism. Reconceptualizing Minority Education in Post-Soviet Latvia. Greenwich,CT: Information Age Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1593114613.

This article explores the personal spatialities of the majority of inhabitants in Estonia and Sweden. The author analyzed survey data and used variables about the perception of cultural distances, interest in receiving news from other countries via mass media, and contacts with people from these countries. The analysis suggests a hypothesis that in Estonia, personal spatiality is shaped primarily by institutional factors (e.g. the media, the economy). In Sweden, the formation of personal spatiality is based on versatile sources and is more autonomous with regard to the media than in a transition country such as Estonia. The analysis also demonstrates that the symbolic division of the world into East and West shapes the imagined Nordic and Baltic space and people's thinking patterns about ‘others’.     

Religious change in Estonia and the Baltic states during the Soviet period in comparative perspective

Abstract

The article presents a comparative-historical treatment of the change in the religious life of Estonia from 1940 to 1991, when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. The article is based largely on documents of the archive of the Estonian commissioner of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults of the Soviet Union, documents which were not available to researchers before the collapse of the USSR. Religious change in Estonia has been compared to what happened in the neighbouring Baltic countries. The archival data shows an extraordinary decline of institutionalised religion in Estonia during the Soviet period (especially in the Lutheran and Orthodox Churches). Compared to the other republics of the Soviet Union (especially Catholic Lithuania), this fall was particularly drastic in “Lutheran” Estonia and Latvia. Also, some comparisons are made between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the rest of Europe, in order to test the author's hypothesis that by the end of the Soviet occupation, Estonian society was among the most highly secularised ones in Europe (or possibly the most secularised).     

Australia and the Baltic States, 1919–1945

Praised by international organizations, Estonia and Slovenia have long been considered among the most successful post-communist states. Estonia quickly transformed itself into one of the most liberal economies in the world, whereas Slovenia opted for a social justice-oriented market economy. Still, the roots of their success coincide in that consensus played a crucial role. We argue that the public sphere was never as repressed in Estonia and Slovenia during the communist period as it was elsewhere. Distinct national identities continued to be formed and re-formed by intellectuals during the decades of communist rule, who assumed roles as political leaders when the transition started. Consensus based on these national identities legitimized reform policies for the entire decade of the 1990s.     

Performative Translation Options Under The Soviet Regime

Translations must be read in their immediate social context in order to understand their performative meaning. The Soviet period in Estonia featured censored and self-censored public writing, whereas cultural discourse that doubted the hegemonic ideology could be conducted primarily through translation. This reality renders significant the selective differences between translators on both the metatextual and textual levels. The topic of this article is the translations of Enn Soosaar (1937–2010), a writer keenly aware of the value of his translations as weapons of communication trained on their environment.     

Shifting the perspective on identity discourse in Estonia

Abstract

I argue that the post-socialist identity discourse in Estonia should be studied as a result of the dialectic relationship between the international context in which Estonia exists and the perceptions of history and culture that elites deploy in the public discourse of Estonia's identity. Four major narratives that compose much of the identity discourse emerge from this dialectic: Estonia as a reconstituted state and society; Estonia as European; Estonia as Finno-Ugric; and Estonia as Nordic. These narratives can be overlooked if research relies simply on “East” and “West” analytic categories or assumes that history and culture alone yield identity. Estonia provides an excellent opportunity to examine this dialectic because of the international community's role in the country's transformation into a European Union applicant state.     

The Public Sphere and the Rise of South Korean Civil Society

This article examines how civil society in South Korea emerged as a social force and developed a distinctive relationship with the state. It is argued that political, institutional and cultural factors are no less important than economic relations in accounting for the distinctive nature of South Korean civil society. The article explores the dialectical relationship between the state and Korean civil society and its political and social consequences. For example, the dynamic interplay between the formal and informal structures of political power and the role of various civic organisations in political and other processes of social transformation are discussed. It is argued that the complex relationship between the state and civil society should be theorised in terms of mutual empowerment and synergy in the sense that civic organisations and groups have contended for, or negotiated, power. Hence, observers should bear in mind an alternative hypothesis that different historical conditions may well determine structural changes that have diverse outcomes in the political and cultural arenas, especially in an era of globalisation.     

The Swiss: A Political Nation?

Abstract: Proponents of constitutional patriotism advocate the promotion of a political national identity. Whether a national identity founded on common political values is viable, however, remains a matter of dispute. The Swiss nation is one of the few empirical cases cited by those who argue that a political national identity can be a sufficient guarantor of institutional stability and social coherence; indeed, Switzerland is widely regarded as a prototype of the political nation. The aim of our analysis is to empirically test this claim. In doing so, we rely on classical typologies of national identity. We propose to use a more finely graded typology than the usual dichotomies, however – one which allows for combined types – and to focus on individual perceptions of national identity at the mass‐ and elite‐levels. The empirical analysis of whether the Swiss nation can correctly be classified as a political nation draws on data from mass and MP surveys. Our conclusion is that the Swiss imagine their nation in both political and cultural terms, and the essence of their cultural identity is Swiss linguistic pluralism and regional diversity.     

Innovation patterns in grassroots producers' organisations: a Mozambican case study

This paper analyses the role of rural producers' organisations as elements of innovation processes in contexts characterised by subsistence-level agricultural production. The primary focus is on a group of producers' associations – cooperatives – in the district of Morrumbala (Zambezia Province, Mozambique) where the authors conducted a case study. The interdisciplinary methodology used combines economic and anthropological methods of analysis. The study results indicate that the cooperative organisation is a useful tool to mediate between the introduction of innovation and the transformation of the social context in which its members live. Moreover, the results show that producers' organisations are brokers that are able to introduce peasants to an accumulation pattern that does not eliminate redistribution dynamics. In effect, therefore, the social change imposed by the market system is mediated by the local social and cultural context.     

The Extraordinary Politics of the Tunisian Revolution: The Process of Constitution Making

To understand the current stalemate in the drafting process of the Tunisian constitution, it is important to fathom the path Tunisia has chosen to walk since President Ben Ali fled the country. This article apprehends the post-Ben Ali era as a period of extraordinary politics, i.e. a moment of explicit self-institution of society in which popular participation, following Kalyvas' analysis, aims to transform the institutions of state as well as social imaginaries, cultural orientations and economic structures. It analyses the period following Ben Ali's departure as one in which the organization of free elections and the writing of a new constitution by an elected Constituent Assembly not as a technical process of institution-building aimed at creating a new political system, but as a re-constitutive phase of the political. This phase aims at the radical transformation of power relations within state and society and strives for the re-invention of society itself.     

Where the whole city meets: youth,gender and consumerism in the social space of the MEGA shopping mall in Aktobe,western Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

The shopping mall entered Central Asia's commercial sector as a result of the economic transformation of post-Soviet space. Constructed near the centre of the city, the shopping mall overwrites the urban landscape, dominating it as a symbol of modernity. It functions as a gateway of global consumerist culture to the Eurasian steppe. Using the MEGA shopping mall in Aktobe, in western Kazakhstan, as an example, this article shows that the building acts as a stage for the construction of a new social and cultural space. This study focuses on the ways in which young women interact with the mall's spaces. The mall turns out to be a playground not only for children, but also for the whole younger generation, who come to this unique place to see and be seen. The mall became a hot spot of youth culture in the post-socialist worker's city by offering more than a mere shelter from dust and snow storms on the steppe. The available amenities made it a favourite place for meeting, consuming and dreaming. Young women especially are attracted to MEGA to experience the newest fashions and build social relationships.     

Estonian views of collective action and democracy

After a debate lasting several years, Estonia enacted a law of non-territorial cultural autonomy for national minorities in 1993, echoing experiences from the country’s previous period of independence. In international discussion, the law was initially cited as a promising way of dealing with minority issues in Central and Eastern Europe. With time, however, its applicability in contemporary Estonia has been questioned; in practice, the law has failed to be implemented. This paper inspects possible reasons for its disuse, and argues that the law could still play a role in Estonia’s minority policies, especially with regard to education. The paper is based on an analysis of legislation, parliamentary records and media.     

Understanding Turkish secularism in the 21th century: a contextual roadmap

ABSTRACT

This paper asserts that Turkish secularism and Islamism represent two faces of one coin – contemporary Turkish politics – when one considers their goals and strategies. The two ideological movements have shaped one another and each now seeks to impose itself as superior. This article unpacks these differences and similarities in the following steps: (a) it defines the socio-historic modes of Turkish secularism and (b) examines its social and political origins; (c) it then explores Islam’s return to the public domain as an oppositional Turkish identity; (d) and thereafter considers the diverse understandings of secularism resulting from neoliberal policies that relaxed state control over Islam, which then prompted socially-acceptable reinterpretations of Islam; and finally (e) describes how the AKP’s has re-imagined secularism while (mis)using Islam as a political instrument. The comparison highlights such commonalties as a collectivist character, a desire for state control as a vehicle to realize an ideology, intolerance of diversity and criminalization of other perspectives, and the differentiation of religion as morality in the private sphere versus its cultural role in the public sphere. It concludes that, under the AKP government, Islam is used as a tool to consolidate the power of Erdo?an’s kleptocratic regime.     

Baltic Studies in North America: A Survey of Academic Dissertations 1911–2006

ABSTRACT

The article argues for an extended delineation of increasing Western cultural hegemony in the reconstituted Baltic states. An initial idiom of postcolonial studies is revisited in order to complement their dominant scope in the Baltics, focused primarily on a retrospective cultural study of Baltic/Soviet relationships. The argument elaborates on the urgency of the expanding research agenda regarding the Baltic/European research framework. By pointing out the frequent occurrence of the superiority or inferiority value scale in cross-cultural references sampled from press releases of the Art Museum of Estonia, the article concludes that mainstream cultural self-reflection in Estonia is nowadays subjected to the supremacy of the imagined West European viewpoint.     

Ecologies of relation: post-slavery,post-apartheid,and rethinking race across the Atlantic in Zakes Mda’s Cion

This article will argue that Zakes Mda’s 2007 novel Cion stages a dialog, one where two “Souths” – South Africa and the American South – speak to one another and give a critical voice to an under-acknowledged history of transatlantic discursive exchange on race and racial governance. Mda’s fictional South African critique, of an America still struggling with the cultural and political legacies of slavery, gestures towards a history of exchange between the two countries that in many ways is representative of a more global dialog on racial segregation during the first half of the twentieth century – of which both southern (US) segregation and apartheid are seminal examples. Moreover, this article explores various conceptualizations of race as well as the governance of racial relations as they have been articulated through ecological imaginaries, and especially between South Africa and the Southern United States over the course of the twentieth century. In this article, I argue that not only can apartheid (as well as pre-apartheid segregation) be rethought of as part of a global conversation on race and thus less as a South African anomaly, but also that the United States through its examples of various racialist technologies was highly influential across the colonial and apartheid worlds.     

A.H. Tammsaare’s Truth and Justice as a Postcolonial Bildungsroman

A.H. Tammsaare’s pentalogy Truth and Justice is considered a central text in Estonian culture, perceived virtually as a second national epic. The article analyzes it from the perspective of comparative genre studies. It is discussed as an idiosyncratic example of Bildungsroman, a genre narrativizing modernizing change focusing on the lives of everyday individuals, thus symbolically domesticating and humanizing the global developments of modernization. The emplotment of Tammsaare’s novel is comparatively discussed against the background of the Western European Bildungsroman on the one hand and of non-European postcolonial Bildungsroman on the other. The analysis enables to gain new insight into the reception and cultural working-through of the belated rapid modernization in Estonia. It also helps to explain the canonical position of Tammsaare’s novel in Estonian literature: The novel is a poetic tour de force that forges a both intra- and internationally acceptable model of modern Estonia.     

Addressing Corruption in Post-Soeharto Indonesia: The Role of the Corruption Eradication Commission

ABSTRACT

Anti-corruption became one of the top priorities in post-Soeharto Indonesia, with democratisation, market liberalisation and institutional anti-corruption frameworks pursued as means to enhance transparency and accountability in public governance. A core component of these efforts was the establishment of a powerful anti-corruption agency, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). This article assesses the effectiveness of the KPK, using evidence from two contrasting cases to identify factors that facilitated or impeded its ability to successfully investigate, prosecute and thus contain high-level corruption. The analysis highlights the threats to the KPK posed by resilient networks that were able to reconsolidate and resist anti-corruption efforts in post-Soeharto Indonesia. However, it also identifies countervailing social forces that emerged in the context of democratisation – in particular, an active civil society and a largely free press. While these supportive pressures from civil society could not fully counter the attacks on the KPK, they were able to prevent its marginalisation in the two major cases examined. Overall the KPK’s success in addressing high-level corruption is shown to be dependent on the interaction of political dynamics, interests and power relations, with no guarantee that anti-corruption forces will prevail in future cases.