Suchergebnisse

The goal of this article is to identify the lacunae in recent research about post-Communist transformations in the Baltic states, a task for which sociology as a social-scientific discipline is uniquely qualified. The paper starts by periodising the two decades of post-Communist transformation which applies across all three Baltic states, providing evidence for a common Baltic way, with Estonia in a pioneering role. This is corroborated by quantitative evidence comparing post-Communist countries in terms of performance. According to received transitological wisdom, economic or political processes (shock therapy or anti-Communist revolution) were decisive factors in the early success of post-Communist transformation. In contrast, this article argues that economic and political explanations are insufficient in accounting for the running order between Baltic states, and calls instead for sociological explanations focusing on cultural differences described in terms of four orientations of the social imaginary and of social action – continuational, restitutive, emulative and innovative.

The goal of this article is to identify the lacunae in recent research about post-Communist transformations in the Baltic states, a task for which sociology as a social-scientific discipline is uniquely qualified. The paper starts by periodising the two decades of post-Communist transformation which applies across all three Baltic states, providing evidence for a common Baltic way, with Estonia in a pioneering role. This is corroborated by quantitative evidence comparing post-Communist countries in terms of performance. According to received transitological wisdom, economic or political processes (shock therapy or anti-Communist revolution) were decisive factors in the early success of post-Communist transformation. In contrast, this article argues that economic and political explanations are insufficient in accounting for the running order between Baltic states, and calls instead for sociological explanations focusing on cultural differences described in terms of four orientations of the social imaginary and of social action – continuational, restitutive, emulative and innovative.

The goal of this article is to identify the lacunae in recent research about post-Communist transformations in the Baltic states, a task for which sociology as a social-scientific discipline is uniquely qualified. The paper starts by periodising the two decades of post-Communist transformation which applies across all three Baltic states, providing evidence for a common Baltic way, with Estonia in a pioneering role. This is corroborated by quantitative evidence comparing post-Communist countries in terms of performance. According to received transitological wisdom, economic or political processes (shock therapy or anti-Communist revolution) were decisive factors in the early success of post-Communist transformation. In contrast, this article argues that economic and political explanations are insufficient in accounting for the running order between Baltic states, and calls instead for sociological explanations focusing on cultural differences described in terms of four orientations of the social imaginary and of social action – continuational, restitutive, emulative and innovative.

A key issue in crisis communication is the way people process crisis‐relevant information to minimize danger. This paper discusses the impact of previously experienced crises on the public's interpretation of warning messages. People may not have direct experience of a crisis, but they still have acquired mediated experiences of a variety of crises. The present study introduces the term cultural experience of crisis to label the synthesis of mediated crisis experiences, media and fictional narratives, collective memories of societal disasters, conversations, and immediate crisis experiences of witnesses and victims. The proposed model of cultural experience of crisis is elaborated on the basis of a qualitative text analysis derived from four qualitative interviews 16 focus groups interviews carried out in Estonia from 2008 to 2009.

This collective monograph offers a reflexive review of the transformations in Estonian society, particularly by using the lens of social morphogenetic analysis developed by Margaret Archer and her co-workers. Based on empirical data from the 5-wave representative survey "Me. The World. The Media", research synthesised in this book focuses on the outcomes of complex changes after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of the independent state of Estonia. In almost three decades, the authors have had a chance to observe and analyse the so-called "historical experiment" that took place in the North-Eastern part of Europe – political and economic transition, technological transformation, and digitalisation. The analysis covers the main topics of people's life-worlds (socio-economic conditions, civic and political participation, culture, media, environment, consumption, lifestyles, time use, identities, etc.) and attitudes towards a rapidly changing society (perceived risks and benefits). The book aims to re-conceptualise the main results of the empirical studies from the last two decades by synthesising different theoretical perspectives on social change and transformation.