Suchergebnisse

Describes the political and social involvement of the church and its activities for protecting human rights, building up a sense of citizenship, and constructing democracy.

The idea of Estonia's cultural and national self-sufficiency emerged in the nineteenth century. The contribution of writers and poets was essential to this development. Literature anticipated not only cultural, linguistic, and artistic, but also the economic and political emancipation of Estonians. Cultural practices leading to this emancipation were largely based on Baltic German models; many key elements to the independent Estonian national identity are of foreign origin. On the one hand, the nineteenth-century nationbuilding could therefore be described as self-colonization. On the other hand, it rather created a new nation than transformed a preexisting one, since the very concept of national identity was introduced by this process. Through various political and cultural upheavals, the most influential authors from this seminal period of the Estonian modern culture have remained iconic to this day. The traditional identification with them is so strong that the tentative origins of the nation and the identitary struggles of the national poets themselves may often be forgotten and the personal and individual nature of their contribution downplayed.

This anthology gathers Giuseppe Mazzini's most important essays on democracy, nation building, and international relations, including some that have never before been translated into English. These neglected writings remind us why Mazzini was one of the most influential political thinkers of the nineteenth century--and why there is still great benefit to be derived from a careful analysis of what he had to say. Mazzini (1805-1872) is best known today as the inspirational leader of the Italian Risorgimento.

As in many areas of the history of technology, studies of the Internet are still largely limited to the United States and other established capitalist democracies. More research is needed on how such technologies are created, disseminated, and used in the very different context of emerging nations undergoing rapid political, economic, and cultural change. In this paper I explore the development of the Internet in Estonia since its introduction in June 1992, less than a year after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Estonias speed in establishing an Internet infrastructure has been remarkable: in the first six years it connected over 20,000 computers, making Estonia the 15th highest European country in network connections per capita. As these figures suggest, Estonians have not been mere passive recipients of foreign technology; rather, various groups in Estonia have actively embraced the Internet for a wide range of economic and social ends. Despite the countrys commitment to free-market economics, commercial enterprises did not take the lead in providing network services. Rather, the government promoted Internet growth through its education and economic policies. A national educational network, EENet, was established in 1993, and in 1997 the Ministry of Education launched a program called Tiger Leap to upgrade the nations school system and connect every school to the Internet. The government also created the EEBone network to interconnect the nations fifteen county capitals, support regional development, andlooking toward increased economic integration with Europehelp Estonia participate in the European Unions plans for a Global Information Society. In addition, non-governmental organizations such as the Open Estonia Foundation have provided funds to create Estonian-oriented Web content and to train the public in the use of the Internet, and a United Nations report on human development in Estonia has recommended increased public access to information technology. Another important factor in encouraging Internet growth has been Estonias historically close ties with Finland, which leads Europe in Internet connectivity and provides Estonias link to the rest of the Internet. After assessing the relative importance of economic, political, geographic, and cultural factors in accelerating Internet participation in Estonia, I ask how expansion of Internet access has affected Estonian society. One already visible symptom is a generation gap: surveys show that while 3/4 of Estonian teenagers have used computers, only 1/5 of their parents have done so. Other data suggest that Estonians have adopted a cooperative approach to using what is still a scarce and expensive technology, often going to friends and neighbors homes to use computers. Drawing on field research, I will attempt to uncover ordinary Estonians attitudes toward and motivations for Internet use; the ways in which different social groups have appropriated this technology for their own aims; and how the Internet has fit intoor disruptedestablished cultural practices.