Suchergebnisse

The book examines the transformation of the life-world in the context of the rapidly changing Estonian society. The authors pose three main questions to be discussed throughout the book: What has happened in the Estonian society during the last decade? How to describe the present society? Who shapes the social developments and in which direction? The authors formulate three main theses: (1) the great transformation occurring on the macro level is reflected in the life-world as changes in the temporal and spatial dimensions and the multiplicity of individuals' social identifications in the context of new opportunities. This brings about social and cultural fragmentation of the society and a clear differentiation and polarisation of mental structures; (2) the inherently conflictual nature of transformation is expressed in socially differentiating self-positioning, dependent on the resources individuals possess for coping with changes, and leading to the re-stratification of the society (re-structuration); (3) the acceleration of social and personal time and the opening of social space, on one hand, and social stratification, on the other hand, perform as mutual amplifiers. The authors conclude that the first wave of transitional controversies between more and less capitalised social groups is receding due to increasing general welfare. At the same time, global technological and cultural changes, migration crises, and increasing violence and terrorism have brought about new controversies and challenges in Estonian society.

When something or someone is being declared "the best of everything possible" this a priori and a posteriori wrong. This is not useful for that "something" or that "someone" because their natural competitors do not share that thought and they do not sleep. Nobody can stop the development, regardless of the direction, in some or other assessment criteria. Long ago the political democracy has been declared such a perfect "something". But credibility in it begins to fall exactly where it has taken strong roots. For opponents, this is a thing that has been known long ago. Now there are empirically on the subject, but there are no convincing explanations of the data. The article offers a possible interpretation of that crisis of confidence in democracy. Specific tools developed by author and called by him Scanner, were used for the analysis. The conclusions are: democratization as a process is supported by its actual effectivity, and it is cyclical; there are many different democratic models competing with each other; nowhere ever has existed uninterrupted and one-way democratic development; democratic content is most often helpless a form countering undemocratic aggression outside. The text is not a requiem for democracy, but an attempt to breathe new life into the political process and to understand the emerging new phenomena in the world understood in today's mainstream as a subversion of modernity – for example in USA (Trump (UK (Brexit (China (Xi Jinping (Russia (Putin (Philippines (DuTerte (South Africa (Zuma (Turkey (Erdogan (and many other places in the 21st century.