Suchergebnisse

This book draws a sociological portrait of the age group born in the 1970s in Estonia and discusses its generational features and constructions. This cohort's coming of age coincided with the social and emotional turmoil of the re-independence movement in the late 1980s and with the transformation of society in the 1990s. This was the first cohort to negotiate its transition to adulthood in the new society, starting some new patterns of socialization, while also sharing some practices and experiences with older cohorts. Based on qualitative interviews as well as an analysis of media discourses and statistical data, the book traces the emergence of a new generation that draws its very own lessons from the past and from the social transformations that influenced life courses and careers. The book provides an intriguing discussion of socialization patterns and generation formation against the backdrop of post-socialist transformation. In addition, it provides a fascinating insight into the mind-set and experiences of a generation in the making, already shaping today's society and culture.

People born in the 1970s in Estonia spent their childhood during Soviet times and experienced their coming of age during the transition years of the 1990s. Experiencing the Soviet regime as children gave them experiences of that era, but kept them at a distance from involvement in regime's culpable actions. It also enabled them to start their adult lives during the transition times, adjusting to new transition routes. Remembering the Soviet era and the social change is a powerful resource for this group. This symbolic capital and socialisation perspective accentuates itself in different situations, but among others when evaluating young people's performance or social conditions. Based on in-depth and focus group interviews with 47 representatives of this cohort and articles written in mainstream media, the article will scrutinise how the memories from the Soviet time as well as social transformation in the 1990s has shaped the generational consciousness of this age group. It will be argued that studying retrospective accounts of children about the times of change can be fruitful as it shows how these experiences are transformed into symbolic weapons in power games and shape the generational landscape and hierarchies. These experiences can be transformed into what will be conceptualised as generational capital.

AbstractDrawing on fieldwork in six Estonian rural areas from 2010–2019, the article calls for a nuanced understanding of the processes of mobility and migration in rural areas. Based on qualitative in‐depth and focus‐group interviews with rural youth and key stakeholders, several phenomena are identified as crucial to understanding the dynamics of mobility. Mobility is seen as a negotiated process, intertwined with the social structures of the location, and with the global, demographic and political processes around that location. As researchers, we should observe how the interrelatedness of the local context with mobility practices impacts mobilities in later life. Additionally, we must consider how these mobility practices relate to factors like social class and symbolic, social, and cultural capital.

All across Europe, the past has always played a significant role in youth activism and continues to do so, though in different countries the extent of this role may vary. This particular article deals with the question of how the issues of the past resonate in the lives of young people in Estonia. During recent decades, the tensions between hegemonic and alternative pasts have been a source of discursive as well as physical combats among the different socio-cultural groups in Estonia and are often loaded with a political and ideological burden. In 2007, these different understandings peaked with street riots, mostly dominated by young people. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of how young people make sense of the complicated past can tell us also a lot about the reasons behind their political activism (or lack thereof). The article is especially keen on exploring the questions of mechanisms of transmission of memory — how the past is socialised in different contexts (schools, museums, home), and how difficult pasts are dealt with and negotiated in groups of different ethnic and cultural background. By doing so, it will contribute to the theoretical discussions on relations of hegemonic past and communicative memory, how in different cultural contexts the hegemonic past is moulded or contested. It will be argued that young people actively contextualise and rework the matters of the complicated past in their everyday contexts. Neither hegemonic discourse nor the communicative past is absorbed without questions but constantly negotiated. The dataset of this article consists of in-depth individual (84) and group interviews (5) predominantly with young people, but also other meaningful adults in the youngsters' lives: their parents and grandparents, teachers and the like. In addition, participant observations are used as background data. The sample involves both ethnic Estonians and Russian-speaking minorities.

All across Europe, the past has always played a signifi cant role in youth activism and continues to do so, though in different countries the extent of this role may vary. This particular article deals with the question of how the issues of the past resonate in the lives of young people in Estonia. During recent decades, the tensions between hegemonic and alternative pasts have been a source of discursive as well as physical combats among the different socio-cultural groups in Estonia and are often loaded with a political and ideological burden. In 2007, these different understandings peaked with street riots, mostly
dominated by young people. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of how young people make sense of the complicated past can tell us also a lot about the reasons behind their political activism (or lack thereof). The article is especially keen on exploring the questions of mechanisms of transmission of memory - how the past is socialised in different contexts (schools, museums, home), and how diffi cult pasts are dealt with and negotiated in groups of different ethnic and cultural background. By doing so, it will contribute to the theoretical discussions on relations of hegemonic past and communicative memory, how in
different cultural contexts the hegemonic past is moulded or contested. It will be argued that young people actively contextualise and rework the matters of the complicated past in their everyday contexts. Neither hegemonic discourse nor the communicative past is absorbed without questions but constantly negotiated. The dataset of this article consists of in-depth individual (84) and group interviews (5) predominantly with young people, but also other meaningful adults in the youngsters' lives: their parents and grandparents,
teachers and the like. In addition, participant observations are used as background data. The sample involves both ethnic Estonians and Russian-speaking minorities.

"The paper focuses on the conception of adulthood in post-communist Estonia, a society that has
undergone vast structural, institutional and cultural changes. To this end, 179 essays written by high
school graduates in five Estonian schools are analyzed.1 It is argued that the conceptualisation of
adulthood is contextual and young people position and conceptualise themselves in the framework
of these changes. Youth in Estonia, like their peers in Western Countries, stress intangible features
(such as responsibility, mental maturity, social maturity, freedom) along with measurable transitions
(employment, marriage, parenthood) when conceptualising adulthood. However, the meanings behind
the concepts differ and are valued differently among respondents. This paper aims to provide a glance
into what meanings are given to these perceptions. The most prevalent themes picked up by respondents
were institutional transitions, responsibility and social maturity. Such prevalence is plausible, since
these features in the transition to adulthood have changed the most in recent decades: the institutional
context has changed and measurable transitions have prolonged; the level of individual responsibility in
transitions has grown and the society has transformed." (author's abstract)

Rapid changes in the society have surrounded the lives of young people with uncertainties, resulting in the construction of flexible identities. Since traditional values are undergoing a process of change as well, crucial age concepts have become obscure, and have come to depend on a given context. However, in a transitional society, like post-Communist Estonia, these uncertainties are constantly changing and different age cohorts face different uncertainties, and are thus forced to develop different ways of coping with them. This article studies two age cohorts — one born in 1972–74 and the other in 1985–86 — and describes the way these people view uncertainties and cope with them. It is argued that this dealing with uncertainties may also influence generational identity as a whole.

This book focuses on social transformations as one of the central topics in the social sciences. The study of European social transformations is very valuable in the context of universal discussions within social sciences: explaining invariable, universal attributes of societies and examining changing attributes. The book consists of 20 chapters on European social transformations, written from the perspectives of distinguished scholars from such disciplines as economics, political science, educational science, geography, media and communication studies, public management and administration, social psychology and sociology. The temporal and spatial range of the book is wide, including such global changes as time-space compression, focusing particularly on change processes in Europe during the last two decades. The book consists of four main parts, beginning with an overview of the theoretical and methodological approaches, and then focusing separately on post-communist transformations, institutional drivers of social transformations in the European Union, and European transformations in the context of global processes. The book presents current theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches that complement the scientific literature on social transformations. This book is both an invaluable resource for scholars and an indispensable teaching tool for use in the classroom and will be of interest to students, academics, and policy-makers studying how this diverse region has changed over recent years.

Zsfassungen in russ., dt. und engl. Sprache

Youth political participation via state-sponsored institutional settlements has always been considered a goal of youth policies, representing a means of creating politically active and caring citizens. Throughout Europe, however, the number of politically active young people seems to be diminishing, with youth frequently described as apathetic and disengaged. While a growing body of academic research has concentrated on exploring the reasons behind political inactivity, this article explores the motivation and activities of some of the young people who are involved in institutionalised youth organisations, asking if the meanings behind institutional political participation are undergoing a process of change together with the rest of the society. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews, participant observation and analysis of documents (including online communication) collected as part of the research project MYPLACE, we examine the meanings young people attach to their participation. We show that the character of these organisations and motivations behind participation are miscellaneous; sometimes strikingly similar to the forms of participation not traditionally associated with political activism but rather ascribed to disengaged youth.

Youth political participation via state-sponsored institutional settlements has always been considered a goal of youth policies, representing a means of creating politically active and caring citizens. Throughout Europe, however, the number of politically active young people seems to be diminishing, with youth frequently described as apathetic and disengaged. While a growing body of academic research has concentrated on exploring the reasons behind political inactivity, this article explores the motivation and activities of some of the young people who are involved in institutionalised youth organisations, asking if the meanings behind institutional political participation are undergoing a process of change together with the rest of the society. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews, participant observation and analysis of documents (including online communication) collected as part of the research project MYPLACE, we examine the meanings young people attach to their participation. We show that the character of these organisations and motivations behind participation are miscellaneous; sometimes strikingly similar to the forms of participation not traditionally associated with political activism but rather ascribed to disengaged youth.