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Crystallizing and Emancipating Identities in Post-Communist Estonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Triin Vihalemm
Triin Vihalemm*
Affiliation:
Department of Journalism and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia. Email: [email protected]
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Extract

This article concerns collective identities in the context of EU enlargement and the post-Soviet transition of Estonian society, particularly of the two main ethno-linguistic groups: ethnic Estonians and the Russian-speaking population in Estonia. The empirical basis of the study is formed by factor structures of self-identification. The data were obtained from nationally representative surveys carried out in 2002, before Estonia joined the EU, and in 2005. The thinking patterns behind the structures of self-categorization are discussed mainly on the basis of theoretical concepts of individualization and transition culture. For background information, comparative data collected in Latvia (2006) and in Sweden (2003) are used. The survey results reveal that in the post-communist transformation, EU integration and spread of global mass culture have homogenized the mental patterns of the Estonians and the Russians. It is characteristic of post-communist Estonia that both minority and majority groups have utilized trans-national and civic identity and individualistic patterns of self-identification in terms of (sub)culture and social and material achievement, extracted from social norms and existing structures. Surveys confirm that for political actors in both Estonia and Russia it is hardly possible any more to create a common umbrella identity for the Russians in Estonia—the self-designation patterns of the Estonian Russians have been emancipated during the transition period.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 35 , Issue 3: Identities, Nations and Politics after Communism , July 2007 , pp. 477 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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