Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: During democratic transitions, rapid shifts in mass political attitudes and behaviors often propel change, but attitudes and behaviors do not simply change on their own. Events catalyze change. Events transmit messages and the sense that something must be done, thus affecting public opinion. This article focuses on how events with distinct messages sponsored by the elites of two different social movements in Estonia between 1987 and 1993, one reformist and the other in favor of restoring the independent Estonian Republic of the years between the two World Wars, competed for public opinion and control of the political agenda. The logic of the competition between these social movements is formalized in a model of opinion change.
Event data coded from the Estonian and Russian language press (1988-1991) are used to demonstrate the existence of these two social movements and their
associated cultural frames. These data are also used to show that the restorationist frame was more powerful and successful than the reform frame. As a result, the restorationist movement pushed Estonia towards independence and helped to undermine the Soviet State.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the well-developed industrial town of Narva, located between Tallinn and St.Petersburg and populated predominantly by Russians, has turned into a problematic border town of the nationalising state of Estonia. Using the results of the study of social networks, conducted in Narva in 1999 by the team of Finnish, Russian and Estonian researchers, and my personal interviews and observations, I analyse the impact of nationalisation at a local scale and seek to answer the following question: how does social space, defined as ‘a complexity of social practices, systems of symbols and artefacts with a certain extension in time and (geographic) space (Pries 2001a,b) respond to the nationalisation of political and geographic space? As I argue, the social space of Narvans, affected by the nationalisation project of the Estonian state, is being restructured towards localisation and transnationalisation. Being discursively (and territorially) marginalised, excluded from the Estonian state, people maintain connections and build their life strategies either locally, in Narva, look for jobs across the border in Russia, or think about 'moving West'. In these conditions, the choice of citizenship, Estonian or Russian, is often determined by the need to maintain the freedom of movement within a person’s geographical and social space.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper takes its point of departure in a lacuna left by previous research in terms of explaining Estonian threat images after the Cold War. In order to get a fuller understanding of the variance of the threat images in the decade from the mid-1990s to the present, the discourse of the Estonian political elite is analyzed using textual analysis. This reveals that the threat framing by the Estonian elite has changed significantly over time. In order to explain these changes, the identity formations salient in the Estonian political discourse are then analyzed using discourse analysis, and contrasted to two other explanatory approaches; one based on the ideas of realism, the other on cognitive theory. This shows that, in contrast to these two perspectives, the dynamics of collective identity formations can provide a more thorough explanation of the dynamics of threat images. Estonia’s wish to join international organizations is not solely guided by a perceived Russian threat, but also by a desire to re-establish bonds with an identity formation Estonia once was part of. Thus, the change of threat images can be explained by the dynamics of identity formations, which in turn are linked to processes of socialization, as Estonia adapts to the discourse of the West.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to examine how reproductive politics and racialized nationalism were constructed in postcolonial Estonian Republic (1918-1940) and in the Estonian community in the U.S. (1949-1991), consisting primarily by Estonian refugees who had fled from the Soviet colonization of Estonia during World War II. The paper analyzes change and continuity between the two periods and geopolitical locations in respect to reproductive politics, women’s conditions, and nationalism.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the role of European economic integration and European norms on the rights of minority groups in Estonian and Latvian ethnic politics in the 1990s. By the end of the 1990s, Estonia and Latvia amended the citizenship and language policies of the early 1990s, while maintaining the principle of the ethnically based state. The main incentive for policy reform came from the prospect of European Union (EU) membership. The international norms on minority rights, developed mostly after the end of the Cold War, have complemented the incentive of EU membership.
Estonia was quicker to respond to the incentive of European Union (EU) membership than Latvia. The domestic consensus on market reforms and membership in the West have enabled the Estonian elites to form coalitions necessary to adopt the minority policy changes required for EU membership. In Latvia, a consensus on EU membership is also present. Nevertheless, the prominent role of extremist nationalist in Latvian politics has often weakened government coalitions and slowed down the process of both economic and minority policy reform. The European norms on minority rights have played a greater role in Latvian deliberations on policy reform. Latvian centrists have referred to European norms to justify their compliance with EU membership criteria. In Estonia, the strong domestic consensus on EU membership and lack of debate on the citizenship and language policies has meant that European norms have not played a significant role. Estonian elites complied with EU recommendations when it was clear that compliance was required for membership.