Journal of Baltic Studies 52-1 Available Now

Writing on the limits of the Estonian diaspora: belonging, gender, and sexuality in Heljo Liitoja’s autobiographies

Riikka Taavetti

This article analyzes two autobiographies of the Estonian-Canadian Heljo Liitoja (1923 − 2010) as participation in the post-Soviet national reconstruction of Estonia. The article argues that some of Liitoja’s experiences, such as her connection to the Toronto gay and lesbian community and the controversies within the Estonian diaspora, could not be addressed in an autobiography framed within an Estonian life story writing competition. The article suggests that Liitoja’s autobiographical book that discussed these topics was able to stretch the limits of the Estonian diaspora narrative.

Celebrating March 8: a failed attempt at de-Sovietization?

Dace Bula

Despite its international history of gender equality activism, Women’s Day in the independent Baltic states in the twenty-first century resembles the way in which the day was celebrated in the Soviet past. The ‘festival of gender’ continues its existence, only slowly giving way to sporadic expressions of emancipatory ideas. It survives despite efforts in the three Baltic states to get rid of ‘everything Soviet’ during the process of regaining freedom including rituals and calendric practices. Proposing a polysemic reading of 8 March, this article interprets the contemporary meanings and practices of Women’s Day in the post-socialist world.

Patterns of individual multilingualism in Estonia

Martin Ehala & Kadri Koreinik

This article presents an empirical analysis of patterns of individual multilingualism in Estonia based on 2015 survey results. We hypothesize that individual multilingualism is situated at the intersection of three major overlapping social factors: 1) geographic locale, the space where individuals interact daily, measurable primarily by its ethno-demographic characteristics, 2) mostly economic factors, the commodification of languages, and 3) patterns of civic participation in a particular locale. To explore patterns of multilingualism as multi-competence, we used the self-reported command of the three dominant languages and mapped this against those three factors. The article interprets and discusses the findings in light of language policy implications.

Science policy meets post-New Public Management: Estonian and Finnish reforms 2012–2015

Teele Tõnismann & Joonatan Virtanen

The study compares recent Estonian and Finnish research steering reforms. Both cases exhibit post- New Public Management (post-NPM)-style policy ideas that seek to enhance coordination over institutional boundaries but diverge in their horizontal and vertical configurations for coordination. This study combines perspectives on coordination from science policy and public administration with a historical institutionalist approach for understanding case divergence. This article argues that post-NPM reforms can involve rather diverse forms of coordination, which are affected by institutional legacies. We also argue that coordination efforts in science policy can involve a strengthened instrumentalization of research for policy-making, and, in such cases, they should be studied in close conjunction with public administration and its policy trends.

Making Livonia: actors and networks in the medieval and early modern Baltic Sea region, edited by Anu Mänd and Marek Tamm, Abingdon, Routledge, 2020, 344 pp., £34.99 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-367-27309-5; (paperback) 978-0-367-48128-5

Carsten Selch Jensen

Life should be transparent: conversations about Lithuania and Europe in the twentieth century and today, by Aurimas Švedas and Irena Veisaitė, Budapest, Central European University Press, 382 pp., 2020, $30.00/€27.00/£23.00, ISBN 978-963-386-359-6

Virgil I. Krapauskas