The third 2022 issue of Journal of Baltic Studies (Vol 53, Issue 3) is now available online. The issue contains articles such as a study of topmost superlexical prefixes of the Baltic verb, border and air space violations in the Baltic Sea region, and teachers’ feelings of curriculum ownership.
The issue also includes a special section, “Dismantling the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant: communities and imaginaries,” featuring articles on language policy, Lithuanian imaginations of the nuclear, the intersection of identity and tourism in an “atomic town,” and nuclear waste management.
The issue also includes three book reviews and a list of recently published Baltic titles.
Articles
Baltic topmost superlexical prefixes as the left periphery of the verb: the permissive, the restrictive, the negative, and the debitive
Julija Korostenskiene
This article explores the topmost superlexical prefixes of the Baltic verb—the Lithuanian te– and ne– and the Latvian jā– and ne-—from the generative perspective. The prefixes are examined in light of the Split-CP framework. The proposed analysis formally accounts for the placement and interplay of the prefixes, in particular, the permissive and restrictive meanings of te-, the interaction between te– and ne– in Lithuanian; the debitive prefix jā– and its incompatibility with ne– in Latvian. The findings of this article contribute to the debate on the distinction of the debitive as a separate mood.
Signals of resolve or a shortcut? Border and air space violations in the Baltic Sea region
Margit Bussmann & Natalia Iost
The Baltic Sea region regularly experiences low-level military incidents and violations of territorial borders. Both international media and the Baltic elite interpret Russian violations of airspace as intentional and provocative. Based on reports in the Baltic News Service on Russian airspace violations, this article assesses whether there are systematic patterns regarding geographical distribution as well as variation over time. Moreover, this article examines whether Russian airspace violations can serve as costly signals of resolve and as a deterrent to further NATO expansion.
Teachers’ feelings of curriculum ownership: the Estonian case
Piret Viirpalu, E. Krull & R. Mikser
The post-Soviet transition agenda in the Baltic states included changing the role of teachers from passive recipients of top-down orders to active curriculum developers who feel ownership over curriculum decision-making. Recent studies have seriously questioned the achievement of this goal. In this article, we aim to elucidate Estonian schoolteachers’ feelings of curriculum ownership as expressed in a questionnaire that asked about their role as curriculum developers and curriculum users. We found that most of the respondents did not express feelings of curriculum ownership. We will discuss the potential reasons for this finding and the implications for further enhancing teachers’ curriculum ownership.
Understanding the post-Soviet nuclear locality through language policy orientations
Ineta Dabašinskienė
This study focuses on a unique case of Visaginas, a Lithuanian post-Soviet nuclear industry site both geographically and mentally marked by the Soviet mono-industrial past, as reflected in its ethnic composition and linguistic practices. This article examines the concept of nuclear exceptionalism in the domain of language policy and patterns applied to the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant case. It discusses exceptions in the state language legislation during the transition period from Soviet to independent Lithuania and nuclear to post-nuclear industry; moreover, it reflects on more recent developments in linguistic practices of locality.
(Re)Imagining the nuclear in Lithuania following the shutdown of the Ignalina nuclear power plant
Linara Dovydaitytė
This article examines public representations of the nuclear in Lithuania following the shutdown of the Soviet-designed Ignalina nuclear power plant. The central focus of the article is the analysis of artistic practices that, since the early 2000s, interpret and transform the materiality of the plant from a nuclear object to a cultural phenomenon. The author argues that while the decommissioning process of the only Lithuanian nuclear power plant occupies a rather marginal place in the popular consciousness, art becomes an increasingly important medium for the construction of nuclear imaginaries attracting public attention and raising awareness of nuclear industry issues.
Negotiating post-nuclear identities through tourism development in the ‘atomic town’ Visaginas
Natalija Mažeikienė & Eglė Gerulaitienė
This article considers how, by applying participatory approaches and involving stakeholders in tourism development as a process of interpretation of the nuclear past, present, and post-nuclear future, variant forms of tourism (energy, nuclear, Soviet industrial heritage, recreational) promoting different narratives might stimulate change and negotiation around local identity in the ‘atomic’ town Visaginas in Lithuania. This paper presents the Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology that was employed to elaborate on the virtual nuclear tourism route in the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant region in an attempt to empower local communities through tourism development. The researchers have been collaborating with a variety of tourism stakeholders and endeavor to play a mediating role in complex negotiations around identity development through tourism. The authors pose the question as to how dissonance between practicing authentic identities and self-exoticization, community empowerment and commodification, participatory approach to heritagization and critical approach to negative legacy could be resolved.
Nuclear waste management in Lithuania and Sweden: responses to contingent historical and political circumstances
Andrei Stsiapanau
The Baltic Sea region is the site of a considerable number of nuclear power stations. Although predominantly operational, several have been decommissioned and new ones are in the planning stage. The volume of nuclear waste in the region continues to increase, while the development of national nuclear waste programs differs in each country. This article investigates national framings of nuclear waste issues in Lithuania and Sweden in order to understand their articulation in response to particular historical and political circumstances. Following the technopolitical framework, this article engages with the argument that nuclear industry developments create both incentives and constraints for nuclear waste programs that foster various forms of legacies; historical, technological, or political. Firstly, this article sets out the relation between the nuclear industry and nuclear waste issues in each country. Secondly, it reveals how decommissioning policies in both countries streamed nuclear waste programs developed in dissimilar sociopolitical contexts. The final section presents empirical details about constraints and incentives that become visible through analysis of the impact of nuclear policy legacies and continuities on waste regimes, including regulatory, licensing and participation practices, research programs, and technology innovation.
Book reviews and recent publications
The Routledge handbook of EU–Russia relations: structures, actors, issues, edited by Tatiana Romanova and Maxine David, Abingdon, Routledge, 2021, 506 pp., $200.00/$48.00, ISBN 978-1-138-54367-6 (hbk), 978-1-351-00626-2 (ebook)
Stefano Braghiroli
Small Baltic states and the Euro-Atlantic security community
by SANDIS SRADERS, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 265 pp. €108.70/€76.09, ISBN 978-3-030-53762-3 (hbk), 978-3-030-53763-0 (ebook)
Lars Johannsen
The glass wall: lives on the Baltic frontier
by MAX EGREMONT, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021, 320 pp., $30.00, ISBN 978-0-374-16345-7
Brent McKenzie
List of books received and recent publications
About the journal
Journal of Baltic Studies (JBS), the official journal of AABS, is a vital source of scholarship for those engaged in Baltic state and Baltic Sea region studies. JBS is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal published on a quarterly basis that aims at progressing and disseminating knowledge about the political, social, economic, and cultural life – both past and present – of the Baltic states and the Baltic Sea region. JBS seeks high-quality original articles and review of broad scholarly interest that advance knowledge of the Baltic states and Baltic Sea region.
Published quarterly by the AABS, the annual fee for both membership in the Association and a subscription to JBS is $70.00, $35.00 for full-time students, and $35.00 for emeritus members. Members of the Association receive a free personal subscription to the Journal.
JBS welcomes article and book review submissions from AABS members and other scholars. See the Instructions for Authors page for more info.