(Re-)Claiming the Social Contract: State-Society Relations in Three Former Socialist Towns in the Baltics
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Area Studies
Abstract
Science was always one of the biggest inspirations in my life. While studying political sciences, I had an opportunity to explore many different subject areas, ranging from political philosophy to regional studies. As years passed, I have found, that I feel the greatest challenge as well as pleasure while conducting a field research. I participated in a scientific expedition with academics from my University and worked as a student researcher conducting a field study on the outreach of state power while combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. That made me particularly interested in social anthropology and ethnography.
As a result, I am conducting a field study myself for my Bachelor thesis on the topic that fascinates me the most - the relationship between the state and its society. I am inquiring the southeastern borderland of Lithuania, where the state's power to he the main actor establishing social and political boundaries as well as to secure the compliance of its citizens is contested by the Polish minority living there. Even though, a tense relationship with the central government is being maintained addressing the minority rights, a deeper look into the context reveals, that the problem is far more complicated than the matter of ethnicity. Rather, it raises questions about people's loyalty to the state and their identification with it. One of the most distinctive features of this region is nostalgia for the Soviet Era, still choosing Russian language and media (despite the availability of Polish and of course Lithuanian sources), thinking positively about the authoritarian regime of the neighboring country as well as blaming the West for the current events in Ukraine. Furthermore, the history of the region is rich of belonging to different states with different policies towards minorities that makes the problem even more complex. White conducting a field study, I am trying to figure out what actors and what mechanisms are being used that obstruct the state from introducing unitary national identity into the region.
While working on this subject I have understood, that this might be a broader phenomenon, possibly also characterizing other post-Soviet countries in the region. Even though the Soviet Union has collapsed, the image of it is still alive in people's heads and it is reproducing in younger members of the society as well. Moreover, most of the time in the twentieth century communism was "fitted" to young countries with still traditional societies. Due to that, people's understanding of and their relationship with the modern (democratic) stale in which they arc living now becomes really interesting. It becomes even more engaging having in mind the factor of the spread of nowadays Russian influence. I would like to continue working on this topic, exploring new depths and transferring it to the other regions of Lithuania and other post-Soviet states (especially Belarus). In order to do that, a broader and deeper knowledge both of the region and methodology is needed.
As a result, I am conducting a field study myself for my Bachelor thesis on the topic that fascinates me the most - the relationship between the state and its society. I am inquiring the southeastern borderland of Lithuania, where the state's power to he the main actor establishing social and political boundaries as well as to secure the compliance of its citizens is contested by the Polish minority living there. Even though, a tense relationship with the central government is being maintained addressing the minority rights, a deeper look into the context reveals, that the problem is far more complicated than the matter of ethnicity. Rather, it raises questions about people's loyalty to the state and their identification with it. One of the most distinctive features of this region is nostalgia for the Soviet Era, still choosing Russian language and media (despite the availability of Polish and of course Lithuanian sources), thinking positively about the authoritarian regime of the neighboring country as well as blaming the West for the current events in Ukraine. Furthermore, the history of the region is rich of belonging to different states with different policies towards minorities that makes the problem even more complex. White conducting a field study, I am trying to figure out what actors and what mechanisms are being used that obstruct the state from introducing unitary national identity into the region.
While working on this subject I have understood, that this might be a broader phenomenon, possibly also characterizing other post-Soviet countries in the region. Even though the Soviet Union has collapsed, the image of it is still alive in people's heads and it is reproducing in younger members of the society as well. Moreover, most of the time in the twentieth century communism was "fitted" to young countries with still traditional societies. Due to that, people's understanding of and their relationship with the modern (democratic) stale in which they arc living now becomes really interesting. It becomes even more engaging having in mind the factor of the spread of nowadays Russian influence. I would like to continue working on this topic, exploring new depths and transferring it to the other regions of Lithuania and other post-Soviet states (especially Belarus). In order to do that, a broader and deeper knowledge both of the region and methodology is needed.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000649/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 1925990 | Studentship | ES/P000649/1 | 01/10/2017 | 31/12/2020 | Marija Norkunaite |
| Description | Throughout the years of being funded I have received my MPhil degree in Russian and East European Studies at the University of Oxford and have continued with the same project onto my doctoral studies at the same department (Oxford School of Global and Area Studies). As a doctorate student, I spent most of my first year conducting fieldwork in Estonia and Latvia (the Lithuanian case was covered under my MPhil), returning to Oxford in January 2020. I have now finished the phase of primary data collection and systematization, currently conducting comparative data analysis, composing and writing up my doctorate thesis. Thanks to the award received I was able to generate new knowledge which will allow me to make significant contribution to my field of study. In my research I focus on the Russian-speaking minorities (more precisely, former industrial regions densely populated by the Russian-speaking minorities) in the Baltic countries, unpacking their perceptions of the state they live in. Relying on my findings, I aim to show that as researchers working with the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics we ourselves tend to focus exclusively on minority issues, treating our research participants primarily as representatives of ethnic minorities, hence limiting our gaze when it comes to more universal experiences of those with whom we work, hence reproducing the existing power relations within a differentiating state. While this is exactly what my own research participants were hoping to get rid of: they were striving to be perceived and treated as fully-fledged and deserving state subjects rather than as (Russian-speaking) minorities first and foremost. While not denying the importance of ethnicity - the issues of language, citizenship, etc. nonetheless affect people's everyday experiences of the state - in my thesis I myself choose to address a more universal question of the social contract as a defining part of any state-society relationship, as perceived and experienced by the state's "other", this way offering a new way to look at the well-known problems and research themes, opening up new research questions to be applied both within and outside the Baltics and post-socialist region more broadly. Furthermore, my research falls under a broader tendency to study the sate ethnographically, focusing on the local state manifestations. Nonetheless, my thesis offers an as yet unstudied comparative case of the Baltic countries with a focus on specific industrial, Russian-speaking regions. This way, my work complements not only existing research on the state-society relationship in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, but also offers valuable insights in studying "the state" more generally. Focusing on concrete practices and policies of the state as well as their effects on its subjects, my research hopes to contribute significantly to the conceptualization and theorizing of "the state", unpacking processes of how the state comes into being and what exactly (for example, what kind of "care") do the residents expect and want from the state in which they live. This way, my research offers theoretical and empirical insights that might be applied to other countries and societies outside the region. |
| Exploitation Route | My research generates significant new knowledge in terms of both research on the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics (or postsocialist space more generally) as well as studies of "the state" as such. In terms of the Baltic studies, my research offers new ways to look at well-known problems and raises new questions that can be further pursued and addressed by other scholars working within the same field, dealing with the same themes and/or subjects. In terms of studies on "the state", my findings from the postsocialist region can be applied to and tested on other cases within and outside the region, generating inter- and cross-regional insights, enriching our empirical and theoretical knowledge on (the formation of) the state-society relationship. In terms on non-academic impact, my findings can be taken into consideration by different state agencies responsible for integration etc. policies directed towards the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics. Furthermore, as my research is dealing with more general issues of socio-economic development and wellbeing of the population, the same findings can be used and applied when drafting, planning, and implementing different social policies. My findings can be used as guidance by different domestic as well as international NGOs working with the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics (from my own work experience I know that there are a lot of such organizations, involving not only NGOs, but also other international bodies, such as the EU, British Council, etc). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | ASEEES 2019 Summer Convention Travel Grant |
| Amount | $500 (USD) |
| Organisation | Association for Slavonic, East European, and Eurasian Studies |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 06/2019 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) |
| Amount | £268 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2019 |
| End | 11/2019 |
| Description | The Lithuanian Foundation Scholarship Program |
| Amount | $2,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | The Lithuanian Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 10/2020 |
| Description | Public discussion (Vilnius, Lithuania) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was a speaker in a public discussion "How does science and art investigate social problems?". Together with a well-known theater director (Lithuania) we shared and compared our experiences and findings after both working in the same location (Visaginas, Lithuania), yet with different aims in mind, applying different methods, and generating different outcomes. The purpose of the discussion was to look for communalities between social sciences and art, asking how do researchers and artists find what interests them; what is our relation to people with whom we work and/or about whom we write; finally, how can social scientists and artists collaborate in order to resolve social problems together. Approximately 40 people attended the discussion (these were general publics, graduate and undergraduate students, etc), which sparked questions and discussions afterwards, with participants reporting change in opinions and accumulation of new ideas for their own projects. The event was also attended by media representative which then resulted in an article about the event, increasing the reach of the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2018-11-24-ar-yra-kas-bendra-tarp-mokslo-ir-meno/173015 |