The transition in Estonian society and its impact on a girls' reformatory school

The process of transition in Estonia has been accompanied by a conflict between the desire to adopt Western models of welfare in terms of values, beliefs, and ideology, and the actual attitudes, habits, lifestyles, knowledge, and work skills inherited from the former Soviet system. How is the general process of transition reflected in the K. Special School, which has existed since the Soviet era? This article attempts to show what is going on at the institution, how 'new' and 'old' ideas and methods of operation that are used by staff coexist, and the consequences of that coexistence. In the totalitarian Soviet system, the institution under study was an organic part of the system. So far, the intention of combining welfare ideology with a total institution has not produced the expected results. To achieve real change, the institution should be thoroughly reorganized - it should cease to be a total institution. This is not only true for Estonia - studies on Western total institutions reach the same conclusion (see, for instance, Kelly 1992; Wardhaugh et al . 1993). The empirical data presented here were gathered in 1997 during fieldwork that formed part of an ethnographic research project.     

Human nature and economic policy: lessons for the transition economies

Both economic regulation in market economies and state ownership and control of the means of production in socialist economies have been interpreted as means of protecting people from economic exploitation by the owners of capital. In this paper, I argue against this interpretation, suggesting that both sets of institutions are more plausibly viewed as protecting people from destructive competition amongst themselves.     

From nation-state to global society: the changing paradigm of contemporary sociology

This paper discusses the strong criticism by Elias against the nation-state paradigm in sociology. Elias pointed his attention on sociologists of the twentieth century but particularly criticizes the analytical model of Parsons (AGIL), which seems to him an abstract combinatory of variables (pattern variables) without any references in social contexts. The sociology in the twentieth century is an apologetic of nation-state and, in Parsons, of the hegemonic role of the United States in the world. In fact, during the twentieth century many authors (historians and sociologists) tried to overcome the nation-state paradigm in the social sciences. The author of the paper analyses the contribution of Toynbee, Braudel, C. Schmitt, Huntington, Wallerstein and Hard–Negri. These attempts are based on different unit analysis: the civilization and its clash in the case of Toynbee and Huntington, the world economy in the case of Braudel and Wallerstein, and power in the case of C. Schmitt and Negri–Hardt. The author appreciates these attempts but his conclusion is that the concept of global society can better serve as unit analysis for a construction of a new paradigm in the social sciences.     

Kairos economies in the post-Soviet transition period of Central Asia

There are times when entire populations of certain countries have had to readjust their lives and economic strategies as all of society is under transition. Post-Soviet Central Asia underwent this period after 1991. During times of transition, there are always people that tend to be able to make use of the new uncertainties, even at the risk of entering legal grey areas. Here new social groups emerge, ethnic origin becomes relevant and new kinship ties are made. These transformation periods are often short and provide limited opportunities for analysing the strategies of those pioneers that I call Kairos economists. They often act only in cooperation with residents of the border and with duty customs and security personnel. This article analyses this special economy with the help of case studies that have been observed during the transformation period from the Soviet to an independent Central Asia.     

Karl Polanyi: a theorist of mixed economies

Theory and Society - Karl Polanyi’s scholarship is interpreted in radically different ways. The “hard” reading of Polanyi sees him as a radical socialist; the “soft”...     

Who constructed post-industrial society? An informal account of a paradigm shift at Columbia,pre-daniel bell

The American Sociologist - Columbia sociologists from the 1940s to 1970s probed core elements of post-industrial society. Lazarsfeld, Merton, and their colleagues conducted many detailed studies...     

Experiences of youth who transition to adulthood out of care: Developing a theoretical framework

Adverse adulthood outcomes are well documented among youth who age out of foster care. However, not all youth who age out of care experience deleterious adult outcomes, despite struggling with similar challenges during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Childhood maltreatment, which places youth at greater risk for later maladaptive functioning and psychopathology, may partially explain poor adjustment outcomes in adulthood. Similarly, a history of unstable placements and residing in institutional congregate care settings may also contribute to hardship during this time. However, none of these factors help to explain how some young people aging out of care manage to achieve stability while transitioning into adulthood. This article reviews the literature through the lens of the identity capital framework, and discusses the applicability of this framework to the experiences of youth aging out of foster care.     

The politics of collective repair: examining object-relations in a postwork society

In this paper, we look at repair as an emergent focus of recent activism in affluent societies, where a number of groups are reclaiming practices of repair as a form of political and ecological action. Ranging from those that fight for legislative change to those groups who are trying to support ecological and social change through everyday life practices, repair is beginning to surface tensions in everyday life and as such poses opportunities for its transformation. We survey a few of the practices that make up this movement in its various articulations, to take stock of their current political import. While we suggest that these practices can be seen as an emergent lifestyle movement, they should not be seen as presenting a unified statement. Rather, we aim to show that they articulate a spectrum of political positions, particularly in relation to the three specific issues of property, pedagogy and sociality. These three dimensions are all facets of current internal discrepancies of repair practices and moreover express potential bifurcations as this movement evolves. Drawing on a diverse methodology that includes discourse analysis and participant observation, we suggest some of the ways in which this growing area of activity could play a significant role in resisting the commodification of the everyday and inventing postwork alternatives.     

Developing ethical approaches to data and civil society: from availability to accessibility

This research note reflects on the gaps and limitations confronting the development of ethical principles regarding the accessibility of large-scale data for civil society organizations (CSOs). Drawing upon a systematic scoping study on the use of data in the United Kingdom (UK) civil society, it finds that there are twin needs to conceptualize accessibility as more than mere availability of data, as well as examine the use of data among CSOs more generally. In order to deal with the apparent “digital divide” in UK civil society – where, despite extensive government rhetoric about data openness, organizations face not only the barriers of limited time, funds, and expertise to harness data but also the lack of representation within existing data – we present a working model in which ethical concerns accompanying data utilization by civil society may be better accounted. This suggests there is a need for further research into the nexus of civil society and data upon which interdisciplinary discussion about the ethical dimensions of engagement with data, particularly informed by insight from the social sciences, can be predicated.     

Kazakhstan: constructing identity in a post-Soviet society

One of the problems with the now independent countries of Central Asia is that they have little history of independent statehood and even less experience of any ideological context that legitimizes a specific set of political arrangements, other than the discredited Marxist model of the Soviet system. Neither habit nor attachment to a coherent set of political ideals is very helpful as the basis for individual identification with or support of the State. Perhaps as a consequence, political operatives in Central Asian countries have opted to emphasize the centrality of ethnicity to legitimize their current political arrangements. But in Kazakhstan this presents a potential problem – the country is ethnically very diverse, has a large Russian/Slavic population and the ‘core nation’ of ethnic Kazakhs comprises a bare majority of Kazakh citizens. We utilize survey research to test the influence such factors as ethnicity, religion and other nexus of identity have on feelings of attachment to the state. Our findings indicate that identifying as ‘Kazakh’ indeed has a positive effect on identification with the state, as do identifying as Sunni Muslim and ‘Asian’. However, institutional trust and economic well-being are also positive influences on affective regard for the state, allowing an opening for broadening and deepening the basis for state legitimacy.     

The racial geography of child welfare: toward a new research paradigm

This article examines the community-level impact of concentrated child welfare agency involvement in African American neighborhoods. Based on interviews of 25 African American women in a Chicago neighborhood, the study found that residents were aware of intense agency involvement in their neighborhood and identified profound effects on social relationships including interference with parental authority, damage to children's ability to form social relationships, and distrust among neighbors. The study also discovered a tension between respondents' identification of adverse consequences of concentrated state supervision for family and community relationships and neighborhood reliance on agency involvement for needed financial support. The author discusses the implications of these findings for a new research paradigm aimed at understanding the community-level effects of racial disproportionality.     

The future of universities in a global risk society

This contribution concurs with Mittelman and also considers the quest for truth a core purpose of universities. However, it rejects the idea that there is one panoptical view of the world, one single truth that could guide such a quest. Drawing on a systems-theoretical perspective and its emphasis on specialization and fragmentation, I rather explore the role of universities in a world that can only partially be known. Such a perspective sheds fresh light on the rise of external quality assurances agencies as a second-order observation that enables further specialization of universities. The study of the rise of this remote steering mechanism reminds us of the limits of a country comparison that does not account of the multiscalarity of policy making, particularly in Europe. However, I will also highlight how most recent changes in higher education policy are characterized by a return to a stronger governmental oversight, undoing some of the liberalization steps taken in the late 1990s, early 2000s. This transformation not only indicates that we are moving towards an end of globalization as we know it. It can, but does not have to, undermine the universities capacity to deal with complexity, as I will show.     

Talking of racism: The project of a society of diversity

‘We have a choice, and we can decide to make a society in which diversity is accepted, encouraged and made central to human practice’ (Essed, 1996, viii)