TALLINNA ÜLIKOOL SOTSIAALTEADUSTE DISSERTATSIOONID

TALLINN UNIVERSITY DISSERTATIONS ON SOCIAL SCIENCES

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OLEKSANDRA SELIVERSTOVA

THE ROLE OF CONSUMER CULTURE IN THE FORMATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE POST-SOVIET REGION. EVIDENCE FROM ESTONIA AND UKRAINE

Tallinn 2017

3 TALLINNA ÜLIKOOL SOTSIAALTEADUSTE DISSERTATSIOONID TALLINN UNIVERSITY DISSERTATIONS ON SOCIAL SCIENCES 113 Oleksandra Seliverstova THE ROLE OF CONSUMER CULTURE IN THE FORMATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE POST-SOVIET REGION. EVIDENCE FROM ESTONIA AND UKRAINE School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia Institute of Political Science, Free University of Brussels (VUB), Brussels, Belgium The dissertation was accepted for the defence of the degree of Doctor Philosophiae in Government and Politics by the Doctoral Studies Council of Social Sciences of Tallinn University on February 28th, 2017. Supervisors: Raivo Vetik, PhD, professor at Tallinn University Airi-Alina Allaste, PhD, professor at Tallinn University Dimokritos Kavadias, PhD, professor at the Free University of Brussels Opponents: Jeremy Morris, PhD, professor at Aarhus University Marcello Mollica, PhD, professor at the University of Pisa The defence will take place on April 28th, 2017 at 12 o’clock at Tallinn University lecture hall M-648, Uus-Sadama st 5, Tallinn.

This research was supported by the European Commission within the framework of FP7- PEOPLE-2012-ITN under Grant agreement number 316825.

Copyright: Oleksandra Seliverstova, 2017 Copyright: Tallinn University, 2017 and Free University of Brussels (VUB), 2017

ISSN 1736-3632 (printed publication) ISBN 978-9949-29-316-2 (printed publication) ISSN 1736-793X (pdf) ISBN 978-9949-29-317-9 (pdf)

Tallinn University 25 Narva Rd 10120 Tallinn www.tlu.ee

4 CONTENTS

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ...... 7 ABSTRACT ...... 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 10 INTRODUCTION ...... 12 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 15 UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ...... 16 Accommodation of Russian speaking population since the dissolution of the USSR...... 16 Main characteristics of nation formation processes in Estonia and Ukraine ...... 17 OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY AND ITS LIMITATIONS ...... 23 STRUCTURE OF DISSERTATION AND MAIN RESULTS ...... 25 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY ...... 29 1.1. National identity in the studies of everyday nationalism ...... 29 1.1.1. Looking for truth about nation and national identity ...... 29 1.1.2. Banal nationalism ...... 32 1.1.3. Analyzing everyday nationalism through imagination, cultural and everyday practices ...... 34 1.1.4. Recent scholarship on everyday nationalism drawn from the post-Soviet context ...... 39 1.2. Why consumption? On the way to discovering its symbolic meaningfulness ...... 42 1.2.1. Turning focus from production to consumption in the postmodern era...... 42 1.2.2. Consumer culture as a way to study identity now ...... 45 1.2.3. Everyday nationalism and consumer culture ...... 46 2. METHODOLOGY ...... 49 2.1. Overview ...... 49 2.2. Instruments ...... 52 2.2.1. Interviews ...... 52 2.2.1.1. General information and settings ...... 52 2.2.1.2. Sample ...... 54 2.2.1.3. Structure of the interview ...... 55 2.2.1.4. Analysis ...... 57 2.2.1.5. Interviews supporting material ...... 58 2.2.2. Participant Observation ...... 59 2.2.3. Media analysis ...... 61 2.3. Validity and reliability issues ...... 64 2.3.1. Specific context and settings of research. L'viv, Ukraine ...... 66 2.3.2. Specific context and settings of research. Tallinn, Estonia ...... 68 CONCLUSION ...... 70 REFERENCES ...... 73 APPENDIX 1 ...... 89 PUBLICATIONS ...... 91 I. Everyday Nation-Building In The Post-Soviet Space ...... 93 II. “Consuming” National Identity in Western Ukraine ...... 113

5 III. Keeping Alive the “Imaginary West” in post-Soviet Countries ...... 135 IV. Consumer Citizenship and Reproduction of Estonian-ness ...... 155 SUMMARY/KOKKUVÕTE ...... 178 ELULOOKIRJELDUS ...... 181 CURRICULUM VITAE ...... 182

6 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

The dissertation is based on the following four papers, which are referred to in the analytical overview by Roman numerals:

I. Pawłusz, E., & Seliverstova, O. (2016). Everyday Nation-Building In The Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Reflections. Studies of Transition States and Societies, 8(1), 69–86. II. Seliverstova, O. (2016). “Consuming” National Identity in Western Ukraine. Nationalities Papers, 45(1), 61–79. III. Seliverstova, O. (2017) (in print). Keeping Alive the “Imaginary West” in post-Soviet Countries. Forthcoming in Debatte: Journal of Contemporary and Eastern Europe. IV. Seliverstova, O. (2017) (in print). Consumer Citizenship and Reproduction of Estonian- ness. In In Eds. Polese, A., Morris, J.B., Pawlusz, E.B., Seliverstova, O. The national in everyday life. Identity and nation-building in post-socialist spaces. Routledge.

Author's contribution Publication I: O.Seliverstova participated in the formulation of research question, creation of research design, data collection and analysis processes and writing the manuscript. For this publication, contribution of each author is valuated as an equal proportion. O.Seliverstova equally participated in writing the manuscipt's introduction, theoretical part and conclusion. The empirical part on Ukrainian case-study was written only by O. Seliverstova, while the case study on Estonia was described by E. Pawlusz.

Related conference presentations 1. Seliverstova, O. “The Role of Consumerism in the Integration of National Minorities in post-Soviet Spaces: Evidence from Estonia and Ukraine” presented at the conference “The past and present of minority rights in the context of migration and multiculturalism”, University of Turku, Turku (Finland), held on 25–26.11.2013. 2. Seliverstova, O. “Consumerism before and after Soviet Union. Case of Estonia” presented at the “Changing Europe – Changing Migration” – IMISCOE 3CI PhD conference, University of Antwerp, Antwerp (Belgium), held on 20–24.01.2014. 3. Seliverstova, O. “Consumerism before and after Soviet Union. Case of Estonia” presented at the conference-workshop "Capitalism, Consumption and Everyday Life", Oslo University, Oslo (Norway), held on 08–10.12.2014. 4. Seliverstova, O. “Keeping alive the Imaginary West space in the post-Soviet countries” presented at the conference "Spaces and Places: Toward a Geocritical Study of Language, Literature, Culture and Politics", University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis (Tunisia), held on 08– 10.04.2015. 5. Seliverstova, O. “National Identity in the context of post-Soviet Consumption” at the ASN 20th Annual World Convention, Columbia University 25.04.2015, Columbia University, New York (USA), held on 24–26.04.2015.

7 6. Seliverstova, O. “National Identity in the Context of post-Soviet Consumption” at the 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015, Prague (Czech Republic), held on 25–28.08.2015. 7. Seliverstova, O. “From post-Soviet nostalgia to modern Nordic aspirations. Projections of Estonian national identity in contemporary TV advertisements”, presented at Politicologenetmaal 2016, the 17th Dutch-Belgian Political Science Conference, Free University of Brussels (VUB), Brussels (Belgium), held on 02–03.06.2016. 8. Seliverstova, O. “National Identity on a Dinner Table in Estonia” presented at conference- workshop “Lived Experiences of the Everyday Nation” organized in conjunction with the research project 'Negotiating the nation: Implications of ethnic and religious diversity for national identity', which is funded by the Research Council of Norway and carried out in collaboration with the University of Oslo, the University of Sussex and Université de Poitiers. Oslo University, Oslo (Norway), held on 8–10.06.2016. 9. Seliverstova, O. “Consumer citizenship and the Estonian-Russian expression of national identity” presented at the 2016 ASEEES-MAG Summer Convention, Ukrainian Catholic University, L'viv (Ukraine), held on 26 28.06.2016. 10. Seliverstova, S. “Consumer Citizenship and Reproduction of Estonian-ness” presented at the conference “Europe, Nations, and Insecurity: Challenges to Identities” organized by Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), hosted by Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas (Lithuania), held on 30.06–02.07.2016.

8 ABSTRACT

The role of Russian speaking population in former Soviet countries, other than Russian Federation, has been regarded in a new light since the outbreak of the military conflict in Donbas (Eastern Ukraine) and the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation. Taking into consideration such events, some scholars and experts noticed a new vector in development of Ukrainian nationalism and observed some agitation and concerns about national cohesion in other post-Soviet countries, especially those that have a common border with the Russian Federation and a large Russian speaking community. This research, addressing the renewed interest in accommodation of ethnic and language minorities when constructing national communities, aims to improve understanding of some still unsolved issues about national identities using a non- conventional, bottom-up approach. For this purpose, it will explore national identity formation in the context of two former Soviet countries, Ukraine and Estonia, from the perspective of everyday consumer culture. Consumer culture is seen here as a symbolic field in which national sentiments could be reflected and also as a source of potential new markers of national belonging. In particular, by qualitatively analyzing everyday practices of consumption in two cities, Tallinn (Estonia) and L'viv (Ukraine), this study sheds light on the development of banal forms of nationalism among ordinary people. By giving citizens an active role in the formation and solidification of their national identities, this study aims to show two major things. First, it demonstrates that an inquiry into a still understudied field of post-Soviet everyday nationhood, can trace and explain some valuable transformations in national identity processes, which remain obscured in traditional studies of nationalism, largely focused on elite ideologies and political activities. Second, with the help of examples driven from interviews with Estonian and Ukrainian Russian-speakers and local native speakers, it shows that identification with a nation is possible even in cases where people share only partially or do not share official narratives and symbols of that particular nation at all. It was observed that in such cases people can find new national meanings in everyday culture and create alternative identity markers, that help them to associate themselves with national community of the territory on which they reside.

9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Hundreds of times I have imagined how I would write acknowledgements part and every time it would seem to be still too far and almost unrealistic to be done. No matter how much frustration, tiredness and disappointment I could feel, time to time while writing my thesis, a dream about experiencing this exact moment - when putting on a paper my gratitude to many people who made this work possible - gave me strength and motivation to go on. So now, let me enjoy this moment fully … I will start with impersonal 'thank you' to life, coincidence, destiny or somebody's will that made me experience a role of a doctoral student. First of all, because on this path I met many wonderful and interesting people and because it enriched me with knowledge that I would be never able to get under different circumstances. My supervisors, Airi-Alina Alaaste, Dimokritos Kavadias and Raivo Vetik did their best to make my doctoral study process as smooth as possible. Their belief in my work, but also a constructive criticism of it encouraged me on numerous occasions. I am thankful to them for not cutting my early ambitions too much, for making me feeling free in my choices and for trusting when there was a lot to doubt about. I am grateful to participants of Marie Curie ITN network “Post-Soviet Tensions”. To all seniors who followed my and my colleagues' progress and gave generous feedback. In particular, John Doyle for being a wise coordinator, Abel Polese for his hard work on the project and his super-ability to solve any kind of problems, Sally Cummings and Rick Fawn for their touching support during an emotional for me period, Pal Kolstø for constructive feedback, Francoise Companjen for believing in me. I want to say special thank you to Peter Rutland for being so patient and giving a crucial for me opportunity with my first article. To Allan Warde and Richard Wilk, whom I had a chance to meet in Oslo, for motivating me to continue to work on consumer culture, when I doubted on if it was really worth pursuing such a path. I am immensely grateful to Emilia Pawlusz – my 'partner in crime', colleague, friend, 24h helpdesk, with whom I shared so many moments in these last three years and who was my lighthouse in the dark waters of this study process. I will also never forget the warmth and generosity of my desk mates in VUB, Nohemi and Frederik. I want to thank all the critics of my work or those who doubted in my success, as without them I would never achieve what I wanted. I owe much to all my interviews' respondents for volunteering to dedicate me their time and for being so sincere with me. Outside of academia, I want to thank my parents and grandparents who never stopped to believe in me and who always tried to help me as much as they could. I am much indebted to the 'satellite' of my life, my partner, for giving me support and comfort in these years, but also for widening and enriching my view of the world. His never ending energy and enthusiasm definitely gave me a lot of strength to

10 address different problems, take risks and find inspiration. By starting a PhD project with lots of travelling, fieldwork trips and sometimes very irregular work schedule I challenged my children, Ivano and Daniele, who accepted it and took it with a lot of patience and compassion. For this I am very grateful and hope that they had a chance to learn many new things together with me in this process. Finally, I want to mention the role of two cute furry creatures, my cats Giulia and Olivka, who would never read these lines and neither understand what is this work about, but who always knew when to come and keep me company to relief my stress.

11 INTRODUCTION

Both decolonization processes in Africa and Asia and the dissolution of the Socialist bloc offered the scholarly community a wide range of case studies, through which nation-building and national identity formation processes could be studied, in most of the cases from an allegedly similar starting point. Some of those processes appeared to be more challenging than others, as many new countries were dealing with multi-ethnic societies, where ethnic conflicts had been ignored, silenced or sedated in the past (Smith 1991). A number of scholars were primarily interested in the development of nationalism in countries where such conflicts started to take place (see for example cases of former Yugoslavia, Georgia, Moldova, Nagorny Karabakh, Chechnya). At the same time, a large number of academic works explored the dynamics of nation-building processes, which newly (re)emerging countries were experiencing after gaining their independence. During the first years (since the new countries appeared on the world map), when exploring the way nations were conceived, the majority of those inquiries, seeing nation- building as a top-down process, concentrated on the role of formal actors, like the state, its institutions and elites (Arel 1995; Brubaker 1996, 2011; Kuzio & D'Anieri 2002; Kolstø 2000; Smith 1998). Such studies presented the state as the main actor producing discourse on a nation. While from one side, this top-down approach definitely contributes to a deeper understanding of how nations are being formed, which policies are needed for and which ones could impede the construction of a nation, it ignores another part of this process, which contributes equally to the success of nation-building and is about understanding how the feeling of national belonging is being formed among ordinary people. When exploring nationalism, Eric Hobsbawm (1990) gives importance to both political and social transformations and argues that though nations are usually constructed in a top- down direction they cannot exist and be understood without giving importance to bottom-up actors. Weak states continued to exist and both new conflicts and old ones continued to emerge and escalate in the post-socialist region (Lynch 2002; Walker 1998). In search of alternative explanations related to nation formation processes, a new body of literature started to appear. These works so far have highlighted the role of non- formal actors and presented the nation-building process rather as a synergy between formal actions of the state and informal everyday ones of those who stand outside of it (e.g. Isaacs & Polese 2016; Ishkanian 2008; Richardson 2004; Uhlin 2006; Williams et al. 2013). Their main contribution involves diffusing the exclusive focus on political elites and demonstrating that when studying how nations are being constructed more attention should be dedicated to the formation of national identity -- a process in which a variety of actors participate. Most often they have discussed the roles played by educative organizations, civil society, media, the entrepreneurship sector, and popular culture. Among such actors there are also ordinary people, who, usually via their everyday practices or in some cases when taking active civil positions in a moment of crisis (e.g. on the role of people in

12 Color Revolutions phenomena see O'Beachain & Polese 2010a, 2010b), can also have an impact on the way in which the idea of nation is being interpreted and further developed. In the case of the post-Soviet societies, personal and group identities (re)formation process at the level of mundane life was first of all characterized by the trauma of losing a number of previous identification references (Boym 2002; Laitin 1998; Sztompka 2004; Wanner 2010), which simply ceased to exist with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One could call it an identity crisis period, similar to what Anthony Giddens (1982) noted in capitalist societies, where after the WWII identity references (e.g. ethnic or socio-demographic) ceased accurately reflecting one's identity. People started to look for alternative economic or lifestyle markers, which provoked the diffusion of consumerism. Thus worldwide a body of literature on cultural importance of consumption for social identities started to develop rapidly (see works of Baudrillard , Bourdieu). Scholars pointed that people were crafting their personal and group identities around their consumption practices (Miller 1995, 2005; Wilk 1999), often using material objects as extensions of their ego-projects (Belk 2013). In the post-Soviet context a number of sociological and anthropological works concentrated on changes in personal self-perceptions, pointing to the 1990s identity crisis and the resulting active search for alternative identity markers (Blum 2007; Burawoy 2000; Bridger & Pine 1998; Humphrey 2002; Humphrey & Mandel 2002; Rausing 2004; Wanner 2010). At the national level, new markers were not immediately available, and even if conceived by the state, were not automatically accepted. The notion of social class, existing under socialist regimes was also under renegotiation and religious references were still rather weak. Scholars have pointed out that in these situations, people were looking for new markers that would be promptly and relatively easily accessible to them. The introduction of the market economy offered a number of tools needed to fill the void left by the previous systems' destructive processes (Humphrey 2002; Humphrey & Mandel 2002; Pilkington 2002; Rausing 2002a, 2002b). A new face of consumer culture made available a variety of material objects and services for consumption, objects previously nonexistent or at least not available to the public in such societies (Allaste 2013; Gurova 2014; Patico & Caldwell 2002; Pilkington 2002; Oushakine 2000; Seliverstova 2016). Since early 1990s, a practice of consumption changed not only in practical terms, but also gained a new symbolical power. In a way, “acts of consumption (are) [became] imagined as symbolic work in the reflexive project of the self, communicating to others messages of identity, belonging and distinction” (Cronin 2005:1). Participating in consumer culture of capitalist order1 and making use of new material objects was usually associated with the lifestyles in more developed Western societies and therefore, consumption as a practice took on the symbolic meaning of becoming closer to the West – to the abstract, imagined place, where

1 See Chernyshova (2013) or Gurova (2006), Gronow (2003) for discussion of consumer culture in conditions of planned economy order.

13 life was considered to be 'more normal' (Fehervary 2002; Rausing 2002b; Yurchak 2013). Some experts on the region observed that that period was characterized by, from one side, reckless consumption of all that suddenly became available on the previously empty shelves, especially of Western commodities (Caldwell 2004; Kalmus et al. 2009; Patico 2008); and from another side, by a severe loss in citizens’ savings and jobs, accompanied by a difficult period of adaptation to the new conditions of the market economy (Humphrey 2002; Laitin 1998). Such economic and social transformations at the level of everyday life, experienced by ordinary people, remain very scarcely researched in connection to macro factors, like formation of national identity. In particular, studies that addressed how national identity formation was affected by the introduction to a market economy and new features of consumer culture are also still very rare when speaking of the post- socialist region.

14 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Having identified the gaps existing in literature on post-Soviet formation of national identity, this research aims first of all to continue to give attention to the under explored everyday representations of nationalism. In particular, it aspires to shed light on the way national identity has been and continues to be crafted by ordinary people, when affected not only by political factors, but also by economic ones. Keeping the focus on the everyday representations of nationalism, this work raises a broad question about the role of consumer culture in the process of the formation of national identity in the post-Soviet region and what we can learn about a nation through the prism of consumer culture. Though studies, adopting such an approach already exist, especially in the Western context (Bauman 2004; Edensor 2002; Trentmann 2001; Zepf 2010), there are still very few involving the region of interest. Moreover, scholars who concentrated solely on material or consumer culture in the post-Socialist region have already shown that these societies have a particular attitude towards material things, mainly shaped by the constant shortages characteristic to the Soviet regime’s planned economy (Bartlett 2010; Chernyshova 2013; Gronow 2003; Gurova 2006; Yurchak 2013). Prompted by the legacy of 'post-Soviet materialism', the role of objects became crucial in moving the concept of nation from the ideological to the tangible sphere. In other words, it has the potential to illustrate the materialization of a nation. Accordingly, more attention to material and consumer cultures can lead to some new accounts on the formation of identity at the national level in the region. Since the data collected for this research comes from two multi-ethnic societies, where the accommodation of ethnic/language minorities remains a relatively unsolved issue, the more specific question of this work is: How do different ethnic/language groups relate themselves to a common national category through consumer culture? When talking about how people with different ethnic/language background experience political and economic transformations, consumer culture can reveal some alternative form of nationalism and illustrate how taken-for- granted categories are being interpreted by ordinary people. In particular, this research refers to the role in the national identity formation process of Russian speakers living in post-Soviet countries other than Russia. The role of Russian ethnic/language minorities in former Soviet countries has been regarded in a new light since the outbreak of the military conflict in Donbas (Eastern Ukraine) and the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation. Taking such events into consideration, some scholars and experts noticed a new vector in the development of Ukrainian nationalism (Kulyk 2014, 2016; Polyakova 2014; Shekhovtsov & Umland 2014) and observed some agitation and concerns about national cohesion in other post-Soviet countries, especially those like Estonia which shares a border with the Russian Federation and thus boasts a large Russian-speaking community (Braw 2015; Pfoser 2015). However, for a better understanding of the problematics of this research, a more detailed introduction to the context of the two selected case-studies is needed.

15 UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

ACCOMMODATION OF RUSSIAN SPEAKING POPULATION SINCE THE DISSOLUTION OF THE USSR Estonia and Ukraine are among those countries which, after (re)gaining their independence 25 years ago, had to deal with multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies when constructing their nations. If during Soviet times ethnic conflicts had been silenced there, the years of freedom opened the potential for vulnerability in that sense – the possibility for such conflicts to arise. The presence of large ethnic group minorities was one of the major challenges to finding an appropriate strategy for building a nation in Ukraine. In Estonia the first steps of nation-building were based first of all on restoration of the model of Estonian society and state, which existed in the pre-WWII years. However, several years later when the country was still having a considerable percentage of stateless residents, mostly Russian speakers, the topic of accommodation of Russian speaking population within the concept of Estonian nation became a much more vital for local political elites. It is important to note in the beginning that what stands behind the concept of ‘Russian speaker’ differs across post-Soviet countries. In Estonia, a Russian speaker is a person who considers the Russian language as a mother tongue and is usually not of Estonian ethnic origin. A 'Russian' might be a person with ethnic roots from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and even countries with a more different cultural background, like Georgia or Armenia. Still, the majority of Russian speakers in Estonia are ethnic Russians and they account for about 25% of the local population, while other representatives of the Russian speaking community account for a little bit less than 3% in total2. In popular discourses on the Estonian nation, Russian speakers are either absent or are often viewed as a 'legacy' of the Soviet period, and hence not 'natural'(native) to Estonia and its people (Jordan 2014; Wulf 2016). As for language status, the Russian language does not have any official status; as Pavlenko (2006) states, together with the other two Baltic states, Estonia follows “a single language policy with the titular language as the main language both de jure and de facto” (p.84). In Ukraine, the definition of ‘Russian speaker’ is even more biased. Some mainstream quantitative studies on Ukrainian nationalism, which appeared in the first decade after Ukraine's independence, showed a tendency to generalize, splitting Ukraine into two parts – Nationalist Ukrainian West and pro-Russian East (Arel 1995; Katchanovski 2006; Kubicek 2000; Riabchuk 2003). Later, some qualitative accounts showed that the actual division of Ukrainian society is much more complex (Cheskin 2016; Koziura 2014; Polese & Wylegala 2008). Besides there being a large presence of ethnic Russians, many ethnic Ukrainians, as Wanner

2 Data taken from Estonia Statistics: http://www.stat.ee/34278/ Last accessed 17.09.2016.

16 (1998) states, were ‘russified’.3 Moreover, in many western and central parts of Ukraine, which in public surveys and censuses appear as Ukrainian-speaking regions, people actually very often speak a mixed Ukrainian-Russian language known as surzhyk4 (Bilaniuk 2004; Flier 1998). A typical situation for Ukraine might be an ethnic Ukrainian being a Russian speaker; or the reverse – a native Ukrainian speaker not having any ethnic Ukrainian roots, but still strongly identifying him/herself with Ukraine and being accepted by others as Ukrainian. The largest number of citizens identifying themselves as ethnic Russians reside in the east and south of the country. However, the identity dynamics in Ukraine are also characterized by a switch of identities, which with every year in numerical data results in a decrease in population of ethnic Russians. Several scholars have observed (Polese & Wylegala 2008; Stebelsky 2009) that over time more and more people have started to identify themselves as Ukrainian, a trend that is now also supplemented by the increase in people who claim to have Ukrainian as a mother tongue. Ukraine has much lower level of disagreement concerning the legal status of the Russian language (Pavlenko 2006) compared to Estonia, and as a recent public survey of Kiev International Institute of Sociology shows, could be still considered a de facto bilingual country5.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF NATION FORMATION PROCESSES IN ESTONIA AND UKRAINE Every person residing within the Ukrainian territory at the moment the country gained its independence was granted the right to obtain Ukrainian citizenship, while in Estonia, the pre-1940 citizenship law was (re)introduced, which automatically excluded the majority of the Russian-speaking population from being considered Estonian citizens (Jacobson 2006). Only later, in 1995 the right to obtain Estonian citizenship through naturalization process was granted to residents with a different than Estonian ethnic origin (see for more details Barrington 2000). In addition to citizenship law, in 1992 Ukraine adopted a Law on National Minorities, which granted equal political, social, economic and cultural rights to all citizens, regardless of their ethnic origins (Koziura 2014). The only condition of this legal act was to stay loyal to Ukraine and respect its sovereignty (Kuzio 2002). Under this law, ethnic Russians were recognized as a national minority.

3 The entire metropolitan area of Odessa being Russian speaking testifies to this statement. 4 A language that is not recognized as official and therefore is not included as an option in census and public surveys. 5 According to the recent survey commissioned by Ammon Cheskin and conducted by Kiev International Institute of Sociology in 2014, 84.4% of respondents claim full understanding of the Russian language, while the remaining 16% understand it at a different level. Ukrainian is understood completely by 78.3% and is used exclusively only by 22.3% in their daily life. The statistics on the use of the Russian language looks very similar, with 23.5% of those who use it exclusively and only 14.6% who claim to never switch to it in the everyday life.

17 In Estonia, a similar Law on National Minorities Cultural Autonomy was adopted in 1993 and then amended in 2002. According to the latter one, citizens of Estonia who have other than Estonian ethnic origin, language, religion and culture have the right to “establish cultural autonomy in order to achieve the cultural rights given to them by the constitution.” (Extract from Law on Cultural Autonomy for National Minorities, Chapter 1). However, the problem is that some Russians remain citizenship-less in Estonia, and if now they account only for about 6% of population according to the last Population Register of Ministry of the Interior6, in the beginning of 1990s they constituted about 30% and therefore were not falling into the categories described by the above mentioned law on national minorities. This also takes into account those Russian speakers who chose to acquire citizenship other than Estonian, but remained residing in Estonia. At the same time, both states took steps to integrate their ethnic minorities. In 2000 the Estonian government adopted the State Integration Program for the period of 2000–2007, which then was prolonged till 2013 and followed by a strategy of integration plan dubbed “Integrating Estonia 2020”. The main goals of such programs were: the reduction of the number of residents with undetermined citizenship by assisting their acquisition of Estonian language skills and incorporating the interests of ethnic minorities into common information space. The results of such initiatives were analyzed and presented in the recent study Estonian Society Monitoring 20157. In comparison to Estonia, Ukraine lacks such state-funded integration programs, however, one might argue that they are less needed there because of the citizenship law of November 1991. Integration issues concern rather new migrants who moved to Ukraine in the course of the last 25 years. Moreover, in order to accommodate the needs of national ethnic minorities, including ethnic Russians, under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych in 2012, Russian together with other 16 languages received the status of ‘regional languages’ in a number of regions and other administrative units of Ukraine. This implied permission to use a regional language in public administration, courts and the education sphere (Kulyk 2013a, 2013b). At first glance, it seemed clear that Ukraine and Estonia were committed to following two different paths with respect to defining their nation-building strategies, namely nationalizing the state for Estonia (Brubaker 1996, 2011) and civic nation building for Ukraine (Kuzio 2001, 2002; Shulman 2004). With time, however, Estonian and Ukrainian nation formation processes appeared to be more nuanced and complex in that under certain conditions, both countries showed the tendency to appropriate elements of each other’s strategies. Thus, under pressure of

6 For further details see: http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/society/citizenship.html Last accessed 20.09.2016 7 Raivo Vetik, Raivo, Kristina Kallas, Jüri Kruusvall, Ellu Saar, Jelena Helemäe, Cenely Leppik, Laura Kirss, Külliki Seppel, Kats Kivisitik and Pille Ubakivi-Hadachi. (2015). “Estonian Society Monitoring 2015”. Eesti Kultuurministeerium. Available at:http://www.kul.ee/sites/kulminn/files/ kokkuvoteeim_2015_en.pdf

18 the international community and also out of the need to not undermine the country's security (Kuus 2002), Estonia introduced a number of regulations which facilitated the integration of Russian speakers and reevaluated the official national narrative, giving it a more civic look at least in formal speeches and documents. In Ukraine, the Ukrainization process was largely based on the importance of the Ukrainian language, as the only official one, and promoted values that were associated primarily with a titular ethnic group (Kuzio 2002; Wolczuk 2000). One of the major reforms related to Ukrainization that probably affected the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine the most was a complete switch to the Ukrainian language in the education sector (Janmaat 1999; Masenko 2004). This was regarded by some experts as discriminating against the Russian-speaking population (eg Arel 1995; Fournier 2002). At the same time, in practice, the Ukrainian language was never an exclusive language even for ethnic Ukrainians – Russian is still widely spoken, especially on an informal level, including in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine (Cheskin 2016; Kulyk 2014). Recently, however, and in particular after the Euromaidan events, more and more people insist on speaking Ukrainian or becoming bilingual in their everyday life (Kulyk 2014; Pogrebinskiy 2015). Foreign policies also very often played a decisive role when political elites needed to further solidify their national communities. Both its history and its geographic position (between East and West) as well as its economic dependency on Russian energy resources contributed to Ukraine’s continuous process of mediation between the nationalistic West and the pro-Russian East and South of the country (Prizel 1998). One could say that this in between position has eradicated (at least temporarily) the probability of civil protests and the emergence of separatist ambitions. The exception might be the 1992 Crimean parliament vote for the independence of Crimea, but in that case the Ukrainian government soon managed to find a compromise, giving the peninsula the status of an autonomous republic while still keeping it within the territory of Ukraine (Kolstø & Edemsky 1995). Once again independent, Estonia immediately took a European direction in terms of foreign policy (Feldmann 2001; Mole 2012). This turn towards Europe was projected in official speeches first of all as a return to the European family to which the country used to belong before it was incorporated into the Soviet Union (Ehin 2016; Feldmann 2001; Jansen 2008; Jordan 2014). In particular, the speeches and strategies of Estonian political elites evoked historic ties with Scandinavian countries8 (Burch & Smith 2007; Rosengren et al. 1997), which later evolved into a well-organized campaign, branding Estonia as a Nordic country (Jordan 2014; Pawlusz & Polese 2017; Pryce 2011). Several scholars described this move as a return to 'normality' (Rausing 2004, 2002b) -- a restoration of a previous way of life as well as a search for better security (Kuus 2002). Following this idea, in contrast

8 See for more details the speeches of Lennart Meri to the Royal Institute of International Relations, Palais D'Egmont Brussels, 1992, http;//vp1992-2001.vpk.ee/eng/k6ned/ K6ned.asp&ID=9516, last access 21.09.2016 as well as the speech by Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Estonia as a Nordic Country, 2005. http//www.vm.ee/&q=node/3489, last access 22.09.2016

19 to Ukraine, national consciousness in Estonia was meant not only to be built, but also restored, by looking into its European roots – thereby reviving Estonian ethos. The same line was followed when dealing with the interpretation of the Estonian past under the Soviet regime. The distancing from the Soviet life, rejecting its impact on the local mentality and culture, and finally shaping of collective memory with the central idea that years within the Soviet Union were years under occupation (Annus 2012; Jordan 2014; Wulf 2016), informed identity construction at the national level. As Rausing (2004) concluded, “the process of covering up ''Sovietness'' and enacting familiarity with the West and Western objects was an important mechanism of the reformation of [Estonian] identity” (p.2). However, the reanimation of pre-1940 Estonian-ness and Europeanness was familiar mostly to ethnic Estonians and some minor ethnic communities, like Finns and Swedes. The nordicization of the national discourse of Estonia was completely alien to residents of Estonia who were representatives of a mix of Russian and Soviet culture (Pryce 2011). The majority of Russian speakers, who had moved to Estonia already during the Soviet times, were automatically left without any role/place in these processes, except of being associated with the Soviet occupants (Masso 2010; Vetik 1993; Wulf 2016). In Ukraine, the interpretation of Soviet times was in general not as negative as in Estonia, though the theme of collective suffering under different regimes and empires was also central in shaping the national discourse in Ukraine (Kuzio 2005; Richardson 2004; Snyder 2003). Especially during the presidencies of Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych, avoiding strong statements against the Soviet past was part of a strategy not to distance the nation too far from Russia (Kuzio & D'Anieri 2002; Prizel 1998; Rumer 1994). This protocol was maintained until the outbreak of the Euromaidan protests, the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of a military conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which all caused “the main changes on various levels of Ukrainian nationalism” (Kulyk 2014:95). According to academic literature on Ukraine that mushroomed as a reaction to the socio-political crisis of the country in 2014-2015, current developments of identity in Ukraine are in a way more similar to those which Estonia experienced in the beginning of its independence after 1991. If before Ukrainians were mediating between Russia, West and the Soviet past (Shulman 1998), now, young nationals in particular seem to be more determined in their views of Ukraine's future and their role in it (Diuk 2014; Kulyk 2014). However, it is important to remember that such views are still not homogeneous across Ukraine. As some recent surveys on public opinion showed (e.g. Ukraine Crisis Media Center report 2014; Pew Research Center Report on Ukrainian Crisis 2015), a significant number of Ukrainian citizens are not that tempted to become more 'European' and instead prefer good relations with Russia and even feel

20 nostalgic for Soviet times9. This also signifies a further increase in differences (not only of generational character) among Ukrainians and represents a real risk for a further split within Ukrainian society. In Estonia, despite the fact that since 1991 many Russian speakers have been assimilated into Estonian culture, the differences in public opinions, views on culture, politics and economic situation between the titular population and the Russian speaking community still exist and thus mark the division of Estonian society (Kivirahk 2014). The political and social involvement of Russian speakers is much lower compared to that of Estonian speakers, and the same pattern is reflected in the attitudes to the state and its various institutions (Estonian Society Monitoring 2015). The only official language – Estonian – also as a rather ethnicized official view of Estonian culture provides a limited access for people who identify themselves also with other languages and cultures (Cheskin 2013; Pfosner 2014). Though the potential of an escalation of conflict between ethnic Estonians and Russian speakers was disproved by a variety of recent surveys and academic works, some scholars observed that in places in which the division on the basis of language or ethnicity is more visible/present, these two communities continue to live as if in parallel realities (Brüggemann & Kasekamp 2008; Ehala 2009; Vetik & Helemäe 2011), rarely intersecting with each other even in everyday life. The difference in media sources to which Russian and Estonian speaking population are exposed plays an important role for the division of Estonian society (Jacobson et al.2010; Vihalemm 1999). Russian speakers consume mostly media produced in Russia, while Estonians watch Estonian or other foreign channels (Dougherty and Kaljurand 2015). Thus a shared sense of community, which is needed for the consolidation of the Estonian nation, is still lacking. Such a context leads one to think that some top-down initiatives related to the consolidation of nation did not work as expected and that there are issues that continue to be unresolved, threatening the territorial and social integrity in such countries. In order to understand the nature of these problems, it behooves us to continue to look more closely at the previously ignored, everyday sphere of nation- making. Some recent works on Ukrainian nationalism have already started to demonstrate the value of using a bottom-up approach when researching how people shape and use their national and ethnic identifications (Knott 2015; Koziura 2014; Kulyk 2014). In a worldwide literature scholars have developed already an influential amount of works that demonstrated how findings about national belonging taken from the bottom-up perspective, make the idea of nation less

9 According to the Pew Research Center, about 60% in eastern Ukraine see Russia as an enemy, comparing to 80% in the West. About 18% of those in the East express the need for stronger ties with Russia and consider them to be more important than those with Europe and US (the survey represented about 80% of the Ukrainian population, not taking into account Luhansk, Donetsk regions and Crimea, where opinions on Russia might be much more positive than in the rest of Ukraine). Source: http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/06/10/3-ukrainian-public-opinion-dissatisfied- with-current-conditions-looking-for-an-end-to-the-crisis/ Last access 20.09.2016

21 abstract. This research adds to this emerging body of literature. Ideas of Michael Billig (1995) on banal nationalism, Tim Edensor (2002) on the role of popular culture and settings of everyday life in the formation of national identity, and then studies by Fox (2006, 2016), Foster (2002, 2005), Antonsich (2015), and Skey (2010, 2011), which focused on how the concept of nation is getting interpreted and materialized by ordinary actors in their everyday life, will all be key to the exploration of bottom-up national identity formation processes discussed in this research.

22 OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY AND ITS LIMITATIONS

Given the interest of this research to inquire into processes of how national identity is experienced and re-negotiated by ordinary citizens, which assumes detailed answers on 'how' questions; and given the tradition of previous studies on everyday nationalism, which so far have been associated with qualitative methods of analysis, a qualitative interpretivist approach was defined as the most appropriate one when tailoring the relevant methodology for this study. The core idea of an interpretivist qualitative approach is to give the researcher a set of tools which would enable him/her to understand how “people together construct and reconstruct meaning, as they act and interact...[and how] Through unexpected events and, more often, mundane routines, meanings emerge and become shared” by large communities of people (Charmaz in foreword to Prus 1996:xiii). Interpretivists do not rely on taken- for-granted assumptions and categorizations, like a nation or ethnic group are, however, they take them into account as they are interested in how people interpret, operate and identify themselves with such assumptions (Yanow & Schwartz-Shea 2012). Like in this research, in which data was collected mainly through ethnographic methods like semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the results show that though people operate and identify themselves with taken-for- granted categorizations, like nation or ethnic group, they do it in their own way, based on multiple non-political factors. The meaning and the value of such categories vary from one person to another, and might be interpreted or performed differently according to the moment and the type of context (Condor 2010). Without a doubt, such an approach has a number of limitations. Very often it might be criticized for being scientifically inadequate and having high level of subjectivity (see discussions on such criticism, e.g. Prus 1996; Schatz 2009; Yanow-Schwartz- Shea 2006, 2012), however, such criticism is not that relevant, as it is usually made using the criteria of a positivist scientific approach. According to Burawoy (1998), to criticize a particular approach from a different paradigm is inappropriate. Points of focus for interpretivists and positivists lie on opposite poles. While for positivists is important to measure and produce objective, generalizing data, interpretivists aim to demonstrate the reality and meanings that cannot be measured (Finlayson et al. 2004). They present how ordinary people see the world around them and not how we, who analyze people's behavior, see and categorize them (Brubaker 2006). In this research, methodological instruments were carefully selected in order to show how people interpret political assumptions related to nation and demonstrate that in some cases, people can not only accept/reject instructions on national markers, channeled through official discourses of political elites, but also create alternative ones which they find more acceptable and which represent the ways in which they want to be seen as a national community. For political science, such an approach is not very common, however, it was to some extent popularized by studies that wanted first of all to promote people's agency in political science or by those that

23 were aiming to discover informal aspects of various socio-political processes. Edward Schatz promoted the use of ethnographic methods in political science because, as he and a number of other political scientists (i.e. Burawoy, 2000; Navaro-Yashin 2002; Kubik 2009; Tilly 2006) have showed, they can give a political scholar the possibility to see how politics work in everyday life (Baiocchi & Connor 2008:141; Wedeen 2010) and to question the assumptions operating in traditional works of political science.

24 STRUCTURE OF DISSERTATION AND MAIN RESULTS

Approaching the core of this research, but before revealing more details on theoretical stances and methodological tools applied here, the next paragraphs will clarify how the four publications included in this dissertation answer the research questions of this study and what kind of new perspectives on national identity formation they reveal. The first paper10 on everyday nation-building in the post-Soviet space continues a methodological discussion started in the analytical part of this thesis. Analyzing existing studies on the post-Soviet region regarding national identity and focusing on their methodological lenses, it identifies that most of them relied on quantitative data and so far have ignored the everyday side of identity formation processes. It starts from the assumption that political realm of national identity is different from the one of everyday life, in which it is much more nuanced. Using the empirical data of two case studies – on consumption and national identity in Ukraine and of music and nation-building in Estonia11 -- this paper informs its readers first of all about which factors can affect data interpretation process, like the identity of researcher, the physical settings of interviews and the overall context in which the research is done. The discussion demonstrates the differences between the political realm of national identity and everyday life, where the meaning of national identity is never fixed and never experienced in the same way. It advocates for the use of an interpretive approach in political science and shows the value of the researcher's ability to reflect on his/her own position in the research. The next paper starts to build a theoretical bridge between studies on national identity and those which explored various aspects of consumer culture, identifying what kind of impact it has on the formation of individual and collective identities. This piece of work relies considerably on literature, the discussion of which was started in the first paper, but instead of focusing on the methodological lenses, it highlights the theoretical contributions. Starting from ideas on banal nationalism, moving on to consumer citizenship, and then presenting the first empirical results derived from data collected in L'viv (Ukraine), this paper shows how the feeling of national belonging gets shaped through the everyday consumption practices. This paper also engages in the debate on the role of Russian speakers and identifies how they and in this case - Ukrainian speakers - associate themselves with a common category defined in national terms through material and consumer cultures. The results of this work show that differences in degrees of acceptance of official

10 This is a co-authored publication together with Emilia Barbara Pawlusz. Contribution of each author is valuated as an equal proportion. O.Seliverstova equally participated in writing the manuscipt's introduction, theoretical part and conclusion. The empirical part on Ukrainian case- study was written only by O. Seliverstova, while the case study on Estonia was described by E. Pawlusz. 11 This case study refers to the study of Emilia Barbara Pawlusz.

25 national symbols and use of the unofficial ones point rather to a variety of ways, more acceptable for each group, in which people associate themselves with a common national category. Although the official discourse makes the Ukrainian language the main marker of national identity, Russian speakers, though usually being able to speak Ukrainian, prefer to look for other identity markers that can point to their Ukraine-ness and here consumer culture comes as an ideal realm for such markers. Such conclusions were made after a detailed exploration of objects and practices that were not originally national in scope, but were infused with national meanings by ordinary people in the course of their mundane consumption practices. While the second paper gives examples of how national identity is being interpreted, practiced and shaped by ordinary people, describing their concrete actions, which also help to manifest the concept of a nation, the third paper explains the process that lies behind those actions. In particular it focuses on the imagination of a nation, the imagination of the other and on the role of material objects which help this imagination to emerge, then to maintain and in the end to make it a collective phenomenon. It is about material evidence of imagination, which can be traced in simple everyday practices, like home decoration, listening to music, and the procurement and wearing of clothing. Taking the case study of home-making traditions, which grew in Ukraine mostly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this work demonstrates how the imagination and imitation of the other, or of the life of the other (in this case of the 'West' and the imagination of life in western countries) in the end affects the way people imagine themselves. Such processes lead to the formation of certain local group identity markers, which later become unofficial references for the current national identity in Ukraine. The data selected for this paper reveal how some objects and practices acquire symbolic meanings and how later they become even more important by becoming well recognized markers of large group identities. Theoretically, starting from the idea of Anderson (1991) about the imagination of a nation, it looks for other tools for imagination existing beyond Anderson's focus on the role of media, thereby exploring material culture and renovation/decoration practices related to home. In the literature review section, this paper engages in a debate with other academic works that explored the transformation of individual and collective identities through the lens of everyday life since the break-up of the USSR. Though such works have already pointed to the way people experience political and economic transformations and how they accommodate their identities to new conditions, their insights are still not taken into account when nation-building processes in the region of interest are being discussed. An added value of this work is that it raises questions about Ukrainian people’s willingness to become more western, more European, which became more of a pertinent issue in the aftermath of the Euromaidan protests. This could indeed explain some current developments of national identity not only in Ukraine, but also in other post-Soviet countries, where people strive to become closer to Europe by

26 acquiring new patterns as consumers and changing their lifestyles according to how they imagine “European” standards. The fourth paper continues to focus on how citizens who identify themselves with groups of different ethnic/language background can all participate in the formation of one collective identity. In particular it shows the role of Russian speakers in the construction of the Estonian nation. The paper does not employ the traditional portrayal of the role of Russian speakers found in works involving identity in Estonia, which often positions Russian speakers as Others against which the national identity in Estonia is being shaped (Pawlusz 2016; Petersoo 2007; Vihalemm & Masso 2007). On the contrary, this paper shows how they contribute to the formation of a nation, how they develop feelings of attachment to Estonia as a country and as a nation. While Estonians might emphasize the ethnocultural character of their national identity, Russian speakers who acknowledge and maintain their sense of belonging to Russian culture, but at the same time feel part of Estonian society, are able to generate new identity markers through consumer culture. They expand the variety of unofficial symbols associated with the Estonian nation. By exploring the symbolic meanings of some Estonian food products and food practices, this paper shows how the nation gets materialized and how it becomes more open to a group, which is usually excluded from traditional narratives on Estonian nation. In the framework of this thesis, this paper serves as a validation of the main argument, which is first discussed in the second paper through the case-study of L'viv. It shows how food consumption becomes an area where national meanings are being negotiated, established and performed. On a theory level, first it continues to establish a link between national identity and consumer culture, largely relying on previous works on consumer citizenship; and second, it contributes to the body of literature that discusses the importance of food for the formation of individual, collective and national/ethnic identities. The conclusions of this paper replicate the ones made in the paper on the case-study of L'viv, thus showing that the same concepts could be applied in another context and patterns observed in Western Ukraine also exist among residents of the Estonian capital. Like in the case-study of L'viv, respondents from both groups usually imagine practices of others as being different from theirs, whereas in reality, their practices very often overlap or are very similar. At the same time, those differences in patterns of practices associated mostly with Russian speakers should not point automatically to their non-identification with Estonia, as some previous studies showed (Vihalemm & Keller 2011). On the contrary, inquiries on everyday life show that even when contesting the leading narrative, Russian speakers can still identify themselves with Estonia and its national community. Such choice of being associated with Estonian society they demonstrate through their mundane practices, among which there are also consumer ones. The results of this article say that, though ethnic Estonians are considered to have greater national capital than

27 Estonian Russian speakers, both groups participate in creation of new identity markers and perceive their behaviour as that of Estonian citizens. All together, these four papers show that people are important actors in the nation- building process. They do not follow blindly the narrative proposed by the state, and national symbols are not accepted automatically. The ways in which people express their national identity are much more nuanced and blurred than they are thought to be according to the state ideas. For example, a non-acceptance of official symbols does not signify a lack of loyalty and association with a particular nation. In Ukraine, though language is considered to be the main pillar for identity at the national level, a large presence of Russian-speaking people who might still associate strongly themselves with Ukraine proves that though it is important, language does not determine one’s national position. The same goes for official national symbols: those selected by political elites sometimes cannot accommodate the preferences of all groups within one nation, and moreover, they very often become a matter of dispute. Rather than ignoring or passively rejecting the official symbols, people turn into creative nation makers by looking for alternative symbols in their everyday environment. They choose ones that might be more neutral, that have fewer references to some particular ethnic group, but that are still able to symbolize the country they live in and be a reference when developing their feeling of national belonging. All four publications say that, after more than 20 years of focusing on nation- building and the role of political actors in it, more attention should be paid to other actors in this process, as they are the ones who might be more important not for the formation, but for the solidification and further existence of a nation. Their salient role in this process makes the use of a bottom-up research approach an obvious choice for scholars involved in this topic, insofar as it is able to highlight the nuanced ways in which the concept of nation is being experienced by ordinary people. Such an approach is particularly useful when trying to understand how often taken-for-granted notions of ethnicity, nationality and citizenship are being interpreted and experienced at the level of mundane life. The insights on the everyday use of such concepts show some discrepancies that exist between official discourses and what people perceive and experience in their daily life. The next two sections will describe in more detail the methodological approach and the theoretical path chosen for this work.

28 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY

1.1. NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE STUDIES OF EVERYDAY NATIONALISM It is believed that various factors like globalization or the existence of supra- national forms of governance move people away from identity markers like ethnicity, culture and even religion, which used to be associated with well-defined categories (Bonikowski & Gheihman 2015; Cronin 2005; Giddens 1985; Fox 2016). Current individual and group identities appear to be much more multidimensional, dynamic and flexible, but also more fragile, which makes it even more complicated to understand them. In an atmosphere of readily available, often excessive information, quick social changes and an expansion of the range of life-choices, the feeling of uncertainty stimulates people to stick to some (to certain degree) stable aspects of identity (Edensor 2002:25). The rise of public nationalist sentiments in developed societies, similar to the appearance of new international or ethnic conflicts, demonstrates that national identity, which is often taken for granted as something fixed, is still one of those parts of identity that people try to maintain (Skey 2011:27) and to fight for (Connor 1994). Thus in the 21st century, nation remains a dominant socio-political construct. In this situation, the main task of today’s scholars working on the topic of nationalism should first of all be to take interest in how nations are reproduced and how development of other social identities is intervening with the process of maintaining one’s national identity (Brubaker 2004, 2011; Kolstø at the ASN-Vilnius, 2016).

1.1.1. Looking for truth about nation and national identity It is still very difficult to find consensus on the definition of nation, and as Brubaker and Cooper (2000) argued, the lack of fixed understandings of nation and national identity makes using them as analytical lenses more and more pointless. The overwhelming number of existing definitions proves that nation is a complex subject that requires a multifarious study approach (Giddens 1995; Smith 1991). The traditional conceptual approaches to the origins of nations fall into two main categories – primordial (Connor 1994, 1997; Geertz 1973, 1994; Van den Berghe 1978, 1995) and modernist (Anderson 1991; Gellner 1983, 1991; Hobsbawm 1990a, 1990b). For primordialists, participation in a national group strictly depends on kinship and therefore nations are defined as an ancient, fixed phenomena. The main limitation of such a view is that national communities are then static and homogeneous and thus fail to explain the nature of national upheavals, ethnic conflicts and differences in ethnic/national sentiments. They focus rather on the origins of a nation, but do not engage in discussions of why nationalism very often serves as a driving force for conflicts in some places and in others not (Horowitz 2002). Modernists view nations, on the contrary, as modern constructs. The majority of them sees nations as a social condition, which addresses the needs

29 caused by the arrival of industrialization. Standardization of local cultures and languages, the spread of literacy and the centralization of power were among the most important pillars discussed as foundations of modern nations. Such studies have acknowledged that nation is not a stable phenomenon or ideology, and people's identification with it cannot be analyzed as a fixed part “within the body or the mind of individual” (Billig 1995:7). It is rather a continuous process with a complex structure, which is why the focus in the following studies shifted to nation- building and national identity formation processes. Former colonial spaces, like the post-Soviet region, offer relevant cases for testing the social constructivist paradigms of such theories. However, nowadays the school of modernist thought is being criticized mainly for being too functionalist. Overemphasizing political and economic factors contributing to nationalism, it fails to explain the non-rational, emotional part of identity formation processes. Later, however, when the initial changes brought by industrialization processes were already to some extent sedimented, post-modernists shifted their attention from political and social processes to cultural ones, in particular those employed in everyday life. Nonetheless, questions on irrational behavior in national terms, on the in-out-group dynamics, and on the impact of the interaction between ethnic and national social identities and other ones still remain unanswered. While earlier literature on nation and nationalism concentrated mainly on two phases of nation, namely its birth – origin of the nations, and its construction – and the nation-building process, more contemporary research focuses on the next stage experienced by many current national communities: nations' reproduction and maintenance, in particular in such micro domain as everyday life. To this body of literature one can relate works on everyday nationalism, which started to proliferate since the end of the 20th century. This scholarship so far has presented formation of a nation and national identity as even more nuanced processes, which get different interpretations and visualizations by different of people. Works on everyday nationalism are usually represented by in-depth empirical studies, which collect evidence at the 'bottom' level and interpret possible ways of the materialization of nation and the identification with it. For instance, Brubaker (2006) by juxtaposing macro and micro processes showed the importance of asking how nations are routinely sustained and which processes behind such broad concepts as nation and ethnicity are pushing people to associate with or contest their belonging to a national or ethnic group. Analyzing ordinary people’s everyday discourses, he came to the conclusion that national and ethnic identities become salient in some moments and disappear or even change in others. Nation or ethnicity are not fixed groups of people, but rather lenses through which an individual sees and interprets particular situations in life (Brubaker 2004; Brubaker 2006:13). Accordingly, questions to be addressed when studying national (also ethnic) identity are “where it is, when it matters, and how it works” (2006:7). The understanding of how nations are being established and reproduced involves a scrupulous observation of everyday life, in the course of which notions of nation

30 become salient or, on the contrary, transform into invisible elements needed for mundane reproduction of nationhood. However, the majority of literature on modern nations is still focused on institutional nationalism or on hot nationalism -- conflicts in which nationalism is a driving force for the redrawing of new borders and the creation of new identity markers (Hutchinson 2004, 2006). Works on everyday nationalism, on the contrary, explore first the agency of non-state actors in the consolidation of ideas about a nation; and secondly, focus on ordinary people’s interpretation of a nation how they experience their association with it. Authors of everyday nationalism also acknowledge the dominant role of political institutions in the formation and dissemination of an idea that “nation is a bounded, coherent, knowable entity” (Skey 2011:19). However, they point to the previous ignorance of the impact of other forces, without which such forms of knowledge would never be delivered to and consolidated within the masses (Eriksen 2010; Foster 2002). Intermediary actors, such as civil society, commercial media or even corporate organisations, transform messages of political elites in order to address ordinary people with them. Transforming such forms of knowledge into more understandable forms that can get incorporated into one’s daily life, such actors contribute to the perception of nation as a natural, fixed category (Eriksen 2010; Skey 2011). The second group of works on everyday nationalism is informed by explorations of everyday reproduction or the meaning-making process of nation among simple citizens (Antonsich 2015; Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008; Knott 2015; Thompson 2001). In particular, it seeks to demonstrate how constructed national categories become perceived as primordial or on the contrary, in some situations, are rejected and renegotiated. Arguing for not taking national and ethnic categories as fixed and predefined, they show that there might be much more diversity of definitions of such categories even within one group. Ordinary people might associate themselves with different categories at the same time; they might also contest their association with one or another category, and moreover, they can reproduce their identities in their own unique way (Pechurina 2015; Seliverstova 2016). The insights brought by such studies in most cases are generated via a detailed study of everyday practices or popular discourses of people. Very often they take an interpretive ontological perspective (Goodman 1978; Schatz 2009; Yanow & Schwartz-Shea 2006) and therefore produce inductive meanings of categories (Knott 2015), depending on which perception they study. The interpretative approach matches very well the main idea of everyday nationalism – to see people as important actors in socio political processes. Yanow and Schwartz-Shea (2006) emphasize that “human beings are understood not as objects, but as agents. Such persons are seen as actively and collaboratively constructing (and deconstructing, meaning both critically assessing and changing) their polities, societies, and cultures – along with the institutions, organizations, practices, physical artifacts, and language and concepts that populate these (2006:46).

31 1.1.2. Banal nationalism The 'father' of everyday or banal nationalism could be considered Michael Billig, whose main contribution was to shift the focus from institutional and hot nationalism to an everyday and 'cold' one. Billig starts his prominent book Banal Nationalism (1995) with a discussion of nationalism in Western states (established nations), identifying that such states usually do not associate themselves with nationalism, but rather believe it belongs to peripheral countries, like former colonial states or post-Soviet ones, which are on the edge of Europe. Such common perceptions overlook the form of nationalism that maintains Western nation-states. Contrary to Giddens (1985), who thought that nationalism appears only when ordinary routine is disrupted and therefore cannot be a part of everyday life, Billig believes that there should be another form of nationalism. Such a form is neither cruel nor extreme; on the contrary, it is banal, calm and omnipresent in acts of everyday life. “There are no further stages to describe what happens to nationalism once the nation-state is established. It is as if nationalism suddenly disappears” (Billig 1995:44). By analyzing the use of national symbols in public places and in media, and by observing deixis, which is a reference to a common collective “us” in media discourses, he demonstrates that nationalism is reproduced daily in an almost unnoticed way. “For such daily reproduction to occur, one might hypothesize that a whole complex of beliefs, assumptions, habits, representations and practices must also be reproduced. Moreover, this complex must be reproduced in a banally mundane way, for the world of nations is the everyday world, the familiar terrain of contemporary times.” (ibid.:6). Though Billig bases his conclusions on research done in the West and thus also constantly refers to Western states (and this sometimes serves as a reason for critique by scholars working in non-Western context, see e.g. Foster 2002; Foster & Özcan 2005; Knott 2015; Koch 2013; Yumul & Ozkirimli 2000) he never says that banal nationalism does not exist in places where nations are still under the formation process. One of the main characteristic of Billig's banal nationalism is that it is not intermittent like hot nationalism, but existing everywhere and at any time (p.6). Later, however, this ever-salient condition of nationalism was criticized by Billig's followers, who, thanks to more detailed empirical studies, showed that people do not always have the same national feelings. When Billig talks about national identity, he views it as a kind of ideological consciousness, a “form(s) of social life, rather than internal psychological state; as such they are ideological creations, caught up in the historical processes of nationhood.” (ibid.:24). Accordingly, he does not question its origins but is interested in understanding the reasons why people do not forget about being a part of one nation (Antonsich 2015). The answer that he proposes is that nationhood is constantly flagged in front of their eyes; they are constantly reminded about their nation (p.8), which prevents them from forgetting about it. People do not necessarily perceive it as a reminder; because of its repetitive quality, it becomes a basic part of their lives, such that they start to see such meanings as the natural way to think, feel and act. Though Billig provides a

32 somehow limited empirical study (Skey 2011; Slavtcheva-Petkova 2014) as a support for his philosophical ideas, and despite the whole book being quite repetitive, he makes some suggestions concerning the methodology for studying banal nationalism: “banal nationalism cannot be studied simply by applying ready- made methodologies or theories. ….if theories consider it 'natural' to have national identities, then they are not suitable for analysing how banal nationalism is so forgettable.” (Billig 1995:9). Another important aspect that was criticized by the literature evolving from the banal nationalism concept is that according to Billig, national identity is for those who “deserve” to inhabit the nation-state (ibid.: 24). It remains unclear who decides who deserves to be a member of national community. If it is the state, then the right of people to make a decision whether they consider themselves nationals of one country or not, is missing. The controversy of Billig's ideas is that though he tries to turn attention to a more bottom-up perspective on a nation, he still sees the state as the only legitimate creator of a nation, presenting people as a homogeneous community of passive acceptors of state ideas. He thereby avoids cases when people might contest national symbols (Bonikowski & Gheihman 2015; Kolstø 2006; Laitin 1998; Slavtcheva-Petkova 2014) and take a proactive role in creating new identity markers (Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008; Seliverstova 2016, 2017b). He overlooks the probability of cases when people, being loyal to the national community and land, refrain from showing support to the state (Knott 2015; Seliverstova 2017; Skey 2011). Michael Skey (2009, 2011, 2013), another prominent scholar who improved the understanding of the concept of banal nationalism, in his criticism of Billig, argues that it is important to take the perspectives of different publics within one nation and to see how they interpret the same messages sent to them from the top. “The advantage of engaging with different publics is that it allows us to test empirically the significance of often taken-for-granted concepts associated with, say, identity or belonging among (often) diverse groups who are presumed to utilize (or perhaps reject) them in their everyday lives.” (2009:337). Engaging in a debate with Billig further, both Skey (2009, 2011) and then later also Antonsich (2015) blame Billig for seeing nation as a uniform audience. In particular while focusing on the role of media, he reminds us of Madianou's (2005) idea that audiences cannot simply be seen as either coherent or 'empty vessels' that uncritically absorb the media messages that they encounter. He urges future scholars to avoid “assuming that particular representations of the nation are resonant or relevant for all (and at all times) who happen to live within a particular political territory, just because they are associated with powerful institutional actors or agencies.” (Skey 2009:342). In conclusion, he suggests empirically investigating cases that show how a nation is reproduced rather than attempting a philosophical discussion of what the reproduction of a nation is and how it is manifested. Another scholar, Tim Edensor (2002, 2004, 2006), acknowledging that Billig's study is crucial in turning the focus, tried to complement Billig's ideas with a rich

33 analysis of different aspects of popular culture. Edensor believes that the national aspect of identity is still what matters to people because, though projected by top- down strategies of political elites, it is grounded in popular culture and everyday life (2002:vi). Though he gave in his work more agency to people by concentrating on popular culture, like Billig, Edensor still does not see people as creators of national identity; for him they are rather performers of it, actors through whose actions the concept of nation is getting materialized. Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova (2014) explored how the concept of banal nationalism works in the case of supranational identities, like European; she also looks at/uses the framework of Americanization, which also creates an identity, in which American symbols are referred to globally. According to her, the main shortcoming of Billig's work lies in his perception of nation as a homogeneous community. Analyzing media resources, he focuses on how identity is flagged, but does not discuss whether what is flagged is accepted and consolidated among all citizens of the US. He is not questioning at all whether people identify themselves with what is being flagged (ibid.:48), assuming that common symbols automatically imply a common 'we', thus presenting the link between banal nationalism and identity as taken for granted (ibid.:57). Billig turned attention to banal side and directed future scholars to research nationalism through everyday life, however, he was taking the notion of nation for granted, as if it signified the same thing for everyone. The same logic is seen in Billig's interpretation of national: he analyzed official symbols and believed that the attitude to them is the same across the whole US (which was his case study). A number of following works on banal nationalism or on the meaning of national symbols (Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008; Kolstø 2006; Slavtcheva-Petkova 2014), on the contrary, demonstrated that the attitude to common symbols can vary widely -- some people might accept them in one situation and reject them in others, while others will contest them and create alternative ones. As Marco Antonsich summarized: “nationalism might be consumed, articulated and mobilized differently by the different subjects involved” (2015:3).

1.1.3. Analyzing everyday nationalism through imagination, cultural and everyday practices The approach to everyday nationalism in most of the cases implies the apprehension of a meaning-making process at the bottom level (Bonikowski & Gheihman 2015), however, while focusing on people's perspectives and their role in the production of nationalism, the majority of works of this body of literature still recognize the key role of the state (Billig 1995; Brubaker 2006; Löfgren 1993). Accordingly, in order to understand the process of nation making, it is important to keep in mind the whole complex structure of actors and factors that have an impact on this process. The following graph (Graph 1) shows that nation is not a horizontal community with processes going only in a top-down direction (see also Foster 2002; Slavtcheva-Petkova 2014).

34 Graph 1. Framework for Discussion of Everyday/Banal Nationalism 1. Formation of conceptual framework of nation

OFFICIAL NARRATIVE OF NATION POLITICAL CULTURE, CONTEXT HISTORY, LANDSCAPE

2. Interpretation of a concept of nation

IMAGINATION OF NATION

3. Materialization of nation

CULTURAL EVERYDAY PRACTICES PRACTICES

Legend for Graph 1

Political context: incorporation in or exclusion from different supra-national unions (i.e. former membership in the Soviet Union, membership in the EU, NATO), participation in international conflicts or having civil/ethnic conflicts on their own territory.

Official narrative: how political elites construct the idea of nation through institutions, how they define the elements of collective memory.

Culture, history, landscape: how some historical facts, landscape, collective memory, folklore, traditional culture generated over years, define the understanding of current national and ethnic communities.

Imagination of nation: a stage where: 1) messages composed above are being interpreted by intermediary actors and then transferred to the masses (Fox 2003); 2) messages conceived at the top level meet messages evolved from the practices at the bottom level. Here they mix and produce frameworks of references needed for further collective imagination and materialization of a nation. Symbols conceived at the bottom level through everyday/cultural practices in the end can reach and impact the official narrative, make a history and with time become elements of traditional culture.

Cultural and Everyday practices: they are not mutually-exclusive categories of practices. On the contrary, very often they overlap, but in some cases, because of different focuses, it is still important to differentiate them. For instance, buying a bread regularly is rather an everyday practice, while cooking a national dish and passing its recipe to your children is already a very symbolic cultural practice.

35 While previous scholars on nationalism emphasized the need to consider the role of political institutions, the role of traditional culture, history and also the general political context in which the formation of a nation is happening, everyday nationalism scholars consider rather two more stages of this process. They base their research on the idea of an imagination of a nation, seeing imagination as an indispensable practice needed to mediate between the conceptualization and the materialization of a nation. Then, they inquire into two more types of practices – cultural and mundane practices, both of which are performed by ordinary people. Through such practices, imagined concepts become materialized, and at the same time they produce new meanings and symbols needed to enrich the imagination, sometimes going further, affecting the way a nation is being conceptualized even at the top level. The following subsections will describe in more detail why these types of practices in particular are taken into account by scholars of everyday nationalism. Scholars are used to talking about nation as a narrative (Kelly 1995), however, nation is also a collective representation (Foster 2002). Anderson (1991), Bhabha (1990) and Ranger and Hobsbawm (1983) were among the first ones to ask what is needed to imagine the nation. When looking for answers to questions like what is the force that drives people to associate themselves with such big groups as nation, imagination receives a central role. Cubitt (1998) remarks “however institutionalised [nations] become, and however well established the symbolism that denotes them, nations remain elusive and indeterminate, perpetually open to context, to elaboration and to imaginative reconstruction” (ibid.: 3). According to Appadurai, imagination plays an explicit role in the “quotidian mental work of ordinary people”, and he views it as a social practice (Appadurai 1988:5). Benedict Anderson’s (1991) ideas received wide recognition for his focus on the role of imagination in the formation of nations and national identity. For him nation “is an imagined political community” (p.6). People in such communities might not know each other, but still feel the imagined link that unites them within a limited space. Anderson gives an important role to progress in the initial formation of imagined communities – nation-states -- or more specifically, to the outcomes of progress, like printing press and print languages in which books and later newspapers were printed and circulated. Even though there is no focus on specific geographic territories, the development of Anderson’s argument is mainly based on references to the capitalist countries or their territories in the past. He believes that nations were first originated in Western countries and only then in other parts of the world. When developing the theoretical framework for the article on renovation practices and the symbolic space they shape (Seliverstova 2017a) included in this thesis, Anderson's emphasis on the necessity of imagination for the formation of national identity and in particular the literature that explored the concept of imaginative geography turned to be crucial and insightful. A prominent work of Edward Said (1978), Orientalism, helped to identify the symbolic space existent in Ukrainian

36 society, when analyzing the interview material from L'viv. In his work, Said coined a concept of 'Imaginative geographies' and demonstrated how it is materialized in the vision of the East (colonies) by the West (colonizers). Imaginative geography is a symbolic space based on a collection of symbols and images and some abstract knowledge about the poorly known geographic area (Said 1978). Continuing to establish links between the concept of imaginative geography and the formation of identity, several authors applied concepts developed by Said and Anderson in different geographic contexts and approached them from different disciplinary angles. For instance, Radcliffe and Westwood (1996) explored nationalism through geography and combined the ideas of the above-mentioned authors in their exploration of nation-building in Latin America. They expand the notion of imaginative geographies further and introduce a concept of 'geographies of identities', which they define as complex places or “social collectivities embedded in place,” through which “individual and collective identities are formed and expressed” (Radcliffe & Westwood 1996:161). According to Radcliffe and Westwood, people in Latin America refer to such spaces in order to reconsider and then describe their national belonging. They expanded the concept by defining two types of geographies of identities: official, used by the state as part of the nation- building strategy, and non-official, which is produced by people and circulated mainly through media. Thus both types of geographies of identities become important elements needed as power tools to construct and then maintain nationalism. Researching the everyday life practices of the late Soviet generation, Yurchak (2013) not only demonstrated how imaginative space could be important for collective identity, but also analyzed the processes through which this space is practiced. He explored how images of the West perpetrated the Soviet everyday life and how elements of life in the West, or what was imagined under it, were reproduced through different cultural and social practices by ordinary people, in the end defining some markers of Soviet and then post-Soviet identities. Works using a traditional political lens for the study of nations, while providing detailed accounts on political, economic and historical elements of a nation, ignore or view in a limited way the role of cultural practices (Edensor 2002; Cronin 2005). In national terms, they tend to view it rather as a symbolic dimension through which ideas of nation are being channelled to the people, but neglect to analyze it as a domain of ordinary people for establishing and maintaining national cohesion. Those who researched popular discourses on a nation found out that the first elements raised in order to identify who belongs to which national community are usually cultural: “a common way of defining who belongs is by drawing attention to what are often asserted to be ‘key’ cultural similarities and differences, notably by distinguishing habits and everyday practices, and tastes in popular culture” (Edensor 2002:25). However, in the 21st century, when focusing on the role of culture it is crucial not to slip into the production of cultural generalizations, which identify particular cultural traits with particular national communities

37 (Bonikowski & Gheihman 2015). Such a functional understanding of culture leads to the idea that cultures are homogeneous, fixed systems of meanings and values, transmitted through generations (Stolcke 1995:4). A group of influential scholars, committed to in-depth studies of the everyday in different geographical contexts, have come up with a counterargument to this understanding of culture: they have demonstrated that culture is rather a “result of myriads of individual choices” (Douglas 1996, 2004; Douglas & Isherwood 1979; Miller 1987, 1995), which, despite being grouped into patterns, are never fixed. Bauman (1999) views culture as a connecting structure that people use to understand who they are; it is “an explicit means through which people can imagine themselves and construct frames of meaning”(Cronin 2005:31). In the context of the process of formation of national identity, everyday practices are needed to sustain forms of knowledge transmitted by the state and/or intermediary actors, and also to produce new knowledge about a nation. This, in the end, helps to unveil some aspects of macro processes, usually invisible to more traditional quantitative inquiries, and improves the understanding of a country's political culture and the political behavior of ordinary citizens. Tim Edensor (2002) draws his inspiration from Anderson's work, advocating for the more scrupulous study of everyday life practices, which “provide fertile ground for the development of national identity.”(p.vi). Edensor finds Anderson's view of culture rather limited, since it is focused only on how nation is reproduced textually, taking into account only the role of print media and ignoring other channels through which nation could be communicated. Furthermore, Anderson recognizes “that national culture is both popular and everyday, his analysis remains rooted in a historical perspective which reifies the sources (literature) through which the nation is (re)produced and thereby reduces the rich complexity of cultural production to one field” (ibid.:7). If Edensor and Anderson mostly avoided discussing the role of political institutions (though not excluding their importance) when elaborating their arguments, Robert Foster (2002) focused on the role of both top down and bottom up actors in nation building processes, thus following the advice of Hobsbawm (1990a) to analyze nations from both directions. Anderson was primarily interested in how the idea of a nation and association to a nation gets formed in ordinary people's heads. How it transforms into something visible and tangible was rather Foster's work. Situating his work around the idea of the imagination of nation, he remarks that the nation, which “is always in process, often contested by multiple agents with competing agendas” (ibid.:5), in reality is also a “frame of reference available for defining and communicating identities”(ibid.:16). He explored different ways through “which multiple constructs circulate in heterogeneous forms, both discursive and non- discursive”(ibid.:5). Analyzing material culture, consumption practices and commercial media, he identifies various channels and agents, both governmental and non-governmental, which transmit these constructs to ordinary people; he then shows that people interpret such constructs in their own ways, sometimes imbuing them with their own symbols. They thereby produce a frame of reference of state-

38 sponsored images that have evolved from popular culture. Using the example of betel nut chewing in Papua New Guinea, Foster also shows that what the state promotes as a national symbol is not always accepted by people. Though the state officially prohibits betel nut chewing and sends this message out through different channels, as a deeply rooted indigenous practice, betel-nut chewing represents a popular national marker to which local people broadly refer.

1.1.4. Recent scholarship on everyday nationalism drawn from the post-Soviet context For over twenty years, national processes in post-Soviet states have very often been discussed as nation-building processes, however, always with a bias of 'weak nation, still not formed' – thereby automatically rejecting the idea of studying how ‘nation’ is reproduced in such countries. As Kolstø and Isaacs argued during their speeches at the ASN12 2016 conference in Kaunas, it is time to turn our attention away from the state strategies of building institutions and national communities and rather focus on informal processes and forces (Isaacs & Polese 2016) that engage different actors in the reproduction of their nations; or question the legitimacy and adequateness of national ideas promoted by political elites. A number of scholars started to address the existing gaps in previous literature, which first of all largely ignored the role of people in everyday nation-making. Ammon Cheskin (2013) explored ‘from below’ the identity of Russian speakers in Latvia. Studying it through conversations with the common population of Latvia, he addresses the need identified by a number of works that pointed to existing disagreements of Russian speakers with the official national narrative of Latvia. Russian speakers' integration into Latvian society remains problematic because they have trouble accepting the perspectives of the political elites, which are more often shared by the native, Latvian-speaking population. Nonetheless, Cheskin discovers some acculturating strategies of Russian speakers, which were not visible through previous quantitative studies that used the state-focused perspective. Discussing such strategies, he shows that Russian speakers do not simply disagree with Latvian cultural elements and perspectives and therefore experience less of a sense of belonging to Latvia; on the contrary, they produce and use alternative markers for their self-perception as members of the Latvian society. In the end, he suggests that a more complete integration of Russian speakers as full members of the Latvian national community is possible on the condition that the official narrative also become more open to other cultures, to be shared equally by all the ethnic minorities present among the Latvian population.

12 The Conference of Association for the Study of Nationalities held in Kaunas University in 2015. ASN conference is held every two years in Europe and ASN World Convention is held yearly in New York City (USA). It is considered one of the most important academic events among scholars interested in post-Socialist area and specializing on topics like nationalism, ethnicity, violence, conflict, economic development.

39 Alina Pfosner (2014) was interested in the meaning-making process related to symbolic aspects of landscape among people who live in the borderland. Her sophisticated analysis of interviews with ordinary residents of Narva – a city situated on the border between Estonia and Russia – demonstrates that people still refer to their socialist past for constructing their current identities of belonging. Pfosner further explores that the concept of nation is understood in plural ways among people and that their perspectives usually differ substantially from those promoted by the state. The official narrative on nation in Estonia is discontinuous, because it erases the Soviet past and its impact on local culture completely, substituting it with new narratives (Wulf 2016). Personal memories are not that selective, however, and the Soviet past continues to occupy an important place among other factors that affect the way national belonging is experienced in today’s Narva. Emilia Pawlusz (2016) has a situational approach to national identity in Estonia. Her case study is the Estonian choral singing festival Laulupidu, which she describes as “an example of a practice which exposes how formal nation building driven by the state is intertwined and largely supported by the informal and mundane” (Pawlusz & Seliverstova, 2016:70). She engages in conversations with actors, like festival organizers, who are supposed to share visions on nation in Estonia in accordance with the ideology of the state-funded festival. Still even them show to have in some situations contesting shifts in their self-perception as Estonians. While officially being in a position of 'messengers' of state ideas, they might experience and also communicate different perspectives on what nation is and who constitutes it in the Estonian context. Eleanor Knott (2015) demonstrates how interactive nationalism is, involving different actors in different contexts. The focus in her work is placed on kinship identification among Russian speakers in Crimea as well as among Romanians in Moldova. Through interpreting different meanings that people attribute to notions of ethnicity and citizenship, she reveals that there is much more diversity within one category of ethnicity that one assumes, a diversity that is very often ignored. This diversity can exist within both the minority and the majority group. The boundaries between the two groups appear to be also more nuanced and often contested within one or another group. The academic contribution of Volodymyr Kulyk (2014) to the study of nationalism in Ukraine is interesting to mention here. In his earlier works Kulyk had almost a top-down perspective, analyzing political discourses on language and ethnicity in Ukraine, however, with the rise of Euromaidan protests, observing their consequences for the evolution of Ukrainian nationalism, he acknowledged the need to address nationhood in Ukraine through an exploration of discourses originating at the non-state level. In particular, Kulyk is interested in discourses of both intermediary actors, like civil society activists, and of ordinary people. In his article on nationalism after Euromaidan he analyzes discussions in social networks. He is probably the first author in the context of Ukrainian studies to use the term

40 “nationalism” in its broad sense – taking into account not only the political elite's perspective, but also focusing on feelings of ordinary people. In his studies he points out the inclusive character of the current Ukrainian nationalism, which unites Ukrainian Russian speakers, Ukrainian speakers and all other people who support Ukraine (including some ethnic Russians and citizens of the Russian Federation) in its 'fight for freedom'. However, in this work he applies the same perspective on national community as Billig and uses the term 'Ukrainian nation' as a “pervasively relevant social category” (Brubaker 2006:363), without acknowledging that it is very relational and cannot be a common characteristic of all citizens of Ukraine over a long period of time. All these works, when exploring different aspects of national identity in post-Soviet societies, needed to deal with multiethnic case studies. Accordingly, many of them focused on questions about how notions of ethnicity are being experienced and renegotiated by ordinary people. The majority of these works that follow Brubaker's advice show that the attitude to different ethnic groups, whether perceiving them as part of the national community or not, largely “depends on whether the narratives that mediate people's interpretation of collective events are framed in ethnically essentialist terms” (Bonikowski & Gheihman 2015:311). They showed that place- based identities are extremely nuanced, in particular among representatives whose ethnic roots are different from the majority's residing in the same territory (Cheskin 2013; Pfosner 2014). Knott (2015) notes that ethnicity is relational and needs to be understood from the perspectives of actors who experience it and make meaning of it. She contests works that study ethnicity as a category of analysis (Chandra 2009; Wedeen 2002) and not as a category of practice. Very often relying on data provided by national censuses, they treat ethnicity as an independent variable. However, by using common sense mutually-exclusive categories, census data is very “often more illuminating about a state projects ethnic identification than about how individuals identify (Brubaker 2011; Goldschneider 2002)” (in Knott 2015:5). Traditionally in the studies of nationalism, there has been a tendency to present national identity as the one that overrides all other group identities (Bonikowski & Gheihman 2015; Goode & Stroup 2015). To study it among ordinary people, the majority of scholars concentrated either on its manifestation during unusual situations, like conflicts, natural disasters or national holidays, or tried to measure it through inquiring into people's attitude toward national symbols and the state. These works have been critiqued for testing only fixed concepts of nation and perceiving national communities as passive and uniform (Antonsich 2015; Skey 2009, 2011; Thompson 2001). Such shortcomings started to be addressed by everyday nationalism scholarship that initially took nation as a much more nuanced process, rooted also in many micro, almost invisible but still crucial for its maintenance, everyday acts. As such, everyday nationalism does not question what nation and nationalism are, but focuses on socio-cultural processes that visualize mundane expressions of national sentiments (Thompson 2001). So far, this focus has helped identify that people belonging to the same national and/or ethnic

41 community might have different opinions on what this community means for them. The disagreement might be in defining the national borders, the level of inclusiveness, national symbols, languages and even in more banal things like what kind of food, media or other cultural products a 'real' member of such community should consume. Furthermore, it has helped to reveal that many everyday practices not only visualize the way in which people experience the concept of nation, but also show that everyday activities and habits can inform or reshape national group sentiments.

1.2. WHY CONSUMPTION? ON THE WAY TO DISCOVERING ITS SYMBOLIC MEANINGFULNESS In the 21st century ‘consumption’ has become a common topic in so many fields of study that there is almost no need to legitimize its choice as a focus (Miller 2005). As Nava et al. (2013) observe consumption is “a point of intersection which facilitates encounters between disciplines” (p.2). Besides studying it as a subject of economics, scholars from other fields turned to address consumption's symbolic and non-rational features (Dunn 2008). In anthropology, scholars such as Mary Douglas (1996, 2004), Baron Isherwood (1979 with Douglas) and Daniel Miller (1987,1995) were among the first to explore the symbolic side of consumption, analyzing it as a tool needed to produce and communicate messages about personal and group identities. In sociology studies the shift from production to consumption happened approximately in the middle of the last century, when scholars started to pay attention “to how commodities are bought, understood and used as markers of social identity” (Bauman 2004:2). Feminism studies also concentrated on the practice of consumption while studying the role of women in everyday life (Cronin 2000; McIntosh & Zey 1989). A relatively new branch of literature, consumer culture theory, evolved as a result of the increased importance of consumption for modern societies, and mainly focused on consumer behavior in conditions of market capitalism and the spread of globalization (Arnould & Thompson 2005; Belk 1988; Kozinets 2001). In political science, the recent works on consumer nationalism (Nelson 2000; Wang 2005), consumer citizenship (Foster 2002; Trentmann 2001) and nation branding (Aronczyk 2013; Kaneva 2011) showed that consumption can be a lens to study socio-political processes in-depth.

1.2.1. Turning focus from production to consumption in the postmodern era Before speaking of the meaning of consumption for 21st century societies, it is crucial to demonstrate when the focus from production shifted to consumption. This research draws from works that were among the first ones to identify the symbolic meaningfulness of consumption for identity formation and performance processes. French postmodernists made an important contribution to the sociology of consumption, giving consumption a significant, if not central, role in societal order. Jean Baudrillard discussed how with the development of consumer culture and high technology, distinctions such as race, gender and class are getting erased.

42 Baudrillard's early work The System of Objects (1996 (1968)) was one of the first among semiotic works that analyzed how everyday life consumer objects are encoded with signs and meanings, which then define modern consumer societies. Criticizing Marx's theory, he argued that what matters first of all is objects' symbolic value and not their use or exchange value. In his book The Consumer Society (1970 (1998)), Baudrillard gives an even more important role to consumption and claims that a display of status commodities is central for the definition of a person's social prestige and identity. Focusing on realities of capitalist societies, in particular France, Baudrillard believed that people's needs are being constructed and manipulated by capitalist corporations (Kellner 1994). Commodities dominate people's lives and individuals are no longer able to have genuine needs. This critical perspective on the future of consumer societies implied that people were just passive actors with no ability to choose, to contest, to reject and to create. Moreover, such a philosophical perspective failed to explain why some identities, like national, ethnic or religious, remained important or even intensified in the age of the spread of consumerism and globalization (Hegarty 2004). In 1995, Mike Featherstone wrote that current societies are witnessing the aestheticization of everyday life, as it is becoming more and more sophisticated through a variety of products on the market (p.64). Following this idea, one can also talk about the aestheticization of our tastes. According to Bourdieu, social distinctions are determined by our tastes. In his book The Forms of Capital (1986), he discusses three types of capital – cultural, economic and social -- that define people's tastes. Different combinations of the amount of these capitals were associated with different social classes. Accordingly, social classes for Bourdieu were predetermined positions from the birth, difficult to change in the course of a person's life. Bourdieu used consumption to show how his philosophical ideas about class distinctions work in practice. In particular, various degrees of cultural capital ostensibly dictated the type of commodities and consumer practices in which a representative of one class should be involved (1984). He thereby presents people as passive actors, who could rarely influence their position in society. Also, in drawing such conclusions, Bourdieu was referring to European capitalist societies, whereas in the post-Soviet context such logic on class differentiation could hardly be applied. Under the totalitarian Soviet regime, the notion of class was distorted and though social hierarchy existed, the Soviet high class often lacked cultural capital in particular. Some representatives of the Soviet upper class, which was largerly constituted by political actors, had proletarian origins and therefore, according to Bourdieu's social stratification theory, they could not be classified as high class. The same could also be said about the early post-Soviet period, when the high class, often called the nouveaux riches, was mostly determined by their amount of economic capital (Sampson 1994). Bourdieu's works, being mainly criticized for their overdeterministic approach to social stratification (Lahire 2003),

43 were also projecting a rather limited view of consumer culture. His social stratification theory poorly describes advanced societies with their phenomena of mass consumption, when class boundaries become blurred and consumption goes beyond class framework (Cohen 2004; Dunn 2008). Consumption in the 21st century is able to be a much more creative and subversive practice, than is suggested by Bourdieu in the 70s-80s (Douglas & Isherwood 1979; Edensor 2002). As more recent works on consumer culture have showed, people use consumption as a creative tool to craft their identity projects (Ahuvia 2005; Belk 2013; Zepf 2010) and no longer possess fixed habituses, but rather perform different ones in different contexts and situations (Lahire 2013). Another important philosopher, economist and sociologist back in the end of 19th century, who produced theories on consumption and the economic order of societies that could be applicable now, was Thorstein Veblen. In his prominent work “The theory of leisure class” (1899) he studied symbolic particularities of consumption of leisure class and was followed by both Baudrillard and Bourdieu. Veblen's famous concept of ‘conspicuous consumption’ explains why people tend to buy luxury goods and put them on display. This kind of demonstration of expensive commodities or services serves to show first of all the economic power of a person, which is then associated with a particular social status. Interpreting Veblen's ideas, Robert Dunn (2008) assumes that “in a society of blurred class lines, norms established by the highest class tend to sink toward the lower levels.” (p.38). In his words, lower classes try to reproduce practices or usually consume some status objects of the higher class, which they see as ideal, (achieving of higher status through acquisition) in order to approach a desired social strata. Such patterns could easily be seen in post-Soviet consumption (Gurova 2014; Humphrey 2002), such as when people, very often hiding their real economic situation, were saving money in order to buy either expensive status objects or/and fake ones, which would then be associated with brand names or types of objects used and consumed by representatives of upper strata of society. It is thought that consumerism and the consumer culture it created belong to post- modernist societies rather than to modern ones. Zygmunt Bauman, who contributed significantly to consumption studies with his research, avoids discussing modern vs. post-modern and simply divides the 20th century into two periods – a period of producer society and a period of consumer society, where the latter is still ongoing. The producer society was one that was guided by work ethic, where life was organized around production and a large part of identity was thus built around the type and status of employment, while consumer society is guided by the aesthetic of consumption, where people are primarily engaged by society as consumers and where they build their identities through consumption practices (Bauman 1998, 2004). In practice, people are and were producing and consuming even many centuries ago. Interpreting Bauman, the focus on such activities has been changed and this provoked changes in the whole social order. If before, the concept of socioeconomic class was the main building block of one's identity, in today’s

44 consumer society, this social structure became less rigid and new, more fluid and flexible ways of identity building appeared. More and more people started to identify themselves and express their identities through belonging to particular consuming groups and subcultures, being a member of which is usually manifested through the possession of definite sets of material things. Identities became more self-oriented, without strict boundaries, and could constantly be under the process of transformation (Nava 1991).

1.2.2. Consumer culture as a way to study identity now To address the link between consumption and identity, one should first see consumption as a set of cultural processes (Douglas 1996, 2002; Dunn 2008; Edensor 2002; Kannike & Laviolette 2013; McCracken 1986), in which people are important actors who, through participation in such processes, construct and then reshape their identities. In Miller's words, consumption is a practice through which people not only buy, but also “recontextualize commodities as instruments for creating differentiated, particularized, and sometimes resistent identities” (Miller 1987 in Foster 2002:116). The spread of consumer culture and the ideology of consumerism obviously had an impact on the degree of imagined similarities and commonalities among people from different parts of the world (Foster 2002:81). However, a number of scholars analyzed consumption also as a practice through which people establish distinctions, thus defining boundaries between Us and the Others (Douglas 1996; Shove et al. 2009). In the sociological view of identity as a never-ending process (Jenkins 2004), consumption practices and commodities represent markers/references that the individual or a group is constantly collecting or rejecting while searching for identity. According to Erikson's (1979, 1994) understanding of identity, in which he refers to consumption, identity should be developed through our identification with objects. Russel Belk (1988, 2013) together with Kelly Tian (Tian & Belk 2005) went even further when defining the importance of consumption and said that objects are extensions of our self – or in other words, materializations of our ego projects. Anne Cronin (2005), however, argues that “consumption and display of certain goods is not the outward sign of an inner essence” (2005:21), at least not always. By showing off our possessions, we sometimes hide our real self. With what we present to the world, we comply with what is considered to be adequate or prestigious in that specific moment, in that specific place, in that specific society in which we want to position ourselves. Accordingly, following Cronin's thoughts, people cannot decide in every situation which consumer objects or practices would be best to represent their identities, and therefore follow mainstream patterns that define the group in which they see themselves belonging. According to Mary Douglas (1996), consumer culture is also a culture of protest, insofar as refusing to buy something is also a part of the consumption process. By saying 'no' to some products, services or styles, consumers communicate their desire not to be associated with another culture whose representatives would definitely choose to acquire that style or product. The choice of not consuming is a protest against the

45 undesired model of society or undesired culture with which people don't want to be associated (Douglas 1996).

1.2.3. Everyday nationalism and consumer culture The United States probably represents the most interesting site of inquiry, where one can study the interrelation between national identity and consumption. There, the building of nation corresponded in time with the spread of modern consumer culture (Fox & Lears 1983). Consumer culture in a way helped the young state to accommodate huge numbers of people coming from different parts of the world – “The proliferation of images and objects of mass consumption brought the most diverse audiences, including newly arrived immigrants, into not only a developing marketplace, but also into an emergent set of shared understandings, memories, tastes, and habits” (Foster 2002:64). Thus, in US types of consumption were rooted in notions of citizenship to create a regulated consumer citizens’ society (Hilton 2000). Consuming had the meaning of being a good citizen, sharing an American way of life. Out of such extraordinary focus on consumption in the United States appeared the term 'Americanization', and when being used in other parts of the world, it was associated first with the equal access to chances, competition and success (Weil 1993). Later it referred mostly to the acceptance and sharing of the values attached to mass consumption culture. Orvar Löfgren (1993) draws similar conclusions when juxtaposing experiences of nation making in the USA and Sweden. He observes that in the US, consumer culture and also commercial media had a possibly greater impact on the formation and dissemination of markers of national identity than American state institutions have. For him, the feeling of belonging is informed by participation in nationalized everyday practices, like the consumption, watching, or reading of mass media products (Löfgren 1996). Robert Foster (2002), who followed Löfgren's focus on media and consumption, viewed nations as imagined communities of consumption. Following Billig's shift of focus to the everyday expressions of nationalism, Foster analyzed nation making in a non-capitalist context, such as Papua New Guinea. The state there is considered to be rather weak and therefore, according to Foster, it participates poorly in the generation of key references for national identity (Edensor 2002:111). Giving an important role in the formation of national identity to the market, Foster investigates in detail commercial media messages and practices of commodity consumption. He presents his analysis of some state discourses on nation, usually channeled through the state media, firstly in order to demonstrate how such narratives are getting materialized in the everyday life, and secondly, to argue that the official view of a nation is contested and challenged by concepts and markers of nation created at the bottom level. From here he draws an important conclusion that people can consider themselves and be perceived as members of a nation, even when not being loyal to the state (Edensor 2002:124).

46 Foster extended the list of consumable national symbols, which for Billig was limited to the national flag and objects carrying its image. For Foster, on the contrary, national commodities could be represented by any product that evokes feelings of pride and loyalty among local residents and that is either produced locally or is consumed in a way particular for that national community. Consumption of such commodities in a way nationalizes a person who acquires them (Foster 2002:66) and therefore the production of national identity is happening “by way of shared consumption practices” (Foster & Özcan 2005:5). Non-national commodities, produced abroad and being symbols of other cultures or of globalization, could also be domesticated (Edensor 2002) and become unofficial national symbols because of being consumed in a nationally recognized way (Fox & Miller-Idriss 2008). Foster sees national culture as a culture of possession, insofar as it “emerges as collection of collectively held things, the discrete, bounded objectivity of which tangibly replicates the conceptual form of the nation itself” (Foster 2002:66). However, by making such strong arguments on the importance of participating in national consumer practices, Foster hinders his own ability to find a reasonable explanation for cases of non-consumption. He sees Protests in consumption as an expression of social divisions, like status or class ones, which however do not question national membership. Foster fails to explain what kind of other references and markers people use to visualize their national belonging – people who do not participate in national consumer practices. Tim Edensor, who focused on the role of popular culture and everyday consumption practices, dedicated more space to the definition of belonging and non-belonging. According to him, “a common way of defining who belongs is by drawing attention to what are often asserted to be ‘key’ cultural similarities and differences, notably by distinguishing habits and everyday practices, and tastes in popular culture.” (Edensor 2002:25). In his book National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life (2002), Edensor uses the case of Great Britain to demonstrate that different cultures can coexist within one nation and contribute to its cultural variety. Edensor, like Cronin (2005) and Fox and Miller- Idriss (2008), puts emphasis on the performance of national identity as it “continually reconstitutes identity by rehearsing and transmitting meanings” (Edensor 2002:69), and sees consumption as one of the main ways to do it collectively. When talking about the meaning of consumption for the sense of national identity, he first of all analyzes the consumption of basic goods, because their routine mass consumption “gives a consistency to the material world which is not only individually experienced but is echoed in the shopping patterns of neighbours and friends” (Foster 2002:110). He further continues to address the gap of Foster's work and explains that even when people do not consume national commodities, they feel as members of the national consumer society because they remain familiar with such products; they know how they look, where they could be found, and are in any case surrounded by the products’ images in their everyday lives.

47 The literature discussed above, which investigates national identity and nation through the prism of consumption, contributes to a general understanding of how nationhood is experienced by ordinary people and how the existing official narratives of nation are being renegotiated and then materialized. Scholars of consumer citizenship and consumer culture argue that individual and group identities could not be studied in isolation from each other (Arnould & Thompson 2005; Joy & Li 2012). Consumer practices “have the capacity to link personal and collective identities” (Foster 2002:117), and therefore approaching the topic of identity through that lens can shed light on how individual identity projects evolve or interrelate with group ones. Tim Edensor showed how consumption enables people to participate in both national and supranational identities (see also Thompson 1995). He analyzed how British citizens of Scotland, while possessing different identities like Scottish, British and European, 'activate' each of them, depending on which one appears more relevant in a given context (see also Brubaker 2006). The final, but not least argument to advocate the study of nations through the prism of consumer culture, is that consumption facilitates the imagination of nation; it creates a shared space in which people routinely consume national products as markers of identity and create new ones.

48 2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. OVERVIEW Exploring the bottom-up processes of formation and expression of national identity through consumer culture is a complex and challenging task. The tailoring of the methodology that best matches such research has been aggravated by the fact that the existing body of literature examining national identity through such a perspective remains rather thin, in particular for the post-Soviet context. Moreover, previous studies that looked at identity through the lens of consumer culture have acknowledged that their selection of methodology happened almost intuitively (Elliott 2004; Woodward 2001) or was inspired by disciplines with which they were primarily associated, like anthropology or sociology (Douglas 2002; Miller 1998, 2005). Thus, in order to find appropriate tools of inquiry, it was also necessary to take into account works which used other, non-traditional tools of political inquiry. The focus on material representations of the nation, like objects from home settings, food products from the market and other things that surround an average person in his/her daily life, led me as a researcher to draw inspiration for this research's methodological framework from studies that dealt with the relationship between a person and an object, namely those coming from anthropology, material culture and consumer culture studies. The principles of interpretive research have been foundational in this study's approach vis-à-vis the selection of methods of inquiry, insofar as they focus on the self-perception of the researcher and the way knowledge is generated during research (Chen et al. 2011; Goulding 1998; Schwartz-Shea & Yanow 2006, 2013; Wedeen 2009). “In interpretive research, we [researchers] seek to understand what a thing “is” by learning what it does, how particular people use it, in particular contexts” (Schwartz-Shea & Yanow 2013:23). Since interpretive approaches are applied to learn about people's actions and practices, and to grasp meanings and beliefs associated to them (Finlayson et al. 2004:130), the primary goals of this research project were 1) to understand how ordinary people 'operate' the sense of their national belonging; 2) to identify when and where in their daily life it appears to be relevant for them; 3) to ascertain how we can observe this in their daily consumption practices. The logic of qualitative interpretive research allows and even presumes that researchers learn more 'in process' and often need to modify their research questions while conducting their research (Burawoy 1998; Kubik 2009; Yanow 2009). This requires allowing flexibility in the research design, which in practice – apart from the revision of research question – results in adding or reducing methods of data collection (Musante & DeWalt 2010). The order of actions in such a research process can look like a chaotic back and forth, what Schön (1983) calls a “reflective, inductive-deductive research cycle” (see also Fook 1996). Finally, but not the last reason to consider interpretive research as the most appropriate

49 framework in which to situate this work, is that it “gives human beings a role of agents, not objects of research” (ibid.:46). One of the aims of this study is to highlight the role of human agency in the process of national identity formation, “to put the people back into political science” (Knott 2015:2); a deficit in academic literature that was already identified by previous scholars (Antonsich 2015; Cheskin 2013; Fox 2016; Fox & Miller-Idriss 2008; Kubik 2009; Skey 2011; Thomson 2001). The goal was to produce a context-rich study with the help of ethnographic methods. Since the main question of this study is how people shape, perform, and renegotiate their identity in their everyday life (inquiring into the process itself and people's perceptions of it) the method of in-depth interviews appeared as the most appropriate one. This instrument is widely used in consumer culture studies (Elliott & Jankel-Elliott 2003) and in studies applying a bottom-up perspective when exploring identity politics, like those on everyday nationalism (Astonsich 2015; Edensor 2002; Fox & Miller-Idriss 2008). Once I started to use interviews as the main tool for data collection, I realized that this would be not enough to provide rich empirical data. In order to fill out the data as well as to improve my own understanding of the processes under investigation, I began a search for additional methods. While already being in the field in Ukraine, I came to the same understanding as Knott (2015) describes after conducting her study on identity politics in Moldova and Ukraine, also using a bottom-up interpretive approach: “the researcher has to become involved in everyday situations and analyze problems from the perspective of everyday actors by engaging with 'what actors are thinking and doing'” (2015:3). Thus, while some supportive tools of inquiry, like media analysis, were inspired by further reflection on the research questions of this study, the relevance of conducting participant observation, was identified in the course of fieldwork. The first couple of my Ukrainian interviews were conducted on 'neutral territory' – a quiet café in the center of L'viv – while the next two happened, just by chance, in the home settings of the respondents. Such interviews implied some extra opportunities, as they presented the chance not only to hear about respondents’ everyday practices, but also to observe the habitual settings of such practices, including some home belongings, which could inspire additional specifying questions. The richness of data gathered in these two interviews motivated me to consider participant observation, first of all at respondents' home space, as a crucial additional method for this study, which I used since that time in a more systematic way when conducting interviews. Professional ethnographers might argue that a researcher needs to spend at least a year in the field site, and accordingly, what I here call participant observation cannot be considered as a full-scale tool of data gathering because of its short periods and lack of regularity (Atkinson & Hammersley 1994; Atkinson 2001; Musante & De Walt 2010). However, keeping in mind previous studies on everyday nationalism (Edensor 2002; Fox & Miller- Idriss 2008; Knott 2015; Kubik 2009), which promoted the use of participant

50 observation as a supporting instrument in political science inquiries, I believe that even such limited time periods of participant observation, the details of which are described later in this section, not only enriched my data, but also added depth to my interpretation of interviews and the final analysis. In sum, the knowledge-generating process consisted of in-depth interviews and participant observation at the sites of interviews and everyday consumption, and an analysis of a variety of visual and textual materials, like Internet sources providing tourist information about studied places, TV and street advertisements, catalogs and popular magazines, and enterprises’ websites. The secondary quantitative data consisted of public statistics of Estonia and Ukraine, surveys like European Values Study (for both case studies); data provided on the website of L'viv's city council; media agencies' national public opinion surveys (for case study of Russian products boycott and the real-estate market situation in Ukraine13 and media audience in Estonia14); and academic and non-academic surveys that present some socio- demographic peculiarities of Estonian and Ukrainian societies, focusing in particular on the integration/exclusion of ethnic minorities (Estonian Ministry of Defense surveys, Monitoring of Integration in Estonian Society). The analysis of the data generated using the above-mentioned sources mainly served to describe the contexts of both case studies and identify gaps which could be addressed by this study. In addition to the methods of data collection discussed above, I took photographs during participant observation periods as well as just on a daily basis while living in the places of field interest. Photographs supported the observations, in some cases being a direct visual of settings described in this research. Additionally, photographs served a need to memorize atmosphere and physical settings of the world under inquiry (Flick 2006); I often referred to them at the stage of production of articles and the writing up of the dissertation. In order to grasp symbolic meanings related to national identity and explore the process of how such meanings are born, I took the advice of Wittgenstein (2010), who believed that such meanings could only be understood when observed being practiced. I adopted an emergent strategy, which meant a more active engagement with the environment and activities under research, described in detail by Pink (2009). In particular, when doing observation in the consumption sphere, very often I took the role of a user or a client, instead of behaving and presenting myself as a

13 A survey conducted by TNS, an international market research group, the results of which were summarized in article “Более половины украинцев поддерживают бойкот российских товаров” at Korrespondent.net, 15 May, 2014 Available at: for research results: http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/3363518-bolee- polovyny-ukrayntsev-podderzhyvauit-boikot-rossyiskykh-tovarov-opros Last access 12.08.2016 14 See for example: Saar Poll. (2014). Current events and different sources of information. Tallinn: Open Estonian Foundation &Saar Poll. Retrieved from http://oef.org.ee/fileadmin/user_upload/ Current_events_and_different_sources_of_information_ED__1_.pdf Last access 12.08.2016

51 researcher. This required an adoption of a new role (Gans 1976) or a situational identity (Angrosino & Pérez 2000). Such research behavior might be interpreted as taking on a covert role and accordingly be considered unethical (Cook & Hoas 2008). However, I believe that since such an identity was adopted only in public places where there was no need to introduce myself, and since I truly consumed, sometimes out of a researcher's curiosity and sometimes simply because I also needed to satisfy my needs as a consumer, all helped me to avoid facing any potential ethical dilemmas. The complexity of the chosen methodology is related to the ambition to produce an in-depth, empirically rich study, the final goal of which would be an exploration and generation of knowledge about usually invisible aspects of politico-sociological processes, overlooked by studies using more traditional perspectives on identity politics by focusing on the role of political agents. The inductive character of the way how the knowledge was produced implied sometimes relying on my own intuition and what Schatz (2009; also see Burawoy et al. 2000; Kubik 2009) calls 'ethnographic sensibility' towards different accounts of reality lived by my informants. As Yanow and Schwartz-Shea (2013) as well as Schaffer (2006) mention, “Researchers do not enter the filed as tabula rasa, but they do see to explore concepts which they already know, as these concepts are used by the human agents they are studying...” (p.38). Upon entering the field, despite having preconceptions myself regarding what kind of results my empirical data might reveal, testing and comparing those preconceived assumptions was definitely out of the scope of this research. Later in this work it will be shown that concepts of national or ethnic identity are not taken for granted and that such identities are perceived and interpreted in different ways. During interviews, however, terms like “Ukrainian/Estonian national identity” were used, as such terms were familiar to respondents. In the following sections, I describe in more detail each of the applied methods and provide some discussion on the reliability and validity of this study. Furthermore, methods for collecting data in the particular cases under study are discussed in a methodological publication (Pawlusz & Seliverstova 2016) and described briefly in three empirical articles included in the dissertation (Seliverstova 2016, 2017a, 2017b).

2.2. INSTRUMENTS

2.2.1. Interviews

2.2.1.1. General information and settings The in-depth, semi-structured interviews were the main means for gathering the empirical evidence for this study. The general purpose of interviews was to learn how concepts like nation and national identity (concepts whose meanings are

52 usually shaped by political institutions and presented to ordinary people as 'natural' (Knott 2015; Thompson 2001)) are being interpreted and grounded in everyday practices of consumption. More specifically, I was interested to find out how people make such concepts 'tangible'; how they express and renegotiate their national identities in the course of their mundane lives and finally how they construct and modify them by imbuing their everyday consumption practices and objects that surround them with national meanings. Starting from the assumption that people choose consumer goods in order to understand and express their selfportraits (Belk 1988; Dunn 2008; Erikson 1994; Hebdige 1995), the two main themes of these interviews, were national self-perception and consumption practices, divided into four selected domains of everyday life: food, home, leisure and fashion (clothing consumption). In total there were 38 interviews conducted in L'viv and 25 in Tallinn. Prior to interviewing, all the respondents were asked for consent and the principles of anonymity and confidentiality were clarified to them. This was kept in mind during the stage of analysis and fictitious names were used in the final reports for all the respondents as well as the companies they were working for at the time of the interview. Due to the small scale of the study, there was no attempt to construct representative samples of local respondents to address the main research questions; instead, the focus was on the diversity of participant's perceptions. The recruitment mainly happened via the snowballing method, together with several calls for participation placed on social networks like Facebook and Vkontakte. For the expert interviews, seven candidates were contacted directly via electronic mail or telephone and two were recommended by other respondents. The snowballing method was limited on purpose by choosing only one extra contact per respondent in order to minimize the probability of having respondents from the same social circles. The time of interview varied from 30 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes. All but two conversations were recorded and then transcribed. The language of the interviews differed according to the case study: in L'viv interviews were conducted in Ukrainian and Russian, while in Tallinn the language of communication was English with the majority of Estonian speakers, except for two interviews with elderly respondents with whom Russian was used. Interviews with Russian speakers were conducted in Russian, except for when one respondent expressed a desire to talk in English. All the interviews were transcribed in their original language and during the stage of analysis all selected quotes were translated into English; the final reports were also written in English. Though during the stage of early research design it was planned to collect 30 interviews for each case study, the final number of interviews was defined according to the data saturation principle (Guest 2006; Mason 2010). As for interview settings, in the case-study of L'viv, 24 interviews (this also includes interviews with experts) were conducted in public places, such as cafés, parks and in one case a public library. Fourteen other interviews were conducted in home settings, at the respondents’ homes. That experience was particularly

53 interesting, as I was able to then observe the material culture of my informants' homes during the interview and in the majority of cases I would ask additional questions about concrete objects that I saw in the interiors of their homes. The experience of conducting home interviews is described in more detail in the publication included in this dissertation (Pawlusz & Seliverstova 2016). In Tallinn, the physical settings of interviews were very similar to those in Ukraine, however, there it was much harder to get invited into respondents' homes, therefore the majority of interviews were conducted in cafés. Only five interviews were conducted in home settings and two expert interviews were conducted in the offices in which my informants worked.

2.2.1.2. Sample The samples for both case studies were composed of urban citizens who lived in L'viv or Tallinn at least for the last four years15 prior to the interview. Sixty out of 63 respondents could be defined as representatives of either the middle class or the lower-middle class. The remaining three respondents16 identified themselves with the lower class, basing their judgement only on their low income. All the informants were divided into two groups in each case study according to their natively spoken language. In the case study of L'viv there were both Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers, while in the case study of Tallinn there were Estonian speakers and Russian speakers. The participants were divided into two age groups in order to provide a degree of representativeness. The first category consisted of those born between 1940 and 1965 and the second one of those born between 1975 and 1990. The main goal of sample was to achieve the maximum diversity in opinions and ideas, which was crucial for interpretation of culture through people's words (Geertz 1973); the diversity of respondents was secondary. Also since one of the goals of these interviews was to learn about consumption practices, it was crucial to increase the probability of having respondents able to take independent decisions concerning the management of their own or their families' incomes. For this reason, respondents of student age were not recruited. In both field sites, participants were citizens of their countries. This was not a predetermined criterion when selecting them, but was revealed after completing the analysis of all interviews. When selecting participants, the goal was to achieve some gender balance, however, in the end, the number of female respondents in both cities surpassed the number of male respondents.

15 The purpose of establishing these additional criteria was determined by the need to have respondents who consider themselves as 'local' and if they had ever moved to L'viv or Tallinn from elsewhere, they had already undergone the period of adaptation and integration. Accordingly, this research does not include opinions of Ukrainian citizens who moved to L'viv during two major displacement waves that followed the events of 2014 in Crimea and in the eastern part of Ukraine. 16 All three of them were Ukrainian pensioners with higher education and impressive professional experience, who were, however, living in poverty due to low state pension and the absence of any family support.

54 Among these 63 interviews, nine of them could be defined as expert interviews (Bogner et al. 2009). Five of them combined the ordinary interview questions with a set of questions related to the experts' professional activity and their observations made in their areas of expertise. The remaining four were focused only on the professional knowledge of the respondents and served as an exploratory and supporting instrument for this research. In the case of L'viv all five experts were working in the construction industry - two architects, two professional builders and one broker from one of the L'vivian real estate agencies. In Tallinn I was able to talk to two professionals from the marketing and advertising industry, one expert who participated in writing up the content of the official website on Estonian food and Estonian national cuisine and one professional working for one of the biggest Estonian food retail networks. Expert interviews were conducted towards the end of the fieldwork periods. They provided me with useful insights on specific professional spheres which were directly related to types of consumption practices, identified in the main set of interviews as the richest ones for national symbolic meanings. For L'viv it was the construction and home renovation sphere, while in Tallinn it was the food consumption sphere. Experts were perceived as possessors of specific knowledge, needed for a better understanding of the topic, however, they were also subjects of knowledge (Jacobs & Manzi 2000:87), insofar as they were responsible for constructing specific values and taken-for-granted assumptions circulating in the sphere of their professional activity.

2.2.1.3. Structure of the interview Each interview was guided by a set of questions elaborated in advance, the aim of which was to lead the respondents to express their self-perceptions within their social environment and then to talk about their personal consumer patterns and everyday habits. Later, I could look for common patterns among the individual traits from each interview and identify collective ones. This set of questions or interview questionnaire also served the purpose of standardizing the way in which all the interviews were conducted. Typically, interviews started with an introduction of myself and my research, then a consent for audio recording was asked and some details on timing and structure of the interview were mentioned. The first category of questions inquired about some personal socio-demographic data, including about roots or ethnic background. Such questions usually served as a transition to a more narrative part of interview, focusing on the identity of the respondent. The general approach was 'wait and listen' (Fox & Miller-Idriss 2008), from time to time guiding the informants with complementary questions. When first approaching various aspects of informants' identity, I would generally ask several questions and then propose to switch to an 'easier' topic from everyday life, expecting that sooner or later the informants would go back to the discussion of identity while speaking about their everyday consumption practices. I call this strategy 'putting out a feeler'. In order to talk about consumption practices in everyday life, I posed questions about four spheres of consumption like food, home, leisure and clothing consumption. If my respondent

55 was inspired to talk in detail only about a couple of them, I would not insist on him/her providing more information on other practices. With some respondents, there was a need to follow the interview questionnaire, while with others, the interview was turning at some moments into long respondent's monologues, with only some short commentaries or questions from my part. It is important to mention that generally the topic of this research and of the interview itself was very well perceived and understood by participants, in particular in the case of L'viv's interviews. People found it very 'natural' to talk about their identity as Ukrainians in that period (2014–2015). It was an important moment of renegotiation of their national identity/ies, of defining the other – a period when it was common to discuss and rethink questions like “who am I?”, “where I belong?” and “what can I do as a Ukrainian?” When talking to the first informants in L'viv, I realized that there was a need to touch the topic of the current events in Ukraine and what all had led up to them17. It was a theme that if not raised by myself, it tended to emerge 'naturally' and in the end proved to have some value for this study. Namely, when initiated by a respondent in the beginning of an interview, the topic facilitated the establishment of trust between interviewer and interviewee. In such interviews, respondents would question me about my own experience or opinion regarding Ukrainian politics or recent socio-political changes. However innocent such questions might have been, sometimes I had the feeling that they were placed in order to identify which side of the 'fence' I stood on, either 'pro-Ukrainian' or 'pro-Russian' one. Only when it was established that I was on the 'right' side I could expect to have a level of trust and openness from the informant sufficient for an interview. In other interviews, such discussions arose after all the topics predefined by the interview questionnaire had been covered – to finish our meeting we would exchange a couple of opinions or experiences concerning Euromaidan or for instance IDP (Internally Displaced Person) issues, doing this as two compatriots rather than maintaining the roles of a researcher and an interviewee. This is in line with the opinion that “interviews are not a neutral tool of data gathering but active interactions between two (or more) people leading to negotiated, contextually based results” (Fontana & Frey, 2000:646).18 After several interviews in L'viv, questions about personal experiences or just opinions concerning the revolution of 2014 and the ensuing crises in Crimea and in the Eastern Ukraine were added into the interview questionnaire and were voiced if they had not already arisen spontaneously earlier. Initially I did not have a clear idea how such information could be relevant to the exploration of my research question, but later I found such discussions very valuable. In the majority of cases, when discussing personal experiences in the events of 2014–2015, informants would return to the issue of their self perception as Ukrainians, their role in Ukrainian society, and what kind of internal transformations they had experienced

17 By such events I imply the Euromaidan protests, the subsequent Russian intervention in the Crimea and start of military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. 18 See also Wulf (2015) discussion on the role of listener as a co-author of interview narrative.

56 during such events. It is also interesting to note that the topic of the Russian products boycott (Seliverstova 2016; Bulakh 2017) was never mentioned by my informants while talking about food consumption, but rather while talking about personal experience in the events of 2014 – especially when answering the question “How have recent events in Ukraine affected your life?” Approximately half the respondents acknowledged their participation in that boycott.

2.2.1.4. Analysis The use of multiple methods sensitive to the context for the study of national identity processes at the bottom level, as suggested by Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008), also implied different ways in which the derived data was systematized, then interpreted and presented. All the in-depth interviews, except two for which I did not receive a consent for audio-recording and instead took notes, were first audio recorded and then transcribed with the technical help of several assistants. Later these texts were coded manually, guided by the instructions of open coding (Charmaz 2005; Glaser 1978) and technically following the principles of constructive grounded theory (Charmaz 2005). New common patterns were identified while reading and re-reading the texts and this is how new categories emerged. At the same time the coding was informed, but not determined, by the initial theoretical framework of the research and supported by the questionnaire guide used during interviews. The coding process resulted in the production of a hand-written table with the collection of quotes, each corresponding to previously identified codes (see picture 1). At this stage, all the quotes were translated into English by myself. Finally, the two tables, one for each case-study, were analyzed (drafting, writing, mapping) and two reports, each about 35 pages long, were produced. Field notes taken during participant observation and after interviews were usually typed up and systematized thematically. The typing up process was important as it helped to 'digest' the information written in the notes and also stimulated the production of some reflective commentaries already at this stage of data processing. The initial theoretical frame of this research was modified after each (preliminary, final and for each case study) empirical analysis. Additionally, after each interview I usually took some notes with reflections and some details which could not be heard or read. Listening to audio recordings the same evening was also helpful for the improvement of my interviewing skills and for the identification of potential gaps and redundancies, which could be avoided in the next interview.

57

Pic.1, example of generated table after coding process

2.2.1.5. Interviews supporting material The in-depth interviews were supported by the close reading and analysis of various sources available online and in some cases in print version. When the topic of home emerged as the most important one for Ukrainian respondents, I started to look for additional data that could help me to interpret the interviews and that could also help to visualize what was expressed by informants of this study. Thus, in the article about Evroremont (Seliverstova 2017a) empirical data derived from the interviews was supported by material found on the most popular websites offering construction and renovation works in L'viv, photographs taken on the street of L'viv and in the apartments available for rent there and finally by a brief analysis of media discourses on this topic. In total, the complementary material came from the semiotic and text analysis of the content of 12 online databases of real estate properties, run by agencies based in L'viv and from the text analysis of material

58 from 11 websites of companies offering construction, renovation and design services in the region of L'viv.19 The same logic was respected when gathering data in Tallinn: after the first set of interviews was conducted, the preliminary analysis followed and the topic of food consumption was identified as the most vivid one, rich with examples of when and how food becomes an arena for the expression of national sentiments. The complementary data was mainly derived from the semiotic and text analysis of the content of the official tourist information website Visit Estonia,20 in particular its food-related sections and the content of the official website Estonian Food, about Estonian national cuisine and products, launched by the Estonian Ministry of Rural Affairs.21 As described in the next section, the analysis of TV advertisements of Estonian food products served as another type of additional material.

2.2.2. Participant Observation Kubik (2009) argued that ethnography as a tool used in interpretive approach can deliver important insights for research if it is based on three commitments: “(1) constructivism/interpretivism (interpret – not just explain – actions that are ''meaningful'' to actors), (2) ontological realism and an attendant epistemology (focus on actual actions of real people, rather than variables), (3) micro-scale (observe actual, ''small-scale'' settings and reconstruct relevant mechanisms).” (2009: 42). Following these commitments, the way the data was produced and interpreted in this research echoes the above statement. In everyday life, national identity is not something that is expressed consciously or recognized by a person who 'performs' it; as Billig (1995) says, it is rather an implicit part of one’s identity, which is constantly engaged but normally remains tacit, grounded so deep in ourselves that though our actions are predetermined by it we do not notice it until our ordinary routine is disrupted (ibid.:8). The respondents almost never said that they consume some particular products because they feel Ukrainian or Estonian -- nor did they describe some particular Ukrainian or Estonian way to consume22. Instead, they talked about their ordinary activities and shared their attachments to some particular material objects, which they associate with Ukraine/Estonia or Ukrainian/Estonian culture. My task as a researcher was to identify common patterns and interpret these everyday practices as acts with symbolic meaning, however such task required additional knowledge of the field and an additional instrument of inquiry. According to Burawoy (1998, 2000), who introduced and provided guidelines for an extended case-study method, one of the

19 The selection of online sources was made on the basis of completeness of websites' content and their popularity, defined by informants of this study and my experience as a native Ukrainian. See the list of analyzed online sources in appendix 1 20 http://www.visitestonia.com/en/, last access on 25.07.2016 21 http://estonianfood.eu/en , last access on 25.07.2016 22 An exception might only be the case of the boycott of Russian products widely supported and spread across many regions of Ukraine in 2014-2015.

59 advantages and at the same time conditions of participant observation is exactly “the extension of the observer to the world of the participant” (2000:26). Observing how people actually consume, what they value when making their consumer choices, which settings they prefer and who consumes where, helped me to become closer to the realities in which participants of this study usually perform the consumer practices described by them. Participant observation puts a researcher “where the action is and lets her collect the data” (Musante & De Walt 2010:3). In their support of participant observation, the authors (ibid.) explain that it is not only a tool for gathering material, but also a tool for analyzing it, as when one is committed to participant observation he/she reflects on what is seen and juxtaposes it to knowledge already possessed. The last but not least argument that supports the use of participant observation in this study is the experience of previous studies on nationhood, which also approached the topic using a bottom-up perspective. Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008) highlight the importance of this method for “unfolding the nation” and providing “a window for viewing the nation in everyday life” (p.357). In order to avoid repetition, I will concentrate here more on the particulars of participant observation in Tallinn, since my observations in L'viv, which were collected mostly in home settings of interviewers and sites of consumption, are discussed in detail in the methodological publication of this dissertation (Pawlusz & Seliverstova 2016). I used any convenient opportunity to immerse myself completely into the field of my study. While being familiar with life in Ukraine, I did not know what to expect from everyday reality in Tallinn. My first acquaintance with Tallinn and Estonia happened in 2013, since that I had the chance to reside in several parts of the city: Kadriorg, Kristiine, Kopli and Kalamaja. When being interested in national sentiments in ethnically diverse places, Tallinn could offer many contrasting sites for observation. In Kalamaja, for example, an Estonian-speaking hipster area is located directly next to the so-called 'Russian territory' of Baltijaam turg. Though the Tallinn municipality reconstructed Baltijaam turg and moved it even closer to Telliskivi23 in 2016, these parallel realities still continue to be visited mainly by very different kinds of people and the level of interaction between them remains extremely low. The experience of living in different districts of Tallinn gave me some valuable insights into the everyday life of its residents. It enhanced in particular my opportunities for participant observation of food consumption. While living in Kalamaja I could regularly stop by at Baltijaam turg24, which according to popular opinions in Tallinn is considered to be a 'Russian' market. Indeed, except for some isolated cases, the only language of communication that I ever heard there was Russian. I was able to establish some level of trust with some salesmen and this

23 Tellisklivi Loomelinnak (Creative city) – a former industrial complex area, which was given a second life in 2009, when creative studios and ateliers as well as cafés and NGO offices started to appear there. 24 A small city market situated near the main railway station.

60 gave me access to additional information like local consumer preferences, particularities of that market and rumors concerning its future – all useful for my general understanding of the context of my research. When living in Kopli I spent time in local shopping centers and the supermarket Maxima, which is known to be a supermarket for Russian speakers. In Kadriorg I regularly visited the central market – Keskturg – and when living in Kristiine, went to Nõmme turg25. When visiting such places I was able not only to observe and participate in interactions with local people and learn about the range of products, but also to apprehend their reality through my senses and emotions. In supermarkets and markets I looked around, tasted and smelled food items whenever it was possible. With time, I believe I developed an emotional attachment to the field site, which Rodaway (2002) describes as an indispensable feature of an experience when learning a new world. This in a way evoked reflections on how our brains select particular smells, textures, tastes and shapes, which together connect us to particular places and cultures.

2.2.3. Media analysis During the whole PhD process researchers live with their research topics 24 hours a day; they go to bed thinking of them and wake up with them, sometimes subconsciously making comparisons between their subjects of study and the reality they see in front of them in a concrete moment of their life. In my case, such constant and sometimes difficult engagement with the research topic also affected some of my daily routines. I added a couple of new websites to the list of my 'must check' news portals and started to read news and other articles on a regular basis – from the Estonian newspaper Postimees and the online news portal Delfi, which are considered to be the top online news media sources of the country26. Such daily exposure, at least to a part of Estonian media, helped me to immerse into the field of one of my case-studies better. It is important to mention that in both newspapers, the content and hierarchy of articles is liable to change according to the selected language. Consequently, I tried to check both the Russian and the English versions on the same days, sometimes switching to Estonian version as well, with the help of Estonian speakers or online translators. This gave me some understanding of how the differentiation of news is happening according to the spoken language of a target group, and made me paying attention to the presence of sometimes quite opposite discourses existing within Estonian society. My increased interest in politics on national identity in Ukraine also affected the list of keywords, which became important to me when reading articles in print and online Ukrainian media. In the media I followed closely the events of Euromaidan, the Crimean conflict of 2014 and the development of the military conflict in the

25 This market was defined by my respondents as a more 'Estonian' one in comparison to other markets in Tallinn. 26 According to the survey of Estonian market research companies, Turu-uuringute AS (2011) and TNS Emor (2012)

61 Eastern Ukraine. The online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske.tv27 became my main sources of information on developments in Ukraine. In this period, apart from news, a considerable number of analytical articles started being published, discussing the developments of nationalism in Ukraine and possible effects on Ukrainian national identity caused by the above mentioned events. Such new 'habits' acquired during research cannot be classified as a media analysis, as there is a lack of consistency, regularity and appropriate organization of information received from media resources. Nevertheless, I believe that all this material was important first of all in how it shaped this research and guided me through it. Though I did not systematize news' and analytical articles, I took field notes every time something relevant appeared in the media. The media analysis that could be considered as one of additional methods of inquiry for this study consists of the following blocks of analyzed materials. For the case-study of L'viv: - text and semiotic analysis of media articles, posters and other print and online materials concerning the spread of the boycott of Russian products in Ukraine in 2014 For the case-study of Tallinn: - text and semiotic analysis of culturally differentiated locally produced TV advertisements of Estonian food products The data retrieved from the media analysis for the case study of L'viv served first of all to place my respondents' answers regarding the boycott in a context (for more detailed accounts see Seliverstova 2016), to identify how large and important this civic initiative was for the whole Ukrainian community and how it was portrayed by a local media. The analysis of TV advertisements was incorporated into the research design much later than the rest of data collection methods. The idea to explore Estonian advertisements of food products came as a follow-up reaction to the parts of interviews on food consumption practices with Estonian respondents, which turned spontaneously into vivid and rich examples for discussions. The importance of food for the formation of collective identity was already widely discussed in different geographic contexts and on a theoretical level (Bell & Valentine 1997; Hall 1997; Wilk 1999), while in Estonia in particular, this symbolic role of food was also highlighted in some previous academic research (Kannike

27 Hromadske.tv - is an internet television station that started to operate in the beginning of Euromaidan events. It is a civil initiative, which was created by several Ukrainian journalists.

62 2009). Besides this, the official narrative of the Estonian nation is in fact intensively promoted through food products and food habits28 (Kannike & Vosu 2011). The reasons to include the analysis of advertisements in the study of national identity through the prism of consumer culture could be numerous, however, I identified several of them, which were particularly relevant for my research question. The analyzed TV advertisements could be defined as ‘culturally differentiated’ (Morris 2005), while other types of advertisement not included in this work, but also found in the Estonian media space, are mainly global and glocalized advertisements (Kraidy 1999). When sampling advertisements, first I selected those promoting basic food products, such as bread, milk and meat, as they were mentioned the most often by my informants as products that had some special properties when produced in Estonia (''ecologically pure'', ''authentic recipe'', ''containing fat like nowhere else in Europe''). Then I tried to identify those that transmitted some images and/or ideas about Estonians as a community of consumers. Advertisements were thematically sorted according to the type of promoted product and then according to the type of method in which they were conveying symbolic messages to Estonian consumers. This resulted in a table with three categories of types of message transmission: 1. messages communicated verbally either as a narrative, or through songs, or as slogans of advertisements (text analysis); 2. messages transmitted through the settings and material culture elements (semiotic analysis); and 3. messages communicated by the characters in the advertisements, both verbally and visually (text and semiotic analysis). The principles of semiotic analysis, which first of all tell us how to explore how signs are used to represent something (Cullum-Swan & Manning 1994; De Saussure 1985; Džanić 2013), were applied to visual messages and short verbal messages (1– 2 words), longer verbal messages, like monologues or dialogues were analyzed as texts. Advertisements, as pervasive element of popular culture (Morris 2005) and elements of everyday life, could be considered as elements, which materialize the nation (moving it from conceptual to tangible). They bring the ideas of a nation closer to the ordinary person and at the same time dictate how to be a good citizen- consumer (Foster & Özcan 2005). The analysis of such media in the current research served to clarify the agency of advertisement in the creation of consumers- citizens, especially by focusing on images of the nation that are transmitted by them. The results of this advertisements' analysis will be presented in a separate article “Projections of national identity in contemporary Estonian TV advertisements”, which, however, is not included in current dissertation.

28 For examples of presence of promotion of national narrative through food products and food practices one might find the website of the Estonian Ministry of Rural affairs (http://estonianfood.eu/en) very illustrative, as well as some other official sources that are part of the Brand Estonia campaign https://www.visitestonia.com/en/why-estonia/introduction-to- estonian-cuisine

63 2.3. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ISSUES Very often the reliability and validity of data produced in qualitative inquiries gets questioned. However as Lincoln and Guba (2000) argue, usually such criticism comes from a wrong perspective, the one informed by positivist notions of validity (see also Burawoy 1998). To defend their studies, looking for an alternative criterion for 'trustworthiness' (Shenton 2004:63), researchers conducting qualitative studies from a constructionist epistemological stance emphasized the role of reflexivity. Reflexivity serves as a core check for the validity of research (Schwartz- Shea & Yanow 2013; Shenton 2004; Kubik 2009) and “refers to the researcher's active consideration of an engagement with the ways in which his own sense- making and the particular circumstances that might have affected it, throughout all phases of the research process, relate to the knowledge claims he ultimately advances in written form.” (Schwartz-Shea & Yanow 2013:100). In interpretive studies, the process of data generation and data analysis are very often not done according to the traditional sequence, when analysis follows only when all the data had been gathered. Instead, these two processes are intertwined. The analysis of intermediary results almost automatically motivates investigators not only to modify methodology or change their research questions, but also to regularly reflect on their position in the everyday world of their study. It becomes important to reflect on questions such as how the researcher's identity might affect the results of his/her research, how the researcher is perceived by the informants and how the context and the subject of his/her research affects him/herself (Schwartz-Shea & Yanow 2013:98). What is also important is that a researcher might take on several roles in the course of his/her study, becoming in a way an instrument of investigation (ibid.; Wulf 2016). In the beginning – during the phase of research design – this study was planned as a comparative analysis of two post-Soviet case studies. Later, however, after already having finished the fieldwork in Ukraine and having started the one in Tallinn, I realized that mainly because of my language and national background I would not be able to interpret my data from L'viv and Tallinn in a similar way. Being Ukrainian and conducting research about national identity in Ukraine determined the way I experienced the interview sessions and how I later interpreted them. In particular, because over the course of the recent Ukrainian socio-political transformations my own identity as of Ukrainian went through renegotiation process. I started to look for new markers to express my feelings of belonging to Ukraine inside the country and especially abroad. My attitude to official national symbols also changed, for instance, my feelings towards the Ukrainian national flag went through the fases of indifference, pride and in the end even some depreciation of it. Though it is expected that the researcher remain as neutral as possible towards the subject of study, apparently it is not fully possible, because each researcher has some emotions and feelings towards his/her subject of study (Yanow 2009); this is further complicated when elements of the researcher’s identity and inherent cultural understanding are tied in to the process (Alvesson 2003; Strathern 1987). In the

64 case of this study, the emotional aspect of data gathering and interpreting processes were deeply tied to the events in Ukraine, which started in 2013. They deeply influenced my own system of values and definitely encouraged the renegotiation of my own perception of being a Ukrainian. It is very useful to reflect not only on the position of researcher, but also on the role of participants and context, taking into account intermediary results of research. My cultural understanding of Ukraine differed from the one of Estonia, which I started to acquire only with the beginning of my research activities. The more familiar I became with the cultural context of Tallinn, but also that of L'viv, which is not my native city, the more inclined I was to modify my research question and use additional instruments to gather data. Initially the idea was to study the opportunities that consumer culture can offer for the integration of Russian- speaking communities in Estonian and Ukrainian societies. However, very soon after starting to familiarize myself with the situation of Russian speakers there, their identity appeared to me as a very complex one; the concept of integration, for example, was very biased in such everyday conversations in Tallinn, while in L'viv it was barely recognized, even when speaking of Russian speakers. When conducting interviews, I also realized that Russian speakers identify themselves with Estonia, but their sense of belonging to Estonia has a number of common patterns that differ from native Estonian speakers’ sense of belonging. A similar situation was also observed in the case of interviews conducted in L'viv. As demonstrated in the second publication (Seliverstova 2016), Russian speakers and Ukrainian speakers might imbue different sets of objects with national meanings or prefer different national symbols, but they would all associate those selected material things with the Ukrainian culture and nation. Reflecting on these different expressions of national feelings in both contexts, referring to the literature that developed around the topic of everyday nationalism became an appropriate solution for framing the empirical material of this inquiry. This was the moment when the main research question was substantially modified and when the re-reading of interview materials gave some new insights, which were first invisible because of lack of a solid theoretical framework. One of the shortcomings of this study might be the difference between the actual everyday life of my respondents and their narration of it. However, this research is about understanding the process rather than learning the facts. One of the goals was to learn how people act, consume, think, not what they precisely do; in particular, how they imbue their national self-perceptions into their daily practices and objects around them. There was no aim to generate a list of such practices, but rather of presenting them as examples of a variety of multiple ways in which the feeling of national belonging could be experienced. Focusing on what ordinary people say and do, this research does not claim to reconstruct an objective reality, but rather to present and interpret the reality seen by people, as Schatz notes (2009:13) “we can only discern what is ''real'' by taking people's world views seriously”. Approaching two groups of different language or ethnic backgrounds with the same questions,

65 the aim was not to make general judgements, like which group expresses national identity 'better' and who contributes more to it, but rather to learn how both of them perceive and act in this process. Understanding and interpreting their everyday strategies, I tried to demonstrate that there are no limits to how one can develop, express and enrich the sense of belonging to one specific national community. When describing interview material, the idea was to present it in such a way that the reader would be able to hear informants' voices and their own conceptualizations of the reality they live in (Ashforth 2005; Kubik 2009; Wedeen 1999). For these reasons, the questions regarding the credibility of what was said by respondents are not applicable to this project. Finally, an extensive description of the settings in which the research was carried out can help to situate the analysis and also increase its validity (Yanow 2009:283). Since during the time when this study was conducted several important events took place, at least in one of the countries, which city was under study, it is important to describe briefly the context of research and also physical settings of interviews.

2.3.1. Specific context and settings of research. L'viv, Ukraine Two months after I submitted my research proposal, a couple of dozen Ukrainian students and activists gathered on the main square in Kiev in order to protest against Yanukovich government's refusal to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. This is generally thought to be how the Euromaidan started – a wave of public demonstrations, which later developed into a revolution and made Viktor Yanukovich and his government representatives flee the country. When I entered the field in L'viv, there was a post-Euromaidan and post-Crimean conflict period; the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine (also known as Donbas War29) had already been going on for several months. In August 2014, there were hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from Eastern Ukraine and Crimea30, hundreds of military and civilian deaths31, overwhelming fear that the whole territory of Ukraine might be submerged in war, a sharp rise in nationalist feelings, and the start of an economic crisis. All these were among the main features of the context in which the first block of data was collected for this research. As several researchers who worked in a conflict situation (Adler & Haas 1992; Green 1995; Wood 2009) demonstrate, the collection of data in the atmosphere of civil

29 For further reading see Sakwa, Richerd (2014) Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands. 30 According to the UNHCR report, as of 16 October the total number of registered IDPs equaled 417.246 persons; L'viv and its region hosted 7840 IDP's. http://unhcr.org.ua/en/2011-08-26-06- 58-56/news-archive/1362-unhcr-welcomes-adoption-of-the-law-by-ukrainian-parliament-to- protect-people-displaced-by-conflict Last accessed on 27 July 2016. 31 There is no concrete statistic of deaths for August 2014, however, by February 2015, according to the UN body OCHA report, from mid-April 2014 till 15 February 2015, at least 5,665 people were killed in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions as a result of armed conflict. "Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights" (PDF). OCHA. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2016.

66 unrest differs from the normal one. It requires a high level of sensibility in the research, a delicacy in questions and a readiness to feel compassion with the local population. Though L'viv was very far from the armed conflict, the city and its region accepted a considerable number of IDPs and sent both military men and volunteers to fight in the conflict zone. This did somehow shake the daily lives of native residents. The issues concerning the death of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, the role of Putin in the Ukrainian crisis and of local people's readiness to accept IDPs were among the most popular topics in everyday conversations. Though the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense32 has classified information concerning how many people were mobilized and sent to the zone of Anti Terrorist Operation in Donbass, the accounts of popular opinion and of some media sources tell that L'viv region was at the top in terms of the number of military men and volunteers that were called up for fighting in the East of Ukraine33. The second fieldwork period happened in December 2014 - January 2015, when the situation differed from August mainly in the higher number of deaths, the aggravation of the economic crisis and the appearance of more stable anti-Putin and in some cases even anti-Russian attitudes among ordinary people. Though such factors were not posing any potential threat to my own security, while conducting research there, these conditions affected at least three aspects of my research: The type of questions for interviews – Additional questions were included about how the events of Euromaidan and the military conflict in the east of Ukraine personally affected respondents; about their attitude to IDPs as well as to Russia and Russians; and finally, about their personal perception of the issue of Ukrainian Russian speakers. These questions were raised first by respondents spontaneously, and were later incorporated in the interview guiding questionnaire; The atmosphere of interview – Though initially I had not planned to touch on sensitive topics, some conversations turned into quite emotional monologues, which influenced the atmosphere of the interview and also my role of interlocutor. Those sections of the interviews demanded much more compassion and empathy, putting me in the role of researcher-therapist (Wulf 2016); The role of researcher34 – During the stage of the interpretation of my data, I started to realize the impact of my role as a researcher: being a native Ukrainian and having lived all those events together with other Ukrainians in my soul affected the way I started to reflect on my own identity and affected the way I behaved during the interviews. Though the general opinion among academics is that the more neutral a researcher is towards his subject of research, the more objective data he can get, I believe that in this particular context and situation, it was impossible for me to stay

32 According to information provided by the daily news portal Comments.UA http://glavnoe.ua/ news/n194230. Last access 27 July 2016. 33 http://www.versii.if.ua/novunu/lvivshhina-lidiruye-sered-inshih-oblastey-ukrayini-shhodo- naboru-na-viyskovu-sluzhbu-za-kontraktom/ 34 Discussed in more detail in the subsection on reflexivity and the included publication with Emilia Pawlusz (2016).

67 neutral. Scholars such as Yanow (2009: 287) maintain that “the ability of the researcher to stand outside the subject of study – is not conceptually possible”. The participants of this research very often expected me to express some attitude and to take sides when it came to the Ukrainian socio-political conflict situation. It was a kind of testing strategy on their part, and if they did not receive the 'right' answer they would not open up and talk or would do so with suspicion. Emotional engagement was thus inevitable, but also useful for the quality of data collected (De Volo 2004). In this particular context, which was so deeply informed by the events in Ukraine in 2014–2015, remaining neutral would potentially prevent me from establishing a level of sympathy and trust crucial for the research.

2.3.2. Specific context and settings of research. Tallinn, Estonia The main fieldwork period (the period during which interviews were conducted) in Estonia followed after the first field trip to Ukraine, starting in October 2014 and then continuing after a hiatus from January 2015 till June 2015. From the time perspective, the fieldwork in Tallinn can be characterized by much longer stays, which resulted in much more relaxed interviews compared to those held in L'viv. Like Schneider and Cheung (2015), who argue that the Estonian socio-economic, political and social 'outlook' was affected by events in Ukraine in 2014–2015, I also believe that the context of my interviews with Tallinn's residents was to some extent related to what was happening in Ukraine. The main outcome on the level of everyday life, in which I was interested, was the politicization of daily discourses. Local people not only expressed empathy or sometimes, on the contrary, criticism towards the Euromaidan revolution, but became concerned about their own future in light of events such as the Crimean annexation and the start of the pro-Russian separatist movement in Eastern Ukraine. However, fears that Russia might instigate something similar against the very vulnerable Baltic states – fears expressed mostly by local and Western security experts35 -- did not find serious support among the ordinary population. Still, I had the feeling that people became more interested in news media and I noticed some aggravation towards the division of society among Estonian speakers and Russian speakers, in terms of the channels they followed: “Divided into separate information spaces, they increasingly see world events in different ways.” (Dougherty & Kaljurand 2015:18). The empirical data of this research is in line with results derived from several surveys conducted in 2014– 2015 in Estonia (Dougherty & Kaljurand 2015; Kivirahk 2014). They demonstrate in particular that the cultural attraction of Estonian Russian speakers to Russia does not necessarily imply an attraction to the politics of Russia and Vladimir Putin in particular (ibid.:17); moreover, the data showed that Russian speakers are not inclined to think that Russia could express aggression against Estonia (Kivirahk 2014:13), as it did in the case of Ukraine.

35 See for more details: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/03/estonias-angst/ , http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-insight-idUSBREA2K07S20140323 Last access 12.08.2016

68 I have included questions about Ukraine in my interviews and questions of personal security also when collecting interviews among Tallinn's residents. I found much more diverse opinions there than in L'viv, which potentially supports the idea that the popular discourses in Tallinn are more divided according to the language of preference (Jõesaar 2015). Estonian parliamentary elections, held on March 1st, 2015, were also among the main local events, which affected the content of everyday conversations according to my respondents. In this section I have presented the multiple methods used in my research, and discussed various aspects of the data collection process, presenting to the reader more details on the context in which this study was done and on the position of different participants in it. Reflecting on my own position as a researcher, I have acknowledged that in some periods of data collection and interpretation I was not able to remain neutral towards my subjects of study and this potentially increased the subjectivity of the final findings. Furthermore, I have reflected upon several roles that I experienced in the course of this research, from researcher-observer to researcher-therapist and co-author of the respondents' narratives. I believe that though such shifts in my position pose a significant risk vis-à-vis the reliability of data presented here, this risk is outweighed by the fact that providing more information on my position will ultimately facilitate the understanding of the results of this study. The use of multiple methods required additional efforts to keep this research consistent and rigorous. The analysis and interpretation of the derived data was also a challenging process and was regularly renegotiated. However, I believe that these efforts were worthwhile for obtaining the rich material that I interpret and present in the following four publications.

69 CONCLUSION

Eastern Europe and, in particular, the post-socialist region, have often been regarded as areas where hot forms of nationalism (Billig 1995; Hutchinson 2006) were prevalent. So far, local nation-building projects represented case studies for testing constructivist paradigms and became lenses to explore and explain the evolution of ethnic tensions and their possible escalation into open conflicts. After two dozens of years since the complete dissolution of the Soviet Union we can observe that some hot expressions of nationalism continue to exist or to reappear in that area, however it can be also seen that to some extent nations have been domesticated (Deloye 2013) or, in words of Skey (2011), 'sedimented' there. In other words it signifies that in a relatively young post-Soviet states people are able to take category of nation as a taken-for-granted one. This assumption has informed the approach of the current doctoral thesis, allowing to suggest that we are entering the period when we can study not only how nations are being conceived, but also how they are reproduced daily in the context of former Soviet societies. A large body of scholarship engaging with nationalism, nation building and identity debates has been concentrating, and still centers its analyses on a state or elite centered perspective. Focus is put on the role of political institutions, political elites and official national narrative in a country. Official and explicit expression of nationalistic feelings are thus preferred and prioritized on any other aspects of national identity construction. Following attempts to concentrate on non-statistic nation-building accounts (Isaacs & Polese 2016), and rooting on the study of everyday nationalism (Edensor 2002; Fox 2006, 2016) a number of emerging scholars have been concentrating on non-traditional forms of identity constructions in post-socialist spaces. They kept their focus on visible, mundane forms of experiencing and reproducing a national community (Bulakh 2017; Cheskin 2013; Gurova 2016; Klumbyte 2010; Knott 2015; Pawlusz 2016; Seliverstova 2016, 2017b). Emphasis has been put on how ordinary people perceive and interpret the too often taken-for-granted categories of nation, ethnicity and citizenship, how they understand and negotiate national markers and how they produce evidence of how concepts of banal nationalism work (Billig 1995). The theoretical understanding of the evolution and construction of national identity used in this research is footed in the works on everyday or banal form of nationalism, mostly observed in a Western context. This meant to engage with the works of such scholars as Billig (1995), Skey (2010, 2011), Antonsich (2015), Foster (2002), Anderson (1991), Edensor (2002), Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008), Fox (2016), Thompson (2001), Löfgren (1993). Such literature helped to achieve the goal of this work to emphasize the importance of the so called cold nationalism, as opposed to hot and to construct a discourse on the development of understanding of how national identity is being shaped from beneath. By bringing new insights on how nation is experienced at the bottom level it showed that the top-down

70 traditional approach so far has failed to reveal some ways in which nations could be shaped and reproduced. Methodologically, the approach of this research represents a combination of qualitative interpretative approach (Schwartz-Shea & Yanow 2013; Yanow & Schwartz-Shea 2006) and ethnography of everyday (Fox & Miller-Idriss 2008; Fox 2016), embedded in a specific focus on material culture. The goal of this interpretative approach, which so far was used widely in works on everyday nationalism, was to inquire into the process of how people interpret existent concepts, symbols, categories and how in some cases they produce new ones. The method of semi-structured interviews was chosen to answer the main research question of how ordinary people perform, and renegotiate their national identities in their everyday lives. This tool was already widely applied in consumer culture studies and also in other explorations of nationalism from a bottom-up perspective. To present the context of the study, but also to facilitate the interpretation of data collected through interviews, additional tools, like participant observation and media analysis were used. This helped also to contrast different views on culturally defined practices, through which people establish their references to one or another national community. The empirical analysis presented in publications of this thesis provided evidence to the concepts and ideas elaborated by above mentioned scholars. Focusing on everyday practices of consumption, it highlights some discrepancies between “theory and practice of the nation” in Estonia and Ukraine. On the one hand the state, through its elites, institutions and narratives, constructs an official view of Estonian and Ukrainian nationhood. On the other one, however, ordinary people cannot be considered passive “policy takers”, who blindly accept any type of discourse they receive through different channels of top-down communication. They are also active actors, who conceive, sharpen and reproduce national identity. The variety of methods used in this thesis are used to unveil the diversity of ways people can interpret discourses on national identity and how they can reproduce them. In order to achieve a maximum diversity in the ways how nation is being visualized, participants with different ethnic, cultural and language background were chosen to inform this study. For instance, the analysis of interviews collected in L'viv demonstrates that Russian speakers may choose different objects and practices, through which to express their national sentiments, from those preferred by Ukrainian speakers. The discovered diversity of informal national symbols still could be associated with one national category, common for both groups, as all respondents were genuinely perceiving themselves as Ukrainians while talking about different national symbols. In the Estonian case evidence suggested the existence of multitude of ways in which individuals expressed, through everyday consumption practices, their association with, and loyalty, to Estonia. In many national discourses, not only academic, ethnic Estonians are regarded as having greater national capital (needed to perform Estonian identity) than Estonian Russian speakers. Accordingly, Russian Estonians

71 are often portrayed as those who need to integrate, representing outsiders to the Estonian nation, against whom an Estonian identity is built (Vetik 1993; Vetik & Helemäe 2011). In contrast, this study demonstrates that Russian speakers do feel their attachment to Estonia and participate in many practices which could be considered as 'culturally' Estonian. Still, while also identifying themselves with Russian culture and language, they might fail to define themselves as full members of Estonian national community, because narratives on Estonian nation remain to be rather closed to components and influences of other cultures, in particular of the Russian one. The main contribution of the current research findings lays in its critique to current national narratives through a comparison of two parallel realms. This work contrasts official narratives of existing dominant national discourses (proper to the Estonian or Ukrainian societies), constructed along ethnic or language lines, and the everyday nation. The focus on the everyday allows us to appreciate that ethnic and linguistic divisions are not fixed but nuanced by the context in which they are embedded in. If the official symbols are not getting accepted by one or another group, it does not imply automatically that representatives of such groups are not feeling part of the nation or are not loyal to the state, which symbols they contest. In such cases, when the portrayal of nation in official accounts is not shared, people might develop alternative national symbols and perform their belonging to the nation through them in their own, unique way. The diversity in the ways they experience the participation in one national category shows the absence of a unique, and unchangeable, framework for being, for instance, Estonian or Ukrainian. Consumption practices and patterns, and their observation, allow the researcher to understand, and illustrate, how these new symbols are being formed and then applied in the everyday life of the national community members. Former socialist societies, which experienced the conditions of planned economy in the past, like regular shortages of products and a constant 'hunt' for them, are particularly sensitive and receptive to the changing role, and symbolic importance, of objects. Their symbolic importance, in particular, is crucial to prompt a shift in the concept of the nation, from ideological to material. A more systematic exploration of how national identities develop along consumer identities, how they intervene and affect each other may contribute to finding of further nuances in the way how people understand and perform their roles of citizens and as members of national communities.

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88 APPENDIX 1

Analyzed On-line resources for the case study of L´viv Real-estate and renting companies www.airbnb.com http://kakdoma.com.ua/ru/ http://miete.com.ua/Lvov http://doba.ua/cities/Lvov http://lviv.oneday.ua/ http://day.lun.ua http://arenda.lviv.ua/

Renovation and construction companies www.design-proekt.com.ua https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZjdpRq4SZlRQ02bWc7v9jg http://remont-lviv.com.ua http://maister.lviv.ua/ http://gbg.lviv.ua http://budbest.com.ua/ http://kapitel.lviv.ua http://dimar.com.ua http://remont-bud.com/ http://www.remontkvartyr.lviv.ua/ http://remontik.lviv.ua/

Analyzed On-line resources for the case study of Tallinn https://www.visitestonia.com/en/things-to-see-do/eat-drink http://calvertjournal.com (selected articles on national cuisine) http://estonianfood.eu/en/content/food http://world.lib.ru/u/unt_m/kudapodatsjagolodnouturistuvtallinne.shtml

89

90 PUBLICATIONS

I Pawłusz, E., & Seliverstova, O. (2016). Everyday Nation-Building In The Post- Soviet Space. Methodological Reflections. Studies of Transition States and Societies, 8(1), 69–86. S TSS Vol 8 / Issue 1 69 Studies of Transition States and Societies

Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections

Emilia Pawłusz* & Oleksandra Seliverstova

Abstract

This article presents a methodological approach to the study of nation-building in everyday life in the post- Soviet region. Although bottom-up and informal mechanisms of creating identity have been acknowledged in the literature and methodology of nationalism studies, they have seldom been applied to studies in the post-Soviet countries. This article discusses the strengths and limitations of such an approach, using the example of two studies — on consumption and national identity in Ukraine and on music and nation- building in Estonia.

Keywords: post-Soviet space, national identity, informal nation-building, Estonia, Ukraine.

Introduction

The post-Soviet political and social transformations provided a rich variety of topics to be addressed by the academic community. One strand of literature that appeared in such conditions evolved around the topics of state, nation-building and the formation of national identity. The biggest wave of scholarly literature about this region appeared at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s. Although it discussed various aspects of the founding of post-Soviet nations, it was usually limited to a macro perspective and focused on the main political actors: the state, the political elite, and their actions (language and citizenship policies). Alternatively, scholars surveyed popular attitudes towards politics and established offi cial national symbols (Brubaker, 1996; Laitin, 1998; Kolstø, 1996, 2006). Over time, scholars have observed that nation-building engages multiple actors on various levels of the society and that the elite’s vision of the nation is often contested by socially and ethnically diverse populations (Isaacs and Polese, 2015; Polese, 2011). The top-down approach has been a point of critique and this has contributed to the increase in studies that turn attention to the agency of ordinary citizens and non-state actors. Such studies emphasise the context of everyday, private, informal practices and interactions in which the ideas of national belonging are embedded, reinforced and recreated. This paper contributes to this growing body of literature by discussing modifi cations of methodological choices that emerged during the data collection process and challenges that stem from this theoretical approach. We identifi ed that while the literature on nation-building in post- Soviet spaces has remained constant in time, the methodological lenses through which the scholars approached processes of nation-building and identity formation have not been diversifi ed and addressed in literature with the same level of scrutiny. Most of the literature focused on registered, measured or offi cial data, neglecting the everyday aspect of identity formation. This article aims to fi ll this gap by presenting a composite methodology for studying national identity in the context of everyday life and mundane practices performed by ordinary citizens. We stress the usefulness of diff erent aspects of an ethnographic approach such as participation in everyday life situations, and

* E-mail address of the corresponding author: [email protected] 95 70 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

focusing on non-declarative, aff ective, implicit and tacit aspects of identity (such as material settings and belongings). Such an approach contributes to the understanding of identity based on unnoticed, ‘banal’, or formally invisible practices and actors that renegotiate the political narrative and contribute to reshaping the perception of how national identity is formed. Although the bottom-up approach is not novel in worldwide literature (Edensor, 2002; Fox & Miller- Idriss, 2008), it is only recently being applied in studies of major post-Soviet socio-political processes (Adams, 2009). We believe that it is particularly useful, as many aspects of political, social and economic life in the post-Soviet area have remained in place and are largely infl uenced by informal practices (cf. Morris & Polese, 2015). The impact of informality in terms of methodology is that existing offi cial data and standardised ways of collecting data, such as surveys or structured interviews with elite political representatives, are not suffi cient to grasp the complexity and changing aspects of the formation of national identity in the region. We illustrate our argument and approach with two case studies. The fi rst case study, which is discussed by the fi rst author, is about the relationship between consumption practices and material objects and the sense of national belonging. It draws attention to how Ukrainians design and affi rm their national self-image through aesthetic choices of certain home decoration elements and their narration about them. In particular, the author reveals which steps of the research design process and data collection helped to identify symbolic meanings of home, home possessions and consumption practices associated with a sense of national belonging. First, the author shares her way of fi nding appropriate tools to collect data, showing how it is a continuous process that should be rethought and adapted regularly even after stepping into the fi eld. Second, she demonstrates how the context of time, space and public discourse in which an interview is conducted can aff ect the interview itself, its interpretation, and even the role of the researcher in his/her study. The study shows some nuanced aspects of interviewing in home settings, in which observation of material culture could be a valuable source of data (Stimson, 1986), thus encouraging other researchers to develop some anthropological sensitivity while exploring such a multidimensional and contested process as national identity formation. The second study explores how the sense of national belonging is recreated in contemporary Estonia through collective musical practices and national song performance. It is an ethnographic study of the national song festival and choral singing, which from the public perspective is an ‘authentic Estonian thing’. The festival, which is a state-funded event, yet possible only thanks to the widespread popularity of choral singing, is an example of a practice that exposes how formal nation- building driven by the state is intertwined and largely supported by the informal and mundane. It also exposes the ambiguous position of the people who organise the national celebration — their shifting identities and sometimes confl icting discourses that arise depending on the context of the interview. The study points to a major yet understudied aspect of identity — its aff ective, performative and bodily dimension. Consequently, the author poses a question about emotions and empathy as a way of generating knowledge and argues that there is a need — and space — for emotional refl exivity in the practice of researching national identity. The paper is structured as follows. First, it engages in theoretical and methodological debates on nation-building in scholarly literature. Second, the two empirical illustrations are presented. The fi rst (empirical) case study is narrated and discussed by Author 1 and the second one by Author 2. Emphasis is placed on methodological choices rather than the comprehensive analysis of the fi ndings. Finally, the conclusion off ers a summary and discussion of the proposed methodology, its strengths and limitations, as well as recommendations for further research.

96 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 71

Theoretical and methodological approaches to nation-building

Most scholars interested in the post-Soviet countries have until now approached the topic of nation- building using a macro, top-down perspective. Studies within this approach investigated actions of political elites and various policies, such as language and citizenship policies, which have been the most visible and pronounced indicators of how the new states and their elites addressed the questions of nationality, ethnicity and minority-majority relations. There is an abundance of literature that adopts such a perspective (Arel, 1995; Kuzio, 1998; Laitin, 1998; Mole, 2012; Smith et al., 1998). The usual methodological approach involves interviews with policy makers, analysis of offi cial documents, policies and statistical data on language use or declared national identifi cation. Furthermore, the multi-ethnic composition of post-Soviet societies — more specifi cally, how national policies in recently emerged nation-states did or did not accommodate various ethnic minority groups living in their territories — has been increasingly stimulating academic interest. In general, such studies resulted in two main strands of inquiry. The fi rst one examines ethnic tensions and confl icts that either appeared or were suppressed in the former area of the Soviet Union (Coppieters, 2004; Lynch, 2002; Tishkov, 1997). The second one concentrates on symbolic aspects of nation-building and explores how offi cial symbols were accepted/rejected by diff erent ethnic or language groups (Denison, 2009; Kolstø, 1996, 2006). Concurrently, a vast body of literature has developed, which inquires into the everyday life of post-Soviet people; namely, how they have coped with the transition and how they have constructed their identities. However rich in empirical evidence, this literature does not address the process of nation formation directly; it usually lacks the link between the macro and micro dimension of nation- building. Yet, some studies make references to how the sense of national belonging in the new post- Soviet reality is developed through consumption practices of food (Caldwell, 2002; Patico, 2008) and clothing (Gurova, 2014; Pilkington, 2002), participation in informal economic practices (Humphrey 2002; Polese 2009), and exposure to new types of media, especially advertisement (Morris, 2005). A newer strand of scholarship on nation-building aims to combine top-down and bottom-up approaches and bridge the gap between formal policies and everyday life experiences (Brubaker et al. 2006; Cheskin, 2013; Isaacs & Polese, 2015; Polese, 2011; Rodgers, 2007). Studies within this approach do not dismiss the gravity of top-down policies, yet acknowledge that nation-building is a two-way and multi-faceted process. Ordinary citizens and their actions cannot be perceived as passive recipients of elite strategies but rather as active actors who adaptively transform the nation-state. Their sense of belonging is not only declarative, but also performative, creative, dynamic and goes beyond binary categories often imposed in more conventional ways of researching identity. The pioneering work that valued such an approach was David Laitin’s (1998) study of the Russian- speaking populations in the neighbouring post-Soviet countries, in which he combined surveys, discourse analysis of identity categories in the post-Soviet press, and ethnographic data such as family stories. Still, like other early studies of the post-Soviet nation-building, Laitin’s work focused primarily on language as a proxy of identity, because it is easy to ‘monitor and measure’ (Laitin, 1998, p. 368). While singling out one aspect of culture is useful, especially in comparative studies, it poses the questions of what other signifi cant aspects of identity expression and construction there are, or to what extent language is indeed a proxy for identity in the post-Soviet context. Other scholars such as Isaacs and Polese (2015, 2016) challenged the language and elite-focused approach to nation-building. They argued for an interdisciplinary approach that includes sociological and ethnographic accounts of other proxies and sites of national identity construction such as schools, public events, arts, or religious practices. Although their works off er a fresh view on the complexity of the nation-building processes in the post-Soviet area, they do not explicitly engage in a discussion on methodological choices.

97 72 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

A notable example of methodological refl exivity can be found in the work of Adams (2009) on how the political elite of Uzbekistan ‘imagines’ the nation through public holidays. Adams advocates ethnography as a method that gives access to the self-understanding of individuals in a variety of contexts and in practical terms. She argues that ethnography is especially suited for discovering deep cognitive schemes of identity, which are often discarded in offi cial narratives and not accessible through mainstream methodological approaches. Beyond the post-Soviet context, the bottom-up perspective on national identity is more acknowledged. Inspired by the work on banal aspects of nationalism by Billig (1995), scholars such as Edensor (2002), Foster (2002), Brubaker et al. (2006) and Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008) have explored national identity from the perspective of ordinary citizens, popular culture, or everyday practices. Robert Foster’s (2002) studies of national identity in Papua New Guinea and Turkey showed that mechanisms of banal nationalism are also applicable in non-capitalist and developing countries. He used a variety of methods, inter alia the semiotic analysis of advertisements, analysis of the symbolic meaning of the Olympic Torch relay, and in-depth interviews with ordinary people. Thanks to this diversity of methods and fl exibility of data sources, his study on mass media and commodity consumption demonstrated how diff erent elements of everyday life ‘serve to anchor the nation in the everyday life’ (Foster, 2002, p. 64). Moreover, Foster’s work provided a new understanding of the concept of ‘consumer citizenship’, defi ning it as the ‘production of national identity by way of shared consumption practices’ (Foster & Özcan, 2005, p. 5). Tim Edensor (2002) also turns to everyday life when studying national identity in the United Kingdom and focuses mostly on popular and material cultures. He discusses the role of space, landscapes, material objects, and products of material culture in the development and solidifi cation of the sense of national belonging. However, his most innovative contribution lies in his idea to group everyday practices into three main types of actions. They are as follows: performing the nation through formal and popular rituals and ceremonies; representing the nation through tourist-oriented materials and mythic heroes portrayed in fi lms; and exhibiting the nation through nation-wide exhibitions. Brubaker et al.’s (2006) work on nationalism in Romanian Transylvania represents a study of the synergy of macro and micro actors that ‘make’ the nation. The authors performed an analysis of policy making grounded in the context of historical narratives and an ethnographic study of everyday conversations and practices. They concluded that there is a signifi cant number of discrepancies bet- ween offi cial national discourse and how a sense of nationality and ethnicity are experienced in every- day life. Nationality or ethnicity should not be viewed as fi xed social groups/categories, but rather as diff erent cognitive schemes that change, appear/disappear depending on who is operating them. The above-described studies demonstrate that renegotiation of what nation is for people and ‘materialization’ of nation happens not in the couloirs of government buildings, but in the domain of everyday life — streets, homes, markets, schools, shops, stadiums, etc. All of these works are embedded in the context, are strongly qualitative and interpretative, and almost intuitively employ a variety of ethnographic data. Yet, with the exception of Adams (2009), they lack an explicit refl ection on the link between their theoretical approaches and methods of data collection, analysis and presentation. This problem is addressed by Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008), whose contribution to rethinking the methodology of researching everyday nationhood is particularly relevant for this paper. The authors discuss the necessity to apply multiple methods that are sensitive to the context, in order to reveal national identity processes at the level of mundane life. Their study proposes a methodological agenda for researching national identity ‘from below’; it discusses the use of surveys, as well as qualitative interviewing that includes observation of both declarative and non-discursive messages such as bodily expressions, gestures, etc. Rather than imposing the researcher’s own categories of national identifi cations in interviewing, the authors suggest to ‘wait and listen’ as respondents ‘naturally’ refer to the ideas of nationhood. To see when and how the nation unfolds, the authors recommend participant observation as the least intrusive method.

98 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 73

Following the approach of Fox and Miller-Idriss, this paper aims to make a twofold contribution to the methodological refl ection on studying nation-building and identity formation. First, it ‘pushes’ the refl ection on interviewing and participant observation even further by discussing diff erent contexts and aspects of interviews and informal conversations, refl ecting on the role of the researcher’s position and identity, as well as emotional refl exivity as a source of data on identity and approach to analysis. Rather than advocating ethnography as a method for identity studies in general, we argue that incorporating anthropological sensitivity into mainstream political science/political sociology might shed light on everyday, implicit, practical aspects of national identity construction, and thus complement more top-down or macro oriented quantitative and mainstream qualitative approaches. Second, this paper refl ects upon the methodological agenda of research into everyday nationhood in the context of the post-Soviet area. We argue that even if they are informal, everyday aspects of identity formation have been acknowledged on the theoretical level, little has been done to refl ect upon them in terms of the methodology of such research in the post-Soviet context. Having done research in post-Soviet countries (Estonia, Ukraine), we use data generated on-site to discuss semi- structured and informal interviewing on multiple sites, as well as diff erent aspects of ethnographic sensitivity. We consider the fl exibility of sampling and exposure as a sampling technique (Shea- Schwartz & Yanow, 2012) and call on other researchers to refl ect not only on their role as insiders or outsiders (Weinreb, 2006), but also on their own identity and how it might be aff ected by the research itself. The ‘banality’ of the everyday life often translates into the respondents’ diffi culty to comment on or even connect to their identity in such contexts. With respect to that issue, we argue in favour of paying attention to non-declarative identity performances. An eff ective methodology to study identity in the context of the mundane has to embrace non-verbal sources of data such as material objects and possessions, the context of a physical setting and situation, emotional gestures, acts and everyday life practices that demonstrate the ‘normalcy’ and specifi cs of nationhood as a category of reference. We believe the above-described aspects of identity formation and nation-building are usually hard to trace using conventional methods such as policy analysis, surveys and even qualitative interviewing, which often focus on the declarative level and/or offi cial discourse, omitting the aspects of multiple and contested meanings of identity, nationhood, and symbols. Finally, we discuss the researcher’s personal background, as well as his/her interaction in the fi eld as a source of insights and information often disregarded in the process of data collection and analysis. This observation is especially relevant in the research of collective identity, since it exposes the relational, performative and dynamic character of identity expressions (Tilly, 2005). The following two empirical studies serve as an illustration of the above-mentioned claims. To facilitate the understanding of our claims, we summarise methodological extensions in Table 1. (see below), which we suggest to be added while exploring everyday identity formation.

Table 1: Anthropological extensions in the study of everyday identity formation

Flexible sampling for extending the context of discovery; Sampling Exposure for an eff ective sampling strategy to map contentious, confl icting identity discourses; Attention to the context and setting of interviews and their infl uence over the outcome as well as over the role of the researcher; Interviewing Acknowledging the interview as a dialogical, relational performance in which the researcher invites or patiently waits for identity performance; Observation of physical settings, gestures, face expressions while doing interviews; Observing Attention to non-declarative aspects of identity formation: from tangible objects to emotions Interpreting Refl ection on the researcher’s role, background, power, interactions, identity, thoughts and emotions in the fi eld Source: authors’ compilation

99 74 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

Study 1

Exploring the invisible aspects of Ukrainian identity through its visible representations in the domestic sphere

This section presents a study that analyses national identity through everyday consumption practices. In particular, it focuses on the process of embodiment of national symbolic meanings in everyday material objects and practices of consumption, with the purpose of seeing how the concept of nation is grounded in ‘banal’ life. The results of this study not only reveal a multitude of non-offi cial national symbols, conceived at the level of everyday life, but they also demonstrate how such symbols are established and then practiced for national self-affi rmation by ordinary people. Previous studies on post-Soviet nationalism analysing the main ways and sites of the expression of national belonging often looked at offi cial national symbols and participation in national events, such as parades, ceremonies or national holidays (Kolstǿ, 2006; Smith, 1998). As part of a critique of this approach, some scholars started to acknowledge the fl uidity of national symbols, pointing also to the importance of non-offi cial national symbols (Brubaker et al., 2006; Kuzio, 1998;) and alternative sites for evoking national sentiments, such as the Eurovision song contest (Danero, 2015), Olympic games (Persson and Petersson, 2014) and the ‘Colour revolutions’ (Ó Beacháin and Polese, 2010). Everyday life as a site for the expression of national identity is an area of inquiry that is only starting to gain popularity in post-Soviet studies (Isaacs and Polese, 2016). Consumption constitutes an important part of everyday life and it is rich in symbolic meaningfulness and has a direct impact on the identity formation process (Douglas, 2002; Miller, 1995). The results driven from the empirical data of this case study show that besides being a stage for the expression of nationhood consumption also represents a sphere in which national sentiments are renegotiated and shaped. The two case study locations of this research are Tallinn (Estonia) and Lviv (Ukraine). The main data, which consists of 38 interviews conducted in Lviv and 29 in Tallinn, was collected during 2014 and 2015. Though the discus-sions of this paper are based on both case studies, only the one on Lviv will be used to illustrate the refl ective process of fi nding and applying appropriate methodology. The main method of inquiry was semi-structured interviews with a focus on ordinary consumption practices in four selected domains of everyday life, namely: food, home, leisure and fashion (clothing consumption). The examples presented in this paper are drawn from the selected material on home and home-related consumption. The rationale behind focusing only on the topic of home is dictated by the content and dynamics of the majority of interviews conducted in Lviv, in which the topic of home tended to turn into particularly vivid discussions and, therefore, also became the richest topic for illustrating the main argument. Interviewing was supplemented by additional research methods, such as close reading of research relevant documents, webpages, brochures, fashion, culinary and home interior design magazines, by visual analysis of pictures of home interiors up-loaded to databases of local real-estate agencies, and also by observations made at respondents’ homes as well as the main sites of consumption, like markets, supermarkets and shops. The sample was composed of urban citizens divided into two main groups according to their natively spoken language — Ukrainian or Russian in the case of Ukraine and Estonian or Russian in the case of Estonia. The subgroup division was based on the age of respondents. In the fi rst age category, there were informants born between 1940-1965, while in the second they were born between 1975-1990. The snowball recruitment method via social networks was used to fi nd potential informants. The choice to have re-spondents from diff erent language and age groups mirrors one of the targets of this research, which is to fi nd as much variety as possible in the ways in which national belonging is recreated and expressed. So far, ethnography has been considered to be the most appropriate instrument applied in studies of every-day life (De Certeau, 1984) and consumer culture (Miller, 1995; Ekström & Brembeck, 2004). In his several ethno-graphic studies of the potential impact of consumption on people’s identity projects,

100 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 75

Daniel Miller (1987) concluded that consumption and possession of commodities not only expose social identities, but also stipulate their formation and re-negotiation. Since this research study’s goal is to answer questions like how are national sentiments shaped at the mundane level? and what are those national symbols that people ‘operate’ in their everyday life?, the choice of eth-nography as the method of inquiry appears to be the most ‘natural’ one. First, in-depth interviews were chosen as the main method, however later, once I read through the transcripts of the fi rst interviews, I realised that they represented rather ‘dry’ material that needed to be supplemented by additional data. Looking for a potential gap in the chosen methodology (which at that moment included semi-structured interviews and analysis of print advertisements) I started to look for a supplementary method. With more experience in interviews, I understood that there was defi nitely a need to better understand and feel the context, time and physical settings in which my data was collected. This encouraged me to ‘use my eyes’ more and to observe more closely the settings in which the research was done, namely at the informants’ homes (whenever it was possible) and places of consumption. Even though it will be too ambitious to call this supplementary tool ‘participant observation conducted as fully as possible’, in its anthropological and sociological understanding, we believe that this type of observation deserves closer attention in studies of nationalism. This is also highlighted in the work of Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008, p. 357), who argue that “Participant ob-servation provides a window for viewing the nation in everyday life”. Observing informants’ homes or sites of con-sumption was helpful insofar as it revealed some details of the process of national identity formation that in general are diffi cult to notice when a more traditional approach to the study of national identity is applied. A home and the possessions it contains provide much information not only about the individual identity of their owner, but also about his/her group identity, and can provide evidence of how such an identity is recreated and maintained (Pechurina, 2015). Another observation that I believe will be relevant to highlight for future studies on nationalism concerns the way in which a researcher might inquire about national sensibilities. In order to fi nd unoffi cial national symbols that emerge and are ‘operated’ in the everyday life, or to learn about how people express their national portraits, one does not have to talk/ask about the nation explicitly. When the sense of national belonging is grounded in daily life, references to national categories come to the surface almost automatically at some point in a conversation (Fox & Miller-Idriss, 2008). If such an approach is chosen, a researcher should listen and just wait until his/her informant starts to refer to a nation. For instance, while asking my Estonian informants about their individual preferences of their ideal home, several of them started their answer with, “We Estonians normally like private houses” or “...like an average Estonian, I would prefer to live in a private house”. Even though the question was about individual preferences, respondents spontaneously evoked some kind of preferences they considered to be national, thereby identifying themselves as part of that nation. Following this approach, I presented my interview to informants fi rst of all as a talk about everyday consumption practices, which would allow them to express their perception of the nation at any point of the interview. In particular in Ukraine, due to the context in which interviews were conducted (at the time of a notable escalation of nationalistic feelings because of Euromaidan and ongoing military events in Eastern Ukraine), usually there was no need to wait for long until an informant would start to make references to the nation or talk about their sense of national belonging. However, if after some time my informant had still not talked spontaneously in ‘national terms’, I would ‘speed up’ the process and bring up an issue of products that he/she might consider to have national meanings. Both the researcher’s role and identity might be aff ected by a change of settings during the research (Adler & Adler, 1987; Weinreb, 2006). Being a native Ukrainian had an obvious impact on my cultural and intuitive under-standing of Ukraine, however, in the case of Lviv, it was not just that of an insider. There my position could be better described as those of an ‘inside outsider’. First of all because in Lviv, which is usually considered to be a Ukrainian-speaking city and a cradle of Ukrainian nationalism, I was a representative of a Ukrainian Russian speaking community, coming originally from Kiev. Though

101 76 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

I am fl uent in Ukrainian and conducted my interviews in Ukrainian and Russian languages (according to the needs of my informants), for native Ukrainian speakers, who usually have a very strong regional and municipal identity (Wylegala, 2010), I was seen more as an outsider who was observing and questioning them. For Russian speakers, sometimes my role of researcher-observer was turned into the role of researcher-comforter — a person ready to listen, share and understand concerns that could arise among members of a language minority group. I also experienced the same type of role when some respondents of a diff erent language background shared with me how their everyday lives had changed since the events of Euromaidan and the military confl ict in East-ern Ukraine. Usually such informants viewed me fi rst of all as a compatriot that should have some pro-active civil posi-tion; indiff erence or neutrality was not looked upon favourably in such an emotional moment for Ukraine. In some interviews, their perception of the researcher as sympathetic with their feelings turned a relative ‘easy’ talk about everyday routine into long and emotional monologues, expressions of accumulated feelings, thoughts and fears con-cerning the Ukrainian nation, politics, perception of the ‘other’ and the war. In such moments, it seemed inappropriate to behave as a neutral observer — my Ukrainian identity was also awoken and I could feel not only empathy towards my respondents, but also I shared their fears, tragedies and anxiety about the future of Ukraine. Thus, in particular during the analysis of my data, I realised that refl ections on my role as a researcher represent an important element or even source of data to be aware of while considering the results of my research. People do not think about nationhood every day in every situation; it matters only in special contexts (Bru-baker et al., 2006; Fox & Miller-Idriss, 2008). The same applies to objects and practices through which people connect to these objects. Analysis of material objects and their consumption is limited to a specifi c context and a particular period of time. The change of context can modify the way people relate to, use and attribute meanings to objects and practices. Finally, objects become symbolically meaningful and can tell us something that goes beyond their basic function, only when studied within specifi c context (Julien & Rosselin, 2005). One of the most important features of the context in which my research was conducted is the fact that the period of data collection took place in 2014-2015, directly after the Euromaidan protests, the Crimean referendum and the beginning of the military confl ict in Eastern Ukraine. Entering the fi eld, I was aware that while such events could make my interviews more emotionally sensitive, they could also facilitate my inquiries, since national sentiments were no longer dormant: people were more ready to talk about the nation, spontaneously charging even everyday conversations with national discourse. The events of 2014-2015 provoked a renegotiation of national self-identifi cation for many people, had an impact on the attitude toward national symbols, and signifi cantly expanded their variety. In both the popular discourse and the academic one, this period was often described as a ‘Ukrainian national revival’ (Diuk, 2014; Kulyk, 2014). Against the backdrop of such an activation of nationalistic sentiments, one has to be careful while approaching the concept of the banal, as elements and behaviour patterns of the national identity production could be considered to be banal only for that particular period of Ukrainian history and thus represent an important limitation to my research. At the same time, it would be wrong to think that what manifested as banal in 2014-2015 cannot become a normality during subsequent years. Some material objects and consumption practices related to them acquired a new meaning, which I partially revealed in my study; they had become markers of Ukrainian-ness. Though such markers might change over time, I believe my research could still be useful for understanding the processes of how such markers could be shaped and ‘operated’ at the level of mundane life. Physical settings in which I conducted interviews represented another important aspect in the process of fi nding the most appropriate method of data collection and later in its interpretation. While conducting interviews, I started to notice that interviews done in public premises were diff erent from those conducted in the informants’ homes. Interviews done at home provided me with richer data, as

102 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 77

homes were not just convenient places to conduct interviews; they constituted a meaningful part of settings studied in my research (Blunt and Dowling, 2006). In particular, I was able to complement the home-related part of my interview with an observation of the home’s material culture. Here it would be important to revisit the necessity of being self-refl exive and consider changes in my own national identity, which were provoked by the context in which my research was done. Being in some sense ‘activated’ and renegotiated, my feelings towards Ukraine made me pay more attention to material things with Ukrainian symbolism even outside of my research. Exploring how my respondents attach national meanings to some objects from their routine life, I was simultaneously refl ecting on the ways I might do the same. Similarly to Tolia-Kelly’s research (2004) on British Asian homes, in my case, interviews conducted in home settings were more than just a conversation in a more relaxed atmosphere for my respondent. Usually they also included a tour of the home, which was in itself valuable for my research, and an experience of being treated as a guest (I was always off ered drinks and snacks). When observing informants’ homes, I looked everywhere for objects that could be signifi cant for the informants’ national identity, and after identifying at least one, I would usually try to provoke some talk about it and observe whether its description — or practices associated with it — referred to any national sentiments. Such participant observation started to lend me insight into how a nation gets materialised through objects that surround people in their habitual spaces of everyday life. The opportunity of being at home often encouraged my respondents to show me some of their deco-rative possessions embodied with special symbolic meaning, thus making our interviews more interactive. While holding an object in their hands, they would tell its story, describe their attitude towards it and very often also mention how it connected them with local culture. The experience of interviewing at homes also revealed a diff erence between Russian and Ukrainian speakers in attitudes towards objects with Ukrainian national symbolism. For instance, I found that while home aesthetics were usually shared between both language groups and constituted codes of Ukrainian taste, the attitudes toward some objects with national meanings were never homogeneous. Russian speakers would value having objects that are ‘rep-resentative of Ukrainian culture’ and would consider them important for their identity. In their homes, such objects were normally represented by art works, traditional Ukrainian embroideries, national costumes and ceramics. I noticed the same objects in the homes of Ukrainian speakers; however, in most cases they were not mentioned by their owners as the main representations of the Ukrainian nation. For such purposes, the majority of Ukrainian speakers preferred to show either offi cial symbols or more nationalist ones (usually not shared by Russian speakers) like the UPA fl ag, a portrait of Taras Shevchenko and religious icons. I also observed that people from diff erent language groups might use the same object diff erently. A piece of a traditional Ukrainian embroidery was admired and proudly showed to me by a Russian speaker, while my Ukrainian respondent had it folded and safely stored away, saving it for a special occasion; that piece represented almost a sacred object to her. According to the principles of material culture studies, objects are used as lenses to study cultural meanings that they can reveal or mediate (Douglas, 2002; Julien & Rosselin, 2005). While focusing on how home possessions re-lated to a sense of Ukrainian identity, sometimes I would notice objects that had some clear national features, but which my respondent would not mention in our conversation. On the one hand, it may indicate that there was a lack of as-sociation between that object and national self-perception. On the other hand, I suggest that it could also signify that the object was so grounded in everyday life that its owner would not refl ect on its national meanings. Nonetheless, the fact of living with it would have an impact on one’s national identity. Examples of such objects are those functional ones, like cosmetics made in Ukraine, Ukrainian music CDs or books, but also maps or images of Ukrainian landscapes hanging on the walls. Among those, only books were attributed some national meanings. These are objects, however, with which people have contact on a daily basis, as such, they constitute domestic practices, being meaningful only to some particular culture

103 78 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

(Pechurina, 2015). That culture dictates a unity of tastes, some aesthetic norms for fashion, home arrangement, and cooking; in the end, people who consider themselves to be part of that cultural community share those tastes to a greater or lesser extent. My primary interest in this research was to explore and document how national identity is shaped and ex-pressed by ordinary people. Though I realise that my sample of ‘ordinary people’ is not representative and in itself poses a signifi cant limitation to my study, I strongly believe that the exploration of national identity through the lens of everyday consumption practices could provide a supplementary picture of a major socio-political process such as the formation of a nation. The details that a domain of mundane life can provide for a better understanding of how nations are shaped and consolidated never lie on the ‘surface’, which requires the researcher to be, apart from systematic and consistent in his/her approach to research, also fl exible and refl exive in order to reveal them (Gouldner, 1971; Stanley & Wise, 1983). In this research, applying a mix of methods, regularly revising the initial methodology design, listening to my emotions and intuition, and paying attention to physical and temporal settings of research all helped me to highlight those nuances of national identity formation that are usually overlooked in more traditional inquiries focused on conceiving and reacting to national policies.

Study 2

The study of national identity through musical performances in Estonia

Based on the multifaceted and bottom-up approach to identity, this section presents a study of identity and nation-building through collective musical performances. It presents music as a potent area of research where meanings of nationhood are negotiated but also practiced in national celebrations, as well as in leisure time and hobby groups. The case under study is the national tradition of choral singing in Estonia. There is a similar choral singing culture in Latvia and Lithuania, yet I had lived in Estonia before and had some basic language competence, which decidedly infl uenced my choice of the case and facilitated the depth of insight I could obtain. In studies of nationalism, scholars have inves-tigated mostly classical music and folk music, two genres that traditionally represented national cultures and were often incorporated in national narratives (Curtis, 2008; Bohlman, 2011; Baycroft & Hopkin, 2012). A new, growing body of research investigates national meanings in popular music (Biddle & Knight, 2007; Connell & Gibson, 2003; Johnson, 2006). In my research, I shifted attention from meanings in musical pieces (lyrics, contexts, authors) to music from the perspective of participation and everyday life. I focused on the participation, performance and narratives of conductors, as well as ordinary members of amateur choirs. I tried to understand how the experience of collective musical performance rather than only the musical piece itself links to one’s sense of belonging. In other words, contra-ry to the assumption that music refl ects social identities and values, I was interested in how music and musical per-formances create what they claim to refl ect (Frith, 1996). This stance was crucial, as it posed a question of not only what we can read from music about the discourse of nationhood, but more importantly, how music can actively contribute to or challenge the process of nation-building. The tradition of choral singing festivals can be described as an ‘invented tradition’ (Hobsbawm & Ranger, 1983) that accompanied Estonian nation-building. It was started by nationally minded intellectuals in the late 19th century, 50 years before the fi rst republic of Estonia was established (cf. Brüggemann & Kasekamp, 2014; Šmidchens, 2014;). The festival is organised every fi ve years and features only choral pieces performed by amateur choirs from all over the country and abroad (usually choirs established by Estonians outside of Estonia). The choral repertoires feature old national songs, some rearranged folk songs and newly commissioned choral pieces. It is a celebration that engages

104 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 79

about 20,000 singers, with more than 100,000 in the audience participating physically on the festival grounds (which amounts to 10% of the total population). Even more people watch it on TV. The song festival is accompanied by a dance festival that takes place simultaneously. The festival and choral singing were part of the social mobilisation against the Soviet regime in the late eighties, the so-called ‘Singing Revolution’. The name, used in both academic and everyday speech, expresses the mythical importance of singing as a way of expressing ‘Estonianness’, solidarity, and the common political wish for Estonians to have their own democratic state. As Lauristin and Vihalemm (2013) showed in their survey, the majority of Estonians express very normative statements about the festival — it is an ‘authentic’ celebration of the Estonian nation. Some of my informants named the tradition a religion for many Estonians who are otherwise not usually religious. The participation in the celebration decreased after Estonia regained independence, but since the early 2000s the trend has changed and the song celebration attracts even more people. It is estimated that about 12% of adult Estonians currently sing in choirs and 46% have done so in the past (Lauristin & Vihalemm, 2013, p. 9). My task was thus to explore the phenomenon of the song celebration and choral singing from the perspective of nation-building in contemporary Estonia, in the context of 25 years of independence. I was interested in how this kind of musical performance, both the national festival and participation in choirs in leisure time, both infl uences people’s perception of nationhood and helps some of the national narratives be more pronounced in their everyday lives. I came to Estonia in 2014, the year when the national festival took place. The focus on participatory and social aspects of music led me to choose qualitative methods with the emphasis on in-depth interviews as well as participation and observation of choral events. My initial fi eldwork consisted of an analysis of the festival offi cial communication, interviews with decision-makers, namely representatives of state institutions and organisations responsible for the festival, analysis of media representations as well as the use of the festival in the context of nation-branding. In-depth interviews of at least one hour provided insights into the decision-makers’ perceptions of the song celebration. They clearly revealed a kind of ‘normalcy’, namely what discourses are considered self-evident in the circle of the festival organisers and top conductors. The prevailing discourse refl ected the rather ethnocentric, sometimes anti-Russian narrative of Estonian nationalism. Yet, the informants, even if some of them worked for state agencies that coordinate the song festival, saw themselves not only as representatives of state institutions but also (or in some cases, most of all) as musicians, conductors, cultural sector workers, singers, composers, music teachers, Estonians, patriots, Russians, Russian Estonians, etc. Their identities and reference groups shifted during our conversations and interviews; sometimes they expressed seemingly contradictory opinions that depended on the context. For example, one of the top conductors and organisers of the song celebration insisted that the song festival is a celebration of the nation, its mentality, and its rootedness in the region — yet he opposed the political overtones of the event:

If you take nationality away, then the mentality is still there, if you take mentality away, what does this na-tionality mean then? It’s nothing. Take the fl ag, yes and so what? [irritation] You can put another fl ag here [laughter], it’s kind of a form or surface.

Concurrently, he saw the abundance of state fl ags at the event as a normal need for expressing the Estonians’ national confi dence. This example shows that the divide into formal and informal (top or bottom) actors in the nation-building process is perhaps analytically useful but problematic in practice. Even those who represent state institutions con-stantly negotiate their identities, challenge the offi cial discourses and shift their positions and alliances depending on the interview situation. It might, therefore, be useful to think of the formal-informal dichotomy not as a binary division, but rather as a continuum where many actors will hold ambiguous positions.

105 80 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

One of the most interesting interviews took place during the song festival. I was invited to follow the day of one middle school choir and accompany their choir leader. This person led me through each step of rehearsals and narrated to me her own as well as the choir’s preparations and activities as they ‘naturally’ unfolded in the context of the festival. Her commentary on the events I witnessed provided me with insight into how she frames singing in her own experience and where the experience of national identity appears most strongly. These casual, fragmented and unstructured conversations revealed that most of the time the sense of national belonging is not explicitly expressed or highlighted by the informants. Rather, it is a wider frame of reference, something taken for granted that is often ‘forced’ in the interview. During the festival, some of the members of the choir I accompanied asked me if ‘we’ in Poland (my country of origin) know about ‘their’ tradition of singing and that ‘they’ are the biggest choir in the world. This situation showed how my research activity and my identity as a foreigner evoked in them certain national categorisations and performances of identity. My presence at the song festival grounds encouraged the informants to frame the choral singing festival as something specifi cally Estonian that I, as an outsider and a representative of another nation, might not be familiar with. Such encounters during ethnographic fi eldwork and interviewing pose the question to what extent research activity that employs intrusive methods can be called another banal form of evoking thinking in national terms (cf. Adams, 2009). At the next stage of choosing informants, I applied the strategy of exposure (Shea-Schwartz & Yanow, 2012). Namely, I tried to fi nd respondents that could potentially represent diff erent points of view or even contradictory narratives. This included identifying ‘types’ of respondents, according to their position within the structure of the festival, experience in diff erent regions of Estonia, age, musical activities, professional experience, etc. Some of my previous respondents directed me to people whom they thought of as worth talking to and considered infl uential or con-troversial. The strategy of exposure is neither randomised, nor theoretically-driven. The selection of informants is an ongoing process, closely tied to what has already been discovered. I found this particular method crucial in the study of bottom-up national identity. It leaves the sample of interviews open and fl exible, it prioritises fi eldwork fi ndings over methodological formality and, therefore, enhances the possibility of discovering aspects of identity creation and nego-tiation that are more complex, novel or marginalised in previous studies. In my research, the methodological choice of using exposure as a way to identify informants and diversify narratives resulted in interesting fi ndings with theoretical insights. I found out that there are many fractures in the national narrative. Some interviewees said that even though the festival is great, it is perhaps too conservative and marginalises the presence of Estonian Russians. Others suggested that the festival is too archaic and should connect people over civic patriotism, rather than repeat old nationalist narratives. Altogether, I identifi ed several narratives of what kind of national identity the song celebration conveys or should convey. These were rather marginalised in previous studies, which emphasised the ‘self-evident’ role of the song celebration as the Estonian cultural symbol related to the independence movement. The second methodological pillar of the study was participant observation. I participated in several choral singing events, yet the most informative one was the national song festival in 2014. I documented the event with pho-tographs, short videos and fi eld notes, like the one below.

People came with blankets, food, it was like a family picnic, no alcohol, everybody rather focused on what’s happening on the stage. The event was opened by President Ilves, who said that ‘freedom is our song, we have always sung, no matter what, when we were occupied, for our freedom and now when we are free, he fi nished with ‘Elagu Eesti’. The crowd applauded. Then the emotional moments came – the national anthem and some songs of the Singing Revolution were sung. People stood up, waved small national fl ags, and sang along. A woman next to me grabbed my hand, it was a very bonding moment. An elderly lady behind me was so moved when the national anthem was sung, I saw tears on her face.

106 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 81

Everybody was very focused, it felt like they came here for these very few meaningful songs. . . . My Estonian friend whispered in my ear “This is the song!” when ‘Koit’ (Dawn) was sung; upon the request of the people the song was repeated. It was very empowering and powerful to see thousands of people do the same thing, wave the fl ag, move rhythmically like one body, some of them holding hands. I also had a fl ag and for the fi rst time in my life, I actually waved it. . . . When it got dark, people took out their mobile phones and held them in the air (like lighters at rock concerts) to signal the most emotional and sentimental songs. (Author’s fi eldwork journal, 6.07.2014)

This experience illustrates the idea that identity is not only declared but also performed and practiced. It made me realise that most accounts of identity or nation-building focus on stories, on how people narrate where they belong. This is a fundamentally important approach, yet it does not address what lies beyond the word: those aspects of identity that link, for example, to aff ect, body and action. The festival was a kind of ‘maximum’ experience, an ecstatic event of collective joy that manifests when people go beyond their selves in order to be part of something greater (a kind of Turner’s communitas, see Turner, 1966). The moment of joint singing of patriotic songs, which was a symbolic re-enactment of the nation, drew my attention to emotive aspects of national identity which are usually invisible in a top-down approach to nation-building. Although the body of research on the social aspects of emotions is growing (Ahmed, 2004; Rosenwein, 2007; Wetherell, 2012, 2015), in nationalism studies emotions have been noticed but not thoroughly researched as mechanisms of collective identity building (cf. Gellner, 1997), sometimes omitted as uncanny or associated with uncontrolled outbursts of hatred and ethnic violence (Druckman, 1994). Michael Skey (2006) suggested that surpluses of emotion at national events — what he calls ‘ecstatic nationalism’ – can be seen as an ex-tension of Billig’s banal nationalism. He argues that they ‘both illuminate and materialize the often rather nebulous solidarities that are presumed to underpin daily (national) life’ (Skey, 2006, p. 146). Skey sees ecstatic events as somewhat interrupting the banal routine of nationalism, yet my analysis of the song celebration and choral singing revealed two major things about emotions and identity. First, emotional outbursts can be expected and somewhat learned and ritualised. In the context of the song festival, the audience is very familiar with the emotional load that the songs carry (everyone learns those songs at school) and expects the ritual to be emotional. This suggests that emotions are not uncanny, but rather constructed discursively, aff ectively and performatively within a cultural context (Ahmed, 2004; Wetherell, 2012, 2015). Second, the emotive aspect of identity is not extraordinary or limited to one single event. It also lies in everyday speech, in how people frame and talk about their sense of belonging. This experience alerted me to discourses of feeling and emotive vocabulary that came up in interviews and the emotional reactions of my informants. It made me notice, for instance, how some of the interviewees said they feel Estonian and placed their hand on their heart when describing their experiences of singing at the song festival. Sometimes the body communicated a stronger or a diff erent message than words. The systematic observation and inquiry into emotional states of informants has become part of the interview-ing process and also brought up further methodological questions, such as how to research and write about emotions in the social sciences. For a long time, the ideal research position was the one of an emotionally detached, most neutral observer. This was sustained by a philosophical position, which separated judgment and emotion and made the latter one inferior. This assumption has been challenged in the fi eld of anthropology but seems to prevail in academic standards of other disciplines, including the study of nation-building and national identity in political science. There is, however, a growing body of literature that argues that emotional introspection is a way of knowing and generating knowledge (Davies & Spencer, 2010; Munkejord, 2009;). Brannick and Coghlan (2007) argue for a process of refl exive awareness in order to unlock tacit knowledge that may be reframed as theoretical knowledge. Munkejord (2009) sug-gests that emotional refl exivity improves trustworthiness and transparency of research. In my research, attempts to relate to my informants emotionally and

107 82 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

understand my own emotional reactions (moments of distance, compassion, repulsion, or an urge to act, like wave the fl ag on the song festival) were very informative. Emotions are not easily transcribed into notes and then an academic text, which is usually fragmented, condensed and adjusted to standards of journals and academic audience(s). Yet, they play a signifi cant role in the way people create and experience their identities and also in how researchers study them, which is altogether a strong reason to incorporate refl ection and questions about emotions into the theory and practice of researching informal, invisible aspects of nation-building and group identity formation. This short refl ection of my study aimed to show that music (from national celebrations to everyday hobby) is fertile ground for researching the informal, implicit aspects of the sense of belonging. It is culturally embedded, it en-gages people on many levels — discursively, emotionally, etc. — and traverses their leisure time. The study of the song celebration and choral singing in Estonia also revealed that a signifi cant component of national belonging rests on participation, collective acts and the sense of emotional attachment to the imaginary national community. It showed how new theoretical insights into identity can be developed by investigating what is usually left beyond academic re-search — the emotional states of the respondents and emotive aspects of identity discourse. This is especially valid for the post-Soviet area, since most of the accounts of nation-building focused on administrative and institutional decisions related to language or citizenship. In my research, I realised the relevance of looking into how people feel about and perform the nation in most culturally signifi cant contexts, such as the national song festival, which is closer to the experience of ordinary people than policies and main political actors.

Conclusions

The goal of the paper was to elaborate methodological approaches to the study of nation-building and national identity in the context of everyday life. It focused particularly on the study of mundane, unnoticed practices related to identity in the context of the post-Soviet region, in which scholarship on informality and the mundane exists, but has not been explicitly linked to wider processes of nation- building. The paper attempted to demonstrate the relevance of research into informal, everyday life experiences and practices in the search for a better explanation of the process of nation-building, identity formation, its failures and successes. Using the example of consumption practices in Ukraine, as well as musical practices in Estonia, the paper aimed to problematise certain aspects of interviewing such as informality, intrusiveness, interview setting, and exposure as a strategy of sampling. It also presented some useful aspects of anthropological sensitivity through which both tangible proxies of identity (meaningful objects, products, private space) and intangible aspects such as aff ective practices can be revealed. Finally, the article provided some refl ections on the positionality and identity of the researcher in the fi eld, in particular, the usefulness of emotional refl exivity as a research tool that complements, rather than disturbs analysis and interpretation. These methodological propositions do not form a new coherent methodology; they should be read rather as a set of ideas about how to practically approach identity formation in the context of everyday life. In the era of growing codifi cation of research methods, this paper aims to re-emphasise some modes of learning about identity that are absent in the mainstream literature on identity formation. With this highly interpretive, ethnographic approach we hope to understand national identity as a nuanced, embodied experience, intertwined with many aspects of everyday life. Through the exploration of national meanings in the banal, routine, and self-evident, we hope to shed new light on how and why certain top-down decisions and policies related to nation-building solve or do not solve identity chal-lenges. The post-Soviet and more widely, post-socialist countries, with already 25 years of new national history, are a perfect ‘laboratory’ to research tensions and dependencies between the macro and micro, public and private, top-down and bottom-up aspects of identity.

108 Everyday Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space. Methodological Refl ections 83

Although the focus on the everyday construction of identities might bring a lot of insight about particular and general mechanisms of identity construction, as any approach, it has limitations. The concept of the everyday or banal is never fi xed; it is not uniform, as it does not have well-defi ned borders. However, as shown in the example of Ukraine, in certain political situations the banal aspects of nationalism, previously invisible, can be easily mobilised and become very pronounced. Another diffi culty of research into everyday practices is their richness and even ‘messiness’. After all, nation as a cognitive scheme is always intertwined with diff erent group identities and ideologies and cannot be neatly singled out or measured. This poses a challenge to traditional concepts of reliability and validity of such research, yet, we argue that the richness and complexity of data, as well as a methodological fl exibility of looking at it, extends the context of discovery and may generate new theoretical insights. We hope that as the bottom-up research into nation-building is gaining ground, further methodological refl ection about it will develop and contribute to better understanding the limits, strengths and applicability of such an approach in the post-socialist context and beyond.

References

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111 86 Emilia Pawłusz & Oleksandra Seliverstova

Emilia Pawłusz is conducting her PhD research entitled ‘In search of an Estonian identity: (formal and informal) mechanisms of identity construction in Estonia. The role of tourism branding, song festivals and popular music’ at the School of Law, Governance and Society, Tallinn University, Estonia.

Oleksandra Seliverstova is a Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute of Political Science and Governance, Tallinn University, Estonia.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the European Commission within the framework of FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN under Grant agreement number 316825.

Notes The names of the authors are listed in alphabetical order. We suggest that the contribution of each author is valuated as an equal proportion.

112 II Seliverstova, O. (2016). “Consuming” National Identity in Western Ukraine. Nationalities Papers, 45(1), 61–79. Nationalities Papers, 2017 Vol. 45, No. 1, 61–79, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2016.1220363

“Consuming” national identity in Western Ukraine Oleksandra Seliverstovaa,b* aInstitute of Political Science and Governance, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia; bDepartment of Political Science, Free University of Brussels (VUB), Brussels, Belgium (Received 28 May 2015; accepted 2 February 2016)

This paper represents an attempt to study national identity in the post-Soviet context through the lens of everyday life practices. Building on ideas of banal nationalism and consumer citizenship, and with support of empirical evidence collected in L’viv, Ukraine, this paper demonstrates how national identity becomes materialized in everyday life through consumption practices and objects of consumption. While exploring objects and practices that are not originally national in scope but infused with national meanings by ordinary people, it will be shown how consumption becomes an arena for the expression and renegotiation of national self-portraits. Differences in national meanings among residents of L’viv belonging to two different language groups will highlight the diversity of ways and means by which people express their national sensibilities. By exploring national meanings in everyday consumption practices of Ukrainian citizens, this study aims to provide an alternative perspective on post-Soviet nation-building and contribute to the current debate on the position and identity of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.

Keywords: consumer culture; post-Soviet; national identity; banal nationalism; Ukraine; Russian speakers

Consumers do not simply buy national commodities; they constitute national sensibilities, embody national pride, negotiate national meanings, thus making nationhood a salient feature of their everyday lives. (Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008, 551)

Introduction The literature on nation-building and, to a certain extent, national identity formation across the former Soviet Union has tended to emphasize the role of political elites of a country. Accordingly, most literature has focused on macro actors and processes, and their impact on national identity formation in society on a meso level (Kolstǿ 2006; Tishkov 1995). A critique of this approach is found in some studies on Ukraine, where a growing number of scholars have been looking at the role of non-state actors and actions. Mostly using case-study-based evidence, authors such as Polese (2009b), Rodgers (2007), and Kulyk (2014) have examined the way non-state actors and their agency have contributed to shaping or renegotiating the national identity project, one that often does not seem to

*Email: [email protected]

© 2016 Association for the Study of Nationalities

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take into account the needs of a certain segment of the population or of a region. The immediate consequence is that Ukrainian identity is (partly) rejected or at least renegotiated (Richardson 2004; Rodgers 2007) to better fit the way certain local populations see them- selves. This is echoed by some local authors taking the 2013–2014 Ukrainian crisis as evi- dence of the fact that Ukrainian national identity needs to be rethought in alternative ways, to go beyond the existing top-down political approaches in which micro processes are usually overlooked (Kulyk 2014). Furthermore, the developments of nationalism during the Orange Revolution in 2004 and then during the Euromaidan protests and subsequent military conflict in East Ukraine demonstrated that nation-building in Ukraine at various times appeared to be spontaneous1 or informal (Polese 2009a, 2009b), here drawing from Giddens’ structuration processes (1989), which suggest that ordinary people are not only bearers of national identity, but also participate in its production. Building on the above literature, this paper endorses the idea that the construction of national identity happening at the bottom level has the power to reshape the national dis- course; it also provides two distinct contributions to the debates on identity formation. First, the case study presented here illustrates how the formation of national identity is a realm where citizens are not just passive actors who merely accept or reject national markers conceived by the political elite, but are rather active actors who can interpret or renegotiate those markers and supply some new elements of national identity by embedding national meanings into new objects and practices in a spontaneous way. Second, the role of citizens and their everyday practices of consumption are examined, suggesting that con- sumption helps create a symbolic arena for the performance of national sensibilities. The choice to consider the role of consumption and consumer culture in the process of national identity formation within a post-Soviet context was inspired in large part by a dearth of research on the interplay of two important processes that started in 1991, namely, the entrance into the market economy and the building of a nation. As these two processes were happening simultaneously, their interrelation at both public and personal levels seemed inevitable, and posed challenges not only to the new governments, but also to former Soviet citizens who needed to acquire skills that belong to both consumers and citizens of a nation. The diversity discovered in the data collected for this work reveals that objects and prac- tices embedded with national meanings might differ among representatives of the two different language groups, though not substantially, and could not be uniform even within one language group. However, since the majority of informants perceived their choices as being “typical” expressions of their national identity, the presence of such differ- ences should not be automatically interpreted as an expression of cultural or ethnic distinc- tions. It instead suggests that a multitude of different ways and perceptions are used to perform a common identity category. In other words, even though the Ukrainian-speaking group might be considered to be in possession of a greater national cultural capital in relation to the Russian-speaking group, it will be suggested that both groups perceive their behavior as culturally “Ukrainian” and, therefore, participate (equally) in the for- mation of Ukrainian identity. The theoretical basis supporting the main argument – the mutual dependence between national identity and consumption – mainly draws on works using the concepts of “banal” nationalism (Billig 1995; Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008; Skey 2011) and consumer citizenship (Foster 2002; Foster and Özcan 2005; Gurova, forthcoming). These ideas give an impor- tant, if not leading, role to consumption as a means to understand sociopolitical engagement in the nation-building process. By introducing the notion of banal nationalism, Billig (1995) shifted attention from the official narrative of national identity to everyday practices that

116 Nationalities Papers 63 materialize a nation. Later, Foster (2002) proposed to apply the approach of banal nation- alism in non-Western contexts and expanded the list of “various means” through which a system of references for national identification could be established. He coined the phrase “consumer citizenship,” and defined it as the “production of national identity by way of shared consumption practices” (Foster and Özcan 2005, 5). In line with Foster’s work, this paper addresses two limitations of Billig’s work: limiting the consideration of the prac- tice of national symbols to those promoted by the state, and applying the idea of banal nationalism only to established nations of the West. In addition, in order to demonstrate the interrelation of formation of identity and consumption, this paper integrates into its theoretical framework research emerging from the relatively recent body of literature known as consumer culture theory (CCT) (Ahuvia 2005; Arnould and Thompson 2005; Belk 1988; Elliott 2004; Joy and Li 2012). Previous studies on CCT have showed that objects can become extensions of the self (Ahuvia 2005; Belk 1988; Dunn 2008) and have suggested a more integral way to analyze consumption practices, using the factors of cultural realm and marketplace conditions. CCT views consumers as active participants in culture production insofar as they infuse various objects of consumption with symbolic meanings and thereby contribute to the creation of commonly recognized values and perceptions. L’viv, which is generally considered to be a cradle of Ukrainian nationalism, and where nonetheless a large Russian-speaking community resides, was selected as a research setting because it was assumed that linguistic and probably cultural distinctions of its population could lead to a greater variety in research data. However, the goal of this research was not to show possible differences between the two groups, but rather to explore how both of them perceive their national identity. While questioning and interpreting the identity of Russian speakers, this work relies completely on their national self-perception, starting from the assumption that while an ethnic group is usually defined by others, a nation should be treated as self-defined (Connor 1994). In the course of interviews, Russian-speaking respondents identified themselves as Ukrainians and, therefore, are considered here to be participating in the construction, reconstruction, and performance of Ukrainian national identity. The empirical material presented in this study comes from 35 interviews, conducted in L’viv over two periods during 2014–2015. Online and print media analysis and interpret- ation of notes from participant observation conducted in L’viv’s retail shops during summer 2014 are also included when considering consumption practices related to food products. The sample for interviews comprised urban Ukrainian citizens residing in L’viv for no less than five years prior to the interview,2 who could be defined as representatives of either the educated middle class or the lower-middle class. The informants were divided into two groups according to the language they identified as their native tongue: either Ukrainian or Russian. The age of the informants varied between 25 and 63 years old. The snowball method was used to contact potential respondents, with the caveat that only one extra contact per respondent was chosen in order to minimize the probability of having respondents from the same social circles. The end result of the sample had several limitations and should, therefore, not be considered as representative of Ukrainian society. However, it still served its purpose: to provide an illustration of how everyday con- sumption practices are interwoven with the processes of national identity formation. The rest of this paper is divided into three sections. The next section engages with current debates on consumer citizenship and everyday performance of nationhood, and on the development of the role of consumer culture in identity studies. It also introduces the development of such discussions within the post-Soviet context. The following

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section presents and elaborates upon the collected data, before providing some conclusive remarks. It focuses on three spheres of consumption: home, food, and national objects. Home would appear as a central theme, to which food and national objects are connected, as food is cooked at home and national objects are usually found inside of homes. Practices and attitudes within such spheres will be analyzed as factors that “serve to anchor the nation in the everyday life” (Foster 2002, 64). This work demonstrates that these domains of con- sumption are representative of the main argument, but acknowledges that they are not exhaustive and other spheres of consumption could also be useful for further exploration of the current topic.

Theoretical insights: from consumption to national identity and back The role of consumption is not by any means a novel choice of focus in the study of socio- cultural and sociopolitical processes. The topic of consumption has been gaining increased attention beyond its economic significance. In particular, it has been given special weight in the analysis of identity formation in the postmodern era (Bauman 1998; Belk 1988; Bocock 1993; Dunn 2008; Elliott 2004; Miller 1995). Initially, identity formation through con- sumption was studied mostly within the discipline of anthropology (Douglas 2002; Douglas and Isherwood 1996; Miller 2001). The initial interest of anthropologists in relations of people with objects and how objects could be used to communicate symbolic messages informed a number of substreams, one of which is now known as CCT, and attracted the attention of scholars from other disciplines as well (Arnould and Thompson 2005). Works that refer to CCT examine identity formation and, rather than focusing on economic and psychological aspects of consumption, “highlight the cultural and social complexities” (Joy and Li 2012, 143) of it. The central idea of this body of literature is that the process of social identity formation and the expression of cultural values can be seen in the ways people use material and non-material objects of consumption3 (Arnould and Thompson 2005; Kozinets 2001). Very often objects are analyzed as extensions of the self (Ahuvia 2005; Belk 1988; Dunn 2008) and thought to “give expression to how we think others will see us” (Haug’s argument in Dunn 2008, 86). The particular insight of CCT is the significant role it gives to the market, which is perceived as the main context in which social identities are formed. People look for and establish their self-iden- tities within social and cultural frameworks, which nowadays are very much interconnected with the marketplace and influenced by such phenomena as globalization and consumerism. Relating consumption to such broad parts of identity as nationality and ethnicity could be considered a relatively recent direction in academic thought, from which three main research branches have emerged: ethnic consumption (Chytkova 2011; Kalmus, Keller, and Kiise 2009; Pechurina 2015; Peñaloza 1994), consumer citizenship (Foster 2002; Foster and Özcan 2005; Gurova, forthcoming; Klumbytė 2010), and branding the nation (Aronczyk 2013; Kaneva 2011). While the main goal of research on ethnic consumption is to answer the question regarding how ethnicity can influence consumption patterns, studies of consumption practices and material culture of migrant communities discovered that the influence can also happen in the opposite direction. Participation in consumer culture away from one’s homeland can affect the way ethnic/national identity is perceived, and contribute to its renegotiation or to the construction of an entirely new identity (Pechur- ina 2015; Peñaloza 1994). Consumption as a practice also began being addressed by studies of everyday life, including those originating from the idea of everyday nationalism, intro- duced by Billig in his book Banal Nationalism (1995). Billig sees consumption as one of the daily practices through which it is possible to materialize a nation and “evaluate” the

118 Nationalities Papers 65 success of nation-building strategies. Consumption becomes a visualization tool of the ideological habits of citizens, transforming the narrative of a nation into something “tangi- ble” and mundane. However, his examples of how banal nationalism could be explored are limited to the Western world. Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008) developed a more complex approach to the study of banal nationalism and introduced four ways in which one can learn how a nation is formed and enacted: through symbolic performance, national decision-making processes, the use of language, and consumption of national products. Another prominent contribution to the study of everyday nationalism was made by Foster (2002), who focused on media con- sumption and commodity consumption and defined the aforementioned concept of consu- mer citizenship. With his case study of nation-making in Papua New Guinea, he showed that Billig’s concept could be applicable virtually everywhere. He also demonstrated that one should pay attention to the everyday use not only of official national symbols or nation- ally marked products, but also of those that are not national in scope, but are consumed in a way particular to that nation. In his paper on Cola Turka together with Foster and Özcan (2005), he shows how the Turkish state promoted consumer citizenship via its advertise- ment of a commercial product (the Turkish equivalent of Coca-Cola). This is where a citizenry is constructed through the formation of a community of loyal consumers. Follow- ing this logic, consumption should be regarded simultaneously as a manipulation tool the government uses to influence people’s perception of nationhood and as a “politically charged arena” for people’s expression of positive or negative nationalism (Foster 2002, 9; Gurova, forthcoming).

The post-Soviet context When it comes to analyzing how nations were conceived and developed, the post-Soviet space is a unique context for testing social constructivist paradigms. In the large body of debates on nation-building and the ethnic/civic origin of nations (Deutsch and Foltz 2010; Smith 1991), post-Soviet nation-building has centered around two major positions: the nationalizing state (Brubaker 2011) and civic nation-building (Kuzio 2002). According to Kuzio (2002), the Ukrainian government initially chose the second path, giving access to citizenship to everyone who resided within Ukrainian territory and promoting values that could be accepted by representatives of different ethnic groups. Later, the Ukrainization process showed that values promoted by the state were very often oriented toward the inter- ests of its titular ethnic group – Ukrainians. In the academic literature during the first two decades after independence, the discus- sions of processes in Ukraine have mainly used a political lens to analyze the phenomenon of nation-building. Various tools contributing to the construction of national identity were explored: construction of an official narrative on national identity passed through citizen- ship policies (Barrington 1994), school and educational policies (Janmaat 2000; Richardson 2004; Rodgers 2007), language policies (Arel 1995; Janmaat 2000), party and party system consolidation (Kuzio 2002), and foreign policy (Shulman 2004). Due to its focus on the official narrative of national identity, however, this literature was not able to provide a com- plete understanding of the process of national identity formation in Ukraine, as it was neglecting such questions as how this identity was perceived and enacted by ordinary people. This echoes Hobsbawm’s idea (1990) that even though nationalism is constructed top-down, it cannot be properly understood unless also analyzed bottom-up. Such a gap, existing not only in the literature on the Ukrainian context, could be par- tially filled by establishing links to the body of works focusing on different practices

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through which former Soviet citizens were renegotiating their self-identities after the dissol- ution of the Soviet Union. The exploration of the construction and reconstruction of indi- vidual and group identities was approached via studies of material culture (Gerasimova and Chuykina 2004; Gurova, forthcoming), consumption practices (Eglitis 2011; Kalmus, Keller, and Kiise 2009; Oushakine 2000; Patico 2008), and other strategies of adaptation to conditions of the market economy and new political order that were observed among post-Soviet populations (Humphrey 2002; Morris 2012; Patico and Caldwell 2002). The main idea in such works was often that identity in the post-Soviet space, including its national/ethnic element, was located between two points of reference: the West, and the Soviet past. By accepting new values and trying to imitate Western lifestyles, people were rejecting some parts of their Soviet identity and at the same time incorporating other parts of it into their new identity. For these and other reasons, a lot of attention was dedicated to the Soviet everyday life, in which scholars aimed to find some causes of current dynamics. It is generally thought that Soviet everyday life continues to influence cultural engagements, including those with the West (Humphrey 2002; Wanner 1998). While presenting a significant amount of material on the processes of social identity con- struction and reconstruction through consumption and attitude to material objects, the above-mentioned works rarely focused specifically on the interrelation of the roles of con- sumer and citizen. Exceptions are a recent work by Gurova (forthcoming) in Russia, where she considers consumption to be a “tool of expressing citizenship and civic concerns” (1), and the research done by Klumbytė (2010) on the consumption of Soviet sausages. Gurova analyzes consumer citizenship both as a top-down strategy that was launched by the Russian political elite to consolidate the Russian nation, and as a platform for citizens to perform their national identity or to express concerns about it. In Klumbytė’s study (2010), the consumption of Soviet sausages in post-Soviet Lithuania becomes a form of political engagement. Popular consumption of sausages associated with Soviet times goes against the official narrative of national identity promoted in Lithuania. She concludes that consumer behavior can also show the way in which ordinary people perceive their role as citizens and, if noticed by the government, could even impact the official narrative of national identity.

Home as the cradle of local nationalism? Home has always been a very symbolic place, telling much to its visitors about the historical and cultural context in which it is situated. At the same time, home is often considered to be a mirror of its inhabitants. It can reveal not only their individual characteristics, but also characteristics of social groups to which they belong. Several studies of migrant commu- nities showed that home and its possessions serve migrants as a location for keeping their original national/ethnic identity and for (re)constructing a new one (Boym 1998; Pechurina 2015). For instance, Pechurina (2015) analyzes how ethnic Russians living in the UK keep or renegotiate their Russian identity through home-making practices and possessions. Interpreting meanings of objects and practices in their homes which mainly reproduced images of life in the homeland, she was able to define to what extent a person was willing to integrate into his or her new environment, and how particular interior home objects became points of reference to the native ethnic/national identity of those who had emigrated. In order to better understand current values attributed to homes at a national level in any post-Soviet society, it is useful to go back to the Soviet period to see how the perception of home was distorted by Communist party politics. This is at least partially possible due to

120 Nationalities Papers 67 abundant literature focusing on the domestic aesthetics of the Soviet home (Buchli 1997; Humphrey 2005; Utekhin 2004). Since Soviet ideology was not only linguistic, but also material (Humphrey 2005), the Soviet government repeatedly manipulated the minds of citizens through its control over material culture, particularly over their dwellings. The concept of home was key in the implementation of the industrialization program. This entailed moving masses of people from rural to urban areas and establishing complete control over housing, while for the citizens it meant losing the status of houseowner and acclimating to the new experience of communal apartments (Utekhin 2004). The housing reform of the Khrushchev period supported the provision of new apartments and also aimed to promote new standards, styles in home décor, and routine habits connected to the organization of the living space. Consequently, Soviet urban homes started to look even more uniform and more socialist from inside. Home was very often a museum of pos- sessions (Chernyshova 2013), a place to show off belongings commonly recognized as prestigious across the Soviet Union. Scarcity of home-ware, a party-dictated style, and a lack of variety in available furnishings made Soviet apartments look more or less the same. Eventually this contributed to the spread of common aesthetic norms and values and their widespread recognition across the Soviet area. People wanted to display their home possessions, but had at their disposal only a scant variety of them, which resulted in a display in most households of the same set of objects, now easily recognizable as attri- butes of the Soviet everyday life. This contributed to the development of the traditional look of Soviet apartments, followed by the development of the feeling of belonging to one Soviet nation. Home and home possessions thus became strong markers of the Soviet identity, which people who lived under the Soviet regime are easily able to revive in their memories even now. The breakdown of the Soviet order and arrival of the new opportunities and values of the market economy required an establishment of new aesthetic codes, values, and mean- ings. The change of status from tenants to owners in the beginning of 1990s due to the pri- vatization process not only entitled people to the freedom to manage their real estate properties according to their personal needs (Struyk 1996), but also attributed a new sym- bolic meaning to their homes. A private home or apartment finally became a potential means to solve socioeconomic problems, as well as a place where one could finally realize previously “cultivated” dreams about a better material life. It became a place for aes- thetic self-realization and, as will be demonstrated in this work, a place for visualizing national identity. The following paragraphs will provide an overview of the values con- sidered as belonging to the concept of “home” for Ukrainians residing in L’viv. Some of the narratives presented will show a significant degree of divergence depending on the lin- guistic background of the respondents. Resting on the idea that “national cultures are not repositories of shared symbols to which the entire population stands in identical relation” (Schlesinger 1991, 174), these visible differences should not be interpreted as features of different national identities. Rather, the variety of symbolic meanings as mentioned by the interlocutors from the two main language groups (Russian and Ukrainian) might point at the existence of contrasting ways to “perform” one’s own national identity.

The home as castle. Looking for security in an unstable environment Security and responsibility are usually the most important symbolic meanings that home ownership provides to its master. In a post-Soviet context, the desire to own a home was aggravated during Soviet times, when, at least in theory, to own a real estate property was not possible for an ordinary Soviet citizen (Struyk 1996). Nowadays, purchasing an

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apartment or, if one is more ambitious, building a house seems to be an ordinary aspiration. Such a common aim automatically makes topics such as home selection, home purchase, and home renovation practices central in many everyday conversations. In fact, as the quote below demonstrates, the idea of being a homeowner sometimes runs to the extremes. Conversations about houses are always in the air … It looks like a paradox, but in this region there are many people, especially women, who have left L’viv and gone to work abroad just in order to earn money for a new home. They leave their families, agree not to see how their chil- dren grow up, but they hold onto the idea to earn money to buy a house, which they ultimately only rarely end up living in. Normally they continue to work abroad, so the house remains only half-constructed or the apartment is rented out to strangers. (Marichka, Ukr, 33)4 Moreover, the centrality of the idea of ownership serves to establish connections between people, and thus, being an owner or even just aspiring to become one becomes part of one’s social identity, a reference with which many are able to associate themselves. While it is not novel that ownership matters, in Ukraine it is further aggravated by the fact that home is usually viewed as a castle, the function of which is to protect its inhabitants from the unstable political and economic environment. The majority of my respondents mentioned that one of the most important symbolic functions of home is protection – pro- tection from the outside world and the instability that it presents. Almost always the func- tions of security and protection were mentioned by respondents before speaking of home as being a place to practice family values, a place for self-fulfillment and the realization of material aspirations. An ideal house should be built like a fortress, with solid walls and windows and a very good door. Doors and probably windows are very important. The only thing is that this fortress ends with such doors and windows - what is outside of them is of little interest. (Olga, Rus, 30) The idea of home being a castle refers especially to the exterior look of private houses and some features of apartments: massive metal doors, and PVC windows with locks and iron grids – especially on properties situated on the ground floor – are recognizable features of an average Ukrainian home.

“What will our neighbors say?” The demonstrative function of home While being considered primarily a private space, home also has a demonstrative function. Despite the quality of “shutting the world out” that these “castles” possess, their owners are still concerned about how the final result will be judged by their neighbors or guests. The interior aesthetic of a home, including its cleanliness, becomes an important aspect for an owner to consider, first and foremost in order not to be judged negatively, and only second for their own comfort and satisfaction. Our homes should always look clean and proper, as we really care about what others will say. At the same time, I can’t say that we invite a lot of people inside, but we still live feeling depen- dent on others’ opinions. (Oksana, Ukr, 28)

When asked whether they show their homes to others, several respondents spoke about demonstrative “rituals” that they perform every time someone new comes to their place. When new guests come to my house there is like an unwritten rule to show all the rooms, including bedrooms, and normally, after going through the whole apartment, we will sit and discuss some technical details, maybe experiences concerning some features or renovation that we did in the past. (Larysa, Ukr, 65)

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Current home-making practices of Ukrainians consist of a mixture of imitation of Western lifestyle practices (Bulakh 2014; Sztompka 2004), practices taken from the Soviet past, and folk culture elements. What people interpret as Western elements very often become central points of attraction and therefore sources of their owner’s pride.5 What were initially seen as exotic elements of Western culture became deeply incorporated into the local context over time. As a result, instead of being perceived as foreign, together with Soviet and Ukrainian features they are seen as “national” aesthetic features of Ukrainian interiors. While con- structing markers of national identity in daily life, people still use Soviet cultural engage- ments, mixing them with new ones which acquire local interpretations that are often different from their original meaning (Sztompka 2004). As Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008, 553) state, “it is not the inherent national qualities of the products consumed but the con- sumption of non-national products in nationally discernible ways that contribute to the emergence of nationally defined communities [of consumers].”

Rural houses or national aesthetics of Ukrainian homes Homes and home possessions can reflect a particular traditional image of home or the prevalent national aesthetic of the time (Pechurina 2015). In L’viv the look of the traditional rural Ukrainian house is often projected to various extents onto urban dwellings – especially by Ukrainian speakers originally coming from the region of L’viv. Very often the Ukrai- nian-speaking respondents would mention the decorating techniques of their parents and grandparents, originally performed in rural houses, and show how they had applied them in their current L’viv apartments. I remember that from inside, our homes were very simple, but what was special was the pres- ence of white embroidered cloths everywhere and ideally, white walls. Walls were painted and repainted before every holiday … every Saturday my father would check our walls for any defect and if necessary, repair them. Now I do the same with my walls – my children laugh at me, but I still prefer to whitewash them myself rather than using these modern paints. (Mariya, Ukr, 67) According to Douglas (interpreted and cited by Corrigan 1997, 102), an excessive emphasis on whiteness and cleanliness can allude to the idea that “anxieties about pollution arise when the external boundaries of a society are threatened.” Given the territorial crisis that Ukraine experienced at the time of these interviews (and continues to experience in 2016), such an interpretation could lend insight into the ways in which worries about exter- nal factors could influence the set of values that people manifest in their homes.

A home to raise Ukrainians, or how home decoration can contribute to national identity formation There is nothing unusual about the fact that the presence of a child in a family influences the consumer practices of his or her parents. However, it is interesting to see that a new type of consumption practice related to child rearing can also change some aesthetic features of home interiors. Besides becoming a safe and warm place for a child, home acquires the symbolic role of being a cradle of first national sentiments for future generations. Young parents, compared to other respondents who were childless or whose children were already grown up at the time of the interview, paid much more attention to the decoration of their homes, using objects that, according to them, bore a national meaning. Several respondents explained this by the wish to avoid their children experiencing the lost or blurred sense of identity that they themselves had gone through in the post-Soviet years. They believed that if their households were “more Ukrainian” (Mariya, Rus, 27) in

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appearance from the very birth of their offspring, then those children, once grown up, would constitute a stronger nation than Ukraine has currently. To illustrate this, I provide a full citation of a Russian-speaking mother describing how she links the atmosphere of home with national self-perception. I want my daughter not to have all those questions that I had when I was 15-16 years old. Not knowing who I am – a Soviet, a Russian, a Ukrainian – had a negative impact on my self-con- fidence. I felt like an uprooted plant, in my parents’ apartment, always looking the same since Soviet times. That is why I try to decorate our apartment with things that will tell our child who she is and to which culture and nation she belongs, even though with some of those things, to be honest, I do not feel any connection, they do not evoke any feelings for me. Probably because I was not raised with them and I am still learning to be Ukrainian. (Natasha, Rus, 33) Among things which could “help” her child feel Ukrainian, Natasha mentioned motanki – Ukrainian traditional cloth dolls, some Ukrainian ceramics, and a map of Ukraine hung on the wall. This underpins Miller’s statement that “the simple idea that one’s home is a direct expression of one’s taste is false” (Miller 2001, 111). By decorating her apartment in what she perceives to be a “Ukrainian way,” this young mother is not actually trying to expose her aesthetic preferences, nor express her own identity. What she wants is for her home to fit into commonly accepted aesthetic norms of national character.6 Thinking of the future of her child, she looks for sources of such norms, and by interpreting them, potentially creates new ones. It is not only individuals who decide which objects to put into their homes, but it is also the common sense of the nation that incites them to establish and main- tain the ideal of national home-making.

National meaning of things. Official and unofficial national symbols Insofar as they help to create images of a nation, material national objects are “evidence of an essential national cultural identity” (Foster 2002, 66). Such objects are not, however, necess- arily exclusively those that represent national symbols established by the state. Objects that are infused with national meanings by ordinary people are equally important to consider when analyzing how national identity is performed. Following Billig’s(1995) idea of banal nationalism, this section reveals how national self-images are expressed through atti- tudes toward and the use of the Ukrainian flag, as well as items with national characteristics that emerged from a cultural context, such as traditional clothes and decorative objects. The majority of my respondents, both Russian and Ukrainian speakers, mentioned having at least some of these objects in their homes and admitted that their possession was very meaningful. However, the symbolic meaning usually varied among representa- tives of the two groups. Symbols are believed to be constantly contested, being dynamic in their nature; their meanings change with time, change of place, and type of group or indi- viduals exposed to them (Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008; Kolstǿ 2006). In line with this, objects with pre-assigned national meanings, such as the national flag and the state coat of arms trident, showed more variation in their interpretation among Russian and Ukrainian speakers than other objects and consumption practices discussed in this work. Russian speakers did not usually mention having official national symbols in their homes; they pre- ferred to talk about national objects with aesthetic features, such as ceramic dishware, linen cloths, or pieces of traditional Ukrainian clothing. Ukrainians, in most cases, though prob- ably also possessing such objects in their homes, would not mention them first. To indicate their loyalty to Ukraine, they would first mention things like the red and black flag of UPA,7 the novel Kobzar,8 and religious icons – and only after that would they mention also having an official flag of Ukraine. Such objects were familiar to Russian speakers, but they would

124 Nationalities Papers 71 avoid association with them (apart from the national flag) and would describe them as being too nationalistic. Some Ukrainian-speaking respondents would stress that they kept the Kobzar or the UPA flag in their homes but not for demonstration functions, and that state national symbols like the flag should be displayed not only during special events, but also in daily life. I would like to have a big Ukrainian flag – then I could put it on my balcony [meaning its facade]. You know, before, it was considered as “selo” [meaning low cultural, narrow- minded people from rural areas], and now, I do not know, whether it is me or society, but because of some changes it is considered to be normal, even appreciated. (Sergiy, Ukr, 31) The presence of different shapes and sizes of the Ukrainian national flag in car interiors, as a ribbon or a pin attached to someone’s bag or coat, or a big flag hung on the balcony, overtly indicated the special moment that Ukraine and its citizens were going through in 2014, when the material for this paper was collected. The showing off of that particular Ukrainian national symbol was not only an expression of empathy and patriotic feelings, but also a marker of political preferences and engagement in the political life of Ukraine. Especially in L’viv and especially among young people, not having any visible national Ukrainian symbol could be seen as suspicious and interpreted as indifference, or in the worst case, as affiliation with what was considered to be “anti-Ukrainian”9 in that particular moment. Since I am living in L’viv’s city-center, in the winter of 2014 I started to wear a Ukrainian flag ribbon – primarily for security reasons, not for ideological ones. (Svetlana, Rus, 60) Even though later in the interview Svetlana confessed that her “heart is also in pain for what is happening with Ukraine and Ukrainian people,” she did not feel the need to expose her patriotic feelings via some material national symbol. It was rather her desire not to be per- ceived negatively in her native city, which ultimately made her put a blue and yellow ribbon on her bag in the midst of Euromaidan events. In such situations, consumption of national symbols and their use in everyday life become not only an expression of national self- imagination, but also a tool required by that particular context, used to comply with what is considered appropriate, with a desired social category that overlaps with the local perception of a nation. Very often objects are not simply objects, but rather the meanings that are attached to them, which could change depending on the context (Douglas 1991). Different interpret- ations of symbolic meanings of some objects also defined differences in the ways they were treated in the course of everyday life. For Russian speakers, it did not seem to be a problem to mix objects with Ukrainian national features with other decorative interior objects, while among many Ukrainian speakers the attitude toward such things tended to be almost sacred. Several of them expressed the desire to have a special room or at least a special corner for objects with Ukrainian symbolism, like an altar where they could arrange them in an appropriate way (Bogdana, Ukr, 34). Some informants even preferred to keep such objects hidden until they had the possibility to create a special space for them in their apartments. At the same time Olga, a Russian speaker, while also appreciating Ukrainian ceramics, expressed a more neutral attitude to the same type of Ukrainian tra- ditional objects and this was also noted among some other informants. I like buying Ukrainian ceramic dishware, I like its colors and the fact that they are produced in my country, and we try to use such dishware everyday … It is good for everyday needs since it is quite solid … For special occasions I have a beautiful German porcelain set. (Olga, Rus, 45) Very often attitudes toward objects such as pottery or textiles are impacted by tastes and values that are shared collectively. However, it appears that once such values and tastes

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start to be shared by a larger group of people, or once they become mass market products and not unique pieces of cultural heritage, for some people the initial symbolic meaning gets lost. A similar process seems to be manifest in the consumption of Ukrainian vyshy- vanka.10 In 2007, Ukrainian student Lesya Voronyuk launched an annual celebration of Vyshyvanka Day: in 2014, the government turned this into an official nationwide festivity. This promotion of the vyshyvanka helped to turn it into a more mainstream attribute of everyday life. However, for many of those who owned and appreciated one even before 2014, it lost its core purpose of expressing their Ukrainian identity. Several respondents complained that they are no longer willing to wear vyshyvanka because it no longer rep- resents “a person who loves Ukraine and feels Ukrainian in his heart” (Olga, Ukr, 31), but a person who just wants to follow a trend and does not want to be an outsider. In contrast to this opinion, a couple of informants who never had this type of shirt and who finally bought it said that they were proud to wear it, as besides its aesthetic value, it represented for them an element that could connect people in a kind of fraternity, helping to understand and materialize their belonging to the Ukrainian nation. I know that it [vyshyvanka] is very popular. I also bought one of them for myself [laughing], and surprisingly, it made me feel like I had done something important. With all these events, I finally started to have a clear image of who I am, and the fact that I finally have this shirt just proves it to me. (Bogdan, Rus, 38) In this case, the clothing was the element that was changing the self and not vice versa, as Miller also observed: it is not always people who change objects and imbue them with new meanings – objects can also help us realize some parts of ourselves. In particular in the case of demonstrative things such as clothing, people could “use clothes to find out who they are at that particular moment of time”. The objects with national symbolic meanings discussed above definitely do not rep- resent the full list of material things that could act as tools for the materialization of Ukrainian national identity. However, collections of such things, the content of which might vary across the country but always have common elements, “replicate(s) the conceptual form of the nation itself” (Foster 2002, 66). Consumption of Ukrainian flags, fashionable dresses with Ukrainian traditional patterns, or the proudly advertised as Ukrainian sunflower oil for cooking could all equally give citizens a feeling of belonging to one national community. Moreover, it can work in both directions: while it is clearly “the consumption of national commodities that nationalizes the person” (Foster 2002, 66), as Edensor (2002) suggests, ordinary people can also attri- bute national meanings to objects or commodities and through the creation of symbols produce national sensibilities for themselves.

Expression of patriotism through food consumption practices11 There is a popular opinion among Ukrainians that L’viv is not only a great place to explore Ukrainian traditions, but it is also a mecca of tasty food at affordable prices. During Soviet times and in the early 1990s when in the rest of Ukraine the working class could only afford such places as stolovye (canteen or mess), pelmennye (snack-bar serving only meat dum- plings), and zakusochnye (a very simple snack-bar serving appetizers and alcohol drinks), L’vivians, probably thanks to previous colonial legacy and traditions left by the Polish and Austria-Hungary periods, were able to enjoy cozy cafés with nice atmosphere and food made according to traditional recipes. Currently, the restaurant industry of L’viv is considered to be one of the main tourist attractions and features of the city. At the same time, a special attitude to food is noticeable in practices of daily food consumption

126 Nationalities Papers 73 and home cooking. If the dish is local or made from fresh local products, it will always have an extra value for Ukrainians and will be mentioned or advertised on the packaging or, for example, in the text of menus of L’viv’s restaurants. Such an attitude toward food, together with their proactive position in political life and the generally nationalist views of L’vivians, resulted in L’viv being the first Ukrainian city supporting a large-scale boycott of Russian products, launched via social networks by the Ukrainian civic movement Vidsich12 during and after the Crimean crisis in 2014. While talking about food practices in the majority of interviews, the topic of the boycott emerged spontaneously from the respondents, which made the author take it seriously and try to gather more information from additional sources. While Russian products in the Ukrainian market can be found on all the shelves, not only in the food department, the focus of the boycott was specifically on the consumption of food from Russia, since accord- ing to informants’ experiences, rejecting Russian food products was more difficult for them than rejecting cosmetics or print media.13 Russian food brands also started to be singled out more than other products due to the efforts of activists who were circulating informative leaflets in social networks and spreading print copies of them in local supermarkets. The act of boycotting products “made in Russia” automatically started to stimulate the con- sumption of local products, an act which was also promoted via slogans and images on agi- tation posters and leaflets. Consuming things “made in Ukraine” started to be perceived as “a duty of a real Ukrainian patriot” (Andriy, Ukr, 36). As a Ukrainian I feel responsible to take part in the boycott; it constitutes my personal sanc- tions against a country whose actions I do not understand anymore. Moreover, thanks to this, I discovered several Ukrainian products that I like and that I was not noticing before at all. (Sergey, Rus, 45)

After only one month, the boycott spread first throughout Western Ukraine and then through Kyiv. Some large supermarkets, being attentive to consumer behavior, decided to limit their range of Russian products or entirely quit selling merchandise produced in Russia.14 Some smaller retailers started to facilitate the identification of Russian and Ukrai- nian products by placing small flags of the producing country on price labels. Following the news transmitted in the media of that period on the topic of the boycott, L’viv was one of the most actively participating cities and also a “pioneer” in various “tools” to be used for further boycotting of Russian products.15 According to Internet research done by TNS16 in September 2014, 46% of Ukrainians were participating in the boycott and 57% expressed support of it. L’viv’s city council was the first to uphold a decision on media security in L’viv and its region that obliged retail shops to mark Russian products with a clearly visible sign of a Russian flag. In August 2014, Ukrainian journalist Vershitskaya (2014) noted that the boycott of Russian products served primarily as a way for Ukrainians to express their patriotism and feelings toward their country. As a result, in a period of just six months, a civic campaign that was initiated by several activists in March 2014, receiving popular support in L’viv and beyond (especially in the largest cities of Western and Central Ukraine), manifested some changes in Ukrainian legislation, first on a regional and then on the national level, restrict- ing the import of Russian products. The case of the boycott clearly depicts the principle of consumer citizenship, as defined by Foster (2002). Being responsible consumers constituted one of the ways for Ukrainians to show their loyalty to Ukraine. In this case, there were no particular objects with national meanings, but practices of protest of consumption. While for some people, being a model Ukrainian citizen would entail, for instance, joining Ukrainian territorial defense battalions

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or becoming a volunteer, helping internally displaced people from the eastern parts of Ukraine, for others (and probably also for the same ones), it would be joining the boycott of Russian products. It became so widespread primarily because it was part of the everyday act of shopping, and did not demand much effort: it was easy to understand and relatively easy to perform, given the large choice of alternative products that the Ukrai- nian market provided at that time. Foster and Özcan (2005), analyzing the consumption of Cola Turka in place of Coca-Cola, argued that consumption of a local equivalent to a well-known American drink represented not only a protest against American influence, but also an act of construction of civic identity. The practice of choosing a national product over a foreign one for ideological reasons started to be shared relatively quickly by a large community of Turkish consumers. In a similar way, the spread of the boycott of Russian products in Ukraine, first among ordinary people and then among businesses and to some extent the government, could also be considered as an establishment of new norms in the national identity discourse of Ukraine. In other words, this case study not only represents a way ordinary people can express their national sensibilities and thereby create new references for national identity, but it also shows how national meanings conceived at the grassroots level could potentially affect the official narrative of national identity, which in this case started once authorities (even just regional ones) reacted to consumer behavior of those who were participating in the boycott of Russian products.

Conclusions Consumption practices and patterns are likely to be something most of readers are aware of. Each of us has a preferred supermarket, cuisine, style that we follow, as well as our own consumer habits. Consumer culture has developed around the idea that it is possible to analyze how we behave as consumers and that, beyond marketing and advertising analyses, our choices and consumer practices can shed some light on social phenomena. All in all, consumption is symbolically more telling than previous generations of scholars would admit. In the Ukrainian case, a significant number of informants showed a tendency to associ- ate given products and consumer practices with some national sentiments. Differences in symbolic meanings and in the variety of objects and practices to which national sentiments are attached were noted among Ukrainians of different ages and natively spoken languages. What the respondents had in common, however, was their way of performing national iden- tity through everyday consumption practices. Despite sometimes giving different meanings to the same objects and practices, they were all genuinely asserting themselves as Ukrai- nians. Sztompka (2004) has already suggested that different social groups may choose different symbols and narratives, but that those differences should not be interpreted in all the cases as expressions of otherness. In line with this statement, the different consumption patterns and associations (how emotions and things are valued) should not be taken as evidence of national/ethnic distinc- tion. They are different approaches and ways to perform one single national identity that, represented and perceived in many different ways, was common to all the respondents. Some accounts of Ukraine seem to point at two conflicting and competing identities (Russian and Ukrainian) existing in one territory. In real life, however, even in the most nationalist places, the differences between these two identities are not that dramatic. This study was an attempt to show that the situation might be more nuanced, that there are

128 Nationalities Papers 75 several points of contact between the two identities, and that the boundary between them is more flexible than one might expect. After all, even Russian speakers from one part of Ukraine sometimes perceive Russian speakers from other areas as possessing a distinct identity and culture. The main focus of this paper has been the discovery, or rather rediscovery, of consumer patterns that affect the way national identity is perceived, constructed, and reproduced in L’viv by people who claim to belong to diverse language or ethnic groups. Beyond language and self-perception, the nation seems to materialize in a spontaneous and informal way, through a mechanism that passes through aesthetic appreciation and the use of differ- ent commodities. It thus becomes possible to see the political symbolism of the aesthetics, insofar as political views are reflected via the rejection of products or lifestyles associated (according to personal reflection that is often subjectively biased) with a given country, people, social status, or political attitude. This contributes to creating and consolidating a national narrative for citizen-consumers. Studies of competition over the production of a national or state narrative have already demonstrated that national elites do not have a monopoly over nation-building processes (Navaro-Yashin 2002), but rather that national identity construction is a matter of synergy between elites and ordinary citizens, be they generated on purpose, by chance, or even by mistake, thus leading to effects that were not planned or expected (Ó Beacháin and Kevlihan 2013; Polese and Horák 2015). National symbols conceived at the state level are never immune from criticism or contestation (Kolstǿ 2006), which may lead to the emergence of alternative symbols with national meanings, produced and shared at the bottom level by ordinary people. Billig had already suggested such a phenomenon in his work on banal nationalism. This research has shown that consumption practices and pat- terns can often reflect how these new symbols are conceived and how they, along with the official ones, are practiced in everyday life. In a post-Soviet context, prompted by the legacy of “post-Soviet materialism,” the role of objects is possibly crucial in making the concept of nation move from the ideological to the tangible sphere as a way for people to experience the feeling of belonging to the nation on an everyday basis. A more systematic application of the theories of banal nationalism and consumer citizen- ship can thus contribute to a more structured approach in the study of the production of national identity at the mundane level. It may also be a useful way to interpret the prac- tices of consumption as performed by the people to express the way they see themselves attempting to draw their national self-portraits.

Funding This work was supported by the European Commission in the framework of FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN [grant agreement number 316825].

Notes 1. The word “spontaneous” has been used by Polese (2009b) to describe the bottom-up nation- building processes happening through people’s mobilization during the Orange Revolution in 2004. Following this line of reasoning, the changes that happened in Ukrainians during and after the events of Euromaidan and then during military conflict in the eastern part of Ukraine – the escalation of patriotic feelings in different forms – were to some extent spontaneous elements of nation-building. 2. This paper does not include opinions of Ukrainian citizens who moved to L’viv during two major displacement waves that followed the events of 2014 in Crimea and in the eastern part of Ukraine.

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3. In consumer research in general, objects of consumption are usually called commodities; however, since the form of commodity is not fixed and any object can receive or lose that form (Appadurai 1988) at any given moment, the author prefers to stay with the more general term of “object.” 4. Hereafter I use “Ukr” as the abbreviation for native Ukrainian speakers and “Rus” for native Russian speakers. 5. Home continues to be one of those spheres that were deeply influenced by people’s imagination of the West, especially in the beginning of the 1990s, which resulted in a widespread renovation style called Evroremont (Eurorepair) (Patico 2003). Western elements were usually represented by objects which, despite having been produced locally or for instance in China or Turkey, were nonetheless seen as symbols of the West, and believed to be found in Western homes. 6. A similar behavior was observed by Clarke (2001) while studying the assimilation of Chilean families in the UK. Her respondent, a Chilean mother, was furnishing her house in a way that would facilitate her child to develop a British identity, despite it not being familiar to herself. 7. The red and black flag of the Ukrainian People’s Army in 1917–1921, is usually used by Ukrainian nationalists even now. 8. A book written by the great Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko, which became a symbol of Ukraine’s national and literary revival. 9. According to what was communicated by my respondents, being “anti-Ukrainian” or indifferent usually meant the same thing (indifference at such a critical time was only slightly tolerated), as being a supporter of the Viktor Yanukovich regime would later also imply being a supporter of Vladimir Putin’s actions. 10. Traditional Ukrainian shirt with embroidered patterns. 11. This section is largely based on the analysis of print and online media, interviews, and participant observation in L’viv’s supermarkets and markets conducted during June–August 2014. 12. For more information on this nonviolent civic movement, check their official website: http:// www.vidsich.info/. 13. According to L’viv’s activist from “Ekonomichny boykot. L’viv,” Oleh Radyk, the possible advantage of Russian food products was their low price compared to their equivalents imported from European countries. 14. For boycott coverage, see http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/3363518-bolee-polovyny- ukrayntsev-podderzhyvauit-boikot-rossyiskykh-tovarov-opros. 15. For instance, in 2014 L’viv IT specialists developed an application for Android called “Boycott Scanner” that scans logotypes to recognize whether a product comes from Russia or not. 16. A worldwide market research group, present also in Ukraine. For further details, see: https:// www.tns-ua.com/ua/ and for research results: http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/ 3363518-bolee-polovyny-ukrayntsev-podderzhyvauit-boikot-rossyiskykh-tovarov-opros.

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133 134 III Seliverstova, O. (2017) (in print). Keeping Alive the “Imaginary West” in post-Soviet Countries. Forthcoming in Debatte: Journal of Contemporary and Eastern Europe. Keeping alive the “Imaginary West” in post-Soviet countries

Oleksandra Seliverstova

Narva mnt 25, 10120, Tallinn, Estonia [email protected]

School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, Estonia

Department of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

This work was supported by the European Commission in the framework of FP7-PEOPLE-2012- ITN under Grant agreement number: 316825.

For citation: Seliverstova, Oleksandra. 2017 (forthcoming). Keeping alive the “Imaginary West” post-Soviet countries. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

Abstract Though since the deStalinisation in 1950s Soviet citizens witnessed some noticeable influx of elements of Western culture in their lives, their imagination of the living standards in the continuum of countries situated behind the Western border was based on usually distorted understanding of certain values and images of that region. Such imagination was pushing people to engage with practices that, non-existing or marginal in the West, became to be associated with an allegedly better life existent there. The material evidence of such form of imagination was visible in simple everyday practices, like home decoration, listening to music, procurement and wearing of clothing. Regular imitation of the elements of Western life, which in literature is described as participation in Imaginary West space, defined some markers of a late Soviet generation's identity. Thus the analysis of such cultural construct became crucial for the better understanding of further development of identity processes in the Soviet and then post-Soviet region. Scholars who analyzed how the Imaginary West space was developed in Soviet times, believed that practices and discourses that were originating from this cultural construct were doomed to disappear with the fall of Iron curtain and therefore there would be no more reasons for it to continue to exist. This article first of all questions whether the imagination of countries, which were situated behind the Iron curtain really disappeared after 25 years of independence. Did the transformation from imaginary to real took place and if yes how ordinary people experienced this change? This work tries to answer these questions through the detailed exploration of the phenomenon of Evroremont, which is a special type of renovating practices with the use of Western materials, based on different interpretations of Western interior designs, which started to become mainstream across the territory of the former Soviet Union in the beginning of 1990s. The analysis of 38 semi- structured interviews conducted in Ukrainian city of Lviv, presents a myriad of symbolic meanings of this phenomenon and indicates why and how Evroremont could be considered a further materialization of Imaginary West. Though the data suggests that in 2014 for some segments of Ukrainian society who identify themselves with European values, the notion of Evroremont is already outdated and meaningless, for the rest it remains to be an important indicator of their aspiration to be closer to what they perceive as the West.

Keywords: post-Soviet identity, imaginary space, home production, Evroremont

137 Introduction Across post-Soviet republics, and beyond, the production of space has been strongly impacted by the West, or more precisely, by a constant renegotiation of its role within the local context (Boym 2009; Gurova 2014; Humphrey 2002; Patico and Caldwell 2002; Peteri 2010; Pilkington et al. 2002; Yurchak 2006). According to Yurchak (2006), people's perception of what was beyond the Western border of the Soviet Union and the active manifestation of this perception established within the Soviet society a symbolic space of 'Imaginary West' that allegedly became a strong identity marker for the late Soviet generation. The development of and active participation in this symbolic space led the whole country to its deterritorialization and was eventually among the factors that contributed to the Soviet Union's collapse (ibid). However, even though the dissolution of the Soviet Union changed the position of the West and influenced local interpretations of it, the attitude towards it and/or its role in the everyday life of ordinary people did not diminish, but rather intensified; perceptions of the West1 started to be enacted through consumption practices at the mainstream level. Following the spread of academic interest in the formation of post-Soviet identity, this work contributes to the body of literature that explores the role of imagined spaces in relation to the formation of a collective social identity. This is done through analysis of everyday practices related to home renovation and home furnishing, which potentially visualize and maintain the imagination of the West, as a generic and homogeneous space. The definition of the Imaginary West used in this work stems from its interpretation of Yurchak (2006) as a continuum of countries with a capitalist societal order situated beyond the Western borders of the Soviet Union. For the current discussion of the Imaginary West, which refers to the post-Soviet period, it is important to add that incorporation of different countries into this construct depends not only on their geographical position, but rather on the level of their economic development and presence of capitalist order. Thus countries like Japan, Korea or Australia in some of interviews appeared as countries of origin of some highly appreciated elements of Western culture. Though various approaches and interpretations of an “Imaginary West” have been proposed also by other scholars, at least two main features were identified in common in their works. First, the emphasis is put on perception of Western cultural references, that is how the West is “imagined”, over what the West “is” or “might be”. Second, this space is perceived as a group of countries with cultural and political homogeneity that exists only in the imagination of those using the expression. The interpretation of foreign cultural, social and political spaces is based on the assumption that “life is good in those places we cannot yet get to” (from the interview with Olga, 45, also see Pilkington et al. 2002). Based on an abstract imagination of the Western world, or on a distorted understanding of certain values and references (Morris 2012), accounts of the West as being more “civilized” or simply “better” have incited an increasing number of people to engage in practices. For instance, as distinct as way of wearing clothes (Gurova, 2014), food consumption in fast-food restaurants (Caldwell & Watson 2005), organization and celebration of weddings and shopping in large shopping malls (Millan & Howard, 2007; Andrusz 2006). Such practices of everyday life, albeit in some cases marginal or even non-existent in the West, became to be associated with an allegedly better life or simply better standards (Patico & Caldwell 2002; Pilkington et al. 2002). As a result, a range of Western cultural expressions have been charged with symbolic meaning, integrated and reshaped in forms closer, more acceptable or simply replicable in Soviet Union and later continued to exist in post-Soviet countries. They were not created to oppose Soviet

1 For this article the term “the West” is used as a generic category of countries situated in the Western part of the world, taking the perspective of people living on the territory of former Soviet Union. This categorisation originates from the period of isolation of the Soviet Union, when other countries situated beyond the Western borders of the Soviet Union were grouped into one 'Other' and were imagined by ordinary people as a homogenous continuum of countries with higher living standards, higher level of culture and better conditions for work and leisure.

138 or post-Soviet culture, but came to be part of a comfort zone where Soviet and then post-Soviet citizens could consume/experience foreign products, services ans styles. This contributed to the creation of an imaginary limbo between “East” and “West”, where a relatively new category of values and consumer culture is produced, protected and replicated in various forms.

This work looks for evidence of the Imaginary West present in post-Soviet times and explores it through a mainstream phenomenon known as Evroremont. Evroremont represents by itself a type of renovation widely practiced across post-Soviet countries, but especially popular in the 1990s, and is usually described as one, which is based on 'Western' standards and imitation of 'Western' interior designs. An analysis of the main features of Evroremont and people's attitudes to it will show how this phenomenon incorporates different symbolic meanings, which resonate those ones associated with Imaginary West when discussed in the context of the late Soviet period. This found diversity of meanings unveils the perception of the West, still as a generic category of countries, by ordinary people. It also also points to some new markers of post-Soviet identities, which appeared as a product of synthesis between Soviet, local, national and newly introduced foreign cultural values. In opposition to Yurchak's conclusion that the Imaginary West did not survive the collapse of the Soviet Union, this paper suggests that even though the West became more accessible and new images related to it inundated the everyday life of post-Soviet people, it continued to have an imaginary status in the first decade (since 1991), and keeps being imagined in different ways even nowadays. This idea will be presented through discussion of the reproduction of a stereotyped West through the creation or adaptation of the home space according to imagined Western standards, and of the localization of the elements of an Imaginary West through their mass consumption and reproduction in the daily life of ordinary people. The empirical material of this study consists of 38 interviews, conducted during 2014-2015 in L'viv (Western Ukraine). The main goal of the interviews was to inquire into the interrelation between consumer culture and national identity in the context of everyday life; the discussions about home and renovation practices turned out to be one of the most intense topics, so rich in symbolic meanings that they ultimately inspired me to inquire more about them. The sample for 30 interviews consisted of urban citizens who could be defined as representatives of either the educated middle class or the lower-middle class. The informants were divided into two groups according to the language they identified as their native tongue: either Ukrainian or Russian. The age of informants varied between 25 and 63 years old. The rest 8 interviews were conducted with professionals from construction and interior design industry, working in Lviv or its region at the moment of interview. The snowball method was used in order to contact potential respondents. Additional materials analyzed in this work included the content of 11 websites of companies offering construction, renovation and design services in the region of L'viv, as well as local newspaper announcements and a dozen online databases with properties of real estate agencies based in L'viv2. The rest of the paper is organized in the following way: first, it is crucial to discuss previous scholarship, the concepts which contribute to the ideas in this paper. The literature review will be focused on research that looks at the production of imagined spaces and the formation of identities through or with the help of such zones, mainly referring to the works of Edward Said and Benedict Anderson, as well as other contributions that expand on their arguments. This will be followed by a discussion of the body of works involving the post-Soviet context, in particular those that explore the perception of the West in the post-Soviet society and how its imaginary influenced local identity formation processes. The discussion will focus on studies researching perceptions of the West by ordinary people, bringing us in the end to studies looking at home renovation practices in the post- Soviet space. The bulk of the article is dedicated to the analysis of the phenomenon of Evroremont, from its birth till gradual decline in its popularity and its meaning as a marker of post-Soviet individual and group identities.

2 The selection of online sources was made on the basis of completeness of websites' content and their popularity, defined by informants of this study and my experience as a native Ukrainian.

139 From Orientalism to Occidentalism: the importance of an imaginative space

An imaginative or symbolic quality of space was discussed in depth by Edward Said (1978) in his work Orientalism, in which he explores how the imperialistic West constructs patronizing knowledge about post-colonial Asian, North African and Middle Eastern countries. According to Said, such knowledge was usually subjective, interpreted in favor of colonizers, contained forms of fiction, and in general, discriminated against the main subject of the knowledge. As part of his critical discussion of the impact of cultural perceptions, he introduced the concept of 'Imaginative geographies', which refers to the symbolic space created and practiced on the basis of different images and symbols that people could gather about the poorly known geographic territory. Said was primarily interested in symbolic and cultural elements that could be drawn out of geographic knowledge, especially when a particular material space is imbued with imaginative values through which new, not originally established, symbolic meanings are being created. When a space is imagined, the distance to it also becomes imagined, which in turn influences our perception of that place and our self-position with respect to it (Bhabha 1997; Gregory 1995; Volčič 2005). Thus, the re-evaluation or re-construction of our identity is also implicated in the process of imagining. Neither distance nor differences of such spaces are fixed – it is possible to either intensify or almost dissolve differences, and to either dramatize or minimize the distance (Said 1978; Gregory 1995). Said (1978) describes the production of knowledge mainly through the interpretation of facts, images, and symbols, but it remains unclear how ordinary people engage in this interpretation process and how they actually approach what is being imagined. This was clarified by subsequent research, in particular by Derek Gregory (1995). He argued that such imaginative non-material spaces are constructed through practice and that distance from us to such places depends on how well we perform what we imagine. Accordingly, if the West performs or reproduces some cultural practices of the East and vice versa, these parts of the world could potentially become closer to each other. Works that explore imagination of the West exploded in academic literature with the end of decolonization processes, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the spread of and interest in globalization. Arjun Appadurai (1999), while discussing globalization processes, assigns a big role to imagination in contemporary societies. He makes reference to the “imagined communities” of Anderson (1991) and believes that instead of living in local imagined communities, the boundaries of which are politically defined, people live in “imagined worlds”, which deterritorialize geographic and political entities and ultimately constitute a global culture. According to Appadurai, imagination gains a new power: “the imagination has become an organized field of social practices, a form of work (in the sense of both labor and culturally organized practice), and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined fields of possibility” (ibid, p.31). People have begun to gain access to the worlds and communities to which they did not belong, but that they have been imagining for a long time. However a more open access to them did not imply immediate whitewashing of previously shaped associations connected to them, but rather contributed to hybridisation of accounts on the West. Though Said and Appadurai demonstrated how important is imagination for construction of our self-portraits and group belonging, the examples of practices through which the creation of imaginary space is getting materialized remains to be sometimes not sufficient in order to draw parallels between its philosophical discussions and its practice everyday life. Tim Edensor (2002) was among those ones who so far have been successful in providing a rich empirical data on everyday practices needed for space production. For him any symbolic space is made “by inhabitants through habit, through a constant engagement with the world which relies on familiar routines, which construct an ongoing spatial mapping through the enaction of everyday mobilities...” (ibid, p.56). In everyday life, home is the central arena from which the production of space starts (Edensor 2002; Young 1997). Edensor (2002) viewed home space production as the

140 process which is related to the formation and performance of national identity, thus establishing an interdependence between small-scale space production at the domestic level and large-scale space production at the national level. Also Adam Drazin (2015) in his recent article, in which he analyzed Socialist architecture and homemaking practices in Romania, demonstrates how homemaking and architecture are connected to both individual and group identities and thus opens a door for a further exploration of post-Socialist identities through the home space production.

Perceptions of the West and the creation of a symbolic space in the Post-Soviet context

In the Soviet and post-Soviet contexts in which the discussion of this paper is set, concepts of imaginative space and imaginative communities were first fully applied by Alexey Yurchak (2006). He dedicated a chapter in his book about the late Soviet generation to the discussion of “an imaginary place [Imaginary West] that was simultaneously knowable and unattainable, tangible and abstract, mundane and exotic” (Yurchak 2006, p.159). His description of this zone and the tools through which it was created in the late Soviet years coincide with descriptions of the concept of imaginative geography introduced by Edward Said (1978). It also echoes Lefebvre’s idea (1991) that any space is a product of social interaction, as well as Tuan’s theory (1977) that spaces are defined by objects. Yurchak (2006) brings rich evidence, collected from a wide variety of sources, to show how significant an imaginative space can be for formation of a group identity. He goes even further than that and argues that the existence of Imaginary West during late socialism contributed to the 'deterritorialization' of the Soviet Union. It made the reality neither Soviet nor Western and in the end, even though it was compatible with Soviet system, it was one of the major factors that provoked USSR's dissolution. Yurchak scrupulously analyzes the embeddedness of the West in the everyday life of Soviet people and how the West was reproduced through different cultural practices aimed at incorporating of foreign things into local context. According to Yurchak, the “Imaginary West did not exist in contradiction with ethics and aesthetics of socialism” (p. 160) as it was an almost natural component of late socialism. This meant, however, that once the Soviet Union collapsed, the Imaginary West also did not have enough reason to exist and thus disappeared completely. This logic, indeed, did not correspond completely to post-Soviet reality, as was noted by several scholars who conducted ethnographic research in the first decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (Boym 2009; Humphrey 2002; Laitin 1998; Rausing 2002; Wanner 1998). Exploring the adaptation strategies of post-Soviet people to new conditions, they all came to the conclusion that despite the fall of the Iron Curtain and the consequent potential accessibility of both information and experience of what was perceived as the West, in actuality it did not become equally accessible to everyone and the echoes of socialist past remained strong in many everyday practices of former Soviet people. Even for those who were eager to abandon everything that reminded them of their Soviet past, the symbolic meaning of the West did not lose its value, but was rather modified or refreshed with new images and sources. According to Prokhorova (2000), the imaginary of the West was also supported by the new type of advertisement, full of material symbols, where the West was depicted as “a land of material abundance and personal freedom” (ibid p.63). Western standards advertised in different spheres of consumption were equated to 'normal' standards of life, underlining the abnormality of the 'previous' period of life under Soviet regime (Fehérváry 2002). This was amply demonstrated in the large body of works focused on the attitude to the West and Western goods, especially those studies that addressed the formation of local identities within post-Soviet societies (Keller and Vihalemm 2011; Laitin 1998; Morris 2012; Pilkington et al. 2002; Prokhorova 2000). The majority of these works analyze everyday life and very often focus on material culture and practices of consumption, where the possession of Western things is seen as an ideal way to achieve a desirable social position and standard of life. Trends in or attitudes to consumption of material or cultural products made in the Western abroad or associated

141 with the West3 helped to trace how local people renegotiated or constructed their identities not only as consumers but also as citizens of newly established states (Gurova 2014; Patico 2003, 2008). For instance Pilkington, together with Omel'chenko, Flynn, Bliudina and Starkova (2002), studied perceptions of the West by Russian youth since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were particularly interested how young people construct their identities by making reference to Western cultural products and material goods, incorporating some of them into their local context, while still keeping the boundaries of their Russian identity. A considerable amount of literature is dedicated to the consumption of clothing (Gerasimova and Chuykina 2004; Gurova 2014; Ventsel 2006; Zhelnina 2011), focusing on its symbolic role in post-Soviet identity formation. However, there exists another type of mainstream post-Soviet consumption practice, which, despite its strong links to the perception of the West, appears far less in academic works. It is a consumption related to home space, usually consisting of home renovation and/or the furnishing of one’s home with designer items and household appliances. The majority of the authors covering the topic of home in the post-Soviet area so far have been mainly interested in effects of privatization, namely how the value of the home changed over time with the change of ownership status and the impact of such processes on the urban development of post-Soviet cities (Attwood 2012; Kursis 1999; Struyk 1996). However, the symbolic meaning of home as a socially constructed space and the role it plays in identity formation, which was widely explored in the Western context (Edensor 2002; Lefebvre 1991; Rybczynski 1988; Young 1997), still lacks a deeper analysis. Gunta Darbina and Luse Agita (2012) examine home as an object of consumption that offers upward social mobility opportunities to its owner by becoming a status possession. While focusing on the status-giving feature of home possession, they note the symbolic importance of the home's post-modern interior, which is considered by locals to be common in what they call 'the West'. Darbina and Luse argue that by recreating a Western look in their homes, the “middle-class of post-socialist countries joins the imaginative world and life style” [of the West] (p.108), providing themselves with a kind of secure inner space in the context of the unstable environment of their countries. Sgibnev (2015) analyzes home renovation in Tajikistan as a culturally embedded practice that creates a symbolic space and gives status to people who live in it. Finally, Krisztina Fehérváry (2002) contributes to the topic with her study about the perception of living standards in post-socialist Hungary, presenting the mass consumption of Western home furnishings and organizing of home space according to imagined Western lifestyle as a status-seeking practice. She maintains that one of the main reasons why people engage in such practices is their aspiration to reach a desired social strata, which for them becomes possible once they achieve 'normal' living standards, associated with Western or European ones (Fehérváry 2002; Boym 2009).

The emergence of Evroremont

In the 1990s Evroremont became a widespread activity that people with all different levels of income would choose to do (Gladarev and Tsinman 2007, 2009; Danilenko 2011; Patico 2008). The so-called “winners” of Perestroika, who had extra money in their pockets, were the first ones to perform this type of renovation, while the majority of the former Soviet population was still struggling in poverty. As time went on, this practice spread among people with lower incomes and eventually became one of the attributes of the emerging middle class (Gladarev and Tsinman 2007, 2009). For many people, Evroremont became not only the most attractive way in which they could make their homes more comfortable, but also the way to become closer to the “Western” or “European” world, which were so unknown and at the same time so desirable during Soviet times. As acutely pointed out by Iryna Vidanava (2013) for the Belarusian society: “While seemingly materialistic, this ‘Europeanisation’ was the only one Belarusians could experience at the time, as few could travel and see the real Europe. ‘Evroremont’ became their idea of what European homes

3 For example very often a stamp “Made in Italy” would be sufficient for everyone to consider the item as prestigious and 'Western', even though its owner might acknowledge that it was probably originally produced in China or Turkey.

142 looked like, based on images from the movies and glossy magazines.” (p.1). The findings of this study, conducted in Lviv, also suggest that Evroremont became one of the material priorities among post-Soviet urban citizens. The majority of informants of this study suggested that collecting money to renovate with the help of Western building materials and if possible individual design was and continues to be one of the most important life-projects to achieve.

It is an expensive type of renovation and of course only those who had enough money could do it, but still, many people even with relatively low incomes tried hard to save money exactly for that. One could become different by travelling abroad and then telling everyone about his trips, while other people preferred to do the renovation first. (Yura, 33, builder)

Several scholars who studied DIY and renovation practices either in Soviet or post-Soviet times, like Milstead and Miles (2011), Sgibnev (2015), Gerasimova and Chuykina (2004), and Darbina and Luse (2012), while recognizing technical reasons that demanded renovation4, also defined cultural, historical and economic reasons that boosted the popularity of renovation practices across the post-Soviet region. Among the main factors, they have suggested:

- the change of status from tenants to owners in the beginning of 1990s (Milstead and Miles 2011; Struyk 1996; Darbina and Luse 2012). The mass privatization process not only gave people entitlement and freedom to manage their real estate properties according to their personal needs, but also attributed a new symbolic meaning to their homes. A private home or apartment finally became a potential means to solve socioeconomic problems5 and also became a place where one could realize previously 'cultivated' dreams about a better material life, namely a place for aesthetic self- realization; - the need to reconstruct an internal place during times of ongoing external restructurization at state level. While post-Soviet countries were witnessing major structural changes in their governments and economies, their citizens also felt the need to restructure their domestic spaces. By doing real restructuring of their private spaces people were, at least partially, satisfying their need to re- establish themselves within their social context by finding new material identity markers, which became available under the conditions of the market economy. Since formation or re-formation of identity implies an establishment of distinction, consumption of material things that could offer to its owner an immediate visible distinction became an important tool in post-Soviet identity formation (Patico 2008; Humphrey 2002). Considering Evroremont as a complex of material markers, with its wide variety of materials, colours and individual solutions, I assume that it was at least partially satisfying such a need. - renovation and repair as culturally rooted practices during Soviet times, remained a part of the mentality and ways of self-realization even for post-Soviet generations. Gerasimova and Chuykina (2004) argued that Soviet society could be called a society of repair works (Obshchestvo remonta), as during Soviet times, when people lived for decades under conditions of constant shortages, repair or renovation with any available materials was a never-ending everyday activity through which people could not only make their life more comfortable but also upgrade their social status. For an average Soviet man, the ability to skillfully make repairs by recycling old things was a status symbol of success, while for an average Soviet woman it was the ability to cook a tasty meal 'out of nothing' and produce decent clothes from low-quality or second-hand materials (Gurova 2014).

4 Under technical reasons, I consider things like the poor condition of the apartment -leaking ceilings, broken pipes or old electricity wires; the need to extend the apartment's territory with the help of a common corridor or balcony; or the need to “refresh” walls, bathroom, etc. for hygienic purposes. 5 Home ownership offered a few significant benefits: for some it became a way to earn money (by selling the apartment in the center, or renting it out); for others, it became a way to solve family issues (changing one big apartment for several smaller ones in more remote locations).

143 Taking into consideration and agreeing with the above-mentioned reasons that contributed to Evroremont becoming such a widespread activity, in the next section of this paper I am exploring other reasons as well; ones which were only partially addressed in previous scholarship and which could provide us with some interesting insights on formation of identity and status seeking through the establishment of links with the Western world.

The magic of prefix “Evro”

The popularity of Evroremont dates to the times when the interest for foreign products, usually associated with more well-developed countries then the successors of the Soviet Union were, was probably at its peak (Patico 2003).

The word Evroremont came into use in the early 1990s. In those times, everything that was somehow connected to European life was generating great interest and was associated with the best quality. Since then, the term Evroremont has come to mean a high quality renovation6… …explains the L'viv Investment and Construction Company on its official website. Under the term ‘Evroremont’, this company offers an individually developed design project, use of European or local materials developed and produced according to Western standards and performance of renovation tasks with the use of Western building technologies. Specialists also warn that the price of Evroremont on average will accordingly be much higher than that of the ordinary renovation. Official information provided by other construction companies and personal interviews with builders or other specialist who are directly involved in the realization of Evroremont confirmed similar definitions of this style of renovation. Nonetheless, since Evroremont became a 'product' (practice) of consumption, its original definition formulated by professionals acquired different interpretations by those who actually consumed it, performed by themselves, or just observed it as a widespread phenomenon. Despite Evroremont's popularity, my respondents, while they had no problems reciting its commonly recognized technical characteristics, had difficulties providing a general definition of it. The complete list of characteristics of Evroremont – both technical and symbolical – are presented in the Table 1. The prefix 'Evro' was the element that most often created a lot of vagueness and questions while defining the term of Evroremont, especially in the answers of young respondents. We are used to calling it Evro, but nobody ever explained what that means. (Kateryna, 33) It is a very abstract term. I cannot imagine what it is as I have never been in Europe...Evroremont it is a brand, a soap bubble and full of pathos. It does not have any style and still almost everyone is doing it. (Natalya, 25) If in the 1990s everything with Evro signified a higher standard, or as Fehérváry (2002) proposed, a 'normal' standard compared to the previous abnormality of Soviet life, in the second decade after gaining independence, the associations with this prefix started to lose their clarity. From one side, some strata of Ukrainian society started to have aspirations to be closer to Europe and to consider themselves Europeans, so they made the form Evro part of their identities. From another side, there was still a large number of Ukrainians who kept the same attitude towards the West as they had during Soviet times. The latter group continued to create and maintain myths about the Western world by looking at and using newly available Western material products through the prism of Soviet mentality (Pilkington et al. 2002). Several respondents admitted that it is exactly this prefix that once attracted and still attracts them, serving as a persuasive element in the phase of decision making, one that promises a guarantee of quality, beauty or just something that will be different and

6 Last access on 25.07.2015 http://libk.com.ua/remont-domov-i-kvartir/evroremont-kvartir

144 appreciated by everyone. In Evroremont everything should look beautiful and comfortable, because it is Evro and not something else. We have a very small apartment, a studio for four people, but I am glad that we also managed to do Evroremont... we used some of its fashionable elements. (Natalya, 26) Even though associations with words like 'Euro', 'European' or 'Western' seem to be quite abstract, they acquire more meaningfulness when they are mentioned in relation to some concrete products, practices or trends. Once they are placed within some tangible or visible framework that is possible to analyze, their meaning becomes richer and the values with which they are infused by ordinary people come to the surface. In order to give a reader an idea on how meaningfully rich the concept of Evroremont might be, the collection of characteristics, both technical and symbolic, which were mentioned by informants of this study, is provided in the following table (Table 1). Table 1 General characteristics Technical Symbolic Definition's characteristics characteristics characteristics - Useless -PVC windows - Satisfies the desire to - Vague - Superficial - Use of plaster slabs show off - Abstract - Fake - Plastic as material, for - A good topic to talk - Ridiculous term - Has a demonstrative example plastic lining about with friends and - A term “in fashion” function - Laminate flooring relatives - Outdated term - Invented by builders - multi-layered, curvy - An indicator of - A term of the 1990s - Parody to a rich life ceilings (again, made successful transition - Nobody knows what - European with plaster slabs) - A link to Europe that exactly it means - Ridiculous - halogen lights, often makes one feel closer - Confusing - Beautiful colourful to Europe - Provokes negative - Not for living life - new communications - Gives influence, associations - Stylish (pipes, heating, power and credibility - A Soviet term - Trendy electricity wires etc) - Upgrades your social - Makes one laugh - Tasteless - bathroom fixtures status - Created by older - Scary - “Western” materials - Gives you a status of generations - Comfortable - Smooth walls a good master - Doesn't mean - High quality - Painted walls (no - Shows individual anything - Soap bubble wallpaper) preferences, taste - Means European - Doesn't have any style - White walls - Something that makes standards - An ordinary - Massive curtains you feel different renovation - High quality materials - An alternative to - Good investment - A renovation done by travelling abroad - Not an ordinary type professionals with a - Link to the civilized of renovation designer world - Western - Individual design - Represents a - Temporal - Reconfiguration syndrome of post- - Classic renovation - A more complex soviet lack of taste and - Cheap and not renovation desire to show off durable - an American dream - A very expensive renovation - Offers better human conditions

145 - Something that everybody does

The next section is dedicated to analysis of meanings presented in the above table, in particular symbolic ones as they point to how people engage with the West through the practice of Evroremont. The discussion also aims to contribute to the understanding of how Evroremont potentially keeps alive the imagination of the West and how such imaginary space functions as a reference for some identity markers of post-Soviet citizens.

Evroremont as a continuation of the Imaginary West

Considering Soviet history, starting from Stalin's period, “the Soviet person was encouraged to enjoy consumption of personal “bourgeouis” pleasures [associated with Western culture]”(Yurchak 2006, p.168), then during Khruscshev's and Brezhnev's eras in particular, people were taught to admire the aesthetics of Western things and be knowledgeable about them (Chernyshova 2013; Gronow 2003; Yurchak 2006). The miscalculation of the state was that, while admiring those things, people were privately also developing a strong desire and egoistic goals to possess them, especially in conditions of constant material shortages characteristic to life under the Soviet regime. The dissemination of Western cultural elements by the state, their evident superiority over local ones and their limited accessibility raised not only great interest in the possession of material things of Western origin, but also encouraged people to interpret and reproduce such cultural elements in their everyday life. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the desire for objects coming from the Western context did not have reasons to decline. First, low standards of living did not disappear – for some families they became even worse; and second, the [wide] choice of bright and attractive Western goods which appeared in local advertisements and on shops' shelves only increased the value and prestige of having them. In many aspects, habits and practices developed during Soviet times continued to form people's cultural engagements with the West (Pilkington et al. 2002), and the idealization of the West and Western lifestyle thus also continued. Considering the symbolic features of Evroremont, this study demonstrates that its practice represented a local reproduction of the West, which incorporated in itself a strong desire to have living standards similar to Western ones, the desire to establish a link with Western world, to get closer to the place where life was imagined as being wealthier and better. Evroremont as a practice through which people were actively reproducing their interpretations of the West could visualize Haug's and Bock's (1987) argument about commodities that “are surrounded by imaginary spaces which individuals are supposed to enter and to fill in with certain acts” (p.32). The instructions of how to act in such an imaginary space were often dictated by associations from the Soviet past and new messages that people were receiving from media and informal communication. Even though the 1990s usually evoke dark memories in our people's minds, I need to be grateful to those times. In those years I earned the capital needed to open my own construction company, which I established several years later. First, I was working as an ordinary builder, but then once I bought a concrete cutter, I started to get a lot of orders, which were almost all identical - cutting arches in concrete walls of block apartments in Kiev's neighbourhoods. When having Evroremont done, everyone wanted to have that piece or symbol of Santa Barbara [the first American soap-opera broadcasted on TV, where the main setting was a big white family house with arcs]. (Sergey, 55, owner of a construction company) As described by Yurchak (2006), during late Soviet years, people were proud to decorate their interiors even with empty packages of Western products because their symbolic value was much more important than the material one; post-Soviet generations continued to focus on the decorative

146 elements which could bring them closer to the desired lifestyle associated with the one in the West. The role of wall posters with images of the Eiffel tower, mugs with the print of the US flag or empty boxes of Danish shortbreads, which appeared in post-Soviet apartments as first attempts of Westernizing one’s home space, was purely visual and aimed to link the local context with the one that was still out of reach for ordinary people. In the beginning of 1990s, all these representations of the West were very disconnected from the Western reality, which in fact, was not homogenous at all and differed from one place to another. In home interiors this provoked sometimes very awkward design solutions, mixtures of styles, excessive and incompatible use of building materials and useless accessories. In Evroremont there are many things that I consider unnecessary: colourful hallogen lights everywhere, multi-layered plaster slab ceilings, plastic panels in every corner... People do not know how to choose style, but they still think it is important. The post- Soviet desire to expose comes to the surface very clearly in this phenomenon. (Volodymyr, 45)

Pic.2,3 An example of the most commonly recognized features of Evroremont, like complex ceilings, shiny surfaces and an extensive use of halogen lamps (both pictures were taken in the rented apartments of Lviv by the author). Since the West was associated with good living and wealth, its reproduction was built upon a visualization of such, albeit an imagined, fantastical one. Often such imaginations resulted in the use of materials or elements that could immediately give an impression of being expensive, even in small apartments: use of gold paint, columns and lions sculptures as decoration, pompous stuccos on ceilings and velvet textile surfaces– elements that after some examination would often appear to be fake, made from plaster or plastic. It is something that people never had, probably never needed, but still try to have. It is a parody, a parody of a rich life, a ridiculous parody. (Andriy, 44) A passion for ‘wealthy’ solutions came in full force in Evroremont. Multilevel arcs, a number of which culminated in interiors created in the end of the 90s. National superfluity was also visible in the choice of colours that was happening according to the principle 'the brighter the better'. (Vsevolod, 57, architect) Very often the perception of the West and in particular how Western homes looked depended on the interpretations of builders and designers who had an agency role in the process of understanding and reproducing the West. The unprofessionalism of builders gave birth to weird solutions, for example, multi- layered plaster slab ceilings. I consider them a product invented by builders in order to have more expensive orders and sell a lot of those plaster slabs. People did not have time to learn how to use those newly appeared Western materials – they were actually learning, if that, while performing renovation or construction works, obviously often making mistakes. There was no time to wait, as the demand for

147 renovations was great. People were ready to spend money for everything that would make their apartment more shiny, luxurious and different from dark, Soviet-style dwellings. (Anna, 32, architect) Myriad examples of similar marketing strategies built on associations with the Western context can be found in the Evroremont terminology. Terms like Frantsuzskiy balkon, (French balcony, pic.3, 4, 5) Venetsianskaya shtukaturka (Venetian plaster wall covering), Italyanskaya kukhnya (Italian kitchen), became locally used terms referring to special types of renovation or furnishings. Despite sometimes being questioned by more knowledgeable and experienced customers, in general for the mass market they bear a meaning of something special and prestigious.

Pic.3, 4, 5 An image of a brochure advertising a French balcony and the actual result: how this 'product' looks in real life on the streets of L'viv and Kiev (author Oleksandra Seliverstova) The difference in opinions and definitions of what is Evro depends on each person’s perception of the West, each person’s fantasies, dreams and also self-confidence. The distance to it, as to an imagined space, depends on how well each person performs what is being imagined: the more accurate interpretations are, the smaller the distance, and the less ‘imagined’ this place is (Gregory 1995). This is what started to happen with the phenomenon of Evroremont. If in the beginning, it reminded one of a tasteless parody of a life shown in soap operas, with time, an accumulation of experience, presence of a variety of media resources, more personal encounters with the West through travelling and availability of professional support, caused an appearance of more sophisticated, smart and stylish renovation results. People have learned more about the real West and also realized that there is no single “European” or “Western”standard. Furthermore, even though weird solutions with luxury elements similar to those that were present in the Evroremont of 1990s still appear, they are coming to be less and less associated with Europe or with the Western world.

The status making feature of Evroremont and its future

The mainstream character of Evroremont encouraged its analysts to give it a role of a tool, needed in formation of post-Soviet identity. According to Larysa Danilenko (2011) Evroremont became an artefact of Ukrainian history while for Wladimir Sgibnev (2015), who analysed DYI practices in Tajikistan, Evroremont became one of the elements forming current national identity of Tajiks. In my respondents' descriptions of Evroremont a lot of attention was dedicated to its status-giving function, either fake or real. Accordingly in order to upgrade personal social status through renovation, its owner would need to work a lot on bright impression that a well-renovated apartment or house with expensive decor could give to its visitors.

148 In Evroremont functionality goes to the second, or third place, on the first comes the look or more precisely the impression it might give. The more shiny, the more complicated, the more Western materials were used, the more bright the higher is the cost of it in the eyes of others and the more it makes proud his owner. (Andriy, 33) While showing own apartment to guests, or advertising it to new buyers, the owner would always mention, in case he has it, that the furniture is from Italy, that ceramic tiles are from Spain, kitchen is from Englan. In particular those who really enjoyed experimenting with their homes and had enough budget for doing that, would be keen to ask their designer or invent by themselves some special feature, which later they will show to guests as a part of their 'home show'. It could be anything, from a ceiling painted in sky with stars to multi layered ceiling with colourful lamps, from a mosaic on a parquet to a big jacuzzi bath in a small apartment. Many acknowledged that in reality the status that an impressive renovation could give is fake or at least not for a long term and in general more credible markers of a desired status are needed.

The popularity of Evroremont dates to the times when people wanted to have something unusual, it is an extreme way to be, to show oneself different from others. (Yura, 30, builder)

People make Evroremont because they want to show off, strangerly they give a message about themselves through multi layered ceilings and fancy bathrooms. (Marichka, 25)

The understanding of fakeness, practical uselessness of such showy features of Evroremont and sometimes even vysmeivanie of them by others, probably contributed to the gradual decrease in the use of such term among urban citizens.

It [Evroremont] gives a feeling that it is not long-term. I don't think this term is popular now; it is not actual, not in trend anymore...I do not know, maybe, at least here, in the city. (Andriy, 33)

The data collected in 2014-2015 demonstrates that there is no decline in renovation practices corresponding to the Evroremont type, but rather that there is a decline in the use of the word Evroremont. In particular, there is a manifestation of desire of not being associated with it and therefore people tend to call current renovation and refurbishing works often with different names. If Evroremont could be considered a rather generic term, which was applied to any type of renovation, which implied use of modern Western technologies and materials, current categorisation of renovation practices is much more sophisticated and varied. This points to sophistication of consumer taste, but also to incorporation into local context of what was once considered to be exotic. Exotic elements and styles which initially were consumed as markers of distinction gradually mixed with local cultural patterns and tastes and became so familiar that they started to be associated with national aesthetic taste (Edensor 2002). The very term “West” became less all- encompassing and less idealized. It does not represent anymore a continuum of homogeneous countries, as people learned some differences within that space and became even more suspicious about products coming from foreign countries. However even after 25 years of closer encounters with Western cultural elements and life, at least in case of some segments of post-Soviet society the phenomenon of Evroremont continues to resonate the idea of Pilkington et al. (2002). Despite getting access to Western culture and appropriating some of its elements because of strong desire to become like them (meaning Westerners) ordinary people tend to keep the borders of their local identities and this is clearly visualised in the way they interpret and use foreign cultural elements. In many contexts “Western” or “European” things continue to be associated with something prestigious and of better quality. Consequently the imagination and interpretation of foreign life, in particular the one beyond the Western border of Ukraine continues to be manifested in different forms.

149 As a professional working in this sphere, I need to admit that unfortunately Evroremont with its flashy, often ridiculous elements, especially favoured at the end of 1990s, became a feature of Ukrainian design. It is probably particular to the whole post-Soviet area, something that you will never find in other parts of the world. I believe a new style in Ukrainian interiors is appearing now, much calmer and sophisticated, very often just copied from Western magazines but still with some local elements. (Katya, 32, architect)

The disappearance of Evroremont as a symbolic act of becoming closer to the West is also related to its experience of becoming a mainstream phenomenon, which made its looks and attributes lose their function of being markers of sophisticated taste and high culture. This would push representatives of the elite to look for new markers of distinction, as respectively lower strata of society would try to reproduce new practices chosen by the elite as actual attributes of their group. The performance of Evroremont by a relatively large number of people, no matter how expensive it was and how well it was performed, reduced its initial value as being exclusive, and likewise reduced its function of upgrading one's social status.

Conclusion

Yurchak (2006) argued that in the late 1980s “it became obvious that the Imaginary West was something very different from the ‘real’ West” and that people did not have reasons to reproduce the Imaginary West anymore. The current analysis of a life-cycle of the phenomenon of Evroremont suggests that that conclusion was somehow premature. Apart from the simple fact that even in post-Soviet times there were many people who continued to reside in their own country without having much opportunity to travel abroad, and who continued to get images of the Western life mostly from soap operas, Hollywood films and TV advertisements, there were also some previously established cultural engagements with the West that continued to be operated in the post- Soviet period. These cultural engagements automatically gave to newly-arrived Western things a supra-value and interpretations that were sometimes very distant from their literal meaning and purpose. In this paper Evroremont was presented first as a material visualization of the myth of the West and also as an example of how people could reproduce locally what they consider to be foreign or 'Western'. Second, based on the data collected in L'viv, this paper suggests that Evroremont as a widespread practice had an impact on the formation of local individual and group identities and therefore could be used for a more detailed study of the processes of identity formation in this region. For some people, who invested a considerable amount of financial and social capital in the renovation of their home space, this practice or the features it brought to their dwellings appeared to be a natural extension of their self-projects, able to communicate messages about their desires, tastes, values and personal perceptions of the West. This work could be considered as one of the contributions to the body of literature that emphasises the role of imagination as a practice in the process of construction and maintenance of individual and group identities. It has demonstrated that the object of imagination, here the Imaginary West space, which was constructed and meaningful to ordinary people in the times of the Soviet Union's isolation, can remain actual and important even after more than 20 years since the major political, economic and social changes have been occured. Finally this article encourages for a further exploration and discussion of the role of other everyday practices, which might shed a light on the way people establish both borders and parallels with other communities and on the basis of this experience their sense of belonging in their local contexts.

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153 154 IV Seliverstova, O. (2017) (in print). Consumer Citizenship and Reproduction of Estonian-ness. In In Eds. Polese, A., Morris, J.B., Pawlusz, E.B., Seliverstova, O. The national in everyday life. Identity and nation-building in post-socialist spaces. Routledge. Consumer Citizenship and Reproduction of Estonian-ness1 Oleksandra Seliverstova, Tallinn University and Free University of Brussels (VUB)

In Eds. Polese, A., Morris, J.B., Pawlusz, E.B., Seliverstova, O. The national in everyday life. Identity and nation-building in post-socialist spaces. Routledge.

Abstract. This research is connected to Estonia’s division along ethnic lines. Recent events in Ukraine and Nagorno Karabakh underline the difficulties of the management of multi-ethnic societies, which in some way could be considered a legacy of the Soviet times. According to the official narrative of Estonian identity, being an Estonian is equated to being ethnically Estonian, thus excluding a large community of Russians and other ethnicities there. Using the lens of everyday life practices this chapter contends that in a number of undocumented cases not visible through traditional approaches in the study of national identity, Russian speakers have a more active role than it is generally viewed in the construction of Estonian nationhood. While focusing on the process of national identity formation in Estonia, this paper contributes to literature that views nation-building not only as an exclusively state-driven process, but as one to which different non- state actors contribute. Building theoretically on banal nationalism and consumer citizenship, defined by Foster as a “production of national identity by way of shared consumption practices,” this paper examines how the roles of a citizen and a consumer are interrelated. First by exploring national symbolic meanings embedded into food products and consumption practices the idea of a nation materializes. Secondly, it will be argued that both Russian and Estonian speakers feel they act as Estonian citizens and therefore equally participate in formation of national identity in Estonia.

Keywords: national identity, post-Soviet, consumer citizenship, everyday nationalism

Introduction This work focuses on the context of post-Soviet countries, where apart from complex ethnic composition of newly established states, there was another condition, namely the introduction to market economy and the growth of consumer culture. This introduced new elements into how national identity construction was and is being interpreted and reproduced by the local population. This paper explores the aspect of national identity formation that is still understudied: the construction of national identity originating at the bottom level, where ordinary people play a role.

1This work was supported by the European Commission in the framework of FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN under Grant agreement number: 316825.

157 The aim of this chapter is threefold. Theoretically it aspires to demonstrate that concepts of banal nationalism (Billig, 1995) and consumer citizenship (Foster, 2002), previously mostly applied to Western societies, are pertinent to national identity formation processes in the post-Soviet context. Methodologically it contributes to a still very small body of literature that promotes the more frequent use of political ethnography while addressing major socio-political processes of post- Soviet countries. Empirically, through the case study of food consumer culture in Estonia, it will show how ordinary people enact, renegotiate and express national belonging in everyday life. In particular it focuses on how citizens who identify themselves with groups of different ethnic/language background can all participate in formation of one collective identity.

This study addresses such goals through the case study of the Estonian capital – Tallinn. The case cannot be considered as representative of the Estonian society, it is rather used to illustrate the main argument of this work and to show how a small-scale study can provide additional details to (or in some cases challenge) an understanding of large socio-political processes, traditionally studied by political scientists through top-down approaches. This is done using the interpretative everyday approach (Finlayson et al., 2004; Schwartz-Shea & Yanow, 2012), which only was recently applied to the post-Soviet context (Cheskin, 2012; Knott, 2015; Pawlusz, 2016; Seliverstova, 2016). Such a bottom-up approach implies the focus on the role of ordinary citizens and their everyday practices in the process of formation and renegotiation of a nationhood (Brubaker et al., 2006; Fox and Miller-Idriss, 2008).

The use of Estonia as a case study sheds light on another aspect of post-socialism, which is the presence of Russian speakers in former-Soviet states. Russian speaking population, while being citizens or just residents of former Soviet states other than Russia, very often tend to be perceived as a challenge to the successful formation of national policies and in some cases as a threat to national security (Kuus, 2002; Pryce, 2011). The official Estonian national narrative since 1991 has been built around the idea of ethno-cultural nationalism, giving preference to ethnic Estonian and ignoring a type of collective identity whose elements were and are usually shared by Russian speakers in Estonia. By discovering how both native Estonians and Estonian Russians participate in the everyday consumer culture, this chapter also explores aspects of inter-ethnic dynamics, and how different ethnic/language groups themselves relate to common national category through consumer culture.

In particular, this work analyses how national belonging is experienced in Estonia through the prism of food consumer culture. The interpretation of data, gathered through semi-structured

158 interviews and observation of everyday consumption practices and sites, suggests that consumption itself represents a symbolic stage for the re-negotiation and performance of national belonging. It provides individuals with a variety of symbolic tools: to express their national sentiments; to support/reject official national discourse; and to generate new markers of national identity by embedding new objects and practices with national meanings. Previously I have illustrated the same processes with the help of the case study of Western Ukraine, where consumption related to home appeared to be the most representative of the main argument (Seliverstova, 2016). In the case of Estonia where the data was collected in the same way, food consumption first was identified as the most contested sphere of consumption, as the official narrative of Estonianness is intensively promoted through food products and food habits (Vosu & Kannike, 2012).2 Second, discussions of food consumption were the most vivid and rich parts of interviews conducted in Tallinn. These two predispositions informed my choice to present ideas of this chapter through the prism of food consumption, which here is understood as a cultural practice (Caldwell, 2002; Pechurina, 2015). In order to support theoretically the link between consumption and formation of national identity this study will first refer to works that elaborate the concept of banal nationalism and analyse lived experience of identity through the lens of everyday life. Then it will draw from works that discussed the role of consumer as a citizen: a citizen that contributes to the performativity of a nation through consumption practices (Cronin 2005; Foster 2002). These two strands of literature follow Hobsbawm's (1990) advice to study national communities from both upper and bottom levels. Empirically this chapter is informed by 25 informal semi-structured interviews, conducted in Tallinn in 2014-2015 with representatives of two language groups3 – Estonian and Russian speakers. Snowball sampling was used for finding potential respondents, who could be defined as urban citizens, representatives of either the educated middle class or the lower-middle class, born between 1950-1990. To complement the data derived from interviews, this work relies also on the results of intensive observation of consumption sites, such as markets and supermarkets in Tallinn. The analysis of printed and on-line materials promoting Estonian cuisine and various Estonian food-events which took place in 2014-2015 serves as an additional source of data included in interpretations presented. The rest of this chapter is structured in the following way. First, it presents a short literature overview that serves to frame the results of this research in both the worldwide and in particular post-Soviet debate on national identity formation. The following empirical part reveals what food consumption practices and some food products tell about how belonging to Estonia is expressed and

2 For examples of promotion of national narrative through food products and food practices the web-site of the Estonian Ministry of Rural affairs is illustrative (http://estonianfood.eu/en ) and some other official sources part of Brand Estonia campaign https://www.visitestonia.com/en/why-estonia/introduction-to-estonian-cuisine 3 I prefer not to categorize my respondents according to ethnicity, but to shape my categories according to the natively spoken language as in Estonia Russian speakers are represented by several ethnic groups.

159 re-negotiated. It shows different ways in which Russian speakers, though sometimes differently from the titular group, participate in these processes. The last section is a summary discussion of the advantages of using a bottom-up approach for the study of national identity.

From the worldwide to area literature. The use of a bottom-up approach in research on identity politics and nationalism is not novel (Brubaker et al., 2006; Edensor, 2002; Fox & Miller-Idriss, 2008; Foster, 2002; Skey, 2011). These scholars prompted interested in how ordinary people understand and experience ethnicity, nationality, citizenship in their everyday lives. Michael Billig’s Banal Nationalism (1995) is emblematic. Billig discusses banal aspects of nationalism and in particular analyses the mundane use of national symbols by ordinary citizens, showing that nation is built on a day-to-day basis. For instance, Edensor (2002) and Skey (2011) analysed popular culture, popular discourses and symbolics of physical settings and material objects to reveal how nation is grounded in the everyday realm. The work of Foster (2002) is particularly relevant for this research. Through his study of elements of the mass media and commodity consumption in non-Western contexts Foster showed how different aspects and details of mundane life 'serve to anchor the nation in the everyday life' (Foster, 2002, p. 64). When discussing the idea of ‘consumer citizenship’, Foster refers to it as to the ‘production of national identity by way of shared consumption practices’ (Foster & Özcan, 2005, p.5). These types of studies advocate shifting the dominant focus on the role of political elite and institutions in nationalism studies, suggesting that nation also gets materialised in everyday life, in which ordinary citizens have an active role (Lofgren 1993). With the use of their empirical data they demonstrate that the formation of national identity and how it is experienced is a much more sophisticated and nuanced process, than it appears if studied through traditional top-down approaches.

Post Soviet context In the context of Estonia, issues of nation building, national identity and integration processes were thus-far mostly explored through top-down approaches. In particular, through the lenses of policy making (Linz & Stepan, 1996; Pettai & Kreuzer, 1998; Vetik & Helemäe, 2012), use of language and national symbols (Jacobson, 2002, 2006; Laitin, 1998, Lohmus et al., 2009; Siiner 2006; Vihalemm, 1999), citizenship (Aasland, 2002; Hallik 2006; Smith, 1996; Vetik & Helemäe, 2011), culture (Laitin, 1998, Nimmerfeldt, 2011; Vihalemm & Kalmus, 2009) and ethnic tensions (Ehala, 2009; Melberg et al., 2002; Korts 2009). The most recent results of such studies show that Russian

160 speakers are still considered poorly integrated into Estonian society (for instance, apart from cultural and social segregation, unemployment among Russian speakers remains high, compared to Estonians). However, these works are informed by the official narrative of Estonian nation, which is based on ethno-cultural values of ethnic majority group, and highlights the 'otherness' of Russian speaking community. According to this perspective, the term integration usually has a meaning more similar to assimilation: a complete acceptance of values shared by ethnic Estonians. Learning Estonian, development of loyalty towards Estonia, whitewashing of traces of life under the Soviet Union and rejection of values associated with Russian culture are the minimum 'requirements' for successful integration of Russian speakers (Wulf, 2016). This one-sided account of integration, called by Meike Wulf (2016) Estonianisation, omits acculturation processes happening among Russians and therefore also excludes the possibility of constructing a culturally distinct, but common Estonian-Russian identity.

At the same time in the last decade a growing number of scholars started to show that moving beyond the perspective of official nationalistic discourse while analysing national identity is useful, as it helps to reveal some discrepancies and implicit aspects of the sense of belonging in Estonia (Nimmerfeldt, 2011; Pawlusz, 2016; Wulf, 2016). Such studies demonstrate that the division along ethnic lines prevailing in Estonian official discourse does not always play the decisive role in how national identity is shaped and practiced after 1991. Nimmerfeldt (2011) observes that while measuring the level of integration of Russian speakers it is important to avoid labelling a national identity category as “Estonian”, as Russian speaking informants could almost automatically associate it with Estonian ethnicity and as a result avoid identifying themselves with it. She suggests to rather focus on ‘the formation of attachment to the host country and society’ which can equally reveal the ‘sense of belonging at the national level’ (ibid., p.204). Wulf (2016) through the analysis of collective memory of the past demonstrated that the way Estonian nation is imagined differs among different generations, and accordingly there are also shifts in the perceptions and position of Russian speaking population residing in Estonia. The conclusions informed by the analysis of Estonian home settings of Kannike (2006) also correspond to arguments provided by Wulf (2016). Kannike (2006, 2011) shows how national identity is negotiated through everyday creative practices and finds that whereas the dominating public discourse on proper Estonian-ness regards the recent Soviet past as a period of total rupture, the negation of it in the everyday life is indeed only partial, showing that Estonian society has cognitive and aesthetic continuity. Pawlusz’s (2016) ethnographic study of the national song festival Laulupidu revealed that even festival organisers who act as representatives of the state might shift their views of the Estonian nation and whose own identities depend on context. Such studies, though not engaging in

161 a comparative analysis of how the sense of national belonging is shaped within different ethnic/language groups of Estonia, still suggest that there might be a large variety of identity features, shared by representatives of each group, but existing in parallel and therefore overlapping and even competing with each other.

Another strand of literature that helps to identify the gap that this work aims to address focuses on the role of consumption in the process of national identity formation within a post-Soviet context (Keller, 2004; Klumbyte, 2010; Gurova, 2015; Seliverstova, 2016; Vihalemm & Keller, 2011). However, despite the growing role of consumption in socio-political processes worldwide it remains understudied particularly through the prism of everyday life of an average citizen. Kannike (2006, 2011) analyses material culture and consumer practices related to the home in Estonia to reveal how transformation from Soviet everyday culture into Western consumer culture is conceptualised through ideas about the home and how this process forges formation of new collective identities. The work on how Estonian youth consumers establish symbolic boundaries among different ethnic/language group through consumer culture by Vihalemm and Keller (2011) inspired this research. It explores differences in consumer patterns among Estonian Russians and ethnic Estonians and suggests that some elements of collective ethnic identity are constructed through consumer culture. Kalmus, Keller and Kiisel (2009) focus on consumer types appearing in Estonia, categorising first their respondents according to their age and ethnic identification and then developing a typology of Estonian consumers. Their study shows that despite differences in consumer preferences among different ethnic groups, this difference decreases with age of respondents. In addition, becoming a ‘good’ consumer, according to the ethnic Estonian perspective, can allow Russian speakers to better integrate into Estonian society.

All of these works contribute to the understanding of how Estonians reacted to changes brought about by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, such as introduction of market economy and openness to the Western world. They are informative of how such reactions and adaptation to new conditions affected identity formation processes. However while introducing a very rich empirical data and useful insights about everyday life of transition societies, the above mentioned studies still do not focus fully on the interrelation of two processes - formation of national identity and formation of consumer identity. Coming from disciplines like sociology or anthropology they rarely fully address questions in which political scientists might be interested and which regard connection of those identity formation processes to the major political and economic transformations. The current research takes into consideration the contribution made by the above-mentioned studies, and explores further, through the bottom-up approach, how the sense of national belonging

162 in Estonia is developed or renegotiated through consumer culture. The following section will illustrate how residents of the Estonian capital, where around 40% of population is Russian speaking4, create, negate or re-negotiate non-official national symbols originating in the domain of food consumption.

National Identity at the Dinner Table There is an impressive body of literature that discusses the symbolic power of food. Those who so far have been assigning to food the role of a symbolic tool in the formation processes of individual and collective identities, have demonstrated that such a tool can be used for both expression and creation of identity (Bell & Valentine, 1997; Pechurina, 2015; Wilk, 1999). As a way to express identity, either individual or collective, food offers us a variety of instruments, such as products, dishes and practices connected to them, which we then use as markers of our self-portraits (Barthes, 1967; Douglas, 2002, 2014; Palmer, 1998). At the same time, food conceptualizes the 'us' and the 'them'. Thus from one side it is one of the ways to establish distinctions and group boundaries, and from another it is a type of social 'glue' that brings people together (Goody, 1982). Also food constitutes a universal and easy to understand language or a 'system of signs' through which one can express his/her social position (Levi-Strauss, 1978) or send messages to masses (Barthes, 1967). This feature has always made food a powerful instrument in the hands of political leaders. Historians regularly provide examples of how problems connected to food were among the main reasons for war outbreaks or how they evoked and continue to evoke social, economic and political crises worldwide (Pilcher, 2006). Political elites tend to use food as a tool also in nation-building processes (Caldwell, 2002; Cusack, 2000; Czwiertka, 2006; Gronow, 2003; Wilk, 1999, 2004). Promoting national products, reinventing national cuisines, banning foreign products or ignoring food traditions of ethnic minorities are all examples of how food could be used in nationalism politics. In Estonia food is deeply rooted in the current official national ideology. After the collapse of the Soviet Union when there was a need to re-negotiate or develop a concept of a new national identity, the Estonian government needed to decide what to include and what to exclude in the official narrative of it. Food became one of the sources of cultural material, necessary for construction of a new national discourse. One of the main characteristics of such discourse is a total rupture with the Soviet past, discrediting of the impact of Russian culture and the re-discovery and

4 Information provided in the report Statistics Estonia 2015, available at: http://pub.stat.ee/px-web.2001/Dialog/varval.asp? ma=PO0222&ti=POPULATION+BY+SEX2C+ETHNIC+NATIONALITY+AND+COUNTY %2C+1+JANUARY&path=../I_Databas/Population/01Population_indicators_and_composition/04Population_figur e_and_composition/&lang=1 Last accessed on 20.05.2016

163 return to pre-Soviet roots and traditions of ethnic Estonians. Such ideas are also reflected in modern Estonian cuisine and how Estonian food products and food habits are promoted in official national media sources and incorporated in Estonian nation branding as a Nordic nation (Jourdan, 2013). Although the political elites' ideas on Estonian nation dictate national food ingredients, symbols and practices with which Estonian citizens might associate themselves and through which the imagination of Estonian nation might be facilitated, it is not the only actor that defines how the sense of national belonging is shaped and experienced through the food. Ordinary people, as consumers, also play an important role in embedding food products and practices with symbolic national meanings (Cusack, 2000). In the bottom-up perspective taken in this chapter, Estonian citizens are viewed as those who through their food practices, choices or attitudes contribute to or challenge the creation of common national identity, which can however often deviate from or challenge the official national rhetoric. In the following paragraphs I show how some basic food products and practices associated with them can have different symbolic meanings in different contexts for Estonian citizens with different ethnic/language background. In particular I reveal meanings which could be connected to the sense of national belonging or in other worlds those food products or practices connected to them which could complement national self-portraits of Estonian citizens. The ways people ‘use’ food consumption as an arena for recreation and expression of their national sense of belonging are split into three behavioural categories: denial, acceptance and competition. These categories are not deterministic, but still illustrate some behavioural patterns in relation to the dominant discourse on national identity in Estonia. They are not mutually exclusive, as different consumer practices and preferences of one respondent could apply to different categories depending on the context. For instance, one respondent could express an attitude as refuser in one situation and as acceptor or competitor in another: identity is a fluid process that changes according to the context in which it is being evoked (Brubaker et al., 2006).

Acceptance Different studies have provided analyses of the relations between ethnic Estonians and Estonian Russian speakers since 1991. The majority agree that Estonia has ‘two parallel societies with minimal interaction both in the structural and cultural domains’ (Vetik & Helemäe, 2011, p.15), and that a lot remains to be done in order to make the Estonian society more united and harmonious. However, other literature on everyday life presents more optimistic accounts: on Russian speaker integration and the development of a more inclusive collective identity. Thus Laitin (1998) argued that already at the end of the 1990s Russian speakers showed signs of cultural ‘accommodation’

164 (ibid: 335) for pragmatic reasons. While they might reject the official ethnocentric discourse that they find discriminating, everyday Estonian culture elements are more easily accepted. Consumer culture is one domain of everyday life that offers both tools to establish distinctions and to unite through the sharing of consumer practices (Belk, 1988; Dunn, 2008; Foster, 2002). Basic food products represent the category of products that are consumed regularly and in volume. Moreover in Estonia the majority of basic food products like bread, milk and meat are locally produced, potentially creating material representations of Estonia. Indeed the local food industry very often promotes its products through national symbolics, traditional Estonian-patterned packaging, or puts an accent on traditional recipes used at the stage of production. Thus one can easily visually identify some Estonian products in sites of consumption without even reading the information on their packaging. Accordingly the exposure to variety of such products, their advertising in media space and their actual consumption impacts consumer habits of all those who reside in Estonia and potentially creates a symbolic union of citizens-consumers. One Russian-speaking respondent noticed that with every year the variety of dishes on her family's festive table for New Year's Eve is subtly changing. She acknowledged that their table has more and more common features with ethnic Estonian families, according to her imagination:

National cuisine experiences its boom during Christmas and New Year's holidays, supermarkets are full of these typically Estonian things and they look actually very attractive. So in the end my family and, as I see also my friends' families, starts to consume these products and cook with them some of our festive dishes. Now in Russian homes blood sausage and other kind of sausages for New Year is something more normal than it used to be in the past. (Ekaterina5, 35)

Foster (2002) notes that if people are exposed to the same variety of products and same advertisements it stimulates the development of the sense of belonging and facilitates the imagination of the nation. In my data, while being asked about national cuisine, the majority of my informants would instead of national dishes mention some particular products that they associate with Estonia. Food products, like bread, meat, milk or other dairy products produced in Estonia more often generated feelings like pride or admiration, both among ethnic Estonians and Estonian Russian speakers, than national dishes. This was because national dishes 'classified' as national are ‘not very attractive, too simple, coming from poor peasant past and are not impressive’ (Eva, 65). Some Russian speakers would express even more scepticism and would say that they rarely turn to Estonian cuisine as its

5 In order to provide anonymity to my respondents, all names are pseudonyms.

165 variety is poor compared with Russian or some Western cuisines. However, if one takes some basic products, which are perceived as those that have national characteristics, then Russian speakers would praise them and consume with enthusiasm.

After travelling a lot outside of Estonia, for me Estonia started to be associated with local dairy products. There is a big choice of them, plus they are very fresh and tasty. This is what is purely Estonian for me and what makes me feel proud. (Sergey, 39)

The same respondent earlier confessed that he did not manage to become 'Estonian', meaning cultural assimilation (despite acquiring Estonian citizenship and speaking fluent Estonian) and that there were a lot of mainly political factors that were pushing him away from this process. However, while describing his consumer practices he demonstrates his attachment to Estonia and acknowledges that simple little things can make him feel proud to be from Estonia. This type of pride for things that are produced and consumed daily in Estonia was expressed by other Russian speakers. In particular among such informants there was a strong belief that food products produced in Estonia are special because of their ‘purity, authenticity and high standards of quality’ (Hendrik, 25). Estonians prefer to live in proximity with a wild nature, value rural landscape over urban one and thus the symbolic attachment to nature through food is particularly important for them. The reflection of such recognition of Estonian products could be found also in some official accounts. In Estonian TV show “Kasaetsya vsekh” (Russian language: ‘Concerns Everyone’)6, Estonian minister of Rural Affairs Ivari Padar characterised Estonian products as those that in ‘a sustainable way take the best from local nature, imply a minimum use of chemicals, colorants and additives’. Also during the Expo 2015 in which Estonia was presented in a modern wooden pavilion with a pop-up forest on its roof, food was a central theme. Among slogans present there were those like ‘We do not produce GM foods’ or ‘Up to half of our population can be considered food-gatherers’ (meaning hand-gathering of berries, mushrooms and wild herbs in a traditional way). I believe that this sharing of pride in, and loyalty to local consumer products by ethnic Estonians and Estonian Russian speakers, can be considered as a sign of acceptance by both categories of my respondents of at least some aspects of the way Estonian nation is promoted and supported by official and public discourses. In particular, such acceptance is crucial while analysing national portraits of Estonian Russian speakers, since it points to some positive dynamics in their acculturation and in the same time indicates to some potential controversies in their identities. While in some cases they might not express their loyalty to the Estonian government, for instance,

6 A TV show that appeared in the end of 2015 on a recently launched TV channel ETV+, which is oriented on Russian speaking population of Estonia. The TV show from 10.02.2016 about GM foods in Estonia is available under: http://etvpluss.err.ee/v/ac6bb70f-8cbc-4ba7-8557-fdc0460cd810 .Last accessed on 12.05.2016

166 by not sharing official national symbols, they still associate themselves with some elements of Estonian material and consumer cultures: locally produced dairy products, sausages and candies might not have been endowed with any symbolic meaning at their point of creation, but they become markers of collective identity at the stage of their consumption. These observations, in my view, can be seen as echoing a very powerful argument by Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008): ‘Consumers do not simply buy national commodities; they constitute national sensibilities, embody national pride, negotiate national meanings, thus making nationhood a salient feature of their everyday lives’ (551).

Denial Foods are being re-imagined, repeated and re-invented across the world. Thus the black rye bread which is one of the symbols and is considered to be ‘unique’ in Estonia might be equally ‘unique’ in Latvia, Lithuania or Russia. What is important is not which food belongs to which nation, but a concept which unites a group of people around that food (Bell & Valentine 1997). Some Estonian food products, depending on how they are promoted and what type of packaging and qualities they have, might be more associated with the native Estonians' culture. Usually more sophisticated food products, like Estonian delicatessen or local organic products could fall into such category. Such non-official symbols associated with Estonian ethos might be contested by those Russian speakers who do not accept ‘the reversal of power relations between ethnic Estonians and the Russian speaking population following Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union, and the ensuing citizenship and language politics of the new elites’ (Korts, 2009, p.121). As any symbol, national or ethnic symbols are interpreted differently in different moments by different segments of the nation (Kolstǿ, 2006), because they ‘are inherently multivocal and multivalent’ (Fox & Miller-Idriss, 2008, p.546). Accordingly, experiences of not buying (boycotting) Estonian products among Estonian Russian speakers, which were mentioned in my interviews, could be interpreted as signs of protest against some ideas associated with the ethnic majority or their elite's policies. Such interpretation does not come from explicit answers of my respondents regarding what they do not buy and for which reasons. Indeed their practices of not buying were usually explained by more pragmatic reasons, like ‘those things are unjustifiably overpriced’ (Oksana, 40) or ‘the combination of ingredients seems weird to me’ (Sergey, 39). This is shown by the juxtaposition of consumer practices to talk about identity, the perception of place in Estonian society (themes also addressed in my interviews). Alexey (35) who admired the quality of Estonian chocolate and milk, but was sceptical about Estonian products with a 'Nordic twist' expressed his feelings of belonging to Estonia as follows:

167 Estonia is my country of habitation, to which I am grateful for opportunities it gives me. I love my city, I love my work, I love Estonia's nature, but all this did not become my motherland. I am afraid to acknowledge this, but I do not have any patriotic feelings for Estonia. It is just a useful citizenship for me. The Estonian government does not respect Russians even though we work, live and raise our children here. This humiliates people like me, our identity, our honour and because of this we cannot share so many things with Estonians. We cannot be fond of their festivals, traditional costumes and flags...

Among the concepts that are materialized through particular products, there are those that promote a relatively new framework of Estonian nation as a Nordic one. Since the late 1990s Estonian political elite started to develop the image of Estonia as a Nordic state, which would re- frame collective identification in Estonia and reposition the country in the eyes of international community, as a country which is a part of Northern Europe and not of the Soviet bloc (Jourdan, 2013). As Pryce (2011) states ‘the Nordicization of Estonia seems to be more a rejection of Russian cultural influences exerted upon the country’ and rather emphasizes Estonian connection to Scandinavian countries, in particular Finland. However, the discourse of Nordic state is present mainly in official speeches and as a rhetoric of the Brand Estonia campaign (ibid). Identity markers that are provided by this framework still did not find major support among Estonian population.

The state tries to promote this idea of Nordic cuisine as a local Estonian, but it differs from the everyday reality because in everyday life people did not and cannot change their habits from one day to another. There are many discrepancies between what they impose and what we have. For instance, Estonians cannot get proper fish, affordable and local. So how can they promote it as a main ingredient [meaning the ingredient of modern Estonian Nordic cuisine]?! I do not know, probably it will take time. (Kadri, 40 Specialist in food sector analytics)

Still, ethnic Estonians have much more grounds to associate themselves and accept ideas of Nordicization than Estonian Russian speaking population. The materialisation of Nordicness, which partially happens through the creation of modern Estonian cuisine gets promoted in particular through the network of modern Estonian restaurants. Among my informants, only a few ethnic Estonians, who were young professionals working in international companies, mentioned their experience of visiting such kind of places. All other respondents either did not know about them or considered them too expensive. Among Russian speakers there were those who expressed the idea

168 that restaurants with modern Estonian cuisine were invented by Estonian elite specifically to please themselves and draw another line between them and other ‘normal’ people. The patterns of denial through food consumption practices were not demonstrated only by Russian speakers. According to my data, ethnic Estonians defined the borders of their identity through the denial of consumption practices, associated with the 'other' group, even more often than Russian speakers did. Asking questions about where people buy their groceries and what they look for when selecting products I tried to understand whether in some cases it was a place of consumption and not commodities which could appear as an identity marker. In the interviews with some ethnic Estonians such questions evoked a series of stereotypes. Though stereotypes are extremely over-generalising and subjective, one cannot negate their potential impact on the relationship of two opposite groups, using those stereotypes against each other (Elias & Scotson, 1994). Here I would like to provide several examples of how stereotypes might impact consumer practices, which in the end establish or visualise boundaries of a collective identity.

When I am choosing things for myself or my family, sometimes I rely on judgment: “You cannot buy it, it looks Russian”. It is a sort of criteria for describing or evaluating things. Like it is not acceptable for myself. (Gerli, 39)

Maxima supermarket also as some markets in Tallinn, namely Keskturg and Baltijaam turg, have a cliché of being sites of consumption for Russian speaking population.

I go to Comarket, Rimi or Stockman if I need something special. Maxima?! No, we actually call it Mahima, as Russians sometimes pronounce it and we make fun of it. So about this stereotypical connotation about Russian supermarket, a little bit yes, but not too much. (Kerli, 31)

One Russian speaker also confirmed such stereotype by sharing her experience as a consumer and provided an opinion of her Estonian colleague.

I go to Prisma or Rimi, because they are the closest ones. Maxima is a cheap brand, the quality is low and service is not good. Once my colleague said: “I am Estonian, I do not go to Maxima, how could I?!”... and still one can see Estonians there because of low prices. (Oksana, 42)

One of my respondents complained about the 'plastic' quality of fruits and berries in the

169 supermarkets even in the summer season and while her house was situated just in front of the Keskturg – an open air market in the city centre of Tallinn – she never went there. When I came to our interview with a basket of fresh blueberries, just bought at that market she was very surprised that I went there:

Which market?! Oh this one...I see, I actually never went there, it is such a Russian place and I am a little bit scared to go there. I heard that actually people are friendly there, but still something prevents me from going there. (Eva, 31)

The Viimsiturg and Nommeturg markets, on the contrary have a cliché of being ‘expensive Estonian markets’, however when I visited Nommeturg several times during the winter in 2015, I noticed differences mainly in their look and structure (if compared to Baltijaam turg and Keskturg), but not that much in the variety of products sold.

I think Estonian market goers are a bit snobbish and I suppose none goes to the Russian market! There are Estonian markets which are cleaner, nicer and more expensive, snobbish people go there. The market does not mean organic, for organic there are other systems to buy. It is just for local food, not from Spain or whatever. (Gerli, 39)

In such a context, denial does not mean only boycotting some products, it is rather a denial of the concept that stands behind those products. By saying 'no' to some products or services consumers communicate their desire of not being associated with another culture whose representatives would in their imagination choose to acquire those things. A choice of not consuming is a protest against the undesired model of society or undesired culture with which people do not want to be associated (Douglas & Isherwood, 1996). As discussed here, denial is not only about the protest, but it also represents an area where through consumption or non-consumption one can see the expression of fear. A fear of being associated with and dominated by the 'other' group. Ethnic Estonians might deny some consumer practices or products, which they associate with Russian and Soviet cultures, as part of a general fear of being again dominated by Russian culture and power. This fear might be conscious or subconscious, but it continues to nourish stereotypes about Russians speakers and defines some practices of ethnic Estonians and in some cases also of Russian speakers willing to assimilate.

Competition

170 supermarkets even in the summer season and while her house was situated just in front of the Keskturg – an open air market in the city centre of Tallinn – she never went there. When I came to our interview with a basket of fresh blueberries, just bought at that market she was very surprised that I went there:

Which market?! Oh this one...I see, I actually never went there, it is such a Russian place and I am a little bit scared to go there. I heard that actually people are friendly there, but still something prevents me from going there. (Eva, 31)

The Viimsiturg and Nommeturg markets, on the contrary have a cliché of being ‘expensive Estonian markets’, however when I visited Nommeturg several times during the winter in 2015, I noticed differences mainly in their look and structure (if compared to Baltijaam turg and Keskturg), but not that much in the variety of products sold.

I think Estonian market goers are a bit snobbish and I suppose none goes to the Russian market! There are Estonian markets which are cleaner, nicer and more expensive, snobbish people go there. The market does not mean organic, for organic there are other systems to buy. It is just for local food, not from Spain or whatever. (Gerli, 39)

In such a context, denial does not mean only boycotting some products, it is rather a denial of the concept that stands behind those products. By saying 'no' to some products or services consumers communicate their desire of not being associated with another culture whose representatives would in their imagination choose to acquire those things. A choice of not consuming is a protest against the undesired model of society or undesired culture with which people do not want to be associated (Douglas & Isherwood, 1996). As discussed here, denial is not only about the protest, but it also represents an area where through consumption or non-consumption one can see the expression of fear. A fear of being associated with and dominated by the 'other' group. Ethnic Estonians might deny some consumer practices or products, which they associate with Russian and Soviet cultures, as part of a general fear of being again dominated by Russian culture and power. This fear might be conscious or subconscious, but it continues to nourish stereotypes about Russians speakers and defines some practices of ethnic Estonians and in some cases also of Russian speakers willing to assimilate.

Competition

The denial discussed above can take also the form of competition. Ethnic Estonians and Estonian Russian speakers might have different consumer habits, they might buy different things, shop in different places and even attach different symbolic meanings to their practices, but they still act first of all as Estonian citizens. As a result, one can see a sort of competition in Estonianness with an idea of being 'Estonian' being interpreted in different ways but supported by both groups. Russian speakers who acknowledge and keep their belonging to Russian culture might be including their Russian features into the national identity of Estonia through their everyday practices. Russians also use a richer variety of references for construction of their collective identity (Masso, 2010) and are more open for cosmopolitan values than Estonians, favouring a more inclusive, multicultural type of national identity (Toots & Idnurm, 2012). The evidence from the festive tables of some Russian-speaking families, whose members considered themselves as successfully integrated members of Estonian society, continues to display many traditions from Soviet times. One can observe a cultural continuity (Kannike, 2006). There is no evidence of rupture with Soviet times, as is demanded by the official discourse of Estonian identity, which views the Soviet period as a period of colonisation and occupation that should not leave any traces in the minds of modern Estonians (Wulf, 2016). People continue to make Oliv'ye7 and Vinegret (typical salads prepared for New Year's Eve), which became popular during the Soviet times, and consider those dishes as elements of Estonian culture.

Soviet New Year's traditions do live in our family, but we do not perceive them as Soviet anymore. Currently they continue to be practiced widely used, even by young generations who mix them with elements of other cultures. I believe that if we live in Estonia and practice them, then they are current Estonian traditions. It is kind of natural continuation of traditions and nobody is against it, even Estonians, I believe, in the end they do the same. (Andrey, 40)

One of my young Estonian speaking respondents Eva also told me about her family cooking traditions during Christmas and New Year's holidays. She started with a description of Kartulisalat:

Our potato salad is special, it is so tasty. It is not like a German one, where you have just potatoes, mayonnaise and onions. In Estonian potato salad every ingredient is cut into cubes, and it has pickles, ham, carrots, peas, eggs and of course potatoes. We usually have it for Christmas, New Year or any other special occasion. Even though it is just a salad, it is very 7 A salad invented in by a French chef Lucien Olivier around 1860, while he was working in one of the restaurants of the Russian Empire. In many countries outside of the former Soviet Union, this salad is commonly referred to as Russian salad. During the Soviet times Oliv'ye has become very popular among ordinary people, in particular it is considered to be an indispensable dish for the New Year's festive table.

171 central in Estonian cuisine. Then we have another potato salad, which is more like Russian style, because it has beetroot [talking about Vinegret].

Though Eva's description of Estonian traditional potato salad completely corresponded to the traditional recipe of Russian Oliv'ye, she was completely unaware that it might be also a dish which is typical of Russian culture. Moreover, both her family and a family of a Russian-speaking respondent mentioned the same type of salad as a traditional central element present at their festive tables during the same type of holiday. Accordingly, both respondents believed that their version of salad represented an indispensable part of Estonian culture and both were talking about the same dish. At the same time, despite official accounts of the Estonian nation as based on the values of ethnic Estonians and a considerable amount of previous studies display acceptance of such discourse by ethnic Estonians, not only Russian speakers adopt a more multicultural perspective on collective identity in Estonia.

Sometimes Russians are more anti-Russians than Estonians. Me and my friends we fancy these old cafés from Soviet times with very simple interiors, or even Armenian or Georgian taverns with their 1990s' Russian pop music. Russians of my age would find such places kitschy and something to avoid, but I think they are those places which make Estonia look much less ethnocentric. (Eva, 31)

In everyday life there are myriad examples where people mix different cultures and refer to this mix when constructing their self-portraits. The desire to maintain and establish links with both Russian and Estonian culture sometimes creates new markers of identity which represent a mix of two cultures. One of my respondents identified herself as someone who stays in 'between-ness', talking about her sense of national belonging.

My parents are Russians, but culturewise I am more into Estonian culture than Russian. At the same time Russian culture is still important to me, I am kind of mediating between two of them. (Anna, 35)

Also, when listening to her experience of cooking and sharing of food with her guests, one could possibly observe how she was mediating between two cultures, including elements of both of them and incorporating also some exotic or cosmopolitan cuisine trends. Patterns of competition of what is Estonian-ness produce most of non-official markers of

172 collective identity. As Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008) note ‘people are not just consumers of national meanings; they are simultaneously their contingent producers.’ (p.546). Insights on everyday life show that in reality people share a large number of things together, as a German historian Meike Wulf (2016) also observed ‘many aspects of identities of Russian speakers and Estonians are overlapping and competing with each other’ (p.170). What they lack is rather the ability to recognise that they have something in common with each other.

Conclusions This chapter provided empirical evidence of the connection of consumer culture to the process of national identity formation. National identity that traditionally is studied through top-down approaches, focusing on the role of political elites, here is approached from the perspective of everyday life. Ordinary citizens are not only important actors in terms of how national discourse is interpreted, accepted or contested, but also as producers of the nation. Through the exploration of symbolic meanings of food products and food consumption practices this study showed how ordinary urban citizens of a relatively recently (re)born nation participate in the construction of their national self-portraits. The behavioural patterns of acceptance, denial and competition of symbolic meanings of food are understood as acceptance, denial and competition of different national or ethnic concepts, which are attached to particular food products or food consumption practices. Food consumption, as an indispensable part of everyday life, has been presented first as a field for practice and support of a rather exclusive narrative of Estonian nationhood, then as a field for expression of protest against this narrative and a fear of cultural and political domination and finally as a field in which people's choices shape from the bottom level a less mono-culturally based and more shared type of national identity. This study contributes to the body of literature that uses a bottom-up approach for exploring identity politics issues, which however remains thin particularly in the post-Soviet context. Such an approach is useful when trying to understand how often taken-for-granted notions of ethnicity, nationality and citizenship, are interpreted and experienced at the level of mundane life. The insights on everyday use of such concepts show discrepancies which exist between official discourses and what people perceive and experience in their daily life. In the post-Soviet area, where there is still a legacy of distrust towards official discourses and official instruments of inquiry about national surveys (Knott, 2013) everyday practices and material objects represent a much more nuanced and sophisticated source for learning of how people construct their collective identities. As Foster (2002) argues everyday consumption practices serve to ‘anchor the nation’, to move the concept of nation from the ideological to the tangible.

173 In particular thorough the case study presented here, I suggest that there exists a multitude of ways to shape and express a common identity category. While ethnic Estonians are considered to have greater national capital than Estonian Russian speakers, when defining which elements are to be included in their national identity, both groups participate in the creation of new identity markers and perceive their behaviour as that of Estonian citizens. However, because of different factors representatives of each group fail to recognise that they have already a large amount of identity markers that are overlapping. This failure of recognition of similarities and lack of openness to a more multicultural view of the nation, in particular from the ethnic Estonians, is one of the factors that possibly slows down of the formation of a national identity in Estonia.

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177 SUMMARY/KOKKUVÕTE

Tarbijakultuuri osa postsovetlikus piirkonnas rahvusidentiteedi kujundamisel. Tõendusmaterjal Eesti ja Ukraina näidetel

Alates sõjalise konflikti puhkemisest Donbassis (Ida-Ukraina) ja Krimmi Autonoomse Vabariigi annekteerimisest Venemaa Föderatsiooni poolt / Krimmi Autonoomse Vabariigi liitmisest Venemaa Föderatsiooni territooriumiga, käsitletakse uues valguses vene keelt kõneleva elanikkonna osa endistes Nõukogude Liidu riikides, välja arvatud Venemaa. Võttes arvesse eespool mainitud sündmusi, täheldab osa teadlasi ja eksperte Ukraina natsionalismi arengus uut suunda ning on mures rahvusliku ühtekuuluvuse pärast teistes endistes Nõukogude Liidu riikides, eriti Eestiga sarnastes riikides, kellel on Vene Föderatsiooniga ühine piir ja suur vene keelt kõnelev elanikkond. Väitekirjas on uuenenud tähelepanu all etniliste või keeleliste vähemusrühmade kohandumine/kohanemine rahvuslike kogukondade konstrueerimisel, eesmärgiga anda parem ettekujutus jätkuvalt alauuritud rahvusluse argitasandist. Senine teadustöö rahvusriiklusest postsovetlikus kontekstis keskendus peamiselt poliitiliste institutsioonide rollile rahvuse kujundamisel ning natsionalismi konkreetsetest vormidest rahva rahutustele ja konfliktidele. Tunnistades riigi osa rahvusliku identiteedi kujundamisel, uuritakse käesolevas väitekirjas, kuidas rahvuse mõiste kujuneb ning on kogetud tavainimese tasandil, seega kohaldatakse ebatraditsioonilist alt üles lähenemisviisi. Selleks vaadeldakse argitarbimise näitel rahvusliku identiteedi kujundamist kahes endises Nõukogude Liidu riigis - Ukrainas ja Eestis. Tarbijakultuuri käsitletakse osana igapäevaelust, kus inimesed vaatavad uuesti läbi või loovad uusi rahvusriiklusega seotud tähendusi. Seega on tarbijakultuur käesolevas uurimuses objektiiviks, mille kaudu uurida tähendust loovaid ja uuendavaid protsesse, kus osalevad peamiselt tavainimesed. Tarbimist analüüsitakse kui rahvuslikku eneseteadvust peegeldavat sümboolset valdkonda, mis annab rahvusliku kuuluvuse uued võimalikud tunnused. Seega püstitab väitekiri ühe laia probleemina tarbijakultuuri osa postsovetlikus regioonis rahvusliku identiteedi kujundamisel ning mida me võime tarbijakultuuri näitel rahvuse kohta teada saada. Et väitekirjaks koguti andmeid kahest mitmerahvuselisest ühiskonnast, kus etniliste / keeleliste vähemusrühmade kohandumine on suhteliselt lahendamata küsimus, küsitakse väitekirjas täpsemalt, kuidas erinevad etnilised / keelelised vähemusrühmad suhtestuvad tarbijakultuuri kaudu ühtse riigi mõistega. Eeskätt käsitletakse väitekirjas teistes postsovetlikes riikides kui Venemaa elavate vene keelt kõnelevate isikute osa rahvusliku identiteedi kujundamisel. Kodanikele nende rahvusliku identiteedi kujundamisel ja kinnistamisel aktiivse rolli omistamisest tehakse väitekirjas kaks põhijäreldust: esmalt näidatakse, et uurimus seni vähe uuritud valdkonnas nagu postsovetlik rahvusriiklus argitähenduses, võib jälgida ning seletada mõningaid olulisi nihkeid traditsioonilistes rahvusliku

178 identiteedi arengutes, mis on jäänud seletuseta suuresti eliidi ideoloogiatele ja poliitilisele tegevusele keskendunud traditsioonilistes rahvusluse uuringutes. Teiseks järeldub intervjuudest Eesti ja Ukraina vene keelt kõnelevate isikutega ja kohalikku keelt emakeelena kõnelevate isikutega, et rahvusega samastumine on võimalik isegi juhtudel, kui inimesed jagavad vaid osaliselt või ei jaga üldse asjaomase riigi ametlikke narratiive ega sümboleid. Täheldati, et sellistel juhtudel võivad inimesed leida uut rahvuslikku tähendust argikultuurist ja luua alternatiivseid identiteedi tunnuseid, mis aitavad neil ühineda rahvusringkonnaga sellel territooriumil, kus nad elavad. Uurimuses kasutatakse kvalitatiivset interpretivistlikku meetodit. Interpretivistlik- kvalitatiivne meetod annab teadlasele töövahendid mõistmaks, kuidas inimesed tegutsedes ja vastastikku toimides konstrueerivad ja rekonstrueerivad koos tähendust, ning kuidas ootamatud sündmused ja sagedamini argirutiin loovad tähendust, mida jagavad suured inimkooslused (Charmaz 1996, lk XIII). Niisuguse meetodi kasutamine võimaldas tuvastada, et seni enesestmõistetavaks peetud sotsiaalsete mõistete, näiteks rahvas ja rahvus, tähendus ja väärtus inimesiti erinevad. Kokku kasutati 63 intervjuud ning käesoleva uurimuse kontekstist teavitamiseks täiendavaid vahendeid, nagu osalejate vaatlus ja meedia analüüs. Metoodika valiti hoolikalt, näitamaks, kuidas inimesed tajuvad rahvuse mõistet ja seda, et teatud juhtudel inimesed mitte üksnes ei nõustu / lükka tagasi poliitilise eliidi ametlikes diskursustes levitatavaid juhiseid rahvuse tunnuste kohta, vaid ka loovad alternatiivseid tunnuseid, mida nad peavad vastuvõetavamateks ja mis esindavad seda, kuidas nemad tahavad, et neid rahvuskogukonnana nähakse. Väitekiri koosneb sissejuhatavast peatükist uurimistöö teoreetilise raamistiku ja metoodikaga ning neljast teaduslikust artiklist. Neli käesolevasse väitekirja hõlmatud teaduspublikatsiooni vastavad püstitatud uurimisküsimustele ja näitavad postsovetlikus kontekstis uusi perspektiive rahvusliku identiteedi kujundamisel. Esimene artikkel on metoodiline. Kasutades kahe juhtumiuuringu empiirilisi andmeid - tarbimise ja rahvusliku identiteedi kohta Ukrainas, ning muusika ja riikluse ehitamise kohta Eestis – teavitatakse lugejaid andmete tõlgendamise protsessi võimalikult mõjutavatest teguritest, nagu uurija identiteet, intervjuude füüsilised parameetrid ja uurimistegevuse üldine kontekst. Teema sisulisest käsitlusest nähtuvad erinevused rahvusliku identiteedi poliitilise ja argiala vahel, kus rahvusliku identiteedi tähendust ei ole kunagi fikseeritud ega ühesuguselt kogetud. Teises artiklis tutvustatakse esimese artikli tulemusi Lvovis (Ukraina) kogutud empiirika põhjal, luues teoreetilisi seoseid mõistete vahel nagu banaalne natsionalism ja tarbija kodakondsus. Artiklis näidatakse, kuidas argitarbimine kujundab rahvuslikku identiteeti ja arutelu venekeelse elanikkonna osast Ukraina ühiskonnas. Eeskätt selgitatakse artiklis, kuidas venekeelne elanikkond, ja käesoleval juhul ukrainakeelne elanikkond, seostavad endid ühise mõistega, mille definitsioon hõlmab materiaalse ja tarbijakultuuri kaudu kujunenud rahvustermineid. Artikli tulemused näitavad, et erinevused ametlike rahvustunnuste

179 vastuvõetavuse astmes ja mitteametlike tunnuste kasutamises viitavad pigem erinevustele meetodites, mis on rohkem vastuvõetavad gruppidele, mille liikmed seostavad endid ühtse rahvusmõistega. Kui teises artiklis tuuakse näiteid selle kohta, kuidas tavainimene rahvuslikku identiteeti tõlgendab, praktiseerib ja kujundab, kirjeldades konkreetseid argitegevusi, mis aitavad samuti rahvuse mõistet avada, siis kolmas artikkel selgitab mainitud tegevuste tausta. Eeskätt rahvuse kujutamist, teise kujutamist ja materiaalseid objekte, mis võimaldavad selliste kujundite teket, seejärel püsimist ja viimaks nende muutumist kollektiivseks nähtuseks. Selgitatakse kujutamise materiaalset tõendusmaterjali, mis nähtub lihtsas tavategevuses, nagu kodukaunistamine, muusika kuulamine ning rõivaste hankimine ja kandmine. Ukrainas peamiselt pärast Nõukogude Liidu lagunemist kasvanud koduloomise traditsioonide juhtumi valguses näidatakse artiklis, kuidas ettekujutus teisest või teise elust ja nende jäljendamine (käesoleval juhul ettekujutus läänest ning elust lääneriikides ja nende jäljendamine) lõpuks mõjutab inimeste mina kujundit. Selliste protsesside tulemusena luuakse teatud kohaliku grupiidentiteedi tunnused, mis hiljem muutuvad mitteametlikeks allikateks Ukraina praeguse rahvusliku identiteedi kohta. Seonduvalt keskendub viimane artikkel endid erineva etnilise/keeletaustaga gruppidega samastavate kodanike võimalikule osalemisele ühe kollektiivse identiteedi kujundamisel. Artiklis näidatakse eeskätt venekeelse elanikkonna osa eesti rahvuse konstrueerimisel. Artiklis ei kasutata Eesti identiteeti käsitlevates uurimustes loodud traditsioonilist kujutist venekeelse elanikkonna rollist, mis kujutab venekeelset elanikkonda sageli teisena, kelle vastu Eesti riigi identiteeti kujundatakse. Vastupidiselt näidatakse artiklis, kuidas venekeelne elanikkond aitab rahvust kujundada ja seob ennast Eestiga. Kui eestlased saavad rõhutada oma rahvusliku identiteedi etnokultuurilist olemust, siis venekeelne elanikkond, tunnistades ja säilitades oma kuuluvust vene kultuuri ja tundes end samaaegselt osana Eesti ühiskonnast, loob uusi identiteedi tunnuseid. Nemad suurendavad Eesti rahvaga seotud erinevate mitteametlike sümbolite paljusust, Uurides Eesti toidu ja toidutavade sümboolset tähendust näidatakse artiklis, kuidas rahvas materialiseerub ja muutub avatumaks rühmale, mis tavapäraselt Eesti traditsioonilisest narratiivist puudub.

180 ELULOOKIRJELDUS

Nimi Oleksandra Seliverstova Sünniaeg ja -koht 13.06.1984, Kiiev, Ukraina Kodakondsus Itaalia

Hariduskäik Alates 2013 Tallinna Ülikool ja Brüsseli Vaba Ülikool (VUB), doktorantuur riigi- ja poliitikateadustes 2006–2008 Berliini Vaba Ülikool, MA Ida-Euroopa õpingutes 2001–2005 Rahvusvaheline Kristlik Ülikool Kiievis, BA ärijuhtimises 1991–2001 Kiievi Keskkool nr 25

Teenistuskäik 2015 ODB Brussels, praktika projekti juhi assistendina 2010–2012 Dublini Linna Ülikool (DCU), teadusassistent 2005–2006 Teoloogia ja Vabade Kunstide Instituut Odessas, õppeassistent

Uurimisvaldkonnad Igapäeva rahvuslus postsovetlikes maades, mitmerahvuselised ühiskonnad, tarbijakultuuri osa rahvuslikes liikumistes ja rahvusidentiteedi kujundamisel.

Erialane tegevus Retsensent ajakirjadele Nationalities Papers, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Europe-Asia Studies

Erialaühendused Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) SOYUZ, The Post-Communist Cultural Studies Interest Group

Erialane täienduskoolitus 2014 Kursus ''Capitalism and Everyday Life: Understanding the Social Dimensions of the Growth Imperative'', Arengu ja Keskkonnakeskus, Oslo (Norra) 2014 Erialane koolitus ''Changing Europe-Changing Migration. Europe on the World on the Move'', Migratsiooni ja kultuuridevaheliste uuringute keskus, Antwerpen (Belgia) 2008 Koolitus rassismi, ksenofoobia ja inimõiguste alal, NGO “SVIT- UKRAINE”, Harkov (Ukraina)

181 CURRICULUM VITAE

Name Oleksandra Seliverstova Date and place of birth 13.06.1984, Kiev, Ukraine Citizenship Italian Education Since 2013 Tallinn University together with Free University of Brussels (VUB), PhD student in Political Science 2006–2008 Free Univeristy of Berlin, MA in Eastern European Studies 2001–2005 International Christian University-Kiev, BA in Business Administration 1991–2001 Primary and secondary school #25 of Kiev

Professional experience 2015 Office for Democratic Belarus (Belgium), project manager assistant (internship) 2010–2012 Dublin City University, School of Law and Government (Ireland), research assistant (part-time) Project: Conflict and Governance in the former USSR (Dr D. O' Beachain) 2005–2006 Institute of Theology and Liberal Arts, Odessa (Ukraine), teaching assistant

Scientific interests Everyday nationalism in post-Soviet countries, multiethnic societies, role of consumer culture in nationalistic movements and formation of national identity

Professional service Book reviewer for Nationalities Papers, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Europe-Asia Studies

Professional associations Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) SOYUZ, The Post-Communist Cultural Studies Interest Group

Professional training 2014 Course on ''Capitalism and Everyday Life: Understanding the Social Dimensions of the Growth Imperative'', Centre for Development and the Environment, Oslo (Norway) 2014 Professional training on ''Changing Europe-Changing Migration. Europe on the World on the Move'', Centre for Migration and Intercultural Studies, Antwerp (Belgium) 2008 Training on racism, xenophobia and human rights, NGO “SVIT- UKRAINE”, Kharkiv (Ukraine)

182 TALLINNA ÜLIKOOL SOTSIAALTEADUSTE DISSERTATSIOONID TALLINN UNIVERSITY DISSERTATIONS ON SOCIAL SCIENCES

1. MARE LEINO. Sotsiaalsed probleemid koolis ja õpetaja toimetulek. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 1. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2002. 125 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-227-6. 2. MAARIS RAUDSEPP. Loodussäästlikkus kui regulatiivne idee: sotsiaal- psühholoogiline analüüs. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 2. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2002. 162 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985- 58-231-4. 3. EDA HEINLA. Lapse loova mõtlemise seosed sotsiaalsete ja käitumisteguritega. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 3. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2002. 150 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-240-3. 4. KURMO KONSA. Eestikeelsete trükiste seisundi uuring. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 4. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2003. 122 lk. ISSN 1406- 4405. ISBN 9985-58-245-2. 5. VELLO PAATSI. Eesti talurahva loodusteadusliku maailmapildi kujunemine rahvakooli kaudu (1803–1918). Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 5. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2003. 206 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985- 58-247-0. 6. KATRIN PAADAM. Constructing Residence as Home: Homeowners and Their Housing Histories. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 6. Tallinn: TPU Press, 2003. 322 p. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-268-3. 7. HELI TOOMAN. Teenindusühiskond, teeninduskultuur ja klienditeenindusõppe kontseptuaalsed lähtekohad. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 7. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2003. 368 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985- 58-287-X. 8. KATRIN NIGLAS. The Combined Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Educational Research. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 8. Tallinn: TPU Press, 2004. 200 p. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-298-5. 9. INNA JÄRVA. Põlvkondlikud muutused Eestimaa vene perekondade kasvatuses: sotsiokultuuriline käsitus. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 9. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2004. 202 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-311-6. 10. MONIKA PULLERITS. Muusikaline draama algõpetuses – kontseptsioon ja rakendusvõimalusi lähtuvalt C. Orffi süsteemist. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 10. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2004. 156 lk. ISSN 1406- 4405. ISBN 9985-58-309-4. 11. MARJU MEDAR. Ida-Virumaa ja Pärnumaa elanike toimetulek: sotsiaalteenuste vajadus, kasutamine ja korraldus. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 11. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2004. 218 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985- 58-320-5.

183 12. KRISTA LOOGMA. The Meaning of Learning at Work in Adaptation to Work Changes. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 12. Tallinn: TPU Press, 2004. 238 p. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-326-4. 13. МАЙЯ МУЛДМА. Феномен музыки в формировании диалога культур (сопоставительный анализ мнений учителей музыки школ с эстонским и русским языком обучения). Таллиннский педагогический университет. Диссертации по социальным наукам, 13. Таллинн: Изд-во ТПУ, 2004. 209 c. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-330-2. 14. EHA RÜÜTEL. Sociocultural Context of Body Dissatisfaction and Possibilities of Vibroacoustic Therapy in Diminishing Body Dissatisfaction. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 14. Tallinn: TPU Press, 2004. 91 p. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-352-3. 15. ENDEL PÕDER. Role of Attention in Visual Information Processing. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 15. Tallinn: TPU Press, 2004. 88 p. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-356-6. 16. MARE MÜÜRSEPP. Lapse tähendus eesti kultuuris 20. sajandil: kasvatusteadus ja lastekirjandus. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 16. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2005. 258 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-366-3. 17. АЛЕКСАНДР ВЕЙНГОЛЬД. Прагмадиалектика шахматной игры: основные особенности соотношения формально- и информально-логических эвристик аргументационного дискурса в шахматах. Таллиннский педагогический университет. Диссертации по социальным наукам, 17. Таллинн: Изд-во ТПУ 2005. 74 c. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-372-8. 18. OVE SANDER. Jutlus kui argumentatiivne diskursus: informaal-loogiline aspekt. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 18. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2005. 110 lk. ISSN 1406-4405. ISBN 9985-58-377-9. 19. ANNE UUSEN. Põhikooli I ja II astme õpilaste kirjutamisoskus. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 19. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2006. 193 lk. ISSN 1736- 3632. ISBN 9985-58-423-6. 20. LEIF KALEV. Multiple and European Union Citizenship as Challenges to Estonian Citizenship Policies. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 20. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 164 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN-10 9985-58-436-8. ISBN- 13 978-9985-58-436-1. 21. LAURI LEPPIK. Eesti pensionisüsteemi transformatsioon: poliitika valikud ja tulemid. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 21. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2006. 155 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-440-8. ISBN 9985-58-440-6. 22. VERONIKA NAGEL. Hariduspoliitika ja üldhariduskorraldus Eestis aastatel 1940– 1991. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 22. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2006. 205 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-448-4. ISBN 9985-58-448-1. 23. LIIVIA ANION. Läbipõlemissümptomite ja politseikultuurielementide vastastikustest mõjudest. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 23. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2006. 229 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-453-8. ISBN 9985-58-453-8. 24. INGA MUTSO. Erikooliõpilaste võimalustest jätkuõppeks Eesti Vabariigi kutseõppeasutustes. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 24. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2006. 179 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-451-4. ISBN 9985-58-451-1.

184 25. EVE EISENSCHMIDT. Kutseaasta kui algaja õpetaja toetusprogrammi rakendamine Eestis. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 25. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2006. 185 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-462-0. ISBN 9985-58-462-7. 26. TUULI ODER. Võõrkeeleõpetaja professionaalsuse kaasaegne mudel. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 26. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 194 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-465-1. 27. KRISTINA NUGIN. 3-6-aastaste laste intellektuaalne areng erinevates kasvukeskkondades WPPSI-r testi alusel. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 27. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 156 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978- 9985-58-473-6. 28. TIINA SELKE. Suundumusi eesti üldhariduskooli muusikakasvatuses 20. sajandi II poolel ja 21. sajandi alguses. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 28. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 198 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-486-6. 29. SIGNE DOBELNIECE. Kodutus Lätis: põhjused ja lahendused. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 29. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 127 lk. ISSN 1736- 3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-440-8. 30. BORISS BAZANOV. Tehnika ja taktika integratiivne käsitlus korvpalli õpi- treeningprotsessis. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 30. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 95 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-496-5. 31. MARGE UNT. Transition from School-to-work in Enlarged Europe. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 31. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 186 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-504-7. 32. MARI KARM. Eesti täiskasvanukoolitajate professionaalsuse kujunemise võimalused. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 32. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 232 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-511-5. 33. KATRIN POOM-VALICKIS. Novice Teachers’ Professional Development Across Their Induction Year. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 33. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 203 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-535-1. 34. TARMO SALUMAA. Representatsioonid organisatsioonikultuuridest Eesti kooli pedagoogidel muutumisprotsessis. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 34. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2007. 155 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-533-7. 35. AGU UUDELEPP. Propagandainstrumendid poliitilistes ja poliitikavälistes telereklaamides. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 35. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2008. 132 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-502-3. 36. PILVI KULA. Õpilaste vasakukäelisusest tulenevad toimetuleku iseärasused koolis. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 36. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2008. 186 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-578-8. 37. LIINA VAHTER. Subjective Complaints in Different Neurological Diseases – Correlations to the Neuropsychological Problems and Implications for the Everyday Life. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 37. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2009. 100 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-660-0. 38. HELLE NOORVÄLI. Praktika arendamine kutsehariduses. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 38. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2009. 232 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-664-8.

185 39. BIRGIT VILGATS. Välise kvaliteedihindamise mõju ülikoolile: Eesti kogemuse analüüs. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 39. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2009. 131 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 987-9985-58-676-1. 40. TIIU TAMMEMÄE. Kahe- ja kolmeaastaste eesti laste kõne arengu tase Reynelli ja HYKS testi põhjal ning selle seosed koduse kasvukeskkonna teguritega. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 40. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2009. 131 lk. ISSN 1736- 3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-680-8. 41. KARIN LUKK. Kodu ja kooli koostöö strukturaalsest, funktsionaalsest ning sotsiaalsest aspektist. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 41. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2009. 93 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-681-5. 42. TANEL KERIKMÄE. Estonia in the European Legal System: Protection of the Rule of Law through Constitutional Dialogue. Tallinn University. Dissertations on social sciences, 42. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2009. 149 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-693-8. 43. JANNE PUKK. Kõrghariduse kvaliteet ja üliõpilaste edasijõudmine kõrgkoolis. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 43. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2010. 124 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9985-58-664-8. 44. KATRIN AAVA. Eesti haridusdiskursuse analüüs. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 44. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2010. 163 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-18-3. 45. AIRI KUKK. Õppekava eesmärkide saavutamine üleminekul lasteasutusest kooli ning I kooliastmes õpetajate hinnanguil. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 45. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2010. 175 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978- 9949-463-35-0. 46. MARTIN KLESMENT. Fertility Development in Estonia During the Second Half of the XX Century: The Economic Context and its Implications. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 46. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2010. 447 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-40-4. 47. MERIKE SISASK. The Social Construction and Subjective Meaning of Attempted Suicide. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 47. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2010. 181 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-61-9. 48. TIIA ÕUN. Koolieelse lasteasutuse kvaliteet lapsekeskse kasvatuse aspektist. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 48. [ei ilmunud] Vt. Analüütiline ülevaade, 46. (online, PDF) Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2011. 60 lk. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978- 9949-463-67-1. 49. JANIKA BACHMANN. Sustainability of the Japanese Retirement System in the Context of Pension Age Population Labour Force Participation. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 49. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 100 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-77-0. 50. EVA-MARIA KANGRO. Manifestation of Impulsive Behaviour: The Role of Contextual Demands and Reflective Competence. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 50. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 100 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-85-5. 51. GERLI NIMMERFELDT. Identificational Integration: Conceptualisation and Operationalisation on the Example of Second Generation Russians in Estonia. Tallinn

186 University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 51. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 161 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-84-8. 52. JARKKO VILKKILÄ. Curriculum, Capitalism, and Cognitive Science: a History of the Present. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 52. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 148 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-94-7. 53. PEETER SELG. An Outline for a Theory of Political Semiotics. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 53. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 200 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-463-96-1. 54. MARGARITA KAZJULJA. Social Network and Education as Resources for Agency Formation on the Estonian Post-Socialist Labour Market. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 54. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 172 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-004-8. 55. TUIRE JANKKO. Vuoden 2004 perusopetuksen tavoitteiden määrittyminen hallinnon tapahtumaketjussa Suomessa vuosina 1993–2004. Tavoitteiden arvosisältö ja ymmärretävyys. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 55. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 342 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-013-0. 56. KARMEN TOROS. Assessment of Child Well-Being: Child Protection Practice in Estonia. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 56. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2011. 204 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-021-5. 57. ANDRIY YUR’YEV. Dimension-Specific Impact of Social Exclusion on Suicide Mortality in Europe. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 57. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2012. 108 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-025-3. 58. TRIIN ROOSALU. Taking Care of Children and Work in Estonian Society: Running Out of Post-Socialist Time? Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 58. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2012. 186 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-031-4. 59. KIRILL MASLOV. Seeing the Blindness: Body and History in Dialogical Relation. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 59. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2012. 209 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-064-2. 60. MARION PAJUMETS. Post-Socialist Masculinities, Identity Work, and Social Change: an Analysis of Discursive (Re)Constructions of Gender Identity in Novel Social Situations. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 60. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2012. 176 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-073-4. 61. TIIU ERNITS. Muusikaõppekirjandus ja laulmisõpetus saksa õppekeelega koolides Eestis aastatel 1860–1914. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 61. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2013. 407 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-080-2. 62. KRISTI VINTER. Digitaalse ekraanimeedia tarbimine 5-7-aastaste laste seas ja selle sotsiaalne vahendamine Eestis. Pedagoogiline vaatekoht. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 62. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2013. 174 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-083-3. 63. MONICA SAKK. Õpilaste, lapsevanemate ning õpetajate hinnangud õpilase toimetulekule kooli kontekstis eesti ja vene õppekeelega koolide põhikooli II astmes. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 63. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2013. 268 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-085-7.

187 64. VAIKE KIIK-SALUPERE. Performance Preparation and Coping with Performance Anxiety in the Vocal Pedagogy of Classical Singers. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 64. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 161 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-092-5. 65. MARIT MÕISTLIK-TAMM. Teraapilisest lähenemisest muusikaõpetuses: muusikatund kui heaolu ja elukestva muusikaharrastuse allikas. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 65. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2013. 157 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-094-9. 66. INGE RAUDSEPP. Riho Pätsi fenomen Eesti muusikapedagoogikas. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 66. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2013. 198 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-098-7. 67. KAIRIT TAMMETS. Learning and Knowledge Building Practices for Teachers’ Professional Development in an Extended Professional Community. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 67. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 157 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-100-7. 68. KRISTINA LINDEMANN. Structural Integration of Young Russian-Speakers in Post- Soviet Contexts: Educational Attainment and Transition to the Labour Market. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 68. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 175 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-104-5. 69. VLADIMIR TOMBERG. Learning Flow Management and Teacher Control in Online Personal Learning Environments. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 69. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 147 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29- 108-3. 70. MAIKI UDAM. Meeting State, Market and Academic Concerns: Challenge for External Quality Assurance of Higher Education Institutions. Estonian Case. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 70. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 153 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-110-6. 71. MART LAANPERE. Pedagogy-Driven Design of Virtual Learning Environments. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 71. Tallinn University, 2013. 138 p. ISSN 1736-793X. ISBN 978-9949-29-113-7. 72. MAARJA KOBIN. Drinking Culture Among Young Estonian Adults: Perceptions of the ‘Limit’ and Mechanisms to Stay ‘Within-Limits’. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 72. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 137 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-115-1. 73. ÜLLE KASEPALU. Vananemine Eestis: eakate toimetulek ja põlvkondade koostoime. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 73. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2013. 142 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-125-0. 74. GRETE ARRO. Children’s Self-Reflection Ability and its Relations to the Word Meaning Structure: Signs of Life Beyond the Five-Point Scale Format. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 74. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2014. 113 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-140-3. 75. JING WU. European Older Adults’ Well-Being and Suicide in the Societal and Family Context. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 75. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2014. 116 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-142-7.

188 76. ILONA-EVELYN RANNALA. Dialoogi olulisusest töös riskikäitumisega noortega. Alaealiste komisjonide näitel. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 76. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2014. 127 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-144-1. 77. SILVI SUUR. Õpetajate, direktorite ja lastevanemate hinnangud koostööle koolieelses lasteasutuses. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 77. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2014. 145 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-148-9. 78. HELIN PUKSAND. Teismeliste lugemisoskuse mõjutegurid. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 78. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2014. 205 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-149-6. 79. MARI-LIIS JAKOBSON. Citizenship in Transformation: Political Agency in the Context of Migrant Transnationalism. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 79. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2014. 161 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978- 9949-29-155-7. 80. KATRIN KALAMEES-RUUBEL. Eesti keele ja kirjandusõpetuse roll eesti õppekeelega üldhariduskooli õppekavas 1917-2014. Ajaloolis-analüütiline käsitlus. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 80. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2014. 295 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-168-7. 81. MERLE KALDJÄRV. Riigieksamikirjandite argumentatsiooni uuring. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 81. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2014. 191 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-171-7. 82. RIIN SEEMA. Mindfulness and Time Perspective Scales, and Their Relations with Subjective Well-Being in Estonia. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 82. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2014. 132 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29- 173-1. 83. EDNA VAHTER. Looking for Possibilities to Improve the Visual Art Teaching in Primary School. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 83. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2014. 125 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-178-6. 84. MART SOOBIK. Innovative Trends in Technology Education. Teachersʼ and Studentsʼ Assessments of Technology Education in Estonian Basic Schools. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 84. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 205 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-182-3. 85. MARIT KOIT. Muusikateadvus, muusikakäitumine ning noortekultuur kui koolinoorte elustiili väljendavad ja kujundavad tegurid. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 85. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 407 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-186-1. 86. ANNE UUKKIVI. Infoteaduste eriala koolituse kaasajastamine kultuuridevahelise kommunikatsiooni kaudu. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 86. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 205 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-206-6. 87. IMBI HENNO. Loodusteaduste õppimisest ja õpetamisest Eesti koolides rahvusvaheliste võrdlusuuringute taustal. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 87. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 225 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-208-0. 88. PEETER VÄRNIK. Mortality from External Causes, Particularly Suicides, in European Countries: Trends, Socio-Demographic Factors and Measurement Issues.

189 Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 88. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 175 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-209-7. 89. SERGEI IVANOV. Sümboolne võim Eesti etnopoliitikas mitte-eestlaste riigivalitsemises esindatuse näitel. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 89. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 237 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-211-0. 90. MEELIS STAMM. Kehaehituse ja mänguedukuse terviklik seostatud hindamine võistlustel võrkpallipoistel vanuses 13-15 aastat. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 90. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 130 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-215-8. 91. KATRIN TIIDENBERG. Image Sharing, Self-Making and Significant Relationships:Understanding Selfie-Practices. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 91. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 177 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-217-2. 92. TRIIN LAURI. Governing the School Choice: From Market Mechanisms to Equity Enabling Configurations. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 92. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 200 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-219-6. 93. INDREK KALDO. University Students’ View of Matemathics in Estonia. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 93. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 209 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-221-9. 94. MERIL ÜMARIK. Adopting Reform Policies in Vocational Education and Training: the Case of Post-Soviet Estonia. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 94. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 165 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29- 226-4. 95. ENE VARIK-MAASIK. Erineva sotsiaalse tagapõhjaga Eesti noorte kirjaoskus. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. 95. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 158 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-228-8. 96. JUAN DANIEL MACHIN MASTROMATTEO. The Mutual Shaping of Social Media, Learning Experiences, and Literacies. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. 96. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 255p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978- 9949-29-233-2. 97. RENE TOOMSE. Defending Estonia in Peace and War. Retaining a Small State Near Aggressive Neighbor by Utilizing Unconventional Strategies. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 97. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 245 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-239-4. 98. KADRI AAVIK. Intersectional Disadvantage and Privilege in the Estonian Labour Market:An Analysis of Work Narratives of Russian-Speaking Women and Estonian Men. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 98. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 193 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-242-4. 99. MARIA ERSS. The Politics of Teacher Autonomy in Estonia, Germany, and Finland. Tallinn University. Dissertationson Social Sciences, 99. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2015. 355 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-244-8. 100. ANNE ROOSIPÕLD. Professionaliseerumine ja õppimise muutused kaasaegses ühiskonnas peakoka ameti näitel. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 100. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2015. 172 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29- 246-2.

190 101. MERILYN MERISTO. Personal and Contextual Factors Shaping Novice Teachersʾ Early Professional Career. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 101. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2016. 163 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-252-3. 102. MATTHEW CRANDALL. Living in Russiaʼs Shadow: Small State Strategies to Soft Security Threats. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 102. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2016. 161 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-254-7. 103. LEEN RAHNU. Partnership Dynamics in Second Half of the 20th Century: Evidence from Estonia and Other GGS Countries of Europe. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 103. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2016. 232 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-260-8. 104. ANDRY KIKKUL. Didaktilised ja organisatoorsed tingimused õpilaste teadmiste praktikasse rakendamise tõhustamiseks tööõpetuse ja reaalainete lõimingu kaudu põhikoolis. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 104. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool. 2016. 263 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-268-4. 105. ANNA-LIISA JÕGI. The Role of Motivation in Learning Math During Primary School. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 105. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2016. 120 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-271-4. 106. PRIIT SUVE. Politsei kui institutsiooni arengu mõtestamise kontseptuaalsed probleemid keerustuvas vastastiksõltuvas keskkonnas. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 106. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool. 2016. 210 lk. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-277-6. 107. MARTIN SILLAOTS. Creating the Flow: The Gamification of Higher Education Courses. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 107. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2016. 181 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-285-1. 108. PÄIVI TAMPERE. Stakeholders as Crisis Communicators – Flow of Communication Power from Organizations to Publics. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 108. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2016. 148 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978- 9949-29-288-2. 109. HANNALIIS JAADLA. Mortality in the Lutheran population of Tartu at the end of the 19th century. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 109. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2016. 166 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-291-2. 110. LAUR LILLEOJA. The Internal and External Validity of the Theory of Basic Human Values. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 110. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2017. 179 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-311-7. 111. ANNE HERM. Living arrangements and mortality of older adults: Evidence from the Belgian population registers at the turn of the 21st century. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 111. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2017. 186 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-81-638-5. 112. TÕNIS SAARTS. The Sociological Approach in Party System Analysis: The Baltic States in the Central and Eastern European Context. Tallinn University. Dissertations of Social Sciences, 112. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2017. 204 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-314-8.

191 AVALDATUD ANALÜÜTILISED ÜLEVAATED PUBLISHED ABSTRACTS http://e-ait.tlulib.ee/ 1. HELI TOOMAN. Teenindusühiskond, teeninduskultuur ja klienditeenindusõppe kontseptuaalsed lähtekohad. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2003. 35 lk. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 7. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-289-6. 2. KATRIN NIGLAS. The Combined Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Educational Research. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn Pedagogical University Press, 2004. 39 p. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 8. ISSN 11736- 0730. ISBN 9985-58-299-3. 3. INNA JÄRVA. Põlvkondlikud muutused Eestimaa vene perekondade kasvatuses: sotsiokultuuriline käsitus. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2004. 36 lk. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 9. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-312-4. 4. MONIKA PULLERITS. Muusikaline draama algõpetuses – kontseptsioon ja rakendusvõimalusi lähtuvalt C. Orffi süsteemist. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2004. 37 lk. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 10. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-310-8. 5. MARJU MEDAR. Ida-Virumaa ja Pärnumaa elanike toimetulek: sotsiaalteenuste vajadus, kasutamine ja korraldus. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: TPÜ kirjastus, 2004. 34 lk. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 11. ISSN 1736- 0730. ISBN 9985-58-321-3. 6. KRISTA LOOGMA. The Meaning of Learning at Work in Adaptation to Work Changes. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn Pedagogical University Press, 2004. 39 p. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 12. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-327-2. 7. МАЙЯ МУЛДМА. Феномен музыки в формировании диалога культур (сопоставительный анализ мнений учителей музыки школ с эстонским и русским языком обучения). Аналитический обзор. Таллинн: Издательство ТПУ, 2004. 42 с. Таллиннский Педагогический Университет. Диссертации по социальным наукам, 13. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-331-0. 8. EHA RÜÜTEL. Sociocultural Context of Body Dissatisfaction and Possibilities of Vibroacoustic Therapy in Diminishing Body Dissatisfaction. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn Pedagogical University Press, 2004. 34 p. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 14. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-353-1. 9. ENDEL PÕDER. Role of Attention in Visual Information Processing. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn Pedagogical University Press, 2004. 16 p. Tallinn Pedagogical University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 15. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-357-4. 10. MARE MÜÜRSEPP. Lapse tähendus eesti kultuuris 20. sajandil: kasvatusteadus ja lastekirjandus. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikooli kirjastus, 2005. 29 lk. Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 16. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-366-3. 11. АЛЕКСАНДР ВЕЙНГОЛЬД. Прагмадиалектика шахматной игры: основные особенности соотношения формально-логических эвристик аргументационного

192 дискурса в шахматах. Аналитический обзор. Таллинн: Издательство ТУ, 2005. 14 с. Таллиннский Университет. Диссертации по социальным наукам, 17. ISSN 1736- 0730. ISBN 9985-58-373-6. 12. OVE SANDER. Jutlus kui argumentatiivne diskursus: informaal-loogiline aspekt. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli kirjastus, 2005. 20 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 18. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-378-7. 13. AILE MÖLDRE. Publishing and Book Distribution in Estonia in 1940–2000. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2005. 35 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58-402-3. 14. LINNAR PRIIMÄGI. Klassitsism: inimkeha retoorika klassitsistliku kujutavkunsti kaanonites. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli kirjastus, 2005. 53 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-0730. ISBN 9985-58- 399-X. 15. ANNE UUSEN. Writing Skills of 1st and 2nd Stage Students. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 22 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 19. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 9985-58-424-4. 16. LEIF KALEV. Multiple and European Union Citizenship as Challenges to Estonian Citizenship Policies. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 41 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 20. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58- 437-8. 17. LAURI LEPPIK. Eesti pensionisüsteemi transformatsioon: poliitika valikud ja tulemid. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli kirjastus, 2006. 17 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 21. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-441-5. 18. VERONIKA NAGEL. Die Bildungspolitik und das Allgemeinbildungswesen in Estland in den Jahren 1940–1991. Analütische Übersicht. Tallinn: Verlag der Universität Tallinn, 2006. 16 S. Universität Tallinn. Dissertationen in den Sozialwissenschaften, 22. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-449-1. 19. LIIVIA ANION. Reciprocal Effects of Burnout Symptoms and Police Culture Elements. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 27 lk. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 23. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-454-5. 20. INGA MUTSO. Possibilities of Further Studies for Students of Special Education Schools in Vocational Schools in Estonia. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 22 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 24. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-452-1. 21. EVE EISENSCHMIDT. Implementation of Induction Year for Novice Teachers in Estonia. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 21 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 25. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-463-7. 22. TUULI ODER. The Model of Contemporary Professional Foreign Language Teacher. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006. 16 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 26. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-466-8. 23. KRISTINA NUGIN. Intellectual Development of 3 to 6 Years Old Children in Different Rearing Environments According to WPPSI-T Test. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 17 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 27. ISSN 1736- 3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-474-3.

193 24. TIINA SELKE. Music Education in Estonian Comprehensive School: Trends in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century and at the Beginning of the 21st Century. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 26 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 28. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-487-3. 25. SIGNE DOBELNIECE. Kodutus Lätis: põhjused ja lahendused. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli kirjastus, 2007. 19 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 29. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-491-0. 26. BORISS BAZANOV. Integrative Approach of the Technical and Tactical Aspects in Basketball Coaching. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 17 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 30. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58- 497-2. 27. MARGE UNT. Transition from School-to-Work in Enlarged Europe. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 24 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 31. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-505-4. 28. MARI KARM. Professional Development Opportunities of Estonian Adult Educators. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 28 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 32. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-512-2. 29. KATRIN POOM-VALICKIS. Algajate õpetajate professionaalne areng kutseaastal. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli kirjastus, 2007. 15 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 33. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-536-8. 30. TARMO SALUMAA. Representation of Organisational Culture in the Process of Change by Estonian Teachers. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2007. 21 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 34. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978- 9985-58-534-4. 31. AGU UUDELEPP. Propaganda Instruments in Political Television Advertisements and Modern Television Commercials. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2008. 26 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 35. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978- 9985-58-503-0. 32. PILVI KULA. Peculiarities of Left-Handed Children’s Success at School. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2008. 18 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 36. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-579-5. 33. TIIU TAMMEMÄE. The Development of Speech of Estonian Children Aged 2 and 3 Years (based on Reynell and HYKS test) and its Relations with the Factors of the Home Environment. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2008. 23 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-612-9. 34. KARIN LUKK. Structural, Functional and Social Aspects of Home-School Cooperation. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2008. 46 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-614-3. 35. KATRIN KULLASEPP. Dialogical Becoming. Professional Identity Construction of Psychology Students. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2008. 34 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-597-9. 36. HELLE NOORVÄLI. Praktika arendamine kutsehariduses. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli kirjastus, 2009. 40 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid, 38. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-665-5.

194 37. TANEL KERIKMÄE. Estonia in the European Legal System: Protection of the Rule of Law through Constitutional Dialogue. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2009. 58 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978- 9985-675-4. 38. BIRGIT VILGATS. The Impact of External Quality Assessment on Universities: Estonian Experience. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2009. 33 p. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 987-9985-58-677-8. 39. LIIS OJAMÄE. Valikute kujunemine eluasemeturul: Eluaseme väärtuse sotsiaalne konstrueerimine. Eeslinna uuselamupiirkonna näitel. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2009. 24 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9985-58-681-5. 40. KATRIN AAVA. Eesti haridusdiskursuse analüüs. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2010. 26 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-20-6. 41. ANU LEPPIMAN. Argielamusi. Laagri- ja elamuspõhine argipäevade pereteenus sotsiaalse kogemuse tootjana. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2010. 32 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675 ISBN. 978- 9949-463-27-5. 42. JANNE PUKK. Kõrghariduse kvaliteet ja üliõpilaste edasijõudmine kõrgkoolis. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2010. 30 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-17-6. 43. AIRI KUKK. Õppekava eesmärkide saavutamine üleminekul lasteasutusest kooli ning I kooliastmes õpetajate hinnanguil. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool, 2010. 48 lk. Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-37-4. 44. MARTIN KLESMENT. Fertility Development in Estonia During the Second Half of the XX Century: The Economic Context and its Implications. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2010 57 lk. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736- 3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-42-8. 45. MERIKE SISASK. The Social Construction and Subjective Meaning of Attempted Suicide. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2011. 68 lk Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-63-3. 46. TIIA ÕUN. Koolieelse lasteasutuse kvaliteet lapsekeskse kasvatuse aspektist. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool. 2011. 60 lk Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-67-1. 47. RAILI NUGIN. Coming of Age in Transition: Some Self-Reflexive Social Portraits of the 1970s Cohort. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2011. 75 lk Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-80-0. 48. INGE TIMOŠTŠUKK. Õpetajaks õppivate üliõpilaste kutseidentiteet. Analüütiline ülevaade. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool. 2011. 58 lk Tallinna Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste dissertatsioonid. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-90-9. 49. PEETER SELG. An Outline for a Theory of Political Semiotics. Abstract. Tallinn: Tallinn University. 2011. 69 lk Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-463-26-8.

195 50. TRIIN ROOSALU. Taking Care of Children and Work in Estonian Society: Running Out of Post-Socialist Time? Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 50. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2012. 83 p. ISSN 1736-3675. ISBN 978-9949-29-032-1. 51. KRISTINA LINDEMANN. Structural Integration of Young Russian-Speakers in Post- Soviet Contexts: Educational Attainment and Transition to the Labour Market. Tallinn University. Dissertations on Social Sciences, 51. Tallinn: Tallinn University, 2013. 175 p. ISSN 1736-3632. ISBN 978-9949-29-104-5.

DISSERTATSIOONINA KAITSTUD MONOGRAAFIAD (ilmunud iseseisva väljaandena) 1. TIIU REIMO. Raamatu kultuur Tallinnas 18. sajandi teisel poolel. Monograafia. Tallinna Ülikool. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2001. 393 lk. ISBN 9985-58-284-5. 2. AILE MÖLDRE. Kirjastustegevus ja raamatulevi Eestis. Monograafia. Tallinna Ülikool. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2005. 407 lk. ISBN 9985-58-201-2. 3. LINNAR PRIIMÄGI. Klassitsism. Inimkeha retoorika klassitsistliku kujutavkunsti kaanonites. Monograafia. Tallinna Ülikool Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2005. 1242 lk. ISBN 9985-58-398-1. ISBN 9985-58-405-8. ISBN 9985-58-406-6. 4. KATRIN KULLASEPP. Dialogical Becoming. Professional Identity Construction of Psychology Students. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2008. 285 p. ISBN 978-9985-58- 596-2. 5. LIIS OJAMÄE. Making Choices in the Housing Market: Social Construction of Housing Value. The Case of New Suburban Housing. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2009. 189 p. ISBN 978-9985-58-687-7.

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