| title: | Strategies and Practices of Everyday Life in Soviet Estonia |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF5322 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
5.9. Social Anthropology and Ethnology 6.4. Folklore |
| status: | completed |
| institution: | University of Tartu |
| head of project: | Elle Vunder |
| duration: | 01.01.2002 - 31.12.2005 |
| description: | The aim of the project is description and analysis of Soviet everyday life in specific areas of social life, its processes, systems and structures, as well as daily routine, habits, things taken for granted, coping strategies and related norms and value assessments. The goal is empirical study and analysis of acquisition of new strategies and tactics for behaviour and coping in new environments, the application of these strategies and practices, and the process, whereby they become routine, i.e. get habitualised. Our research makes use of perspective of different generations, the meaning of which for the study of Estonian culture in the 20th century has been pointed out by A. Aarelaid (2000). We focus on two age groups - people born in the 1950s and people born before 1935. We presume that comparison of different generations reveals the changes in everyday culture that accompanied the change of regime and helps to study the process of transformation of conscious strategies into normal and regular behavioural practices. Sources and methods vary in accordance with the specific research topic. The main sources and methods are topic-centred and biographical interviews and written sources created by the subjects themselves (life histories, answers to questionnaires, replies on announced themes), also the Soviet press etc. In the course of the project it is planned to hold an introductory seminar on ethnography in Soviet Estonia (October 2002) and an international conference "Socialism and Everyday Culture" (April 2003) the reports of which will be published. Project results are also presented at exhibitions on narrower topics: summer 2003 - "The Youth in the Soviet Society. Hippie Culture", summer 2004 - "Food Culture in Shortage Economy", summer 2005 - "Strategies and Practices of Everyday Life in Soviet Estonia" (summarising the project). Exhibition catalogues containing longer articles on the topics of the exhibitions will be published. In cooperation with the Society "Estonian Life Histories" a publication of life histories "Strategies and Practices of Soviet Daily Life in Biographies of Estonians" will be released. The project is completed with a collective publication |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Terje Anepaio | Estonian National Museum | research director | |
| 2. | Indrek Jääts | Tartu University | researcher | |
| 3. | Ene Kõresaar | Tartu University | lecturer | |
| 4. | Riina Reinvelt | Estonian National Museum | seanior treasurer | |
| 5. | Elle Vunder | Tartu University Faculty of Philosophy | professor | |