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Structural Constraints and Individual Choices
No full textStructural constraints and individual choices might be the keywords of the articles in this issue of STSS. In sociology, structural constraints are understood as the various political, economic, social and cultural factors limiting individual decision-making ability. These constraints are opposed to human agency, defi ned as the capacity of an individual to act independently and make any choice in a given structure. Authors concentrate on choices as well as constraints in diff erent areas — in education, labour market and migration.
Punaarmee internatsionaalsed väeosad Vene kodusõjas (1917–1922) [International troops of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War (1917–1922)]
No full textThe article describes the birth of the international units of the Red Army, and their fighting activity on the fronts of the Russian Civil War. The international units were mainly made up of the prisoners of war from the Austrian-Hungarian Army, but there were also former German and Turkish POWs and even Chinese who had ended up in Russia as labourers recruited during WWI, as well as British, French and even American soldiers who had deserted or been taken prisoner from expedition corps sent against Soviet Russia.
One of the reasons for forming the international units was the belief in the imminent world revolution and the hope of using the internationalists in European battles. But the internationalists themselves were motivated to join the Red Army in the hope of reaching their homeland faster and receiving clothing and food. However, the internationalists also included confirmed Bolsheviks who later became Comintern activists and some even leaders of the Eastern Bloc countries after WWII. The international units were not dispatched against Estonia, with the exception of a Chinese unit which fought in south Estonia in 1919. However, a number of former Austrian-Hungarian war prisoners were repatriated to their homeland via Estonia after the conclusion of the Tartu Peace Treaty in 1920
Services, Modes of Governance and the State
No full textThis June 2016 issue of STSS, although with no pre-intended thematic focus, has attracted three articles and a book review on governance and the relationship between the state and its citizens. By looking at issues as varied as police reform, business-state relationships and pension system in Croatia, our hope is to further stir a dialogue on the validity of neoliberal hypotheses that have recently come under increasing criticism. The review of the book Polarising Development by Pradella and Marois (2015) is a nice addition to these papers and enables us to engage more comprehensively in a discussion on possible alternatives and modes of governance to which we have recently contributed
Two Decades of Estonian Police and the (Ir)relevance of Police Models for the Development of Safety Policy
No full textPolice models are designed to improve safety in society. Although Estonia has not deliberately used any (combination of) police models for developing its policies of safety and its police reforms since the country regained independence, its safety has improved considerably during the last couple of decades. The scholarly discussions about police models are overwhelmingly about the possible effects of different models on safety management and about their application to particular countries. However, countries like Estonia with no consistent conceptions of police have received little attention in academic literature. We aim to fill this gap by analysing the developments of the Estonian police in its philosophical, strategic, tactical and organisational dimensions over the period between 1991 and 2013. The analysed materials include the official police development plans, legislation, statutes, training programs and statistics about the police. Our analysis shows that although safety in Estonia has improved considerably, developments of the Estonian police are characterised by internal discrepancies and inconsistencies. In view of this, we put forth some hypotheses for further studies regarding policy development in a situation where policy is not explicitly stated or where organisational reforms are seen not as “simple” or “complex” problems, but as “wicked” problems
Perceptions of Participation and the Share Button
No full textThis article analyses Estonian youth’s perceptions of their own political participation and their practices of participation on social media. We analysed 60 interviews with Estonian informants in a MYPLACE study and relied on a conceptual broadening that acknowledges the political potential of everyday. We relay on theories of standby citizenship and spiral of silence to understand signing petitions, commenting, liking and sharing politically minded content online. Based on this we suggest that young people in Estonia are interested in political issues and public opinion and their social media use represents a diversification of how citizens take part in civic matters. However, youths do not necessarily believe in the efficacy of social media in enacting political change and their reasons for not participating can be seen as indicative of a desire for both impression management and being affected by the spiral of silence
The Doctrine of Self-regulation in the Contemporary Media Environment: Mapping Some Challenges
No full textRapidly developing technical possibilities in the modern society have caused a rare situation where the legal and social regulation of media enterprises lags behind the challenges faced by the media enterprises in everyday situations, raising the question of whether self-regulation may be the answer. The proposition that the internet may “... be the greatest innovation in speech since the invention of the printing press” means that the challenges emerging from the internet possibilities to media enterprises are equally enormous. The international debate about the balance between the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy so far has not resulted in a consensus on the question of the liability of an internet company for data it has not originally produced – such as anonymous comments on the internet or data processed by search engines. At the start of the new millennium, a tendency appeared that limits the accountability of online media enterprises. Thus, the European E-Commerce Directive is built upon the principle of the internet host’s non-liability. The United States courts apply the internet host immunity provision in an extensive manner. However, recent doctrinal developments in the case law of European regional courts challenge the proposition of host immunity of online media enterprises, while at the same time pointing to the difficulties of normative regulation. This article will identify some of the main reasons supporting the doctrine of self-regulation and will explore the dilemmas it causes for the media and judicial communities, as well as the civil society at large. The article will propose a solution whereby the different interested actors need to co-operate to achieve a binding and reasonable methodology for securing, on the one hand, the economic interests of media enterprises together with the possibility to retain the function of media as a public watch-dog, and on the other hand, balance these interests with the right of the public to receive bona fide information based on the respect towards the right to privacy and ability to stay informed. Methodologically, the article will first review some fundamental principles and their interpretation concerning the accountability of contemporary media, moving on to provide examples on the basis of the Estonian advertising environment. Estonia serves as a good example for this academic exercise, particularly since it has earned an excellent international reputation both for its internet and press freedoms
The development of mental health strategy in Armenia: A review of the activities of the Armenian mental health policy working group
No full text For many years, the health care system of the Republic of Armenia has focused on purely inpatient psychiatric care, which limits the potential for providing services at the community level. Psychiatric care has been exclusively provided in specialised mental health institutions, including hospitals and social psycho-neurological centres.
In 2010, Armenia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Since 2013, by adoption of two national policy papers – the Mental Health Strategy and Concept together with an Action plan – the government made a commitment to start the deinstitutionalisation process and introduce community-based services on a policy level.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the processes recorded in the framework of a deinstitutionalisation process in the Republic of Armenia, its achievements and current issues. The study shows that the process of introducing the model of community-based service in the Republic of Armenia was accompanied by a number of challenges, which were more or less successfully overcome. It is deemed a success because the introduction of a community-based model is now on the government agenda and there is close cooperation with state agencies, as well as the private and public sectors. However, in addition to discriminatory attitudes and societal stigmatisation, the inability to currently operate community-based models due to the absence of relevant state budget allocations and a lack of knowledge and awareness of specialists, state officials and wider public about mental health issues is still a challenge.
Некрасов и Боратынский: Вокруг рецензии на «Дамский альбом», новых взглядов на брак и двух любовных стихотворений [Nekrasov and Baratynsky: Notes on Nekrasov’s Review of the “Damskii albom” Anthology, New Vision on Marriage and Two Love Poems]
No full textIn the focus of this article is Nikolai Nekrasov’s attempt to revive the legacy of Yevgeny Baratynsky, whose poetry—mainly due to Vissarion Belinsky’s criticism—was not as highly esteemed in Nekrasov’s lifetime as after Baratynsky’s “rediscovery” in the early 20th century. It also shows that Baratynsky’s elegies could influence Nekrasov’s poem “Kogda iz mraka zabluzhden’ia…” (1845), and offer an explanation of the reason why Nekrasov favored Baratynsky’s poem “Priznanie” (1823, 1832—33)
Об источниках сказки А. М. Ремизова «Султанский финик» [A Likely Source of Remizov´s Fairy Tale “Sultanskii finik”]
No full textThis article attempts to determine a likely source of Alexei Remizov’s fairy tale “Sultanskii finik” (1909). Sergei Dotsenko suggests that the list of possible sources of this erotic story includes Pushkin’s poem “Krasavitse, kotoraia niukhala tabak,” and several of Gogol’s prose texts. He also argues that these allusions served the purpose of making erotic plots less scandalous for the readership of Remizov’s time
О понятии фонема у О. Э. Мандельштама: Из комментария к статье «О природе слова» [The Notion of Phoneme in Mandel’shtam’s “O prirode slova”]
No full textThe article aims to establish the possible source of Osip Mandel’shtam’s understanding of the notion of phoneme as reflected in his article “O prirode slova” (1921—22). Larissa Naiditch suggests that this source should be sought in the lectures by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, one of the precursors of structuralism. It is known that during his studies at St. Petersburg University, Mandel’shtam attended Baudouin de Courtanay’s classes, thus it is likely that Mandel’shtam could reshape his professor’s ideas