Conclusion: When Post-Socialism Meets The Everyday

Polese, Abel; Seliverstova, Oleksandra; Pawłusz, Emilia; Morris, Jeremy

doi:10.5040/9781350986824.0007

Cited by 4 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…It has been argued that both groups, Estonians and Russians, think that their consumer behavior is common among Estonian citizens (Polese and Seliverstova 2017). Both communities seem to convey a message that they are behaving according to what they perceive being "national standards" or "respecting national values."…”

Section: Invisible Identitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

National Identity for Breakfast: Food Consumption and the Everyday Construction of National Narratives in Estonia

Polese

Seliverstova

Kerikmäe

et al. 2020

Nationalities Papers

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Political debates on the Baltics, and in particular Estonia, have often pointed to “nationalisting” and exclusive narratives constructed at the institutional level. Accordingly, emphasis has been put on the lack of opportunities for Russians to integrate into an Estonian context. While acknowledging the shortfalls of the Estonian political project, this article contrasts these views in two ways. By emphasizing people’s agency and their capacity to question, contrast, or even reject the identity markers proposed by Estonian official narratives, we maintain that the integration of Russians might be more advanced than insofar claimed by other studies. We then look at the way identities are lived in an everyday context by inhabitants of Estonia to counterpose national narratives proposed by the state and its political institutions, with the way people live and whether they accept these narratives. By doing this, we explore the role of the everyday in the reconstruction of national identity narratives, in which citizens actively participate in their individual capacity. We suggest that, from a James Scott “infrapolitics” perspective, these micro-actions have a fundamental role in the reshaping of a national identity and its acceptance among citizens.

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Section: Invisible Identitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

National Identity for Breakfast: Food Consumption and the Everyday Construction of National Narratives in Estonia

Polese

Seliverstova

Kerikmäe

et al. 2020

Nationalities Papers

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“…5. Although the study of supermarket items has directly informed two distinct articles (Polese et al, 2017a(Polese et al, , 2018, the reflection prompted has helped us to formulate the main argument of this article. 6.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Luxury consumption as identity markers in Tallinn: A study of Russian and Estonian everyday identity construction through consumer citizenship

Polese

Seliverstova²

2019

Journal of Consumer Culture

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While the importance of consumption of luxury goods as a mechanism accompanying upwards movement in a social hierarchy has been well acknowledged, attention to the role and perceptions of luxury in multicultural societies has been scarce so far. It is nonetheless intriguing that ethnic groups inhabiting the same territory, and exposed to a same culture, might develop substantially different notions of luxury, which may end up affecting the integration, or isolation, of one of the groups. Our article addresses this deficiency in the literature by exploring the case of Estonia, a multi-ethnic society where Russians make up almost one-fourth of the population. Much has been written about the integration, and lack thereof, of ethnic Russians into Estonian society. We contrast these views by looking at inter-ethnic relations in the country from a different angle and by a) looking at consumption of luxury in the country through the concept of ‘conspicuous consumption'; b) endorsing Foster's concept of consumer citizenship. This allows us to shed light on an under-explored tendency and maintain here that, in a significant number of cases, ordinary citizens challenge official identity narratives by the state through counter-narratives centred around consumption of luxury at the everyday level. The identified counter-narratives end up translating into (consumer behaviour) instructions for those Russians willing to assert their Estonianness thus allowing them to seek integration into the majority group by simply consuming luxury items that they perceive as appreciated among Estonians, or associated with Estonian high status. By doing this, we make a case for expanding the parameters for academic scrutiny of social integration to include more ‘banal' forms of consumer practices through which top- down narratives and macro studies may be challenged.

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“…Although some efforts exist, with Lenin Street’s renaming a prime example, their reach is restricted in large part by intertwined economic and political dependency as well as historic memory viewing Soviet “internationalism” favorably as contrasted with Moldovan nationalism of the 1990s (Kosienkowski 2017b, 127–128). While the category of Gagauzian is drawn upon and invested with groupness by ethnopolitical entrepreneurs, at the governmental level, policy remains pluralistic, thereby contrasting with general nation-building trends throughout the post-Soviet region during the last few decades (Smith et al 1998; Suny and Kennedy 1999; Polese et al 2018). Further, these cases illustrating intersectional and local experiences of belonging offer a critique “methodological nationalism” (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2003), particularly within the growing body of literature on Gagauzian studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interplay of the construction of exclusionary national narratives and economic (inter) dependence shows that the institutionalization of nation building in Gagauzia is, to a great extent, ultimately restrained by economic realities. Along with contributing to the body of Gagauzian studies (Katchanovski 2005;Keough 2006;Demirdirek 2008;Kapaló 2011;Kvilinkova 2013;Cantir 2015;Tudoroiu 2016;Kosienkowski 2017aKosienkowski , 2017bGrigoriadis and Shahin 2021), I contribute to discussions on contemporary processes of nation building in postsocialist regions (Smith et al 1998;Suny and Kennedy 1999a;Polese and Isaacs 2016;Polese et al 2018), particularly to what extent it is a top-down process or involves elite participation. Bringing to light ethnographic data on intersectional and local experiences of belonging, I also aim to counter "methodological nationalism" (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2003) both generally and in Gagauzian studies in particular.…”

Section: Aimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnopolitical Entrepreneurs as Nation Builders? Heritage and Innovation in Gagauzia

Holsapple

2022

Nationalities Papers

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This article brings to light the lesser-known case of Gagauzia, an autonomous region in Moldova, to examine how global frameworks of authenticity and heritage are drawn upon and performed in three local ethnically centered initiatives. Drawing on data from twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2015 and 2018, this case study provides insight into the ways that notions of nationhood are constructed and perpetuated, with a focus on the role of a specific segment of society, ethnopolitical entrepreneurs. These are neither fully top-down nor bottom-up actors. Focusing on three Gagauzian “firsts” that claim to represent the “last” of disappearing cultural practices and identities, this article interrogates how the given initiatives fuse heritage and innovation to create metacultural discourses that advance notions of Gagauzian ethnic or national particularism. The article gives food for thought about the salience – or not – of elite actors’ articulations of nation, particularly within post-Soviet societies and underscores the array of social actors involved in any nation-building activity. Further, by highlighting the heterogeneity of intersectional, lived experience and articulations of belonging, the article problematizes group-based analysis and methodological nationalism.

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Conclusion: When Post-Socialism Meets The Everyday

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

National Identity for Breakfast: Food Consumption and the Everyday Construction of National Narratives in Estonia

National Identity for Breakfast: Food Consumption and the Everyday Construction of National Narratives in Estonia

Luxury consumption as identity markers in Tallinn: A study of Russian and Estonian everyday identity construction through consumer citizenship

Ethnopolitical Entrepreneurs as Nation Builders? Heritage and Innovation in Gagauzia

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