 The Changing Discourse of Minority Identities: Latvia
| Professor Brigita Zepa, Baltic Institute of Social Sciences | | published in "Changing and Overlapping Identities: Latvia Facing EU", Riga, FSS, 2005 |
"The issue of minority identities has been intriguing to Baltic researchers ever since the early 1990s. Karklins, in studying national identity, has stressed links between ethnic, state and regime identities. Karklins and Zepa have accented changes in state-based identity in the context of the state's status and of changes in the political regime...." Publication (PDF) Active Civic Participation of Immigrants in Latvia
"According to the analysis of the migration history in Latvia the biggest immigration flows to Latvia were in Soviet time. As the main migratory flows during the years 1951-1990 were the nearest Soviet Republics, particularly Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, as a result of the immigration was the decrease of the percentage of ethnic Latvians from 77% in 1935 to 52% in 1989 and increase of percentage of Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians. Since 1991 net migration in Latvia is negative: in average more people leave Latvia than arrive..." Read more (PDF) Let Us Understand Those Who Are Alongside Us
| Professor Brigita Zepa, Baltic Institute of Social Sciences | | article is published in Latvian newspaper Diena, 28.08.2004. (p.15) |
"This year we have been looking forward to September 1 with a different mood than is usually the case. The Russian language mass media have been reminding their readers almost every day about the dissatisfaction of Russian schools, about the protests that will take place in the context of education reforms once the new school years begins. The Latvian media do not address the issue of schools very much. They presented a meeting of [Latvian Prime Minister Indulis] Emsis and [Education Minister Juris] Radzēvičs with teachers from Russian schools as the most important pieces of news. At that meeting, representatives of 19 schools reported on their readiness for September 1. In both cases, the information that has been presented has been one-sided, and it has created a false understanding of the true situation in schools. In one case, the fuss has been much too great and exaggerated, in the other case, the icture that has been presented is far too flowery. I mention the mass media so as to remind readers that ?n Latvia, we live in a split information space. We dont know much about the problems that are of importance to the other side, and that is why it is so easy to manipulate with us...."Publication (PDF) Citizenship, Official Language, Bilingual Education in Latvia: Public policy in the Last 10 Years
| Brigita Zepa | | published "Baltic States Looking at Small Societies on Europes Margin" by University Press, Fribourg Switzerland in 2003. Edited by Christian Giordano, Alina Žvinkliene, Daniel Henseler. pp. 83 97 |
On the 4th of May, in 2001, a "Baltic day" was organized by the Interfaculty Institute of East and Central Europe where representatives from Baltic countries and Switzerland were taking part. BISS director Dr. Soc. Brigita Zepa was taking part at the Baltic day too, reporting on topic "Citizenship, Official Language, Bilingual Education in Latvia: Public policy in the Last 10 Years". Publication (PDF) Confidence in Institutions: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
| Brigita Zepa | | publish?d in "Political Representation and Participation in Transitory Democracies: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania", Soedertorn University, Stockholm, 2001. Chapter 8 |
Because of several conditions, it is rather difficult to carry out an analysis of political trust in the post-Communist countries, including the Baltic States. On the one hand, these are countries where the traditions of democracy are only in the process of formation. We could assume, therefore, that, as democracy develops, the trust of the people both in the government as well as civic institutions would grow. However, the findings of Western researchers, made from surveys in their own countries, may be regarded as not supporting such an assumption. Publication (PDF) Associational Membership and its Impact on Attitudes and Behaviour of People in the Baltic States
| Inese Ozoliņa | | published "Political Representation and Participation in Transitory Democracies: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania", Soedertorn University, Stockholm |
Does associational membership promote development of social capital in the Baltic States? A Comparative analysis. Publication (PDF) Political participation in Latvia 1987 - 2001 | Rasma Karklins, University of Illinois at Chicago | | Brigita Zepa, University of Latvia, Riga | | published in "Journal of Baltic Studies", Winter 2001, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp.334 - 346 |
Political participation is crucial to democracy; we discuss its main features during three stages. The years 1988-91 are marked by anti-regime mobilization and extensive mass activism in support for restoring independence. After a "normalizing" phase between 1992-98 we note contradictory trends in more recent years. Next to conventional political participation one notes increasing protests, refere?dum initiatives, and corrupt ways of gaining influence.
This paper argues that participation has differed greatly during three distinct phases.
Publication (PDF) |
