Airi-Alina Allaste

Tallinn University | TLU

Former socialist states made great progress in the institutional set up and development of civil societies after the fall of their non-democratic regimes. However, the gap in levels of political participation between former socialist states and old democracies remains. Using two-wave panel data, this study explores how four different types of parti...

Youth participation and citizenship education have been widely discussed; however, there is no shared understanding on the best way for young people to acquire citizenship skills, attitudes, and knowledge. Although there is an extensive body of literature on citizenship education at school, other learning environments have received less attention....

This chapter discusses the issue of youth digital participation. Social media in particular is thought to be able to open up new means of being political, albeit with strong criticism of participation via this means also noted. The chapter focuses on this theme of digital participation in Estonia, a country labelled as the ‘first digital nation’ th...

This chapter discusses the issue of youth digital participation. Social media in particular is thought to be able to open up new means of being political, albeit with strong criticism of participation via this means also noted. The chapter focuses on this theme of digital participation in Estonia, a country labelled as the ‘first digital nation’, t...

Young people’s participation is an urgent policy and practice concern, across countries and context. This book showcases original research evidence and analysis to consider how, under what conditions and for what purposes young people participate in different parts of Europe. Focusing on the interplay between the concepts of youth, inequality and p...

Today’s young people are engaging in politicized activities and are more attuned to the concerns of their own generation, as opposed to issues more relevant to their parents. Youth political activism takes a less overt and more individualized approach, and young people today are enthusiastic about online participation and engaging in it in differen...

This article explores how Estonian LGBT activists make sense of their own activism. We analyze the activists’ perceptions of their activism, their identities and how those identities are deployed for action. All of these are, in turn, situated in how activists understand the broader Estonian LGBT community, and Estonian society’s historico-politica...

This book takes an in-depth look at the European Commission’s Erasmus programme. In its current Erasmus+ format, the programme supports international exchange visits among students, trainees, volunteers and academic members of staff with a view to enhancing employability and encouraging intercultural understanding. Against the backdrop of the 30th...

In this section of our discussion, we look at some of the different ways in which Erasmus is experienced by participants, with emphasis on evidence from studies conducted in Poland. While an exchange visit is predominantly an academic experience, also present is a strong informal learning dimension. This is an aspect of the programme underlined by...

This book takes a look at the recent history of the European Commission’s Erasmus programme, charting its development in terms of participation, geographical scope and levels of financial investment. In the opening chapter, we look at different theoretical perspectives relating to this form of intra-European circulation, including the role of Erasm...

In the closing chapter of the book, we bring together insights from the preceding discussion and consider the present state of Erasmus and its future prospects. In doing so, we reiterate the idea that Erasmus is, fundamentally, a pedagogical tool for the learning of mobility and building mobility capacity among European youth. While there is potent...

Discussion of the Erasmus experience for students continues with exploration of encounters within the host country. While this can be viewed from the perspective of culture shock, we also acknowledge that homogenisation of the student experience in Europe helps to create a ‘bubble’ atmosphere, surrounding the student visitor when he or she moves to...

Since 2014, a range of actions associated with the preceding Youth in Action initiative have been interpolated into the Erasmus programme, including voluntary placements and other forms of short duration exchange. In this chapter, we elaborate upon the shift away from academic mobility and towards establishing a clearer personal-political agenda in...

In this chapter we take an in-depth look at one of the main theoretical constructs underpinning the Erasmus programme: the idea of ‘employability’. Taking a sociologically informed view, we define ‘employability’ as a form of reflexivity to be practiced during the transition from tertiary education to the labour market. Understanding employability...

In this chapter, we acknowledge international conviviality as an important driver of Erasmus participation for students, with the communal nature of exchanges being one of the main reasons for the programme’s longevity and success. Using evidence gathered from Erasmus candidates in Italy and interviewees in Germany, we are able to illustrate what a...

In an effort to understand how the Erasmus programme is made accountable to policymakers and European taxpayers, and managed as a ‘product’ by civil society organisations, we look at the regulation of quality within non-formal education mobility projects. Discussion in this chapter includes looking at work undertaken by the European Platform for Le...

In this chapter, we explore the management of Erasmus mobility among undergraduates, focusing on the example of Portuguese universities. Through the use of interview material gathered at eight different institutions, we are able to explain the process through which exchange visits are organized from an organisation’s perspective. This includes mana...

This paper explores the upsurge in young people's activism across Europe by drawing on three ethnographic studies of feminist and LGBT activism. The studies include a feminist organisation, UK Feminista, in a stable liberal democracy, the Feministes Indignades in post-fascist Spain, and the LGBT movement in post-communist Estonia. The paper argues...

Termin „kultuurisotsioloogia“ on laiem mõiste, mis osade autorite määratluses hõlmab täna kahte erineva sisu ja eesmärgiga lähenemist: esiteks, kultuurisotsioloogiat (sociology of culture), mis viitab sagedamini kultuuri uurivale sotsioloogia harule, mis üldjoontes lähtub olemasolevatest ideedest, kontseptsioonidest ja uurimismeetoditest ning, teis...

This special issue of Studies of Transition States and Societies closes with a concluding discussion that aims to contextualise some of the key findings from the preceding articles. To do so, we use comparative level evidence drawn from other regions included in the MYPLACE consortium, identifyng contrasts and commonalities in how youth politics is...

This 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 a...

This special issue of Studies of Transition States and Societies focuses on youth political participation in Estonia. The articles explore diff erent dimensions of participation, providing examples of how politics is practiced by young people in a society that has undergone a relatively recent and substantial social, economic and political transfor...

Young people’s use of digital technology in their political lives is a well-established research topic. This includes the study of internet-enabled activism and the use of social media as a mobilisation platform, as well as the use of online tools in policy decision-making at national and municipal levels. The theoretical section of our presentatio...

This chapter aims to give a sense of the development of, as well as changes in, club culture in a culturally peripheral region,—Estonia—in recent decades. It also aims to analyze any changes in cultural identities, synchronically paying attention to changes in (sub)cultural trends and their position in society. Many studies of youth cultures have i...

The history of the gay movement in Estonia is largely undocumented, since during the Soviet period, gay networks were completely 'underground',no official organisations existed, and accordingly, no official records of it were available.During the Soviet period, homosexuality was illegal; male homosexualacts were decriminalised only in 1992. There w...

This article explores the complex relationships that exist between the consumption of alcohol, the terminology used to describe consumption patterns and their effects, and the various frames of meaning through which these inherently related activities are perceived and understood. A particular focus is on the cultural meaning ascribed to terms and...

Youth subcultures are often considered deviant and associated with violent behaviour. The latter is especially the case in Eastern Europe, where the society is not used to pluralities of lifestyles and differences are often demonised. While in today’s Western world various youth lifestyles tend to be seen as consumer networks with varying style pre...

Younger generations in Estonia are involved into global cultural trends that exert increasing influence on their lives and identity formation. Even though youth cultural trends are nowadays global, they are also closely related to the local culture and historical background of their different societies. Subcultural trends adopted in Estonia have be...

This article aims to give a sense of the activities of small-scale cultural practitioners in Estonia. Whereas Western societies experienced the powerful emergence of youth (sub)cultures and DIY ideology, as well as self-organised low scale cultural production in the 1960s, in Estonia all of these practices are relatively new and born over the last...

Eestis ei käsitletud kaua aega HIVd/AIDSi sotsiaalse probleemina, seda seostati ühiskonna marginaalsete rühmadega. Vaatamata sellele, et haiguse leviku tõkestamiseks on palju ära tehtud, esineb ühiskonnas HIV-nakkusega inimestesse siiski valdavalt negatiivne suhtumine. Haiguse olemust ei ole piisavalt ühiskonnas teadvustatud ja sellega seonduv info...

Similarly to other countries in Eastern and Central Europe, Estonia has a relatively short experience of problems related to the use of illicit substances. In the previously “Real Socialist” countries in general, the increase in drug use among youth did not take place until the 1990s. This paper focuses on opiate users in Estonia. Unlike some other...

In Estonia, illicit drug use hardly existed before the social changes of the 1990s when, as a result of economic and cultural transformations, the country became part of a world order centred in the West. On the one hand, this development is due to the spread of international youth culture, which many young people have perceived as being associated...

On the basis of observations and qualitative interview material, the article presents an account of the patterns of illicit drug use among Russian-speaking adolescents in Narva, a problem-ridden industrial town on the north-eastern border of Estonia. Both legal and illegal drugs are easily available and frequently used by secondary school students...

Recreational drug use in the context of club culture has gained a permanent position among European youth in the recent decade. We investigate some most prominent qualities of club culture and drug use in Estonia and Finland. These two countries are geographically close to each other and have somewhat similar cultural heritage. Nevertheless, there...

Recreational drug use in the context of club culture has gained a permanent position among European youth in the recent decade. We investigate some most prominent qualities of club culture and drug use in Estonia and Finland. These two countries are geographically close to each other and have somewhat similar cultural heritage. Nevertheless, there...

Youth subcultures, the use of illicit drugs, and the relationship between the two were thoroughly influenced by the opening of Estonia to international influences in the 1990s. Survey data point at a recent growth in the use of illicit drugs among Estonian teenagers. Relying on participant observation and a number of in-depth individual and group i...