Title Middle class in the Baltic States since 1991 /
Translation of Title Vidurinė klasė Baltijos šalyse nuo 1991 m.
Authors Taljūnaitė, Meilutė ; Sviklas, Eduardas Kęstutis
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Is Part of Sosialo zinatnu vestnesis / Social Sciences Bulletin.. Daugavpils : Daugavpils University. 2018, 27, 2, p. 7-35.. ISSN 1691-1881. eISSN 2592-8562
Keywords [eng] Middle class ; Baltic States ; social identification
Abstract [eng] The article presents the analysis of social identifications of Baltic countries population with middle class position between 1991 and 2012. The forms of social identification in different periods of formation of the Baltic countries are analyzed in the context of the dominant ideologies or theories and national self-identification complexity is investigated. The class structure in all Baltic countries is changing. The analysis of social structure in different countries moves mainly in parallel to each other but is not strictly comparable neither by themes, nor by large statistical numbers for each country. In result of the global economic crisis in 2008, almost half of the world's population now belongs to the middle class as a result of rapid growth GDP in emerging countries. Sociologists, therefore, are no longer surprised of the efforts of researchers in various countries undergoing rapid transitions or transformations to provide new meanings to the concepts of the middle class taking into account peculiarities and history of their respective countries. This article also aims at analyzing social identity of the people of the Baltic States at the beginning of their formation and today as well. Different surveys and the authors are discussed in this article. Since 1991, until now, after the restoration of the independence of the Baltic States, a number of sociological studies has been carried out to analyze the emerging post-Soviet social structure of society. In practice, every research carried out differed both, in methodological and method’s approaches. The aim of this article is to analyze the existing social stratification in the Baltic States on the basis of sociological studies of the middle class, emphasizing the middle class as the main guarantor of creating a modern society. The novelty of the article is that it makes an attempt to use the data of different, multidimensional researches to discover commonalities or peculiarities of the middle class formation and self-identification in the Baltic States. The analysis has also shown that the identity of the middle class remains the strongest on all stages of formation of the Baltic countries, while only the content and the understanding of the middle class differ. It has been revealed that the Baltic countries middle class is far from being homogeneous.
Published Daugavpils : Daugavpils University
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2018