Although homes are often regarded as sites of familiarity, privacy and safety, a closer look at them reveals their contested and processual nature interwoven with wider societal structures. Particularly in the context of international migration and mobility, home is an essentially political and certainly not only a personal matter.
Kingumets conducted long-term ethnographic research in the North-East Estonian town Narva in 2010-2011 and during a short follow-up fieldwork in 2018. Narva is known for its textile industry and for its international cross-border mobility with Russia after the Soviet fall. The main part of Narva’s population consists of resettlers, and their descendants, from all over former Soviet Union who moved to the town during 1944–1991. After the first migrant generation, there are already several generations born in the town, but 96 per cent of them are still Russian-speakers and only a half holds Estonian citizenship. Kingumets’ research was led by desire to understand how Narvans’ homes historically evolved in Soviet Narva and then dramatically transformed when state authorities and socioeconomic conditions changed after Estonia’s independence in 1991.
“When recalling their personal stories of migration to Narva, people were literally expressing that the town resembled a Paradise to them upon their arrival. And yet, the Narva I encountered when conducting my fieldwork was described as a place of degradation and hopelessness. I wanted to apprehend, what exactly made Russian-speakers see their hometown in such contrastive terms”, explains Kingumets.
“I figured that I should scrutinize home as a space of possibilities if I want to be able to disentangle the overwhelming emotional tune in Narva”, she adds.
The research has several important empirical and theoretical contributions. It gives voice to the Russian-speaking population whose voice has remained weak in post-Soviet Estonia. It brings together the theoretical prisms of home, hope and state and demonstrates how they are interlocked with each other when people relate to places and establish their belonging. Furthermore, the study argues for the continuous relevancy of exploring and considering Soviet and post-Soviet subjectivities while trying to make sense of the contemporary societies.
Jaanika Kingumets was born in Estonia, has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tartu University and Master of Social Sciences degree from Tampere University. She works currently as a design anthropologist for a start-up company.
The doctoral dissertation of M.Soc.Sc Jaanika Kingumets in the field of social anthropology titled From Paradise to the Town of no Hope: Home-making Practises among Soviet-era Russian-speakers in Narva, Estonia will be publicly examined in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University at 12 o’clock on Friday March 25, 2022, in Linna building lecture hall K 103 (Kalevantie 5). The Opponent will be Professor Stefaan Jansen from the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina. The Custos will be Professor Laura Huttunen from the Faculty of Social Sciences.
The public defence can be also followed via Zoom remote connection
https://tuni.zoom.us/j/66855111300
Meeting ID: 668 5511 1300
The dissertation is available online at
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-2264-9
Photo: Jonne Renvall, Tampere University