Transition In The Baltic States

Much has been written about the speed and complexity of the transition throughout Central and Eastern Europe and former parts of the Soviet Union. The focus has invariably been on the macro scale and often from the perspective of a single discipline. This book differs from others by concentrating on the micro level of change and doing so from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, recognising that transformation processes are multiplex and require the linkages between the social, political, psychological, cultural and economic dimensions to be fully exposed and addressed.

This book analyses the potential for active stakeholder engagement in the energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in order to foster clean energy deployment. Public acceptability and bottom-up activities can be critical for enduring outcomes to an energy transition. As a result, it is vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community and prosumer participation to facilitate renewable energy deployment and a clean energy transition – and, consequently, to examine the factors influencing social acceptability. Focussing on the diverse BSR, this book draws on expert contributions to consider a range of different topics, including the challenges of social acceptance and its policy implications; strategies to address challenges of acceptability among stakeholders; and community engagement in clean energy production. Overall, the authors examine the practical implications of current policy measures and provide recommendations on how lessons learnt from this ‘energy lab region’ may be applied to other regions. Reflecting an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, this book is an essential resource for scholars, students and policymakers researching and working in the areas of renewable energy, energy policy and citizen engagement, and interested in understanding the potential for bottom-up, grassroots activities and social acceptability to expedite the energy transition and reanimate democracies. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Latvia in Transition provides the material necessary to understand present-day Latvia. The author examines the main events, processes and problems of the transitional period of this country from a dependent and Moscow-dominated Soviet Republic to an independent and also interdependent state. The book presents the most relevant and essential aspects of Latvia's history, politics, economics and society. The historical analysis highlights the formative events which are still recalled in Latvian political discourse. The period of awakening is discussed in detail to reflect its world-wide resonance and impact on similar processes in other Soviet Republics. The creation of a new state and the establishment of democracy have forced the elite to cope with a multitude of problems simultaneously. This book describes the approach to politics, market economics, ethnic relations and the environment, and also reasserted impact of religion.

The Baltic States are unique in being the only member-states of the EU to have fought to regain their sovereignty from the Soviet Union, only then to cede it to Brussels in certain key areas. Similarly, no member-states have had to struggle as hard as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to preserve their identity after fifty years of Soviet nationality policy in the face of sub-state and supra-state challenges. The post-communist experience of the Baltic States thus allows us to examine debates about identity as a source of political power; the conditioning and constraining influence of identity discourses on social, political and economic change; and the orientation and outcome of their external relations. In particular, the book examines the impact of Russian and Soviet control of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the Baltic independence movements of the late 1980s/early 1990s; the citizenship debates; relations with Russia vis-à-vis the withdrawal of the troops of the former Soviet Army; drawing of the shared boundary and the rights of Russian-speaking minorities as well as the efforts undertaken by the three Baltic States to rebuild themselves, modernise their economies, cope with the ensuing social changes and facilitate their accession to the EU and NATO.

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Organisation and administration - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,7 (A-), Kiel University of Applied Sciences (Business Management), course: Seminar: Selected Topics in English, language: English, abstract: The Baltic Sea Region, including relatively poor countries such as Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania but also economic giants such as Denmark, Finland or Sweden, is discussed controversially in literature. The Financial Times calls the region an "economic tiger" or even "the Engine Room of Europe" (Burt 1999, 1). Others do not see such good prospective and rather warn that "positive trends should not lead to total optimism ... [because, in their view,] economic integration comprising all states bordering the Baltic Sea is not easily to be visualized in the near future" (NEBI Yearbook 1998, 5). The decision of a company, whether to invest or to go public in a certain country, should be based (mainly) on the analysis of the region which is not always an easy task. The main objective of this paper is thus to analyse the economic situation in the Eastern Baltic Rim countries by looking at the integration process into the EU, the successes in attracting foreign investors, and the success of the transforming process in general by the means of a SWOT analysis. Theoretical information will give the ability to understand Chapters three through seven on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the region.

The Baltic countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were pioneers among the former Soviet republics in implementing political and economic reforms. Starting in 1988, the transition process in these countries has been rapid. This work shows how fiscal and exchange rate policies have contributed.