Research programmes
Since 1998 IES' research work has been organized within three year
research policy programmes. For the years 1999-2001 IES was carrying out
a programme on European integration in a national and
regional context which contains three major research areas:
Other research topics in 1998-2001
Visions of multi-disciplinary research in 2002-2005
Estonia and the Baltic states in general are a decently studied region
from the aspect of European studies. At the same time these associated
countries represent clearly several new orientations. Accession states
should not obtain the membership in EU only, they should become socially
well-developed European countries. What are CEE countries opportunities of
fast economic growth and social integration in the Convergence Context?
The question of much socio-political relevance in home affairs is also about whether candidate countries rapid movement towards European Union membership contributes to the cohesion within the society or is an obstacle to its achievement with various side effects. The recent economic modernisation of CEE countries has been fast which can't be said about its administrative and social capacity.
The main focus of research project development process of IES are review economic and social conditions surrounding candidate countries as they moves toward convergence with the European Union, changes of people's social and psychological well-being the period of rapid change, revealing in the collective ethnic and national identification and thereby forming the preconditions for overall shift in attitudes.
In this aspect three academic sub-themes are important:
The main prospective is comparative study. The research team of IES has
prepared in November 2001-January 2002 a proposal "The Network on Studying
of Social Convergence and Changing Common European Identity in EU
Enlargement to the East" to European Commission Fifth Framework Programme
(Thematic Programme Improving the Human Research Potential and the
Socio-Economic Knowledge Base). The main idea of the project is creation
of the network for comparative study and one of the main objectives is
to outline complex of characteristics of personal well-being as indicators
of development during the transition of a society and integration with
EU.
Research methods
a) quantitative - sociological surveys of national samples
and elites have been carried out in co-operation with ARIKO MG Consulting,
which has a nation-wide network of professional interviewers;
b) qualitative - focus group interviews by professional moderators;
c) identity structure analysis - research method for identity exploration,
developed by Prof. P. Weinreich (see recent publication: Aksel Kirch,
Einar Rull and Tarmo Tuisk. Group Identity Dynamics of Estonian and Polish
Students in the EU Integration Process - Trames, 2001, Vol 5 (55/50), 4,
321-335).
Expertise
Besides the IES publications and projects several expertises have been
ordered from the institute: