ENDNOTES
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Workshop on Identity Formation and Social
Issues in Estonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan held in Kyiv from August 4-8, 1997.
1This research has been generously supported by both the Ford Foundation (Ford Foundation Grant No.
950-1163) and the National Council for Soviet and East European Research (NCSEER) (Research Contract 812-11); neither
organization is responsible for the findings presented in this report. We are grateful to all of our
colleagues who have worked on this project with us.
2Western analysts have, of course, also
identified a set of social problems in post-communist
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. See, for example: Ahlander, Ann-Mari S., Environmental
Problems in the Shortage Economy: The Legacy of Soviet Environmental Policy, E. Elgar, 1994;
Bremmer, Ian and Ray Taras (eds.), Nations and Politics in the Soviet Successor States, Cambridge
University Press, 1993; Beissinger, Mark, "How Nationalisms Spread: Eastern Europe Adrift the Tides
and Cycles of Nationalist Contention," Social Research (Spring):1-50, 1996; Chu, Ke-Young and
Sanjeev Gupta, "Protecting the Poor: Social Safety Nets During Transition," Finance and Development
30: 24-27, 1993; Ellman, Michael, "The Increase in Death and Disease under 'Katastroika',"
Cambridge Journal of Economics 18: 329-55, 1994; Feshbach, Murray, Ecological Disaster: Cleaning
Up the Hidden Legacy of the Soviet Regime, The Twentieth Century Fund, 1995; Feshbach, Murray and
Alfred Friendly, Jr., Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature under Siege, Basic Books, 1992; Lee,
Rensselaer W. III and Scott B. MacDonald, "Drugs in the East," Foreign Policy Spring:89-107, 1993;
Kaufman, Richard F. and John P. Hardt, The Former Soviet Union in Transition (edited for the Joint
Economic Committee, U.S. Congress), M.E. Sharpe, 1993; RFE/RL, "Health Care Crisis," RFE/RL Research
Reports 2:31-62, October 8, 1993; Zloch-Christy, Iliana, Eastern Europe in a Time of Change:
Economic and Political Dimensions, Praeger, 1994; Chinn, Jeff and Robert Kaiser, Russians as the New
Minority: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Soviet Successor States, Westview, 1996; Millar, James
R., Social Legacies of Communism, Cambridge University Press, 1994; Lotspeich, Richard, "Crime in
the Transition Economies," Europe-Asia Studies 47(4):555-89, 1995; Lagerspetz, Mikko, "Social
Problems in the Estonian Mass Media 1975-1991," Acta Sociologica 36:357-369, 1993.
3Calhoun, Craig and John Ritzer, "Social Problems" in Craig Calhoun and George Ritzer (eds.), Social
Problems: A Critical Approach, McGraw Hill, 1993.
4This is a common theme in sociological
studies, elaborated most powerfully by Luker, Kristin,
Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, University of California, 1984.
5Stukuls, Daina, "Imagining the Nation: Campaign Posters of the First Postcommunist Elections in
Latvia," East European Politics and Societies 11(1):131-54, 1997.
6For an elaboration of this, see Kennedy, Michael D., Pauline Gianoplus, Naomi Galtz and Margaret
Foley, "Identity Formation and Transition Culture in the Making of Postcommunist Capitalism,"
unpublished manuscript, 1997. For its expression, see From Plan to Market: World Development Report,
1996, published for the World Bank, Oxford University Press, 1996.
7Gellner says that the "key ideas is in any case so very simple and easy that anyone can make it up
almost at any time" (Nations and Nationalism, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983, p. 126).
8Yablokov, Alexey,"The Russian Environmental
Threat to Other Countries," public lecture at the
University of Michigan, January 30, 1996
9Dawson, Jane I., Eco-Nationalism: Anti-Nuclear Activism and National Identity in Russia, Lithuania
and Ukraine, Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.
10Szporluk, Roman, "National Awakening: Ukraine and Belorussia" in Uri Ra’anan (ed.), The Soviet
Empire. Lexington, 1990.
11Lieven, Anatol, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the Path to Independence,
New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993, p. 220.
12See Critchlow, James, Nationalism in Uzbekistan: A Soviet Republic’s Road to Sovereignty, Boulder:
Westview, 1991.
13Anderson, Barbara and John Romani, "Estonian Attitudes Towards Environmental Pollution on the Eve of
Independence," paper presented at the Conference on Population and Environment, Rome, October 1996.
14Dawson, 1996.
15The formulation is from focus group methodologist, David Morgan; in the seminar "Narrative Analysis,
Oral History and Focus Groups," University of Michigan, June 1996.
16One especially useful recent collection on focus group research is Morgan, David (ed.), Successful
Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art, Sage, 1993; see also Morgan, David, Focus Groups as
Qualitative Research, (2nd Edition) Sage, 1997; and "Focus Groups" Annual Review of Sociology 22:
129-52, 1996. Focus groups have been used in the FSU, see for instance Kullberg, Judith S., "The
Ideological Roots of Elite Political Conflict in Post-Soviet Russia" Europe/Asia Studies
46(6):929-53, 1994.
17This was not always successful, but for the most part, this method worked. For instance, in
Uzbekistan, the only way in which the Ferghana group could be assembled was by visiting the market
square and finding willing participants.
18Punning, Jaan-Mati, "Aspects of Ecological Security: A Case Study of Estonia" pp. 49-58 in Peeter
Vares and Gunnar Lassinantti (eds.), Ecological Security of the Baltic States, Nordic Countries and
North-West Russia, Tallinn: Institute of International and Social Studies, Academy of Sciences, 1995.
19Ratas, Rein, "Towards Ecological Security" pp. 7-11 in Vares and Lassinantti (eds.), 1995.
20Nosov, Vladimir,"Environmental Problems in Sillamae" pp. 64-68 in Vares and Lassinantti (eds.), 1995. Most of the text which follows draws on this article.
21See the special issue on the Aral Sea crisis in Post-Soviet Geography 33:269-331, May 1992;
Schneider, David, "On the Level: Central Asia's Inland Seas Rise and Fall," Scientific American 273:
14, July 1995; Ellis, William E., "The Aral: A Soviet Sea Lies Dying," National Geographic 177(2):
73-92, 1990; Lipovsky, Igor, "The Deterioration of the Ecological Situation in Central Asia: Causes
and Possible Consequences," Europe-Asia Studies 47(7):1109-23, 1995; Micklin, Philip P. and William
D. Williams (eds.), The Aral Sea Basin, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1996.
22After recording these sessions, the tapes were transcribed and translated on site and checked for
quality at the University of Michigan. The analysis of these transcripts has been sorted through a
program called The Ethnograph. This program allows for the coding of qualitative data fragments
across thousands of pages of text. Codes can overlap. A data fragment discussing an ethnic division
of labor in one particular area might be coded simultaneously as employment, region, ethnicity and
gender. Thus the sum total of codes do not add up to 100%. Some of the codes appeared in each
transcript. For instance, we asked each group to address whether women and men suffered equally
through the problems of post-Soviet transition. There were other topics, however, which were not
introduced by the moderators, and which could only emerge if the focus groups themselves thought it
an important problem, virtue, or solution. For instance, only a few groups identified values as
either a problem or a potential solution to the problems that they faced. But even if a code had to
be addressed, the amount of time each group spent talking about the issue varied considerably. For
an elaboration of these codes, see Appendix 3.
23To date, we have coded the following focus groups:
|
ESTAMEME
|
Estonian speaking men from Tamsalu
|
|
UZBUKUWE
|
Uzbek speaking women from Bukhara
|
|
UZTASRWE
|
Russian speaking women from Tashkent
|
|
UZMUIKWE
|
Karakalpak women from Moynak
|
|
UKDONRWE
|
Russian speaking women from Donetsk
|
|
UZBUKTWE
|
Tajik speaking women from Bukhara
|
|
UZMUIKME
|
Karakalpak men from Moynak
|
|
UKVINUWE
|
Ukrainian women from Vinnitsa
|
|
UZBUKUME
|
Uzbek speaking men from Bukhara
|
|
UZFERUME
|
Uzbek speaking men from Ferghana city
|
|
ESTAMEWE
|
Estonian speaking women from Tamsalu
|
|
ESNARRME
|
Russian speaking men from Narva
|
|
ESNARRWE
|
Russian speaking women from Narva
|
|
UKLVIUME
|
Ukrainian speaking men from Lviv
|
|
UZTASRME
|
Russian speaking men from Tashkent
|
|
UKDONRME
|
Russian speaking men from Donetsk
|
|
UZTASUME
|
Uzbek speaking men from Tashkent
|
|
UZBUKTME
|
Tajik speaking men from Bukhara
|
|
UKKYIRME
|
Russian speaking men from Kyiv
|
|
UKKYIRWE
|
Russian speaking women from Kyiv
|
|
ESTAREWE
|
Estonian speaking women from Tartu
|
|
UKIVAUWE
|
Ukrainian women from Ivankiv
|
|
UKIVAUME
|
Ukrainian men from Ivankiv
|
|
UKVINUME
|
Ukrainian men from Vinnitsa
|
|
UZFERUWE
|
Uzbek speaking women from Ferghana city
|
|
ESSILRME
|
Russian speaking men from Sillamae>
|
|
ESSILRWE
|
Russian speaking women from Sillamae
|
24Uzbek women from Tashkent have not been entered into The Ethnograph yet, however. This is based on
an initial reading.
25In part, this could be due to the particular interpretation of our common instructors the focus
group moderators undertook in Uzbekistan: that one should assess blame and responsibility for each
issue. But precisely because this particular pattern of blame and solution did not appear for the
Russians and Karakalpaks, we believe this is more than an artifact of the method.
26Although focus groups from the provincial cities were supposed to contain only those with
less than higher education, Bukhara Tajik men included 3 men with higher education.
27From Tashkent, Ferghana and Bukhara, Tajik men and women from Bukhara.
28Karakalpak women were the most negative regarding independence, seeing no value in it whatsoever.
See below.
29Religion’s resurrection was sometimes linked to financial problems: "carrying out religious rituals
also depends on money" (2229-30).
30The effect of moderators is a more significant an issue than we expected, based on our training in
focus groups. This, unfortunately, affects our ability to interpret not only independence, but also
the relative salience of ecology.
In several of the Ukrainian cases, however, the moderators introduced an ecological theme from the
beginning by noting that 10 years ago was the year in which the Chernobyl catastrophe took place. The
moderators have said that to fail to mention Chernobyl, when asking about change in the last 10
years, would only strike Ukrainians as bizarre, or that there was some kind of ignorance or hidden
agenda. We can't be the judge of what was best to do in this regard, but only note the tradeoff.
As resonance with any particular focus group is increased, the potential for more standardized
comparison is reduced. And here we can see the price: we cannot tell how much focus groups would
emphasize the environment without having had it mentioned by the moderator. We might, however,
examine this problem briefly by comparing those focus groups where Chernobyl was used as a prompt by
the moderators and where it was not.
Chernobyl was mentioned by the moderator in initial statements among Ivankiv men and women,
Russian speaking men from Kyiv and Ukrainian speaking women from Kyiv, and not mentioned in the
initial statements among Russian speaking women from Kyiv, Lviv men, Donetsk men, Vinnitsa women
or men. But for Vinnitsa women, Donetsk and Ukrainian speaking women from Kyiv, Chernobyl was
used to introduce the question of the environment (1403-07 and 2762-63). In none of these cases,
however, did Chernobyl's mention prompt discussion as it did in the Ivankiv groups.
Nevertheless, its introduction seems to have led to slightly more discussion of the environment
than what we would have seen otherwise. Note that those groups where Chernobyl was not used as a
prompt were also the groups where the environment received the least attention: Lviv men and
Donetsk men. From this we conclude that the unevenly distributed Chernobyl prompts magnify
differences, but overall patterns are not too problematic. It is a more salient issue in Kyiv
and especially Ivankiv than in Donetsk or Lviv. Vinnitsa is in the middle, where other
environmental issues, especially among men, are introduced.
31In general, these women find that men are affected most directly by the nuclear reactor crisis
because of the proximity of their work (1519-1538).
32For an earlier discussion of this, see Ellis, 1990.
33One woman even identified herself with the condition of her daughter, who has a defective cardiac
valve (814-16).
34In 1995, Sillmet was operating at only 15-20% capacity due to the absence of raw
materials and chemicals for processing. See Nosov, 1995.
35Instruction: The preceding paragraph is designed to encourage people to "moderate themselves." You
should design it appropriately for your own society.
36Instruction: This practice is important so that the group can use each other's names, and the
moderator can remember who is who, to refer to what each other has said.
37Instruction: This is designed to get people warmed up to talking in this group, but don't let it get
too long.
38Instruction: If people immediately object and say there are no improvements, encourage them to please
write down that which might even be small improvements, and to allow the rest of the people in the
group to write these down. We want to allow people to identify improvements if they can.
39Instruction: If people write things down, and know they will be asked to hand it in later, they are
more likely to state their opinion rather than follow the opinions of others in the group.
40At this point in the discussion of each item, select the person and write on the board the particular
issue in an abbreviated way.
41Within each issue discussion, the following probes can be used to turn what might be thought of as
personal circumstances into larger social issues. These probes may not be possible to introduce in
each discussion of issues for lack of time. Ideally, however, they would be.
42We shall limit our discussion to a maximum of six-eight (depending on the size of the focus group --
1 issue per person) lead issues here. Ask each person for the item that they starred as the most
important, but also inviting other members of the group to say whether they also wrote something
similar, or whether they agree that it is important. Go through the rest of the participants for
their starred items and write those issues up on the sheets of paper.
43Write it up on a sheet, and follow the same procedure as for the improvements. We shall limit our
discussion to a maximum of six or eight lead issues, depending on the size of the group. This
section has double the time allotted to it over the improvements section.
44Within each issue discussion, the following probes can be used to turn what might be thought of as
personal circumstances into larger social issues. These probes may not be possible to introduce in
each discussion of issues for lack of time. Ideally, however, they would be.
45We shall limit our discussion to a maximum of six-eight (depending on the size of the focus group --
1 issue per person) lead issues here. Ask each person for the item that they starred as the most
important, but also inviting other members of the group to say whether they also wrote something
similar, or whether they agree that it is important. Go through the rest of the participants for
their starred items and write those issues up on the sheets of paper.
46Here are decision rule is this: If you have already discussed an issue to some degree, don't mention
it here. Instead, go to the next issue raised below that have not been mentioned. For instance, we
anticipate that economic and nationality issues are quite likely to be discussed. But gender issues
may not. If all these issues have been discussed, with the appropriate probes, then one can go to
the specific site issues.
47Have the issues we discussed today affected regions differently? People of different religions
differently? Here, we invite the moderator and research teams to introduce whatever issue they
particularly want to have addressed. We want to invite each team to finish in a site specific way,
one that is likely to address locally important issues, and to make the group feel like it has been
successful.
48Have these questions written down, but also read them aloud to the group.
49The sheets of paper with issues listed should still be hanging.
50This is so that we can identify them. Introduce any descriptor you think appropriate.
51Here, if they ask, say that we are of course very interested if, depending on the issue, the 'people
like you' reference can change.
52Not every transcript could be transcribed verbatim, and few could be transcribed perfectly well.
Moynak men, for instance, had to be treated entirely non-verbatim, while Lviv men was rendered nearly
perfectly from tape to paper.
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