The Role of Voluntary Organisations in Constructing the Common Identity and Mobilising of Polish Community in Southeastern Lithuania

Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Monika

doi:10.1515/ppsr-2015-0026

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Concerning the Baltic states, Ammon Cheskin has shown how Latvian Russian speakers pursue strategies of integration through building a distinct identity of Latvian-Russians (Cheskin, 2012). Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė demonstrated the importance of Lithuanian Polish civic and political organizations in terms of minority mobilization and identity building through referencing and recalling the minority's collective memory (Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, 2015). This study tries to fill this gap.…”

Section: Ethnic Democracy In Lithuania: a Bottom-up Approachmentioning

confidence: 95%

Minority Response to Ethnic Democracy

Dambrauskas¹

2017

Intersections

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Intersections. EEJSP 3(4): 66-86. DOI: 10.17356/ieejsp.v3i4.311 http://intersections.tk.mta.hu AbstractThis article focuses on the evolution of Polish minority responses to Lithuanian minority policies in the post-EU-accession period. Stateminority conflicts in Lithuania have not generated violence or minority radicalization, despite continuing discontent among members of the state's Polish minority (which constitutes Lithuania's largest ethnic minority population) and the failure of the Lithuanian state to resolve the causes of discontent. Employing Smooha's concept of ethnic democracy, the article addresses this puzzle through an ethnographic exploration of the views held by members of the Polish minority about the Lithuanian state's policies of nationbuilding. The findings reveal a diverse set of critical perceptions among Poles in Lithuania, which emphasize the ineffectiveness of state policies in addressing minority needs. However, a shared perception of threat from Russia, generated after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, helps to sustain the regime's stability and its strategy of stalling the resolution of minority concerns.

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Section: Ethnic Democracy In Lithuania: a Bottom-up Approachmentioning

confidence: 95%

Minority Response to Ethnic Democracy

Dambrauskas¹

2017

Intersections

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“…These nongovernmental organizations are connected, often via personal links, to the political party Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance (EAPL-CFA; formerly named as Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania [EAPL]), which claims to represent the interests of Lithuania’s Polish community. The qualitative research data reveal that the leaders and members of Polish NGOs raise questions similar to those addressed in the program of the EAPL-CFA (e.g., the use of minority languages on public signs and the situation of schools with instruction of Polish language) (Frėjutė-Rakauskienė 2015b). In addition, many informants expressed great political confidence in the political party and its leader as representing the interests of Poles living in southeastern Lithuania.…”

Section: Institutions Of Polishness In Belarus and Lithuania: Comparative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the activities of Polish NGOs are oriented to the Polish community and its members rather than to the broader multiethnic civil society (cf., Young 2000, 160–161). In this way, ethnic belonging is cherished and maintained (Frėjutė-Rakauskienė 2016, 2015a, 2015b).…”

Section: Institutions Of Polishness In Belarus and Lithuania: Comparative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Polish Ethnic Minority in Belarus and Lithuania: Politics, Institutions, and Identities

Frėjutė-Rakauskienė

Sasunkevich

Šliavaitė

2020

Nationalities Papers

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This article analyzes how institutions influence the process of identity formation within the Polish minority communities in Belarus and Lithuania. We focus on ways that the identities of people who consider themselves Poles in Belarus and Lithuania are targeted by institutions like the state, schools, and nongovernmental organizations. We aim to shed light on how these processes are shaped by institutional settings and broader political contexts. The authors take a bottom-up approach to institutions and look at how members of the Polish communities in the two neighboring countries conceptualize the role of various institutions—NGOs, schools, Karta Polaka (the Polish Card)—to shape their sense of ethnic belonging. The article is built on a cross-case analysis. Data for the Lithuanian and Belarusian cases, consisting of interviews and secondary sources, were collected independently and then reread in light of a common research question. Through our analysis, we show differences and similarities in how analogous institutions function on the two sides of the border and elaborate on the reasons why these differences occur and what role state policy and supranational regulations play in the process.

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“…13 While Latvia insisted more on assimilative language policy by reducing Russian language in public space and limiting Russian schools, 14 Estonian integration policies have proceeded more smoothly. 15 Since the beginning of the 2000s, when the first integration strategy was adopted, integration discourse is described as a process of Above all, Russia is seen as the most influential actor to influence security in the region. It has been developing a broad spectrum of military and economic methods to legitimize Russia's interests in post-Soviet spaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Securitization of National Minorities in the Baltic States

Kuczyńska–Zonik

2017

Baltic Journal of Law &Amp; Politics

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The occupation of Crimea and war in Eastern Ukraine brought minority issues to the top of the Baltic security agenda. Although experts estimate that a separatist scenario for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is not probable, the issue of national minorities has already been included into the security concept as a potential source of danger to stability and national identity. While there is need to analyze political risks in the Baltics, the concept of securitization will be applied to the topic of national minorities. This paper addresses the problem of national minorities' political integration and loyalty to the state. For the empirical analysis, the paper will use secondary data of surveys conducted in 2014-2017, exposing opinions and beliefs of minorities in the Baltic States referring to their domestic and foreign policies, NATO, Ukrainian crisis and relations with Russia. As a result, the concluding suggestion is made that more attention should be paid to political cohesion and minority policy management: 1) to optimize the minority development; 2) to predict potential risks in the region, and 3) to prevent further threats from Russia. Western countries and their political ideals. While there is effective media influence in Latvia and Estonia, Russian propaganda in Lithuania is not limited to Russianspeaking populations. Although the Lithuanian-speaking population is relatively resistant to Russian propaganda, Lithuania's Polish-speaking communities are more vulnerable. 88% of national minorities in Lithuania are fluent Russian-speakers and usually watch Russian TV. 50 As a result one of Russia's goals in Lithuania is to radicalize both Russian and Polish minorities by improving media influence. 51 What is more, Russia employs the "ethnic issue" to provoke chaos in the Baltic States, maintain its favorable position in the Baltic region and deteriorate relations between neighbor states. 52 The painful historical memories still obstruct dialogue between Lithuania and its Polish minority as well as trammel Polish-Lithuanian official relations. And it is Russia who is deeply interested in the clash between Poland and Lithuania.

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The Role of Voluntary Organisations in Constructing the Common Identity and Mobilising of Polish Community in Southeastern Lithuania

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

Minority Response to Ethnic Democracy

Minority Response to Ethnic Democracy

Polish Ethnic Minority in Belarus and Lithuania: Politics, Institutions, and Identities

The Securitization of National Minorities in the Baltic States

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