[1] It was at the University of Tartu in the 1960s when it first became possible to conduct empirical social studies in the USSR. At that time contacts with colleagues from the Soviet Union were very important. The institutional breakthrough came with the creation of the Sociological Laboratory at the University of Tartu in 1968. The main fields of research carried out at that time had a decisive influence on the subsequent development of sociology in Estonia.
[2] Social research in Estonia is currently divided between different academic and non-academic institutions. The main fields of research in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Tartu are the family and welfare, deviant behavior, social stratification and mobility, life paths of generations in contemporary Estonia, and youth and education.
[3] The main sociological research topics in the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Tartu are post-communist transition society, media and changes in society, and the role of the educational system and media in integrating non-Estonians into Estonian society.
[4] The main research areas in the Department of Sociology at Tallinn Pedagogical University are environmental sociology, pedagogical sociology, sociology of charity, sociology of tourism and sociology of international relations.
[5] The main research fields at the Institute of International and Social Studies at Tallinn Pedagogical University include cultural dialogue in Estonia in the 1990s, ethnic, regional and global factors, social stratification and mobility in a changing society, life paths in contemporary Estonia, changing values and lifestyles in Estonia in the 1990s, economic and social resources of families, the social dimension of European integration and problems of the nation-state.
[6] The research profile of the Estonian Statistical Office includes such fields as education, household budget surveys, population, labor force surveys, social trends, gender, and time use surveys.
[7] Established in 1990, AS EMOR is the largest full-service marketing research and consulting company in Estonia. Its main areas of research are marketing and media research.
[8] The research profile of the private company SAAR Poll includes different opinion surveys (World Values Survey, Eurobarometer, political participation, surveys of trends commissioned by the Estonian Parliament or the Estonian Government).
[9] The most important recurrent studies in the research profile of ES Market Research Ltd. include the election preferences of the Estonian population, public opinion on national defense.
[10] The creation of the Social Science Data Archive in Estonia was started by transferring the data stored in the computing centers of the University of Tartu and Radio Estonia to PC format in order to preserve the data. By 1996 all machine-readable data files from the period between 1975 and 1994 had been transferred to the data bank and more than 100 data files had been converted to SPSS format. The Estonian Social Science Data Archive (ESSDA) started its activities within the framework of a project financed by the Open Estonia Foundation in 1996. We have already discussed our situation in more detail (Murakas/Rämmer 2001). Since 1997 there has been no regular funding, and our work relies mainly on support and social initiatives by the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology of the University of Tartu. ESSDA cooperates closely with the Academic Union of Estonian Sociologists as well as non-academic institutions which are conducting social research. Up until now ESSDA has archived data from around 250 empirical social studies.
[11] The activities of the Estonian Social Science Data Archive have lately been seriously restricted by the lack of finance. As a result of the rejection of several of applications, our only regular funding body has been the Faculty of Social Sciences of theUniversity of Tartu, which also pays the salary of our part-time (0.5) data manager. The Faculty has also provided ESSDA with two rooms in the building of the Faculty of Social Sciences free of charge. Despite very limited resources, the Archive has continued compiling new data and organizing existing data. ESSDA has developed ties with the Statistical Office of Estonia by communicating statistical data based on foreign inquiries according to terms set by the Statistical Office. The number of users of the Archive has grown. Among them are Estonian as well as foreign social scientists and journalists.
[12] The Internetsites of ESSDA have steadily been updated to include new information. Recently, the database on BA and MA theses submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences was added. Unfortunately, this information is available only in Estonian.
[13] We have started scanning non-electronic material such as questionnaires and transferring them to an electronic format. Two issues of the electronic journal “Estonian Social Science Online” were launched with the help of ESSDA.
[14] Reciprocal visits and discussions concerning possible joint activities have taken place with representatives of the Finnish Social Science Data Archive.
[15] There are some important reasons for the Archive's location in Tartu: an initial group for creating a data bank on social sciences was formed by sociologists, psychologists, political scientists and human geographers of theUniversity of Tartu. In summer 1995 the University of Tartu provided a room for the data bank in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Secondly, the University of Tartu has been a leading center for social science research since the beginning of the first surveys in the 1960s. Thirdly, it is possible only at the university to solve some problems without paid stuff. For example, we can sometimes link data bank activities with other tasks in the Faculty of Social Sciences. We can also use datasets from the Archive in teaching. Students can work with real data. After graduating, they are often potential data users in future. And finally, because the University of Tartu is by far the oldest university in Estonia, it has a prestigious name for potential and real partners in the public and private sectors.
[16] However, there are still some disadvantages as regards the location of the Archive in Tartu. First and foremost, we sometimes encounter problems with the data providers from other research centers. Sometimes they are worried that local customers in the University of Tartu may enjoy advantages regarding access to the data. Secondly, support from the public sector is often cooperative but not financial. And last but not least, the chronic lack of funding generally reduces the chances of finding possible means of finance.
[17] In the long run the Archive is likely to remain in Tartu. However, in order to gain additional funding, ESSDA needs additional popularization of data collections through scientific works by graduate students. Present users have for the most part been outside graduate students. For this purpose we firstly need fresh additional datasets and secondly we should develop a very user-friendly service, i.e. we should give customers what they want. If we can find funds from this starting point at the University of Tartu, it would also be possible to extend our services on a more personal basis to other institutions (scientific institutions and the public sector).
26 April 2002
