Peer-reviewed articles have all been through a peer-review process. We practice double-blind peer-review. All material is reviewed by two independent specialists at least at post-doc level. A prerequisite for publishing scientific articles in Baltic Worlds is that the article has not already been published in English elsewhere. If an article is simultaneously being considered by another publication, this should be indicated when submitting.
This article describes and analyzes assessment approaches in three conservatories and thus contributes to the study of how values are distributed and negotiated within higher education specialized in classical music in the Baltic Sea region and Central Europe. The relation between assessment and learning could be viewed from different perspectives. Assessment of learning can be seen as a checkpoint regarding whether specific knowledge has been internalized, assessment for learning implies that the chosen assessment method encourages the learning process, while assessment as learning can be seen as intertwined with and dominating the learning process. In this article we clarify possibilities for transformative assessment, as well as the risk for assessment as learning. What counts as important knowledge varies between and within the perspectives. To generate material to enable analysis of assessment approaches in the Baltic Sea region and Central Europe, 23 students and 22 professors/leaders within three conservatories were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through content analysis by the two researchers individually and collaboratively. The results show three different approaches, namely the competition approach, the portfolio approach, and the response-based approach.
By
Cecila Ferm Almqvist and Kristi Kiilu
September 18, 2024
Towards the end of the 19th century, Ingrian Finns became aware of their own national identity and culture. These ideas were maintained by the Kolppana Teacher and Churchwarden Seminary, which was founded in 1863. At the turn of the twentieth century, national thinking also began to emerge from the deep ranks of Ingrian-Finnish people, partly because Ingrian-born teachers and churchwardens educated in Kolppana formed a new, schooled intelligentsia. Music played a central role in the national process, and the Kolppana graduates taught religious and patriotic repertoire. The new intelligentsia comprised only men because the Kolppana Seminary was not open to women. The Ingrian Finns strove to preserve their own language, Lutheran religion, and national customs. Even though they recognized Finland as their spiritual homeland, the Ingrian-Finnish national spirit was marked by a clear “Ingrianism”.
By
Samuli Korkalainen
September 18, 2024
Since its announcement in 2015, Nord Stream 2 (NS2) has fueled European public debate about the EU’s role in a multipolar world, the scope and limits of transnational governance, and the trade-off between environment and climate protection vs. economic growth and fossil fuel lobbying. Whereas much has been said and written about the security and military risks issued by the project, the environmental and climate impact of the Russian pipeline has received limited attention. This article analyzes to what extent both institutions and civil societies of the Baltic countries (in particular, those directly involved in the permit process) developed forms of transnational cooperation in order to tackle environmental and climate challenges issued by the planned pipeline. The aim is to contribute to the following research fields: the role of environment and climate in international relations; multiple notions of “security” in the Baltic region; and transnational governance in the face of global challenges. The sources are ENGOs’ publications and statements, official reports as well as media, which are analyzed according to Critical Discourse Analysis.
By
Monica Quirico
September 18, 2024
Since 1994 anti-genderism has emerged as a new participant in the discourse on sex education. One of the biggest targets of anti-genderism is public schools, where it is claimed that pupils are being indoctrinated with “gender theory”. Anti-genderism obstructs the implementation of sex education in various countries in Europe. Anti-genderist rhetoric and its interface with sex education has been analyzed up till now either as a right-wing or as a Russian propaganda narrative, only sporadically mentioning their common traits. Applying deductive content analysis, this research examined how sex education is utilized by anti-genderism. Sex education is portrayed as a frontline discipline that holds immense power to either distort or protect “traditional values” and sovereignty. Parents are depicted as powerless against sex education. Insights about approaching sex education and radical positions related to it are addressed in the discussion section.
By
Akvilė Giniotaitė
September 18, 2024
The author analyses the operation by Swedish diplomats in the Soviet Union during the peak of the Stalinist Terror. Although Swedish communists living in the USSR have been in the spotlight of some journalists and historians, the extent of the different Swedish groups and the complicated diplomatic actions to help them are nearly unknown. Who could be saved? Who disappeared in the Gulag? The context is the Soviet actions against all foreigners in the Great Terror from 1937, forcing them to either become Soviet citizens or immediately leave the country. Comparisons are made with Finnish people in the Soviet Union, a group much harder hit by the terror than the small groups of Swedes.
By
Torbjörn Nilsson
April 23, 2024
This paper delves into the ways in which art and cultural expressions have helped to preserve the memory of the Ukrainian Revolution and how the Maidan Museum contributes to this effort. Specifically, the study explores the significance of the Maidan event in Ukraine’s national memory culture and how it is being integrated into the country’s historical narrative as part of the decommunization and decolonization processes. Additionally, the text examines how the politics of memory, as expressed through the museum’s performances and aesthetics, can serve as a tool of collective and national resistance. Ultimately, the article argues that the Maidan event is not fixed but rather dynamic, and Maidan memory plays a critical role in Ukraine’s ongoing transition away from a shared historical past with Russia.
By
Galyna Kutsovska
April 23, 2024
Based in part on interviews and fieldwork, this article analyzes how artworks produced during the Ukrainian Revolution (2013–2014) present the political emergence of the Ukrainian people as a collective fused by bonds of solidarity. At first characterized by a strong universal thrust, presenting a boundless democratic anticipation, this solidarity was subsequently contained by religious-political traditions and specific forms of self-sacrificing and masculinist nationalism, often projected as a revolutionary utopia in its own right, which has been operationalized in the defense against Russia’s invasion. To substantiate the argument, the text analyzes numerous artworks from the Ukrainian Revolution. These interpretations demonstrate how aesthetic acts contribute to the production of bonds of solidarity that transcend existing modes of political and cultural representation of Ukraine.
By
Stefan Jonsson
April 23, 2024
This article analyzes the Polish police narrative on Roma during the interwar time, unveiling attitudes and potential practices. According to the police journals and handbooks, Roma were mobile and disposed to theft and deceit. Their traditional crafts were merely a smoke screen for illicit activities. As countermeasures, searches of caravans, meticulous checks of identity documents, indiscriminate fingerprinting of Roma suspects, among several measures, were recommended. This narrative constituted part of a larger police professional discourse and is likely to be an indicator of practices on Roma. Polish police followed the contemporary European expertise on Roma produced by the fields of criminalistics and criminology. As there were no discriminatory laws targeting Roma in Poland, it appears that police used legislation against begging and vagrancy, among other tactics.
By
Piotr Wawrzeniuk
April 23, 2024
Radical right parties (RRPs) have been extensively studied throughout the past two decades. One neglected aspect is the youth organizations (YOs) of RRPs and their transnational networks. This article analyzes the transnational links between the YOs of RRPs in Estonia and Latvia. The article contributes to the literature by arguing for four findings relating to the transnational links between the YOs of RRPs, which provide a window into the future of the parties being analyzed.
By
Pēteris F Timofejevs and Louis John Wierenga
August 23, 2023
The Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRYU) is an administered mass organization for youth in contemporary Belarus and has been supported by the Lukashenka government for decades. It is therefore well positioned to engage in international activities. What’s more, it claims to develop “multi-vector international youth collaboration” by participating in international programs and projects. This article aims to map and explain the international activities of the BRYU from the early 1990s until the present day. It asks how the association’s international activities look in practice and what explains these patterns. It finds there is a qualitative difference between the BRYU’s international activities with actors in Russia, the European Union and China. The article suggests that in comparison to the BRYU’s domestic activities, which have been the primary focus of previous research, the youth league’s participation in international affairs is limited. It argues that this state of affairs can be explained by its structural subservience to President Lukashenka, for whom the BRYU’s international activities are of secondary importance.
By
Kristiina Silvan
August 23, 2023
Issue 2025, 2: 
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, CentralAsia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.