Page 27 - Tallinn University

proFessor,
wHo StUDIES tHE
troublespots
in society
aIrI-alINa allasTE, a sociology professor at Tallinn University, is well known for studying Estonian sub- cultures, young people and drug users.
“If we include the institutions from which Tallinn University was formed in 2005, then I have been here since 1991 when I entered the Estonian Institute of Humanities. In 1999 I began working in the Institute of International and Social Studies which at that time was
a research institute of Tallinn Pedagogical Institute. Although I was a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki in the intervening years, I was in fact connected with both institutes until the creation of Tallinn University in 2005. So I have occupied different positions here and done everything (laughs). I started as a student and have been a professor of sociology and director of the Institute of International and Social Studies for six years now.
In the long run we have many important projects covering quite different subjects: citizen initiative, education and labour market, life styles and attitudes, different minorities and generations and much more.
Of the present projects, the most important one is perhaps MYPLACE, (i.e memory, youth, political legacy and civic engagement) funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.
We have a rather important role in this project that includes 14 partner countries and involves large-scale empirical research – we lead two
of the ten working packages. I am one of the leaders of the working package about typologies of activism while my colleague is responsible for the Policy and Impact. From my point of view one important task of the project is redefining “political participation” to better suit young people lives and contemporary society.”
OPensOCieTy anD gOvernanCe