Public and private shaping of Soviet mining city: contested history?

Printsmann Anu
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Printsmann Anu: Centre for Landscape and Culture, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, Uus-Sadama 5, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia

European Countryside, 2010, vol. 2, issue 3, 132-150

Abstract: The paper tells the story of the shaping of a Soviet oil-shale mining city - Kohtla-Järve, Estonia - by contrasting the public sphere represented by photo-albums with private ones represented by life-stories. The reason for Kohtla-Järve's existence is oil-shale and its usage as political tool has caused the city's rise and decline in the socio-economic turmoil of the 20th century. Yet, as contradictory as we would like to think results of visual representation analysis and a biographical approach concerning Soviet and contemporary worlds are, they both still broadly follow political and socio-economic circumstances. Imagery and life-stories are not poles apart, they just focus on different things; representations are somewhat rooted in real life and biographies are partly lived in public space.

Keywords: representation; biography; life-story; landscape change; social space; industry; oilshale; Estonia; representation; biography; life-story; landscape change; social space; industry; oilshale; Estonia; representatsioon; biograafia; elulugu; maastikumuutus; sotsiaalne ruum; tööstus; põlevkivi; Eesti (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:eurcou:v:2:y:2010:i:3:p:132-150:n:2

DOI: 10.2478/v10091-010-0010-8

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