DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36802
title: Identity Formation and Social Problems in Estonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan: Focus Group and Oral History Transcripts, 1996-1998
title: Archival Version

description: This study sought to understand how various forms of social identity structured the articulation of social problems that accompanied the post-Soviet transition, and how the articulation of these social issues related to the formation of identities in post-Soviet society. These questions underlie the structure of the interviews conducted in Estonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan between 1996 and 1998. 

Interviews were conducted in two formats: either a focus group consisting of 6-8 individuals or an individual oral history interview.  Thirty-six focus groups, evenly divided between the three countries, were conducted in 14 locations across the three countries. Groups were divided by gender and ethnicity/nationality. During the focus groups, participants were asked to describe positive and negative events of the previous 10 years and whether these changes specific groups of people more than others. Depending on the site, focus groups were sometimes asked to comment on specific issues. For example, the three locations chosen for their proximity to ecological crises (Sillamäe, Ivankiv, and Moynak) were asked about environmental problems. Focus group participants were asked to provide the names of prominent local people who could comment on the social issues discussed during the session.
A total of 35 oral history interviews were conducted with prominent citizens in each location: 10 each in Estonia and Uzbekistan and 15 in Ukraine. The 2-hour interviews were designed to record information about the interviewee's personal background as well as their involvement in the changes occurring in the past 10 years, assessment of the current situation, and thoughts on the future directions of their countries.
description: This study sought to explore the following questions in three non-Russian countries of the former Soviet Union:
In what ways do social identities structure the articulation of social issues in the former Soviet Union? ; 
And how is the articulation of these issues linked to the formation of identities in post-Soviet society?;
description: Datasets: 
					
						DS1: Oral History
description: face-to-face interview
description: Adult residents of Estonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
				   		Smallest Geographic Unit: City
description: Focus Groups:  To ensure relatively egalitarian discussion conditions, break characteristics of gender, nationality, and education were used to constitute ten focus groups in each country.  A range of possible participants were identified using informal networks in each of the sites; information collected in a pre-interview questionnaire and interview helped the on-site investigators decide the most appropriate combination of actual participants, assuring that they would be both willing to talk in moderation and sufficiently diverse in terms of city location, residence, and job.  These groups did not aspire to be statistically representative; thus random sampling techniques were not necessary.
Oral Histories:  Potential oral history narrators were identified by project researchers from each country based on their assessments about prominent actors who could speak about various social, political, and economic issues with authority and understanding and also by focus group participants.  The final lists for each country were determined in collaboration with University of Michigan researchers and upon confirmation that of the narrator's willingness to have his/her name used.