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Today, on 28 April, Oleksandra Seliverstova from the Tallinn University School of Governance, Law and Society will defend her PhD Thesis, which focused on the role of consumer culture in the emergence of a national identity in two post-Soviet societies – Estonia and Ukraine. The thesis shows how the representatives of both communities express their national sentiments through acts of consumption, and what analysing consumer culture can tell us about national identity formation.

“The thesis looks at consumer culture as part of our everyday life, where people renegotiate or create meanings related to nationhood,” Seliverstova explained and added that to research this, she had to use a non-conventional bottom-up approach. “Research on nationalism in post-Soviet states has thus far focused on the role of political institutions in nation-building, especially on the more popular unrests and conflicts,” she added. “This thesis looks at consumer culture as a lens to study the meaning-making and renegotiation process in which ordinary people are main actors,” Seliverstova said.

“When older research has focused on the ideologies of the elite and their official discourses, they have neglected some important shifts in the traditional development in national identity formation. This research aims to fill this void,” Seliverstova explained the importance of this research.

The thesis is based on 63 interviews which show that it is possible to identify with a nation or ethnicity even when the official narrative and symbols of a state are partly or not at all embraced by the people. “It was said that in such cases, people find new national identity markers through everyday culture and create alternative markers, which help them join the national community in their area of residence,” said the author.

Oleksandra Seliverstova’s doctoral thesis “The role of consumer culture in the formation of national identity in the post-Soviet region. Evidence from Estonia and Ukraine” was supervised by professor Raivo Vetik, professor Airi-Alina Allaste both from Tallinn University and professor Dimokritos Kavadias from Free University of Brussels (VUB). Her opponents are professor Marcello Mollica from University of Freiburg (Switzerland) and professor Jeremy Morris from Aarhus University (Denmark).

The thesis can be read at the TU Academic E-vault . Public defence of the thesis will take place today, on April 28 th at 12:00 at the Tallinn University Auditorium M-648 (Uus-Sadama 5).