Abstract
Borders are a part of an external socio-cultural structure guiding the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, additionally to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis of borders, borders can be conceptualized in terms of intra-psychological dynamics. In this paper I provide an account of the process of bordering based on the example of Estonian identity that unfolds under the guidance of social-institutional and personal representations. Drawing on a semiotic approach in cultural psychology, national identity is conceived in this chapter as a sign—a semiotic entity—that is involved in the meaning making of experiences and regulates one’s relations with the world, including relations with ‘other’. Dialogical Self Theory was applied to explore the dynamics of the negotiation of borders in the intra-psychological level.
The findings suggest that the re-considering of the relations with ‘other’ can turn into an emotionally challenging task which involves the regulation of tensions elicited by the contradictory perspectives in the self where the past (historical-collective) and present voices interact, communicating different motivations.
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Notes
- 1.
The tradition of the Estonian song and dance festival started in 1869 and is an emotionally important process for Estonians, which is related to national identity and in which they participate in order to express and recreate their national identity (Lauristin, 2015).
- 2.
Night song festivals were part of the Singing Revolution, which is a poetic common name for the national mass demonstrations that took place in Estonia in 1988–1991, where the singing of patriotic songs played an important role. Retrieved from http://www.estonica.org/en/The_Singing_Revolution/.
- 3.
Total population in Estonia is around 1.3 million, which consists of different groups of ethnic nationalities, including Russians (around 327,000) and others (around 78,000). Retrieved from http://andmebaas.stat.ee/Index.aspx?lang=en&SubSessionId=7fb8a20d-8c39-45d8-9599-034b7f4aef57&themetreeid=5.
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Acknowledgements
The support by School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Aalborg University and co-operation with Dr. Thomas Kühn (Bremen University) on the joint project in 2015–2016 is appreciated.
Declaration of conflicting interests: The author declares no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding: The financial support for the joint project on “Identiteedi piiride loomine” (TF5316) (2016–2018) was provided by Tallinn University Research Fund and by Niels Bohr Professorship Grant Aalborg University.
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Kullasepp, K. (2021). An Intra-psychological Perspective on Borders: On the Example of Becoming Estonian. In: Kullasepp, K., Marsico, G. (eds) Identity at the Borders and Between the Borders. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62267-1_7
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