(In)visibility of the Displaced Populations: the Blind-Spot Effect

In this paper, conflict-triggered internal displacement is reviewed through the visibility of migration-affected groups, as well as their access to decision-making. The blind-spot effect in the migration studies extends the cognitive and social implications of the systems theory, and engulfs both hypovisibility through anopticism and pseudoassimilation, and hypervisibility through panopticism and excessive control of the displaced citizens. In the context of the impact of IDP status on visibility assessment, I suggest supplementing the migration-studies’ concepts of “phlogiston” and “witch” with that of “ethanethiol”, thus starting a discussion on the role of the otherness marker in the migrantising of citizens. The case of protracted internal displacement in Ukraine due to the Russia-backed armed conflict serves as an illustration of the displaced populations’ visibility challenges and solutions.

“There is a Time for Departure Even when There’s no Certain Place to Go”: the Twisting Path to Selfhood and Adulthood

In today’s post-industrial societies, young people, compared to previous generations, experience longer and more complex processes of creating professional identity, developing a career or finding “one’s vocation”. They also face difficulties in achieving financial independence, starting a family, and leaving parental homes, which altogether define the status of an adult person. Based on the overview of sociological and psychological scholarly literature, the complexity of young people’s identity formation in the context of a passage towards social maturity is analysed. The most significant tensions related to the question of “who am I and what do I want” are emphasized in the article, together with the circumstances of contemporary society that stimulate them. (Non-)applicability of the concept of the quarter-life crisis is finally highlighted in order to summarise, reflect, and explain some of the experiences and life events of young people. The title of the article is a famous quotation of Tennessee Williams.

Transitions from Cohabitation to Marriage or Separation among the Birth Cohort of 1970–1984 in Lithuania

This paper aims to analyse the impact of demographic and social factors on first partnership in Lithuania – the duration of premarital cohabitation, the sustainability of such relationships, and the transition into marriage. The research is based on the 2019 Family and Inequality Survey of 1970–1984 birth cohorts. Data analysis shows that most young people began their first partnership as a cohabitation rather than marriage, and the average premarital time spent in a cohabitation increases within this cohort. Cohabitation eventually transitions into marriage, and five years after the start of cohabitation, almost all cohabitants marry, and only a small percentage of cohabitating unions dissolve. Based on Cox regression analysis, the level of education and finished studies, as well as pregnancy, are significant predictors of the transition from cohabitation to marriage. The results of the research show that three decades after the beginning of the spread of cohabitation in Lithuania, cohabitation competes with marriage, but it does not challenge the importance of marriage as an institution of childbearing and upbringing.

I – “miesjcova“, You – “przyjiezny”: Drawing the Boundary of Identity in Šalčininkai District

In this article, I seek to investigate how people living in the Šalčininkai district perceive the cultural boundary between locals and newcomers. Based on biographical interviews collected during the ethnographic field research, I argue that historical circumstances and frequent changes in state affiliation have influenced the drawing of the cultural boundary between locals and newcomers. In the article, I present how this division is understood by people of different generations living in the Šalčininkai district. The cultural boundary between locals and newcomers is very important to the oldest generation (born before World War II). People who grew up during Soviet times understand this boundary and its significance, but pay less attention to it. The youngest generation (people born around 1990) perceive this cultural boundary as a useless remnant of the past and want to distance themselves from it.

Between the Critique of Socialism and Childhood Nostalgia: The Memory of Soviet Era in the Life Stories of the 1970s Generation

The article examines the autobiographical memory of the 1970s generation about the Soviet era. This generation, born in 1970–1979, is interesting for research because of its socialization in two different social and political systems: its childhood and adolescence date back to the Soviet period, while the beginning of adulthood coincides with the collapse of socialism and the restoration of democracy. Based on an analysis of life stories of the 1970s generation, the article explores features of memory of this generation, how it corresponds to the discourse of autobiographical memory of the Soviet era, as well as the generation’s role in the intergenerational transmission of Soviet-era family memory.

Urban Studies in Lithuania: What They Display and Conceal about Vilnius

This article analyses the dominant discourses about cities in Lithuanian urban studies. Approach­ing urban processes in a different way, I suggest to study cities as a dense cluster of dwellings and consider housing as the main field (the Bourdieu’s concept) that structures the material forms of the city. In the first two sections of the article I consider the case of Vilnius and criticize the dominant natural and geopolitical categories and metaphors as limiting our understanding about urban processes. In the third part I argue how a historical genealogy of the symbolic forms of the city might reveal spatial manifestations and practices of power relations. Supplementing the genealogy of the symbolic forms with the analysis of social structures, it is possible to suggest a more relevant approach to study Lithuanian cities. Also, such an approach might facilitate productive cooperation between urban researchers working with different epistemological traditions.

Transition to Adulthood: Leaving the Parental Home in the Last Soviet and the First Post-Soviet Generation

The article presents a research on trajectories of leaving the parental home in the last Soviet and the first post-Soviet generations. It focuses on social transformation of the state during the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet and its impact on the life-course of these generations. In our study, we applied a dyadic approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with women of the last Soviet generation (born in 1962–1972) and their children (born in 1992–2002), who represent the first post-Soviet generation. Early changes in and the differentiation of the timetable of transition to adulthood of the last Soviet generation indicated a declining effect of ideologically supported social structures on the life-course of young adults and the growing power of individual decision to leave the parental home or stay within. The rapidly increasing globalization and a transformed economy shaped a new structural environment for the coming of age for the first post-Soviet generation; therefore, we can interpret the further pluralization, de-standardization, and differentiation of the timetable of the transition to adulthood of this generation as a reaction of young people to the emerging risks and insecurities.

When “Too Much and Too Slapdash” No Longer Satisfies: Existential Changes Brought by Altering the Speed of Life

This article uses two opposing concepts of time to articulate the tensions that are common among the working-age urban population of today’s post-industrial societies and their solutions at the individual level. The importance of the time dimension for the analysis of today’s people’s lives is revealed through the analysis of sociological studies of the concepts of fast and slow time and the results of a qualitative study which includ­ed interviews with 18 people who linked their changes in life to different regimes of time. For some people who live in fast-time mode, turning back to slow time becomes an essential principle for achieving significant existential changes that lead to a subjectively more meaningful, qualitative, freer, and more authentic life.

“We Don’t Harm the Environment”: Defensive Regimes of the Humanities in the Administrative Discourse of Academia

For the last decade, the humanities are globally pronounced as stranded in a crisis or at least touched by it. In the times of crisis the apologetic discourse is more important and visible than in the times of relative peace and prosperity. Comparing to the Anglo-Saxon humanities, the rhetoric of crisis is not very popular among the representatives of Lithuanian humanities. The article reconstructs the main arguments and defensive regimes used by scholars during experimental discussions on the value of the humanities in Lithuania. The empirical data consists of four discussions (conducted in 2017–2018). The aim of the article is to analyse this argumentation and to compare it to the global discourse on the value of the humanities.