Navigating Change: Childhood Experiences and Autonomy in Post-Soviet Lithuania
Navigating Change: Childhood Experiences and Autonomy in Post-Soviet Lithuania
Monday, 7 July 2025: 10:15
Location: ASJE017 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
Oral Presentation
The collapse of the Soviet Union had a transformative effect on Lithuanian society. Children who grew up during this period underwent a personal transformation, but society as a whole also changed. The opportunities that opened up in the new political context highlighted the social and economic differences between people. These differences were particularly felt by children and affected their everyday lives. Although transformative societal processes have been widely analysed, children's life experiences have not been thoroughly researched.
The focus of this presentation is on the interrelationships between children and their social environment, which defined children's autonomy, responsibility, sense of security and use of public space during the transformation period in Lithuania. Over the past three decades, children's lives have become increasingly monitored. This reflects wider social trends that resonate with current debates about children's autonomy and agency. It raises important questions about understanding the past and its relevance to contemporary social dynamics.
Applying biographical interview analysis, this study draws upon Leena Alanen's concepts of generational order and Karl Mannheim's generational theory to contextualise childhood within a historical framework.
The aim is to show how the existing field of rules and restrictions of childhood autonomy is reconstructed from life stories. It is not a factual picture of what really happened, but a picture of what is remembered and how - the content of memories determined by a specific socio-historical context. Biographical interviews with people born between 1980 and 2000 reveal the main areas in which children's autonomy manifested itself. Stories of family, school, other public spaces and everyday childhood activities emerge as formative factors of biographical identity and reflect the socio-cultural changes of transformation.
The focus of this presentation is on the interrelationships between children and their social environment, which defined children's autonomy, responsibility, sense of security and use of public space during the transformation period in Lithuania. Over the past three decades, children's lives have become increasingly monitored. This reflects wider social trends that resonate with current debates about children's autonomy and agency. It raises important questions about understanding the past and its relevance to contemporary social dynamics.
Applying biographical interview analysis, this study draws upon Leena Alanen's concepts of generational order and Karl Mannheim's generational theory to contextualise childhood within a historical framework.
The aim is to show how the existing field of rules and restrictions of childhood autonomy is reconstructed from life stories. It is not a factual picture of what really happened, but a picture of what is remembered and how - the content of memories determined by a specific socio-historical context. Biographical interviews with people born between 1980 and 2000 reveal the main areas in which children's autonomy manifested itself. Stories of family, school, other public spaces and everyday childhood activities emerge as formative factors of biographical identity and reflect the socio-cultural changes of transformation.