Throughout all phrases of the project, extensive research collaborations were formed with a broad team of international researchers. In total, 40 scholars from 17 countries will contribute to the first edited book, and 31 scholars from 6 countries will contribute to the second edited book. (Included among these author teams in the two books combined are 15 doctoral students from 10 countries.) With these contributing authors, I have performed extensive peer review of manuscripts and research mentoring, and I have benefited from the collaborations through exposure to their research methods.
Funding from the European Commission for this Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant has allowed for broad dissemination of research results in the form of presentations delivered to scholars and researchers, professional practitioners, civil servants, community advocates, and the general public. Activities included, during the life of the 2-year grant, 11 invited talks (in 5 countries), 6 conference presentations (in 6 countries), and 3 conference sessions for which I was organizer (in 3 countries). In addition, I organized seminars, visited local high schools, and interacted with the public in a variety of forums.
My research blog, www.hesstonia.com provided an avenue for wide public dissemination of research results. Entries posted on the research blog were shared far and wide through social media (twitter, Facebook, and other research blogs) by the staff and researchers of the Centre for Migration and Urban Studies.
Findings
Research products include 5 scientific articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals and 3 book chapters in books published by high-ranking publishers. The final aspect of the grant research tackled comparative research approaches. The first edited book (Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation, and Poverty Challenges, Springer International Publishing, 2018 forthcoming) compares European housing estates and their socio-demographic and ethnic effects on cities from a horizontal perspective by synthesizing research on 14 cities across Europe. In this edited volume, my co-editors (Dr. Tiit Tammaru and Dr. Maarten van Ham) and I explore in considerable detail large housing estates that were built between the 1950 and 1980 in many European cities and were once envisioned as social utopias that would solve many urban problems at times of rapid industrialization and urbanization.
Building upon the horizontal approach in the first edited volume, the second edited volume is more geographically focused (in the three Baltic countries) and approach housing estates and their legacy from a vertical perspective by delving deep into relevant themes and subtopics. Co-edited with Dr. Tiit Tammaru, Housing Estates in the Baltics: The Legacy of Central Planning in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (Springer International Publishing, 2019 forthcoming) also emphasizes the socio-cultural aspects that shaped housing estates during their formation during the Soviet years (1950s through 1980s).
