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IASSIST Quarterly Summer 2001 9

A peculiarity of the development of social
sciences in the former Soviet Union, and
especially in Estonia was that conducting
of empirical social studies was possible
from the 1960s on, while teaching of
social sciences and participating in the
activities of the world sociological
community was hardly possible. Teaching
of sociological disciplines as well as
engaging of students in the research was extremely limited
until the end of the 1980s.

In 1993 a team of sociologists, psychologists, political
scientists and human geographers from the University of
Tartu made up an initiative group for creating a data bank
on social sciences and began to work out the strategy of
saving and usage of the research material collected by the
Estonian social scientists during the previous decades.

In summer 1994 a project for creating a data bank was
presented to the Open Estonia Foundation, or more
concretely to the Higher Education Support Project
(HESP). The application for support received a positive
response; a grant aimed at “Creating Social Science Data
Bank for Modernization of Education in Social Sciences
and Training in Investigative Journalism” was awarded for
years 1994 - 1996.

In summer 1995 the office of the data bank was opened in
the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tartu.
The data bank was officially formed as an interdisciplinary
centre of the Faculty of Social Sciences in early 1996, and
it began to function as a national social science data bank -
the Estonian Social Science Data Archives (ESSDA).

The nine-member ESSDA Council includes three persons
from Tartu University, three representatives from academic
centers outside Tartu University and the same number from
non-academic institutions. ESSDA co-operates closely with
the Academic Union of Estonian Sociologists as well as
non-academic institutions that are conducting social
research.

The work done in the initial period of founding ESSDA
was discussed at an international conference “ Data
Archives and their Functions in Social Research in Eastern
Europe”  held at Tartu University in December 1996.

Representatives from 7 countries attended
this conference.

In 1997 ESSDA became a full member of
the European Council of Social Science
Data Archives - CESSDA.

The data collection of ESSDA consists of
more than 200 empirical social studies

covering such research directions like opinion polls, youth
and media studies, entrepreneurship, rural sociology and
many more, carried out between 1971 and 2000.

ESSDA holdings are increasingly being used for academic
purposes by undergraduate and graduate students as a basis
of secondary analysis. It should be mentioned that up to
now sociology undergraduate and graduate students have
dominated among the archives customers, but there are also
graduate students from the departments of journalism and
political science, the Faculties of Philosophy and Medicine,
and the Estonian Agricultural University situated in Tartu.
Training courses based on the ESSDA’s holdings have
been included in the curricula of various disciplines taught
at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

In 1998 ESSDA was awarded a HESP grant to introduce
the Estonian Social Science Data Archives systematically
in the teaching of the social sciences at the bachelor, master
and doctoral levels, and in the Open University by using
the facilities of the Internet and creating an electronic
journal.

The use of the holdings of ESSDA for practical purposes
has begun to grow considerably. Here the most important
direction is to meet the needs of the institutions of public
policy. Permanent contacts have been established between
ESSDA and the Economic and Social Information Depart-
ment (ESI) of the Chancellery of Riigikogu /Parliament of
Estonia/. First steps have been made in meeting informa-
tion needs of local authorities. ESSDA will be acting as a
mediator between the institutions of local policy- making
and the social scientists’ community. In 2001 the prelimi-
nary achievement was reached to deposit state-financed
surveys at ESSDA.

ESSDA’s international contacts of different scope have
been established with the data archives in different coun-

by Rein Murakas & Andu Rämmer1

Estonian Social Science Data Archives: Past
and Future Perspectives



10 IASSIST Quarterly Summer 2001

tries. Representatives of ESSDA have visited data archives
in the United States, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Den-
mark, Spain, Norway, and Finland. In April 1997 a co-
operation agreement was signed with the world’s largest
research center of public opinion - the Roper Center at the
University of Connecticut. The agreement foresees the
exchange of data and training possibilities for Estonian
colleagues at the Roper Center. Cooperation with the
Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) is speeding up.
In connection with the preparations for the creating a
common database about Estonian-Finnish joint social
science research projects FSD equipped ESSDA with the
new www server to promote ESSDA’s transition to the
NESSTAR solutions in 2001.

ESSDA’s home page in the Internet helps to spread
information about Estonian social research to the interna-
tional community.

In 1998 ESSDA moved into new rooms provided by Tartu
University. ESSDA’s activities have been supported by the
Chancellery of Riigikogu /Parliament of Estonia/. By the
help of the Open Estonia Foundation ESSDA began to
compile the first Estonian social science electronic journal
“Estonian Social Science Online”. The assistance from the
German data organization GESIS enabled the translation of
a number of study descriptions of significant studies into
English. In December 1998, modernized ESSDA’s Internet
home page was positively mentioned at the competition of
civil aid and info pages organized by the OEF.

Due to the chronic lack of finances in 1999 and 2000
ESSDA could only continue the description, systemization
and cataloguing of studies. In addition the second issue of
the electronic journal “ Estonian Social Science Online”
was published. ESSDA’s Internet page has steadily been
improved and complemented. Mutual meetings and
development of co-operation projects with colleagues from
the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) should be
mentioned.

1. ESSDA, Room 217/218, 78 Tiigi Street, 50410 Tartu,
Estonia. Phone: +372-7-375 931. Fax: +372-7-375 900.
E-mail: socarch@psych.ut.ee. Internet: http://psych.ut.ee/
esta/