This study investigates the impact that Latvian exile literature has had on research in Latvia between 1992 and 2006. Latvian exile literature refers to the publications that were authored and published by Latvians who emigrated to Western countries after World War II and were issued between 1945 and 1991. Mixed methods research was conducted, incorporating citation analysis, questionnaires and interviews. Nine subject fields from the social sciences, arts and humanities were examined: philosophy and psychology, religion and theology, political science, education, folklore and ethnography, the arts, linguistics, literature, history. For the citation analysis, 33,866 citations from 1241 publications were collected. In the survey, 79 questionnaires were received from Latvian researchers and 31 questionnaires from the librarians working in Latvian academic, special and the main regional libraries. After the data analyses of citations and questionnaires were conducted, the results were presented to 15 researchers in Latvia (experts in their subject fields) for their assessment and comments. The overall results show that Latvian exile literature has had the greatest impact on research in folklore, history and literature. Exile impact was observed through both exile publications and communication with exile people. It appears that in other disciplines exile literature has had little or no impact. The reasons for this are thought to be: the lack of exile publications that could make an impact, and the irrelevance of existing publications to research in Latvia. In general, exile academic publications have been the most influential on research. The citation results also demonstrate the impact that restrictions of the soviet period (1945-1991) had on the research in Latvia, particularly through the double obsolescence of citations in all subject fields.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:548048 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Rozenberga, Dace |
| Publisher | Loughborough University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/8319 |
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