The Rise of Veganism in Post-Socialist Europe : Making Sense of Emergent Vegan Practices and Identities in Estonia

Peer reviewe

The Effect of Gender and Ethnicity and their Intersection on Work Satisfaction and Earnings in Estonia, 1993-2008

"This article examines trends in the labour market position, defined in terms of three dimensions - earnings, perceived job security and overall job satisfaction - among four population groups in Estonia - Estonian men and women and Russian-speaking men and women. We explore how the labour market position of these groups changed between 1993 and 2008. We used data from 1993 and 2008, collected in the population survey Work, Family and Leisure, designed by the Institute of International and Social Studies at Tallinn University. We carried out a two-step analysis: first, we conducted descriptive analysis to explore changes in the labour market situation of men and women of two ethnic groups in the period of 1993-2008; and second, we used models of multivariate analysis of variances to examine how gender, ethnicity and occupational status as well as the intersection of these variables are related to earnings, job security and job satisfaction. We found that Estonian men have emerged as the most successful group in the labour market, while the labour market position of Russian-speaking women is the most disadvantaged compared to other groups in terms of earnings, job security and job satisfaction. We suggest that these labour market inequalities could be increasing, and that the interaction of gender and ethnicity might become increasingly important in shaping labour market outcomes." (author's abstract

Vegan Men’s Food and Health Practices: A Recipe for a More Health-Conscious Masculinity?

In the age of the Anthropocene, questions of ecological sustainability, animal ethics, and human health are intimately entangled. From a gender perspective, compared to women, men’s diets tend to be less healthy and sustainable. This is linked to worse health outcomes for men. Therefore, alternative, more ethical ways of eating that have the potential to improve men’s health and well-being and simultaneously contribute to better public health and sustainability outcomes should be encouraged. Veganism addresses issues of food, health, climate change, and animal justice simultaneously. This article explores vegan men’s food practices in relation to health and well-being, drawing on qualitative interviews with 61 vegan men. The interview material was analyzed using the method of thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that becoming vegan encourages positive changes in men’s health behavior. This includes paying more attention to nutrition and taking better care of one’s health. Vegan men report experiencing better physical and mental well-being upon going vegan. Based on these findings, we argue that vegan men’s food and health practices contribute to the emergence of healthier masculinities, as vegan men help to challenge links between risky health behavior and masculinity.Peer reviewe

The Effect of Gender and Ethnicity and their Intersection on Work Satisfaction and Earnings in Estonia, 1993-2008

This article examines trends in the labour market position, defi ned in terms of three dimensions – earnings, perceived job security and overall job satisfaction – among four population groups in Estonia – Estonian men and women and Russian-speaking men and women. We explore how the labour market position of these groups changed between 1993 and 2008.We used data from 1993 and 2008, collected in the population survey Work, Family and Leisure, designed by the Institute of International and Social Studies at Tallinn University. We carried out a two-step analysis: fi rst, we conducted descriptive analysis to explore changes in the labour market situation of men and women of two ethnic groups in the period of 1993-2008; and second, we used models of multivariate analysis of variances to examine how gender, ethnicity and occupational status as well as the intersection of these variables are related to earnings, job security and job satisfaction.We found that Estonian men have emerged as the most successful group in the labour market, while the labour market position of Russian-speaking women is the most disadvantaged compared to other groups in terms of earnings, job security and job satisfaction. We suggest that these labour market inequalities could be increasing, and that the interaction of gender and ethnicity might become increasingly important in shaping labour market outcomes

Drilling for ‘New Oil’ in Care Integration – Co-Production of the Concept and Specification of an Integrated Data Centre for Policy Decision Making, Care Planning, and Research in Estonia

Introduction: Care integration needs to take place on different levels, including that of infrastructure and especially data infrastructure. Only integrated data allow for policy making, care planning, research, and evaluation that spans across different sectors of care and support. Methods: In the course of an EU-funded reform initiative on integrated care, the Estonian government and various agencies have developed a concept for an integrated data centre, bringing together information from social, medical, and vocational support services. The concept was developed in co-production with many stakeholders. A test data set from all covered sectors, including the pseudonymised data of 17,945 citizens of an Estonian municipality, was created and analysed as a proof-of-concept exercise. Results: The co-production approach resulted in a set of requirements and use cases as well as a specification of premises, processes, and data flows for the data centre. The analysis of the test dataset showed the principal feasibility of the dataset for the intended purposes. Conclusion: The concept development phase showed that an integrated data centre for Estonia is feasible per se and helped to specify concrete actions required for its realisation. Strategic and financial decisions from the Estonian Reform Steering Committee are now needed to create the data centre

Single-Cell Epigenomics and Functional Fine-Mapping of Atherosclerosis GWAS Loci

Rationale: Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of loci associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). Many of these loci are enriched in cisregulatory elements but not linked to cardiometabolic risk factors nor to candidate causal genes, complicating their functional interpretation. Objective: Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility profiling of the human atherosclerotic lesions was used to investigate cell type-specific patterns of cisregulatory elements, to understand transcription factors establishing cell identity, and to interpret CAD-relevant, noncoding genetic variation. Methods and Results: We used single-nucleus ATAC-seq (assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing) to generate DNA accessibility maps in >7000 cells derived from human atherosclerotic lesions. We identified 5 major lesional cell types including endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, monocyte/macrophages, natural killer/T cells, and B cells and further investigated subtype characteristics of macrophages and smooth muscle cells transitioning into fibromyocytes. We demonstrated that CAD-associated genetic variants are particularly enriched in endothelial and smooth muscle cell-specific open chromatin. Using single-cell coaccessibility and cis-expression quantitative trait loci information, we prioritized putative target genes and candidate regulatory elements for approximate to 30% of all known CAD loci. Finally, we performed genome-wide experimental fine-mapping of the CAD variants identified in genome-wide association studies using epigenetic quantitative trait loci analysis in primary human aortic endothelial cells and self-transcribing active regulatory region sequencing (STARR-Seq) massively parallel reporter assay in smooth muscle cells. This analysis identified potential causal single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the associated target gene for over 30 CAD loci. We present several examples where the chromatin accessibility and gene expression could be assigned to one cell type predicting the cell type of action for CAD loci. Conclusions: These findings highlight the potential of applying single-nucleus ATAC-seq to human tissues in revealing relative contributions of distinct cell types to diseases and in identifying genes likely to be influenced by noncoding genome-wide association study variants.</p

Priorities for social science and humanities research on the challenges of moving beyond animal-based food systems

Increasingly high-profile research is being undertaken into the socio-environmental challenges associated with the over-production and consumption of food from animals. Transforming food systems to mitigate climate change and hidden hunger, ensure food security and good health all point to reducing animal-based foods as a key lever. Moving beyond animal-based food systems is a societal grand challenge requiring coordinated international research by the social sciences and humanities. A 'selective openness' to this range of disciplines has been observed within multi-discipline research programmes designed to address societal grand challenges including those concerned with the sustainability of food systems, inhibiting the impact of social sciences and humanities. Further, existing research on animal-based foods within these disciplines is largely dispersed and focused on particular parts of food systems. Inspired by the 'Sutherland Method' this paper discusses the results of an iterative research prioritisation process carried out to enhance capacity, mutual understanding and impact amongst European social sciences and humanities researchers. The process produced 15 research questions from an initial list of 100 and classified under the following five themes: (1) debating and visioning food from animals; (2) transforming agricultural spaces; (3) framing animals as food; (4) eating practices and identities; and (5) governing transitions beyond animal-based food systems. These themes provide an important means of making connections between research questions that invite and steer research on key challenges in moving beyond animal-based food systems. The themes also propose loci for future transdisciplinary research programmes that join researchers from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and stakeholders from beyond academia to develop cooperative research and implementation initiatives. The experiences gained from the prioritisation process draw attention to the value of spending time to discuss and collaboratively steer research enquiry into emergent and controversial matters of concern. Fundamental, ethical questions around the continuation or complete cessation of the use of animals for food was a key tension. The positioning of research towards these questions affects not only the framing of the research area but also the partners with whom the research can be carried out and for whom it may be of benefit.peerReviewe

Dissecting the polygenic basis of atherosclerosis via disease-associated cell state signatures

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a pandemic disease where up to half of the risk is explained by genetic factors. Advanced insights into the genetic basis of CAD require deeper understanding of the contributions of different cell types, molecular pathways, and genes to disease heritability. Here, we investigate the biological diversity of atherosclerosis-associated cell states and interrogate their contribution to the genetic risk of CAD by using single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of mouse and human lesions. We identified 12 disease-associated cell states that we characterized further by gene set functional profiling, ligand-receptor prediction, and transcription factor inference. Importantly, Vcam1+ smooth muscle cell state genes contributed most to SNP-based heritability of CAD. In line with this, genetic variants near smooth muscle cell state genes and regulatory elements explained the largest fraction of CAD-risk variance between individuals. Using this information for variant prioritization, we derived a hybrid polygenic risk score (PRS) that demonstrated improved performance over a classical PRS. Our results provide insights into the biological mechanisms associated with CAD risk, which could make a promising contribution to precision medicine and tailored therapeutic interventions in the future.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Priorities for social science and humanities research on the challenges of moving beyond animal-based food systems

Increasingly high-profile research is being undertaken into the socio-environmental challenges associated with the over-production and consumption of food from animals. Transforming food systems to mitigate climate change and hidden hunger, ensure food security and good health all point to reducing animal-based foods as a key lever. Moving beyond animal-based food systems is a societal grand challenge requiring coordinated international research by the social sciences and humanities. A 'selective openness' to this range of disciplines has been observed within multi-discipline research programmes designed to address societal grand challenges including those concerned with the sustainability of food systems, inhibiting the impact of social sciences and humanities. Further, existing research on animal-based foods within these disciplines is largely dispersed and focused on particular parts of food systems. Inspired by the 'Sutherland Method' this paper discusses the results of an iterative research prioritisation process carried out to enhance capacity, mutual understanding and impact amongst European social sciences and humanities researchers. The process produced 15 research questions from an initial list of 100 and classified under the following five themes: (1) debating and visioning food from animals; (2) transforming agricultural spaces; (3) framing animals as food; (4) eating practices and identities; and (5) governing transitions beyond animal-based food systems. These themes provide an important means of making connections between research questions that invite and steer research on key challenges in moving beyond animal-based food systems. The themes also propose loci for future transdisciplinary research programmes that join researchers from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and stakeholders from beyond academia to develop cooperative research and implementation initiatives. The experiences gained from the prioritisation process draw attention to the value of spending time to discuss and collaboratively steer research enquiry into emergent and controversial matters of concern. Fundamental, ethical questions around the continuation or complete cessation of the use of animals for food was a key tension. The positioning of research towards these questions affects not only the framing of the research area but also the partners with whom the research can be carried out and for whom it may be of benefit

Studying Privileged Men’s Career Narratives from an Intersectional Perspective : The Methodological Challenge of the Invisibility of Privilege

Studying elites and, more particularly, privileged men is worthwhile because the favourable position of these individuals and groups in the social hi- erarchy allows them to make significant material and cultural impact on the world. Often, such an advantage is unearned and involves a sense of entitlement and lack of awareness of being in possession of it. It is therefore crucial to under- stand how this power operates and is maintained, by disrupting the invisibility of privilege. This chapter addresses methodological issues pertaining to the study of men, masculinities and privilege, drawing on privileged men’s career narratives. I focus on a particular methodological problem I encountered when studying the career narratives of male managers from an intersectional perspec- tive: the invisibility of privilege in these accounts. In sociological research, inter- sectional approaches typically assume identifying socially constructed categories of identity and difference in people’s accounts of their experiences and studying relationships between these. However, the narratives of the male managers in question lacked references to social categories (gender, race, class etc.) in their self-descriptions. This chapter explores this problem and discusses some poten- tial methodological solutions and ways forward. Finally, I suggest that some re- cent cultural changes and transforming gender relations are gradually marking privileged men and masculinities. Masculinity, then, is increasingly emerging from the status of an unmarked category.Peer reviewe