Falling High: Structure and Agency in Agriculture During the Transformation

Abstract

This article examines the interplay between changes on the macro level and the destinies and decisions of individuals who worked in agriculture at the beginning of the economic changes in Estonia in the 1990s. The agricultural sector was hit most radically by economic reforms. Our main conclusion is that individual agency was strongly determined by structural conditions. People working in the agricultural sector faced substantive obstacles in using their educational credentials in other employment sectors. Furthermore, in the agricultural sector in general higher education seems to be of little value.