Ekspertide ja tavainimeste sotsiaalsed representatsioonid rahast ja keskpangast
Date
2010-11-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Käesoleva töö eesmärgiks oli uurida sotsiaalseid representatsioone rahast. Töös kõrvutasin tavainimeste ja ekspertide arusaamu rahast ja sellega seonduvatest teemadest. Empiirilisteks eesmärkideks oli tuua välja võimalikke sarnasusi ja erinevusi intervjueeritud gruppide arusaamade vahel.
Intervjuude analüüsis välja joonistunud arusaamasid saab omavahel suhestada kahes erinevas dimensioonis. Esmalt võib tuua välja grupisisese variatiivsuse arusaamade homogeensuses või heterogeensuses, teisalt ilmnes gruppidevaheline arusaamade kokkulangevus või erinevus.
Uuring näitas seda, et ekspertide hulgas olid homogeensemad arusaamad nendes küsimustes, millele on olemas selgelt defineeritav teaduslik määratlus. Tüüpilisteks näideteks sellistest mõistetest on inflatsioon, valuutakomitee süsteem, hind. Heterogeensemad olid ekspertide seisukohad küsimustes, mis pole üheselt teaduslikult defineeritavad nagu näiteks raharinglus või keskpanga funktsioonid, sellised teemad vajasid enamjaolt täpsustamist.
Erinevates gruppides võivad olla väga homogeensed arusaamad, millel puudub täielikult ühisosa teiste gruppide arusaamadega, käesolevas töös on selliseks näiteks representatsioon Eesti Panga tuluallikatest. Kokkulangevus oli intervjueeritud gruppide arusaamades suurem meedias enam käsitletud teemade puhul. Nii langesid oluliselt kokku arusaamad sellistest laialdaselt meedias kajastatud nähtustest nagu hind, inflatsioon ja eurole ülemineku põhjused. Vähe või üldse mitte kattusid intervjueeritud gruppide arusaamad sellistest nähtustest nagu valuutakomitee printsiip, krooni kattevara ja Eesti Panga tuluallikad.
Huvitavamate tulemustena võib välja tuua näiteks eurole ülemineku praktilise korralduse seostamist 1992. aasta rahareformiga, kus Eesti kroon asendas rubla, olgugi, et olemuslikult on tegemist kahe täiesti erineva olukorraga. Tol korral oli tegemist täiesti uue vääringuga ning selle vahetamisele kehtisid piirangud vahetatava koguse suhtes. Üleminekul eurole vahetub kogu käibelolev raha ning kasutusele võetav vääring on kehtinud juba aastaid ning paljudel
60
inimestel on sellega olnud varasem kokkupuude. Sellist seostamist minevikukogemusega võib sotsiaalsete representatsioonide teooria kohaselt nimetada ankurdamiseks.
Teine märkimisväärne tulemus eurole ülemineku kontekstis oli peaaegu kõigi tavainimeste poolt välja toodud eurole üleminekuga seotud hinnatõus. Samas näitavad Lisas 2 esitatud graafikud, kuidas viimati eurole üle läinud riikides pole olulist hinnatõusu toimunud. Inflatsioon iseenesest toimub pidevalt ja on osa majanduse loomulikust arengust.
Lisaks võib huvipakkuva tulemusena välja tuua krooni kattevara seostamise Saksa margaga, mis on juba aastaid käibelt kadunud. See näitab, kuidas mingi arusaam on vähem muutunud kui selle arusaama aluseks olev fenomen.
Intervjuude analüüsist nähtus, et tavainimeste arusaamad olid erinevate fenomenide osas erineva homogeensusega ja erineva kokkulangevusega ekspertteadmistega. Mitmel juhul aga oli väga homogeenne teadmine teadusliku maailma mõttes ebatäpne (näiteks krooni kattevara või euroga kaasnev hinnatõus). Selgus ka, et meedias enamkajastatud teemade puhul oli ekspertteadmise ja tavateadmise kokkulangevus suurem. Seega on oluline tegeleda valdkonna teadvustamise ja selgitamise puhul rohkem nende nähtustega, mille sotsiaalne representatsioon on tavainimeste hulgas homogeenne, kuid ebatäpne, sest sel juhul on tegu tugeva ning ennast taastootva representatsiooniga, mille muutmiseks on oluline muuta selle tuumseid komponente.
Intervjuudes väljendatud arusaamad võivad olla erinevad ka seetõttu, et erinevate gruppide esindajad mõistsid küsimusi erinevalt, erinevatel mõistetel oli nende jaoks erinev tähendus. Selliseks näiteks on küsimus raharinglusest, mille puhul tavainimese jaoks tähendas see pigem sularaharinglust ja ekspertide jaoks ühtset süsteemi, kus ringlevad nii sularaha kui ka kontoraha.
Kokkuvõtteks võib öelda, et gruppidevahelised arusaamade kattuvused ja erinevused ning grupisisene homogeensus või heterogeensus mingi fenomeni kohta annab materjali edasiseks uurimistegevuseks, erilist huvi võiks pakkuda objektiveerimisprotsessi uurimine, mis heidaks valgust sellele, milliste tegurite mõjul representatsioonid rahast täpsemalt kujunevad ja
61
kinnistuvad. Protsessi põhjalik mõistmine oleks oluline rahandusalase teavitustöö kavandamisel ja inimeste toetamisel orienteerumises selles igapäevaelus olulises, petlikult tuttavlikus, aga tegelikult komplitseeritud teemas, mis pädeva informatsiooni puudumise korral sünnitab hirme ja kahtlusi.
The research paper „Social representations of money and central bank among experts and general public― deals with the representations of money and related topics among general public and specialists of finances. Since Estonia is about to adopt the Euro instead of the national currency, public awareness about monetary issues is of great importance at this moment and the public's interest for matters related to money, currency and finances in general could be expected to be at its peak. The author of this paper has observed, however, that the general awareness about such matters is rather limited. Also, the media coverage of these issues isn't very well developed in Estonia. On one hand, the media feeds mostly on press releases of the Bank of Estonia, on the other hand, the journalists are mostly interested in the potential scandals related to financial matters. On the other aspects of the imminent monetary reform little light is shed by the media. The ideas formed among the public in the lack of adequate information have not been studied. Both the author's work experience in the Bank of Estonia and personal experiences from various private discussions lead to believe that such a study is necessary in order to understand how people perceive these issues and how their perception differs from that of specialists. To achieve that goal, the method of qualitative interviews was chosen and a total of 11 persons were interviewed (5 senior employees of the Bank of Estonia and 6 people with no professional background in finances). Each interview touched first upon the general subject of money and central banks, then issues more specific to Estonia, and last the adoption of Euro. For analyzing and interpreting the answers of the interviewees, the social representations theory seemed a suitable theoretical basis. The paper consists of three parts. The first gives the theoretical background, outlining the principles of the social representations theory. The second part describes the methodology. In the third, the results of the interviews are described and discussed. 5 In conclusion it has been established that the general public's representations of money and finances are the most different from the specialists' on the topics that are the least covered by the media. Among the specialists, the most homogeneous representations are those that concern notions with a clear scientific definition, such as 'price' or 'inflation'. Other topics that don't have clear and obvious definitions, such as functions of the central bank, generate more heterogeneous representations. The general public's representations and their homogeneity are more influenced by the media, for example, their ideas about the sources of income of the Bank of Estonia are very homogeneous and very different from the ideas of the specialists. Also, people often see parallels between the substitution of the national currency by Euro and the previous monetary reform of 1992 by which the national currency replaced the Soviet rouble. Even though there are no scientific grounds for such parallelism, the social representations theory allows to explain it as anchorage in former experience that helps to face the unknown.
The research paper „Social representations of money and central bank among experts and general public― deals with the representations of money and related topics among general public and specialists of finances. Since Estonia is about to adopt the Euro instead of the national currency, public awareness about monetary issues is of great importance at this moment and the public's interest for matters related to money, currency and finances in general could be expected to be at its peak. The author of this paper has observed, however, that the general awareness about such matters is rather limited. Also, the media coverage of these issues isn't very well developed in Estonia. On one hand, the media feeds mostly on press releases of the Bank of Estonia, on the other hand, the journalists are mostly interested in the potential scandals related to financial matters. On the other aspects of the imminent monetary reform little light is shed by the media. The ideas formed among the public in the lack of adequate information have not been studied. Both the author's work experience in the Bank of Estonia and personal experiences from various private discussions lead to believe that such a study is necessary in order to understand how people perceive these issues and how their perception differs from that of specialists. To achieve that goal, the method of qualitative interviews was chosen and a total of 11 persons were interviewed (5 senior employees of the Bank of Estonia and 6 people with no professional background in finances). Each interview touched first upon the general subject of money and central banks, then issues more specific to Estonia, and last the adoption of Euro. For analyzing and interpreting the answers of the interviewees, the social representations theory seemed a suitable theoretical basis. The paper consists of three parts. The first gives the theoretical background, outlining the principles of the social representations theory. The second part describes the methodology. In the third, the results of the interviews are described and discussed. 5 In conclusion it has been established that the general public's representations of money and finances are the most different from the specialists' on the topics that are the least covered by the media. Among the specialists, the most homogeneous representations are those that concern notions with a clear scientific definition, such as 'price' or 'inflation'. Other topics that don't have clear and obvious definitions, such as functions of the central bank, generate more heterogeneous representations. The general public's representations and their homogeneity are more influenced by the media, for example, their ideas about the sources of income of the Bank of Estonia are very homogeneous and very different from the ideas of the specialists. Also, people often see parallels between the substitution of the national currency by Euro and the previous monetary reform of 1992 by which the national currency replaced the Soviet rouble. Even though there are no scientific grounds for such parallelism, the social representations theory allows to explain it as anchorage in former experience that helps to face the unknown.
Description
Keywords
magistritööd, sotsioloogia, raha, keskpangad, sotsiaalsed representatsioonid, eksperdid, finantsistid, avalikkus, võrdlevuuringud, avalik arvamus, hoiakud, Eesti