ABSTRACT
Extensive Baltic diasporas included numerous individuals practicing planning in
various countries, and contacts with these groups and individuals were extremely impor-
tant in the early post-Soviet phase as mechanisms for knowledge transfer (Kule et al.,
2011). Larner and Laurie (2010) reflect on the ways different types of knowledge are trans-
ferred and transformed by different individuals, networks and communities with different
agendas and in different contexts. The role of individual actors can also change as “ . . .
technocrats may become politicians, scientists may become development experts, aca-
demics may become activists, engineers may set up NGOs . . . ” (Larner & Laurie 2010,
p. 219). The fluidity of the Baltic States’ political and institutional context during tran-
sition facilitated such changes. Members of these exile communities returned to their
respective countries to become involved in politics, advocacy groups, academia, public
administration and the private sector whereas others played a more indirect role by under-
taking initiatives from their new host countries.
