Kati Orru

Kati Orru (Kangur) was born in Estonia. She studied Sociology (BA) at University of Tartu, Estonia. During her last undergraduate year, she attended the Communication and Rhetoric programme at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, USA. She defended her Master thesis on “Public involvement in water management planning in post-Soviet context” at University of Tartu, Department of Sociology.
 
In 2003-2005, her work in an international NGO involved carrying out research on transboundary water management issues in the European Union border areas between Estonia and Russia, as well as in Central Asia. Her research involved testing methods for public involvement in integrated water management planning in the Baltic countries.
 
At Estonian University of Life Sciences Kati undertook research on transposing EU Common Fishery Policy into Estonian legislation and its effects on fishery dependent communities. At the same university, she has established and is teaching a course on Environmental Sociology.
 
For further specialisation in adopting European environmental health risk regulation in Eastern European transitional context Kati started her PhD research at King's College London since September 2006. In line with her research interests on comparative risk governance, she co-organised the panel “Governing Different ‘Risk Societies’: Comparing Risk Regulation Regimes across Countries” at the 2nd Graduate Conference, European Consortium for Political research, 25-27 August 2008, Barcelona. In the academic year 2008-2009, she co-organised the interdisciplinary Risk Research seminar series for doctoral and post-doc students at King’s College London.
 

European Risk Regulation in Estonia and Lithuania: The Case of Drinking Water Safety
 
Supervisors: Dr Henry Rothstein, Professor Tony Allan
 
The thesis focuses on the change of risk governance in the EU accession states. The aim of the research is to explain the functioning of environmental health regulations in Eastern European countries since their accession to the EU in May 2004. My thesis compares how Estonia and Lithuania have implemented the EU Drinking Water Directive. The research tries to clarify why Lithuanian regulators have gone beyond the strict but limited requirements of the European safety regulation, whereas Estonian system diligently follows the EU requirements. It also seeks rationales for why despite the elaborate control system Lithuanian regime offers less protection when compared to Estonian more laissez faire approach.
 
 
The research tests to what extent the inner functioning of risk bureaucracies or the external drivers such as public salience and organised interest groups pressures determine the processes and outcomes of regulation in these countries. It argues that the stronger influence of past legacies in Lithuanian institutional configurations and poisoning outbreaks have increased the regulatory investment, while shifting the responsibility for safety provision to the unresponsive municipal administration. In contrast, minimal state interference in Estonian safety regulation has facilitated the water utilities and individuals exploiting the EU subsidies to grant safety.
 
 
This thesis contributes, first, to the ongoing scientific discussion about the changing nature of environmental health risk governance. Second, this research adds to the debate about the limitations of Europeanization of Eastern European regulatory institutions.
 

KANGUR, Kati (2008). Deliberative Water Policy-making in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: Focus Groups in the Talas and Chu River Basins. Varis, Olli; Rahaman, Mizanur (Eds.). Central Asian Waters: social, economic, environmental and governance puzzle (133 - 144).Water and Development Publications, Helsinki University of Technology
 
KANGUR, Kati and Saava, A. (2008). Drinking Water Regulation in New EU Accession State, Estonia: policy implications of scientific controversies. Epidemiology: 19(6): 375-376
 
Uusküla Anneli, K. KANGUR, L. McNutt (2006) Barriers to effective STI screening in a post-Soviet society: results from a qualitative study. Sexually Transmitted Infections 82:323-326.
 
KANGUR, Kati (2004) ed. Focus Groups and Citizens' Juries: River Dialogue Experiences in Enhancing Public Participation in Water Management. Tartu: Peipsi Centre for Transboundary Cooperation.
 
 

ORRU, Kati (2009). Bureaucratic functionality in implementing European risk regulation in Eastern Europe: case of drinking water safety in Estonia and Lithuania. European Consortium for Political Research 5th General Conference, Potsdam Universität, Germany; 10-12 September, 2009.
 
KANGUR, Kati (2009). Europeanisation of risk regulation in Eastern Europe: case of drinking water safety in Estonia and Lithuania. Risk research symposium: Varieties of risk research: exploring and expanding boundaries within academia and beyond, King's College London UK; 5 June, 2009.
 
KANGUR, Kati (2008). The influence of public salience on risk regulation in new EU Accession States: drinking water safety in Estonia and Lithuania. In: London School of Economics, Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation Graduate Colloquium, 23 September, 2008.
 
KANGUR, Kati (2008). Institutional functionality determining the implementation of EU drinking water safety regulation in Estonia and Lithuania. In: European Consortium for Political Research Graduate Conference Barcelona, Spain; 25-27 August, 2008.
 
KANGUR, Kati (2008). Power Asymmetries in Estonian Drinking Water Regulation. In: 4th International Symposium on Hydrohegemony: London School of Economics, UK; 31 May - 1 June, 2008.