Global Villages: Rural and Urban Transformations in Contemporary Bulgaria (Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857280732 ISBN 13: 9780857280732

Verlag: Anthem Press, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

'Global Villages: Rural and Urban Transformations in Contemporary Bulgaria' aims to broaden the study of globalization from urban to rural contexts, exploring its effects through case studies from postsocialist Bulgaria.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ger Duijzings is reader in the anthropology of Eastern Europe at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London.

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Global Villages

Rural and Urban Transformations in Contemporary Bulgaria

By Ger Duijzings

Wimbledon Publishing Company

Copyright © 2013 Ger Duijzings
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-85728-073-2

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements, vii, 
Note on Transliteration, ix, 
Chapter 1 Introduction Ger Duijzings, 1, 
Chapter 2 Rural–Urban Relations in a Global Age Deema Kaneff, 33, 
Chapter 3 Every Village, a Different Story: Tracking Rural Diversity in Bulgaria Gerald W. Creed, 53, 
Chapter 4 Smugglers into Millionaires: Marginality and Shifting Cultural Hierarchies in a Bulgarian Border Town Galia Valtchinova, 67, 
Chapter 5 Rural Decline as the Epilogue to Communist Modernization: The Case of a Socialist 'Model' Village Lenka Nahodilova, 89, 
Chapter 6 No Wealth without Networks and Personal Trust: New Capitalist Agrarian Entrepreneurs in the Dobrudzha Christian Giordano and Dobrinka Kostova, 105, 
Chapter 7 Inheritance after Restitution: Modern Legislative Norms and Customary Practices in Rural Bulgaria Petko Hristov, 123, 
Chapter 8 Rural, Urban and Rurban: Everyday Perceptions and Practices Daniela Koleva, 137, 
Chapter 9 The Koprivshtitsa Festival: From National Icon to Globalized Village Event Liz Mellish, 153, 
Chapter 10 Fashioning Markets: Brand Geographies in Bulgaria Ulrich Ermann, 173, 
Chapter 11 Greek (Ad)ventures in Sofia: Economic Elite Mobility and New Cultural Hierarchies at the Margins of Europe Aliki Angelidou and Dimitra Kofti, 191, 
List of Contributors, 209, 

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Ger Duijzings

This book explores the multiple and combined effects of globalization on urban and rural communities, providing case studies from postsocialist Bulgaria. As globalization has been studied largely in urban contexts, the aim of this volume is to shift the attention to the countryside and analyse how transnational links are transforming the destinies of and relations between cities, towns and villages. Very few scholars have systematically studied the effects of globalization in the countryside. As one of them, Michael Woods, writes, place-based studies that show how rural localities are remade under globalization are lacking (2007, 486–7; see also 2011, 270). Theorists of globalization in anthropology such as Arjun Appadurai (1996) and Ulf Hannerz (1996) have failed to explicitly anchor their analysis in rural sites, while the widely used Anthropology of Globalization reader makes almost no reference to the countryside (Inda and Rosaldo 2008; see also Appadurai 2001). A notable exception is Anna Tsing's book Friction (2005), which combines a keen theoretical interest in globalization with an ethnography of what she calls 'awkward, messy and unpredictable encounters' in the rainforests of Indonesia, where foreign investors meet local communities and entrepreneurs, as well as environmental movements and other actors. The present volume attempts to make a contribution to this emerging debate, providing ethnographic accounts of global processes in specific rural places without losing sight of urban contexts.

The case studies are from postsocialist Bulgaria, providing examples of the effects globalization has had in a range of specific localities. This geographical focus brings unity and coherence to the book. In addition, drawing attention to a postsocialist country is fruitful since the impact of globalization has been particularly abrupt and dramatic here. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the global has quickly asserted itself: towns and villages are exposed to global flows and inequalities, resulting in the rescaling and remaking of places, and triggering new cultural and ideological engagements with the notions of 'urban' and 'rural' in public discourse. The links that previously existed between town and countryside, within the framework of the socialist nation-state, have been supplanted by new transnational connections and global 'shortcuts', which have been made possible by the opening of Bulgaria's borders (1989) and EU accession (2007).

Some localities are winners and others losers of these rapid restructurings, their fortunes depending on their 'positionality' (Kaneff this volume) and other factors (Creed this volume). This has produced great diversity in the Bulgarian countryside, leading to the emergence of globalized villages, but also to forms of rural marginalization. Thus, one of the aims of this book is to challenge undifferentiated notions of the 'countryside' and the 'rural community', calling for a greater awareness of the economic disparities and social divisions which we normally associate with urban contexts. It questions the notion of the stable and undifferentiated rural community as denoted in Ferdinand Tönnies's notion of Gemeinschaft (community), as opposed to Gesellschaft (society). As Woods has argued, there is no such thing as a static and homogenous rural community; there are many rural communities which overlap, interact and compete with each other (2011, 178–9).

As my anthropological expertise does not cover Bulgaria as much as the former Yugoslavia and Romania, this introduction will primarily offer comparative and theoretical perspectives complementing the local insights provided by the other contributors. The first part will offer a brief history of rural conditions and urban–rural relations in Bulgaria, starting with the Ottoman period followed by subsequent transformations (independence, collectivization under socialism, and restitution and privatization since the 1990s), not only as background to the case studies presented here, but also as a reminder that the Bulgarian countryside has never been immune from outside influences. The second part of the introduction will elaborate on certain key themes and concepts of the book, most importantly globalization, neoliberal restructuring, the transformation of urban–rural relations and the global countryside. It will also explore aspects of rural diversity and marginalization. The third and final part of this introduction will provide a summary of chapters.

A Brief History of Rural Conditions and Urban–Rural Relations in Bulgaria

Many have reiterated that Bulgaria has been a 'small nation of small peasants' for most of its history. Even if reflecting particular realities on the ground, this is primarily a political and ideological statement derived from a post-Ottoman national (or nationalist) frame of mind that ignores forms of economic development and cultural diversity, which has always been part and parcel of social life in Bulgaria. In the immediate postsocialist years it was a key slogan for Bulgarian politicians who wanted to turn the clock of history back and restore the land to its presocialist owners. It is clear, however, that Bulgaria has ceased to be a country of peasants: thanks to socialism, it is the most urbanized country in Southeastern Europe. With 70 per cent of inhabitants living in urban settlements, Bulgaria is the only Balkan state that can compare with countries in Western Europe, where urbanites make up between 70 to 95 per cent of the population. So even if some authors continue to depict Bulgaria as a 'traditionally rural country' (see for instance Abadjieva 2008, 8), it is more urbanized than Serbia and Romania, where just over half of the population lives in cities, or even Greece, which has a reputation of being far more advanced and developed (Duijzings 2010, 105; see also Angelidou and Kofti this...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Anthem Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0857280732
• ISBN 13: 9780857280732
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Herausgeber: Duijzings Ger
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland