Global Villages

Rural and Urban Transformations in Contemporary Bulgaria

Edited by Ger Duijzings

Publication date:

01 October 2013

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780857280732

This book explores the multiple effects of globalization on urban and rural communities, providing anthropological case studies from postsocialist Bulgaria. As globalization has been studied largely in urban contexts, the aim of this volume is to shift attention to the under-examined countryside and analyse how transnational links are transforming relations between cities, towns and villages. The volume also challenges undifferentiated notions of ‘the countryside’, calling for an awareness of rural economic and social disparities which are often only associated with urban environments. The work focuses on how the ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ have been reconfigured following the end of socialism and the advent of globalization, in socioeconomic, as well as political, ideological and cultural terms.

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

‘This volume provides impressive evidence that today even in a peripheral country like Bulgaria the village is fully exposed to the dynamics of globalization and Europeanization. The book presents profound insights on the effects of these processes on villages and everyday lives.’ —Klaus Roth, LMU Munich