Bulgarian Society Research Articles

Reading Text books Interculturally, Helpdesk for Intercultural Evaluation of Learning Materials

Using the words of Lies Sercu in National Helpdesks for Intercultural Learning Materials: A Guide line, ‘Immigration, tolerance... integration, ethnicity, race... discrimination, exclusion... equal opportunities, multicultural... These are just some of the beacons guiding a debate on diversity, which is sweeping through public life in North America and Europe, and of which echoes can be heard in many other parts of the world’. As part of the process of border falls and due to a number of transitions taking place in Bulgarian society on a number of levels, many of the above listed “hot issues” be come relevant to Bulgarian society of today and many more will gain relevance in the future. Multicultural and intercultural issues, which have been recurrent motifs in present day public debates, also, logically, find reflection in educational policy making, since education in general, and especially the state, obligatory schooling system, is seen as a key location for influencing developments in society. To a gr...

Language Use and Enforcement of Cultural Values

Traditional Bulgarian society can be differentiated from the modern on the basis of certain theories developed by scholars in sociology of language, social anthropology and semiotics. This paper provides a brief overview of several typological theories of society and culture and examines how they might apply to Bulgaria. It then goes on to posit a co-variation between patterns of language use and the typological characteristics of Bulgarian society over the last two centuries. The second part of the paper demonstrates that the semantic opposition of Generic vs. Specific behaves as predicted in two corpora of texts produced during Bulgaria’s “traditional” and “modern” stages of development, respectively.

Transparency in Defence Resource Management - Problems and Solutions

After the start of democratic reforms and with the transition to market economy, the understanding of transparency has changed in Bulgarian society. During the communist regime the defence budget was classified; access to this information was strongly restricted. Now the public is more mature and has acquired the capability to ask tough questions, to search for answers from the leadership and to discuss defence management problems openly. There is a demand for accurate and accessible information on crucial issues and for wide debate in society, and for more responsibility about resources to be taken by every interested organisation. For example, there is a simple question – how can we measure the cost of one battalion and compare it with the social cost of a health care or medical service.

Is There Any Social Cohesion in the Bulgarian Multicultural Society?

Bulgarian society is multicultural and multiethnic, a fact very much linked with the historical and cultural roots of the country. The current paper outlines the main problematics linked with the concept of social cohesion in Bulgaria. Social cohesion is discussed in three main contexts: (1) cohesion for the sake of a national cause, where the unique "Chitalista" cultural and community system plays a key role; (2) reconciliation between ethnic groups, who live in peace and avoid conflicts; and (3) social stratification, difficult economic conditions, and absence of a middle class as serious burdens for building a cohesive society. The paper also discusses the role of voluntary organizations, media, and education in encouraging social cohesion in a time of democratic change.

Civil-Military Relations and the Construction of Consolidated Democracy: The Case of Bulgaria

The past ten years have been witness to a remarkable set of achievements in Bulgaria: the basic goals of post-totalitarian transition in civil-military relations have been broadly attained; a parliamentary democratic regime is functioning steadily; civil society is being structured on an institutional level; the principles of a market economy are establishing themselves; the process of change of ownership has almost been completed; the foundations of civil control over the military have been laid; and the armed forces are politically neutral, obeying solely the legitimately elected political institutions and the laws which result from that process. However, much work remains to be done. Consolidating the process of democratization poses many questions. What paradigm of civil-military relations will prove sustainable for Bulgaria? Which form of control over the armed forces would be most appropriate for the development of society within the newly constituted state? And what are the problems caused by the details of societal transformation? In this paper, we argue that, with large changes taking place within the functioning of the state, it is necessary to purposefully introduce norms and practices of the model of shared responsibility into the overall context of civil-military relations. After 1989, the military and civil spheres found themselves in the unique situation of taking part in the total transformation of Bulgarian society. All three parties to civil-military relations (the political elite, the military professionals, and the citizens) have been adopting new cultural models of behavior and relations. Political institutions, ideas about their ideal functions, and visions of the relations among them—all have been changing. The role, organizational structure, competencies, political leadership, and means of control over the armed forces are in transition. The essential relations between the citizens and the state have been altered.1 None of this has been easy. The complexity of the situation is emphasized by the comparative lack of any practical or theoretical models of such largescale transformations. The aim, obviously, is to fully replace totalitarian political control of the military by the party/state with sustainable principles and mechanisms that lead to democratic and objective controls over the armed forces, after the classical scheme suggested by Samuel Huntington. The desired result is primacy on the part of the civil and political spheres over the previously and largely

Modern Bulgarian Society and Culture through the Mirror of Bai Ganio

This article deals with the fictional character Bai Ganio, who was created by the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov at the end of the nineteenth century and who has become a sort of national symbol in Bulgarian society and culture. Daskalov presents the various interpretations of Bai Ganio, explores their assumptions and implicit meanings, and then employs the character to illuminate some of the major problems and concerns within Bulgarian society. Metaphorically one might say that the various interpretations of Bai Ganio serve as a mirror for a modernizing Bulgaria or, even better, that Bai Ganio and Bulgaria mutually reflect each other. Yet although the mirror retains the trace of the mirrored object, it obfuscates and distorts it.

Book Reviews

Gender & HistoryVolume 12, Issue 1 p. 242-278 Book Reviews First published: 28 June 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.00181AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Books reviewed: Tjitske Akkerman and Siep Stuurman (eds), Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History from the Middle Ages to the Present Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720 Lilian R. Furst (ed.), Women Healers and Physicians: Climbing a Long Hill Hilary Marland and Margaret Pelling (eds), The Task of Healing: Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800 Lynette Hunter and Sarah Hutton (eds), Women, Science and Medicine 1500–1700: Mothers and Sisters of the Royal Society Brean S. Hammond, Professional Imaginative Writing in England, 1670–1740: ‘Hackney for Bread’ Paula McDowell, The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678–1730 Randolph Trumbach, Sex and the Gender Revolution, vol. 1, Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London Gwenda Morgan and Peter Rushton, Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law: The Problem of Law Enforcement in North-East England 1718–1800 Ulla Wikander, Von der Magd zur Angestellten: Macht, Geschlecht und Arbeitsteilung 1789–1950 Hilda Kean, Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800 Shani D'Cruze, Crimes of Outrage: Sex, Violence and Victorian Working Women Elizabeth A. Wood, The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia Barbara Alpern Engel and Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck (eds), A Revolution of Their Own: Voices of Women in Soviet History Krassimira Daskalova (ed.), From the Shadow of History: Women in Bulgarian Society and Culture Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States Miriam B. Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies: Rabbis, Gender, and History Miriam B. Peskowitz and Laura Levitt (eds), Judaism Since Gender Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896–1920 Consuelo Lopez Springfield (ed.), Daughters of Caliban: Caribbean Women in the Twentieth Century Paula L. Aymer, Uprooted Women: Migrant Domestics in the Caribbean Belinda Edmondson, Making Men: Gender, Literary Authority and Women's Writing in Caribbean Narrative Alison Bashford, Purity and Pollution: Gender, Embodiment and Victorian Medicine Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913–1997 Rosemary Pringle, Sex and Medicine: Gender, Power and Authority in the Medical Profession Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader Mary Chamberlain and Paul Thompson (eds), Narrative and Genre Volume12, Issue1April 2000Pages 242-278 RelatedInformation

Establishing a women's history course on women in Bulgarian society, 1840-1940, at Sofia university

Establishing a women's history course on women in Bulgarian society, 1840-1940, at Sofia university

Establishing a women's history course on women in Bulgarian society, 1840-1940, at Sofia university

This article outlines the content of the first Women's history course established in Bulgaria, at Sofia University, in 1999. The course focuses on Bulgarian women over the period from 1840 to 1940 and includes discussion of statistical data about Women's lives, the family, education and employment, as well as Women's subjectivities and cultural identities. Attention is also given to the analysis of powerful discourses about Women's role in society and the challenge of the Women's movement to these ideas. Wherever possible, comparative material from other Balkan societies and Western Europe is explored, as well as gender differences between men and women

The First World War Impact on the Bulgarian Society Evolution during the Interwar Period

The First World War Impact on the Bulgarian Society Evolution during the Interwar Period

The dynamics of the Bulgarian newspaper industry in a period of transition: organizational adaptation, structural inertia and political change

The alignment strategies of state-owned Bulgarian newspaper enterprises are examined in light of the theoretical insights provided by adaptation and selection perspectives of organizational evolution. Building on the distinction between core and periphery, I argue that the impact of internal restructuring is closely tied to the location of change in the organizational structure. The results indicate that newspaper enterprises that attempted to reorganize their core structures became liable to pressures of environmental selection. The lack of real structural reforms in Bulgarian society between 1987 and 1990 was used to explain the unsuccessful adaptation attempts made by newspapers that implemented only peripheral adjustments. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.

Re‐imaging Bulgarian women: The Marxist Legacy and women's self‐identity

In Bulgarian society under communist rule, two conflicting images of women were constructed: the socialist Amazon ‐ a woman‐android, the mechanical woman, woman‐heroine of a socialist modernization project ‐ and woman as a mother and carer of children. Recent investigation reveals a high degree of convergence in the self‐identification strategies pursued by different groups of Bulgarian women, with some divergence among ethnic minorities. Despite general, abstract approval of gender equality and emancipation, women predominantly identify themselves with motherhood and caring within the family, and women's perceptions of self‐esteem, sense of dignity, individual emancipation or unfair treatment are passed over in silence by significant numbers of women. A possible explanation for this is that in the situation of a radical reorganization of public institutions and blocking of women's access to influential public positions, family life becomes the only alternative space in which to invest personal energies.

Some Problems in Modeling and Simulation Area in the Bulgarian Armed Forces

A new trend in IT technology during the last 10 years has made modeling and simulations possible in the field of military training and education. Now, many countries all over the world create their own models and simulation systems for military and civil use. These systems may be used for building new types of weapons in order to design ships and airplanes, and, last but not least, for military personnel training and education. 1 As unbelievable as this may seem, simulations with the help of political systems models have even been used as a tool for predicting political crises – a domain in which Bulgarian society has known considerable tremors in recent years. 2 Modeling and simulations have also been used as a tool for analyzing country-specific economic situations.

Sociology of proper names in Sofia since 1970

The paper focuses on two aspects in which the sociolinguistic character of proper names is manifested, the factor determining the choice of personal anthroponyms for newborn babies and the links between the system of names and the change in sociopolitical life. An attempt is made to reveal the specificity and motivation of contemporary name giving, albeit in the very limited period under review, the last two decades. The results of such studies provide the most accurate idea about the awareness of Bulgarian society of the peculiarities of Bulgarian proper names, about its concern for the preservation of authentic Bulgarian anthroponyms, and about the extent to which the choice of anthroponyms for newborn babies depends on random manifestations of the individual taste of the parents or results from intrinsic traditions and influences. The main tendencies in the choice of names for newborn babies are illustrated through dynamisms of the names of the children born in Sofia in the 1970-1992 period and those born after the changes in Bulgarian society in November 1989.

The Role of the University in the Dialogue of Cultures‐‐Bulgarian Perspectives

The three cultures discussed are those of ethnic Bulgarians, Bulgarian Turks, and Bulgarian Gypsies #opRoma#cp. A presentation of the three ethnocultural groups is followed by a description of the various factors in Bulgarian society that have led to conflicts among them. Three types of remedies: liberal, communal, and multicultural are suggested, their pros and cons, outlined. The author proposes a juxtaposition of the three approaches and the three ethnocultural groups in question so as to stimulate the emergence of a dialogical form of cultural diversity. And, here, the principal role of the university is to assist this emergence and to help make it self‐catalysing so that once it begins it will constantly gain momentum.

Transformation and Anomie: Problems of Quality of Life in Bulgaria

The weakening of social integration and anomie are unavoidable in the transformation of societies. The effect is a decrease of quality of life accompanied by disenchantments, aggressiveness and escapism. In some countries in Eastern Europe like Bulgaria the anomie effects of transformation became particularly strong. The major reason is the political instability. The dissolution of the previous state-centered over-integration of society developed into a dissolution of major mechanisms of political integration. The prospects for improvement of quality of life are focused on the balance of economic, political and cultural re-integration of Bulgarian society.

Individualism/Collectivism and Social Identity

On the basis of data collected in three representative national surveys carried out in 1990, 1991 and 1993, the relationship between an individualistic/collectivistic orientation and social identity is investigated. Individualism/collectivism is measured using a specially constructed Bulgarian scale. Individualists and collectivists are characterized by specific profiles of social self-identification which differ only slightly from one another. The characteristic of the individualists' profile is that they tend to identify themselves with the political opposition as being republicans, as not being religious, as being distant from those who are rich and close to those of low social status. In contrast, the collectivists profile themselves as people who identify with a socialist political orientation, as being monarchists, religious, close to those who are rich, as standing higher in the social hierarchy and as connected with the structures of power. In terms of the direction of social transition, collectivists emerge as the more conservative part of Bulgarian society. A strongly European identity is associated with those who score highly on the individualism scale. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Individualism/Collectivism and Social Identity

On the basis of data collected in three representative national surveys carried out in 1990, 1991 and 1993, the relationship between an individualistic/collectivistic orientation and social identity is investigated. Individualism/collectivism is measured using a specially constructed Bulgarian scale. Individualists and collectivists are characterized by specific profiles of social self-identification which differ only slightly from one another. The characteristic of the individualists' profile is that they tend to identify themselves with the political opposition as being republicans, as not being religious, as being distant from those who are rich and close to those of low social status. In contrast, the collectivists profile themselves as people who identify with a socialist political orientation, as being monarchists, religious, close to those who are rich, as standing higher in the social hierarchy and as connected with the structures of power. In terms of the direction of social transition, collectivists emerge as the more conservative part of Bulgarian society. A strongly European identity is associated with those who score highly on the individualism scale. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Between tradition and modernity: Bulgarian women during the development of modern statehood and society, 1878–1945

Abstract The paper attempts to draw the general outlines of women's input in the establishment of the modern Bulgarian state and society in the period 1878–1945. Set against the background of traditional roles and attitudes that were prevalent at the end of the nineteenth century, women's contributions include active participation in the nation's economy and labor force, disproportionately significant representation among the educated elite, nationally and internationally recognized achievements in the arts, and the establishment and promotion of Bulgarian feminism. The paper suggests that a detailed study of the public role played by women will achieve a more accurate understanding of the modernization process in the Balkans since women have tended to act in a trend-setting manner. Furthermore, Bulgarian feminism is viewed as an example of the existence of elements of a civil society in the region.

Geography of electoral preferences: the 1990 Great National Assembly elections in Bulgaria

Bulgaria was the first country in Eastern Europe where a former Communist Party won free and democratic Parliamentary elections. This political response of the Bulgarian electorate, rather unexpected at that time, could be linked to—among other factors—the geographic position of the country in relation to the place of origin of the political transformation processes. The comparative analysis of the geographic patterns of Bulgaria's major political parties displayed a deep social split, primarily along ideological lines. However, the configuration and performance of the main political actors on the eve of elections proved to be of relatively little importance for the Bulgarian political transformation. Bulgarian society was once again compelled to adapt to external influences, this time coming predominantly from the core of the Soviet-led international system, rather than to an urgent need to solve internal political economic contradictions. The term ‘superimposition of peripheries’ was introduced to describe the political geography and suggest an explanation of the 1990 election results.