Popular Politics, Unpopular Cultures: Tracing the Political Process of Social and Symbolic Boundary-Work around Rural Land
Popular Politics, Unpopular Cultures: Tracing the Political Process of Social and Symbolic Boundary-Work around Rural Land
Author(s): Rosalina TodorovaSubject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Governance, Sociology, Labor relations, Welfare systems, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of the arts, business, education, Sociology of Politics, Geopolitics
Published by: Институт по философия и социология при БАН
Keywords: symbolic boundaries; social boundaries; political decision-making; politics of contestation
Summary/Abstract: In this article I investigate how the process of re-purposing of public land can be interpreted as a process of structuring the social world i.e., a process of creating and establishing symbolic and social boundaries. The article discusses results from a case study, exploring local contestation of the building of a RES park on public municipal land: What should be done with the land? Drawing upon archival data of the debates and decisions of the Municipal Council, I follow the political process of decision-making in prioritizing a legitimate use of public municipally owned land as a process of establishing an order of using common goods. In defining the public interest and its composition, municipal councilors negotiate and protect the public interest by setting cultural meanings of worth (symbolic boundaries) and supporting them with legislation and internal municipal regulation (social boundaries).
Journal: Социологически проблеми
- Issue Year: 57/2025
- Issue No: Special
- Page Range: 59-73
- Page Count: 15
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF
