Доброволчеството като социален обмен и средство за въобразяване на етнически общности: случаи от София, Брюксел и Велико Търново
Volunteering as a Social Exchange and a Means of Imagining Ethnic Communities: Cases from Sofia, Brussels and Veliko Tarnovo
Author(s): Stoyan NikovSubject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Methodology and research technology, Social development, Family and social welfare, Sociology of Culture, Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН
Keywords: Volunteering; ethnicity; gift; social transaction; stigma and legitimacy
Summary/Abstract: This article explores volunteering as a specific form of social exchange through which ethnic affiliations are (re)negotiated and communities are imagined in contexts of cultural plurality. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with current and former volunteers from Armenian and Roma communities in Sofia, Brussels and Veliko Tarnovo, the study analyses how volunteers’ perceptions of volunteering function as a mechanism for preserving, (re)constructing and legitimising ethnic communities. The theoretical framework draws on Marcel Mauss’s theory of the gift, Ferdinand Tönnies’s distinction between community and society and Fredrik Barth’s transactional approach. The findings suggest that volunteering not only reflects but actively produces ethnicity.
Journal: Българска етнология
- Issue Year: 2025
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 67-81
- Page Count: 15
- Language: Bulgarian
