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In the last years, the “Roma topic” attracts an increasing interest and takes a fopemost place in the public sphere of united Europe; hence, the Roma policies become a significant challenge on national and European level. Before analyzing the contemporary political discourses about the integration and the social inclusion of Roma, however, it is obligatory to know very well the previously existing state policies toward the Gypsies from the time of their arrival in Europe in the Middle Ages until today. Since a great number of the Roma population continues to live in the countries of Eastern Europe, the policies of the states which formed the “socialist camp” after World War II are very important. The analysis of the existing main political discourses about the Gypsies/Roma (and mostly of their results) should be the basis for the analysis of the contemporary national and European discourses about the Roma policies. Based on this, the achievements and the failures of those policies may find explanation and some prognoses about their results (or the lack of such) could be made.
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“The Gypsies are our own, domestic problem” is a phrase attributed to the long-term former head of the old communist Bulgarian government, Todor Zhivkov. The government policy towards the Gypsy minority in communist Bulgaria is one of inclusion to the Bulgarian way of life, and its implementation is carefully tailored to the specificities of Bulgaria as a country.It is a little known fact that towards the end of the 1940’s, the Bulgarian Gypsies suddenly turn from a “domestic problem” to something much larger and thus become part of the great confrontation between the two world political camps divided by the Iron Curtain. This takes place during the emigration of the ethnic Bulgarian Turks which starts in 1948, and during which, applications for emigration are filed by both Bulgarian Turks and Muslim Bulgarian Gypsies. It is this latter ethnic minority that becomes the cause for a serious conflict between ‘communist Bulgaria’ and ‘capitalist Turkey’.This paper aims at following the events from the end of the 40’s until end of the 80‘s of the previous century as well as analyzing the consequences of the confrontation between the two neighbouring Balkan countries.
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This article is part of ethnological research on the role and function of the public baths in the urban space. It was held in 2017 in the Gorna Banya district in Sofia. In this publication the public baths are seen as one of the markers that construct local identity. In the beginning of the 20th century, the old Ottoman baths were destroyed and new ones were built, which have been preserved to present day in the centre of Gorna banya. The baths are part of the everyday life of the local people. They use their resources for drinking, cooking, washing, but also for trade and medicinal purposes. Furthermore, they continue to observe some traditional family and calendar customs around the public baths.Although the doors of the baths are closed, the square in front of them continues to play a central role in public life. This is evidenced, on the one hand, by the annual celebrations, and on the other hand, by the ordinary people who organize gatherings in front of the public baths via Facebook. The public baths continue to be a central place around which life in the neighbouhood is organized. The local authorities are looking for different ways to fund the restoration of the old building.
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The present text is dedicated to a particular case from the last ten years when a meta narrativewas created, in this sense also a memory for the past, for St. Athanasius Monastery near the village of Zlatna Livada, a monastery proclaimed to be the oldest in Europe. Its founding is attributed to one of the key figures in the history of early Christianity, St. Athanasius, which gives the cloister a specific sacred nature. The subject of the study is indicative of the role that modern means of communication play in constructing popular ideas of the past.Thus, the ‘history’ of St. Athanasius Monastery becomes grounds for national pride and self-confidence; on the one hand, it symbolizes the ‘deep roots’ of the nation and on the other hand, it lends Bulgaria a greater symbolic significance in the context of a united Europe. The narrative of this Christian cloister’s ancient past proves to be a winning formula, since it focuses and expresses the hopes and aspirations of various social actors and circles, i.e. becomes part of several projects orientated to the future.
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The purpose of this article is to draw an overview of a major cause, which, in our opinion, determined, at different times, the emigration processes in the Romanian villages, especially after 1989 - the disorganization of the traditional models. In this approach, we proceeded from WI Thomas's social disorganization theory, which showed that European peasants emigrated from the process of reorganizing their lives on new foundations after many of their traditions had been rejected. Thomas's thesis is of great relevance to the crisis of the Romanian village after 1989, generated by the models of social guidance that destroyed the peasants of the spiritual cadres of life without generating even economic welfare.
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To write this material I was provoked by my love for the history and traditions of the place I have chosen to build a villa. For years, I have been gathering material from the stories of the local’s neighbors. Then I went through the existing scientific publications.
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Melitopol is a university town, a scientific, educational and methodical center for Bulgarian studies in the North Azov Sea region, where the Tavrian Bulgarians live compactly. The Bogdan Khmelnitski university Center for Bulgarian Studies was created 12 years ago after the establishment of the Sector in Bulgarian language, literature and culture. The educational, scientific and cultural activities of the Center for Bulgarian studies are closely related to the unique multiethnic diversity of the city, in which the Bulgarian community is third in number. The educational policy in Ukraine is dynamic and the Bulgarian experience is important.
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The text presented is dealing with the current transformations of the Europeanised public spheres. The author argues that depending on the level of presence of the current European debates in the national public sphere, we can highlight centre and periphery and in parallel with the process of Europeanisation, the opposite process is also taking place – a process of peripheralization. Besides the theoretical arguments, the book presents the results of a comparative analysis of 2014 European elections` media coverage in the most popular newspaper websites in Bulgaria and the UK (February-June 2014). 3356 publications from 8 media outlets (The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Mail, 24chasa.bg, Dnevnik.bg, Trud.bg and Segabg.com) have been coded and analyzed.
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Ralitsa Kovachevs’s new book on international journalism continues the story of how Bulgarian media cover world topics and problems. The author focuses on the opportunities for “getting to know the spatially distant, which is actually very close in time”, provided by professional journalism.
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This article aims to explore the manifestations of horror in Czech and Bulgarian folk tales. Various demonic characters, which are typical of Czech and Bulgarian folklore are compared, аnd the focus being placed on man’s encounter with the supernatural being and the fearful situation that it gives rise to. The function of the scary character in these plots is predominantly harmful and is built on the conflict between man and demon. The presence of the scary is universal and has its own peculiarities in the various folklore genres, and in fairy tales we can highlight the following functions: entertaining, ethical, pedagogical (didactic), therapeutic and cognitive.
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This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the Polish collective memory, namely – on the memory of the landed gentry and their expropriation from the Polish countryside conducted by the communist government in 1944. The communists expropriated the gentry, gave most of the land to the peasants and irreversibly changed social and economic structure of the Polish countryside. The paper analyzes how the very fact of the gentry’s historical presence and later expropriation is represented in the collective memory of the local village communities, and how it is used in the creation of the local memory scope and historical identity. The theoretical focus is on the acts of collective remembrance as understood in the work of Jay Winter, and then on the public aspect of the collective memory. Grounded in extensive fieldwork, this paper focuses on the case study of two villages which give examples of particularly active commemorative practices connected with the symbolic legacy of the expropriated landowners.
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Anthony is a highly honoured saint, considered to be a patron and a defender of various diseases. The church “St. Anthony” in the smallest town in Bulgaria – Melnik – is known exactly for its healing aspect and can be identified as one of the most sacred cult sites in the surroundings, connected with numerous stories of miracles, healings, interesting and rare ritual practices. The modern state and functioning of the church is a complex of different components that build the role and importance of the cult site as a very attractive place for pilgrimage and healing. Besides of the cult of the patron itself, these components include also various miraculous objects, iconographic features, the location of the church, and characteristic stories of miracles, media, and personal representations and interpretations. In this article, I will examine the cult of St. Anthony in the city and church dedicated to him through the prism of two basic elements – miraculous objects or other ones in the church area and beliefs and ritual practices related to them. It is precisely the connection between the different components of the cult site, combining diverse objects of pilgrimage, honoring, and usage, that creates a truly unique context in which this church, the only one in the country until recently dedicated to the St. Anthony, exists. The analysis is based on observations from conducted fieldwork studies in Melnik and bibliographic and online surveys in the period 2016–2018.
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The article discusses notions referring to the ruler and his body according to the pagan views of the Bulgarians in the epoch before Christianity was adopted in the Bulgarian lands. Drawing on written sources and material evidence, an attempt is made to interpret ideas, signs and objects which form the system of the ruler’s ideology. Typological similarities are pointed out between the ruler’s ideology of the Bulgarians and that of the peoples of the Eurasian Steppes, Central Asia, and with other peoples from the Migration period.
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The paper analyzes the main aspects of ambient advertising, metaverse and smart cities. This type of advertising is creative, relatively inexpensive and uses the context of a city’s area to provide a new experience to its residents and tourists. The article aims at displaying the overlapping of this marketing communication with the urban context and how both companies and municipalities could benefit from using it. The types of ambient advertising are studied, as well as their application in the communication of organizations with people in cities. Through content analysis and case studies the connection between ambient advertising and metaverse urban areas with its residents is studied. This paper adds on several previous studies [1, 2, 3] and some others in the context of smart cities and metaverse ambient advertising, while proposing an additional method of tracking user experience – eye tracking. Key elements of ambient advertising, the metaverse and smart cities are studied, as well as interactivity and connectivity. Through the analyzed examples the positive aspect of using this marketing communication is displayed, since it makes it possible for the residents to see the same environment in a new and interactive way. Thus, the connection between them and the urban space becomes stronger and more entertaining. This paper could be of interest to academicians and practitioners in the sphere of marketing and advertising, as well as representatives of municipalities, who aim at providing their residents an additional level of experience with the urban areas of the future.
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On the 6th of February, 2023, a strong earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey and north Syria. A number of international search and rescue teams went to the affected region. Against the background of these events, the author discusses the most important aspects of the operation of the international civil protection systems, focusing on those directly related to the deployment of rescue teams to the earthquake-affected region. In addition, the key stages of rescue operations carried out by a group from Poland (HUSAR Poland) are discussed, with references to theoretical issues of organising the work of the teams and assisting those who were affected. The article demonstrates the activities of international aid systems and provides statistics of victims extracted by search and rescue teams. It proved their effectiveness in saving lives.
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Territorial development disparities are an undeniable reality for all the countries of the world, which implies that no country can practically avoid them. However, how different countries respond to these disparities is another matter. The effectiveness of policies in overcoming territorial development disparities depends significantly on how deeply these disparities are recognized and studied. In this context, assessing disparities in territorial development is necessary, and the article proposes a methodology for its implementation. The methodology examines territorial development indexes and their relative standard deviation. In the article, the developed methodology was also applied to 10 countries, as a result of which the levels of territorial development disparities in Canada, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland, Serbia, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and China were evaluated. Based on the assessments, general conclusions are also presented for each country in the article.
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