Communities and Identities in Bulgaria

The book presents the panorama of Bulgaria's ethnic and reli­gious minority communities. No social science is in a privi­leged position when it comes to understanding those diverse and complicated issues. That's why the authors chose the inter­disciplinary approach.
The analysis abides by the following logic: theory-politics-ev­eryday life-"reality".
 
The purpose of the theoretical part is to present the spectrum of concepts which thematize ethnicity and examine the sphere of validity of a number of theories in study­ing the different communities in Bulgaria. It also analyzes the question of minority rights in regard cultural identity It is impossible to understand minority communities without due consideration for the state's attitude to them, as vested in law and politics.

The conceptualization of minorities in everyday consciousness is an important accent in the book. This accent stems from the view that the voice of not only scientific truth and state interests should be heard in this delicate sphere, but also of the immedi­ate participants in social interactions - both from the minorities and the majority.

The focus is on the specificity of the different communities -Armenians, Aromanians, Catholics, Gagaouz, Greeks, Jews, Karakachani, Nekrasovtsy Old Believers, Pomaks, Protestants (Evangelical Christians), Roma, Tatars, Turks, Uniates, Vlachs (in alphabetical order). The purpose is to present them in a va­riety of theoretical perspectives - historical, ethnological, so­ciological - with an emphasis on their origins and historical transformations, as well as, just as importantly, on the identi­ties of their members.

The last part deals with the diaspora, the Bulgarian Communi­ties Beyond the Bulgaria's International Borders.