ФРИ-ШОПИ: ФАНТОМСКИ РЕГИОНИ КАКО КОШМАР ЗА НАЦИОНАЛИСТИ. ЗА РЕГИОНАЛНАТА ОРИЕНТАЦИЈА ПРИ ЈУГОСЛОВЕНСКОБУГАРСКАТА ГРАНИЦА, 1944-1991
FREE-SHOPS: PHANTOM REGIONS AS A NIGHTMARE FOR NATIONALISTS. ON THE REGIONAL ORIENTATION AT THE YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN BORDER, 1944 — 1991

Summary/Abstract: The text deals with the question of how far regional attributions are used by local actors to counteract the compulsion to identify with national collectives. This is exemplified by the town of Caribrod/Dimitrovgrad on the present-day Serbian-Bulgarian border. This is analyzed in relation to the ways in which local actors appropriate or reject the regional attribution Šopi. This is pursued here in three steps. First, the relationship between regional self-image and the institutionalization as a national minority is examined when the existence of a Bulgarian mi-nority was recognized in socialist Yugoslavia. In a second step, those moments of regional experience are analyzed that do not fit into national classifications – in particular, the Ottoman heritage is addressed regarding perceptions of and orientations in social space, which are con-tained in the designation Šopluk. Then, thirdly, we examine how key-words such as Šopi or Šopluk, categories that initially appear as negatively connoted external attributions are then appropriated in an obstinate fashion by local actors and appear as a more or less conscious re-fusal to identify with clearly delineated national collectives.

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