История разказана наобратно (през опита на българските международни шофьори)
A story in Reverse - the Experience of Bulgarian International Truck Drivers

Summary/Abstract: The paper .A story in reverse - the experience of Bulgarian international truck drivers. investigates the still largely under-examined group of the international truck drivers in the context of the established border regime in Eastern Europe during the Cold war. At the core of the project is the Bulgarian international truck driver (and his truck) in the process of constant travelling across borders. Special attention is paid to the specifics of the drivers. everyday life, their experience on the road and their travelling stories. The drivers are analysed as a specific product of Cold war separation. The main thesis in the paper is that their specific ability to frequently cross not merely state borders but crucially - the Iron Curtain and to experience the life of the people living .beyond., enabled them to profit in a number of ways: officially as representatives of the Bulgarian economic and political system and non-officially as individuals performing their own private petty business, which in turn enhanced their social status and changed their identity and world-view. Thus, the mobility lifestyle of the international truck drivers as well as mobility itself in the context of the Cold war separation is seen as an important material, social and symbolical resource.

• Details
• Contents