Znepole, Western Bulgaria, Between ‘Europe’ and ‘America’. Changing Visions of ‘the West’ in a Bulgarian Border Town
Znepole, Western Bulgaria, Between ‘Europe’ and ‘America’. Changing Visions of ‘the West’ in a Bulgarian Border Town

Summary/Abstract: In the summer of 1998, Bulgarian public opinion was excited about a piece of news: a Bulgarian-American military training operation, Cornerstone, had started near the Serbian border. Following new concepts of “military-humanitarian cooperation”, the training took the form of the renovation of the ancient district hospital, which had to become a “ultra-modern health institute”. In the beginning of NATO air strikes, another event brutally recalled Cornerstone: in the night of March 6, a stray missile exploded near a peripheral neighbourhood of Trăn densely populated with Roma, causing panic and fear but no casualties. Again, it was a media event and again, interpretations diverged. Although there was not a causal relationship between the two “events” such a relation had been sought and “found” by the local population, not without the help of the media. Why should such significance be given to these two events? Because, I will argue, they provide two mirror images of an almost ideal-typical situation of the “clash” between representations of Europe and the West on the one hand, and the local practice and experience with the West. The nature and real dimension of this clash could be understood only if recast against the “thick description” of local patterns and mentalities – a task for which I rely on my fieldwork in Trăn since 1995 and to some extent, on study of the national press. In the following pages I will recast these two local experiences with a “real” West against the background of local images and perceptions of “Europe”.

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