The Category of Neighbourhood in Islamic Modernism of Yugoslavia. "Fetve" of Husein Đozo
The Category of Neighbourhood in Islamic Modernism of Yugoslavia. "Fetve" of Husein Đozo

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the forms of public-private space division in a post-socialist Bulgarian city as everyday practices of inhabiting and appropriation of common spaces in one neighborhood of Plovdiv. The author’s anthropological research of urban spaces has included long-term observation of everyday practices in the city of socialism, the city in transition and the changed cities nowadays, following the line of the changing boundaries, distinction and expression of the public and the private, the common and the individual. Of particular interest in my research are the forms of transgression of the physical borders and social boundaries and of establishing new ones, according to the changing identities, social hierarchies, power relations, as well as forms of social solidarity, networking and investment in social capital. The paper presents cases of blurring borders and boundaries as urban discourses – of the socialist city, the city in transition and the city after 2007, when Bulgaria joined the EU. These cases are studied on the base of everyday practices of urban gardening in common spaces – around blocks of flats, on the windowed balconies, and in small gardens (vegetable plots) in the town outskirts.

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