We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article summarizes the motives for lifestyle migration from the city to the village of back-to-the-land migrants in Bulgaria. Among these motives are the search for and the achievement of self-realization through the initiatives initiated and the pursuit of a better and quality life. The survey shows that in the majority of respondents there is a contradiction between the notions of life in rural areas and its actual implementation. Achieving economic sustainability through the activities undertaken a major challenge, and the migrants develop different strategies to deal with it.The existence of their initiatives in the unstable context of the culture of capitalism is important for their development. Despite the difficulties, the various models that the representatives of the back-to-the-land movement are developing can serve as an example of the implementation of positive transformations in rural areas.
More...
The choice of where to live is also a choice of how to live (Hoey 2006: 366). The change of one’s place of residence appears to be crucial as the new place upbrings and guarantees the longed-for change in one’s lifestyle. Examples taken from the Slovak ecovillage of Zajezova and the Bulgarian village of Zhelen verify this. Migrants from civic environments who settled in thosetwo villages take care of their authentic selves, being conscious of and purposefully living in harmony with their values. They believe that the individual should delimit himself of the social expectations to find out what is authentic. They make this true they begin to live alternatively to the commonly adopted civic lifestyle. Being alternative is shown through the following key aspects: close relation to nature, conscious consumption, and production. Activities and attitudes related to these three aspects appear to be a toolkit for forming alternative identities and for becoming part of a community with similar values. How are these identities characterized and how do they manifest themselves in everyday practice? To answer this research question the article draws on the production and consumption practice of lifestyle migrants in Zhelen and Zajezova.
More...
The study presents a specific case of a family that moves to the countryside after retirement. Following the development of the narrative of the interlocutors, the author’s interpretations, in the first place, focus on the way in which the selected village (Pchelarovo) is positioned in the local context, in a network of relevant settlements. At the next stage, the specific situation is placed and made meaningful in the context of the life stories of my interlocutors, who build an argumentative line explaining their choice to move to the countryside. The meanings of the village and rural life derived from these contextualizations then unfold against the background of the everyday life of my interlocutors in the village. The aim of the author’s interpretations is to stay close to their sources, as the case unfolds through the narratives of the interlocutors, who are called to construct memories, set meaning and help to establish identity.
More...
The aim of the article is to present within the context of urban-rural migration the role of mobility between the village and the city in structuring the everyday life of the household members in the implementation of different activities related to work, education, leisure, social contacts and consumer practices. Therefore, various examples of mobility patterns of individuals and families in active age – some commuting daily and others visiting the city several times a month, some travelling short distances and others visiting more remote locations – are presented. From a theoretical point of view, in the article, migration is not perceived as a“movement from one place to another” (according to the classical migration definition)but as socio-spatial lifestyle strategies and practices of multi-place connectedness based on variable engagements with rural and urban activities.
More...
In the last some ten years, the tendencies in the internal migrations in Bulgaria have been reversed, as the number of migrants from the city to the village is higher than that in the opposite direction. The topic of the revival of the Bulgarian village is once again gaining a positive character in the public space. These processes precisely attract research interest and are the focus of this study. It considers migration from urban to rural areas as a form of lifestyle migration. The aim is to present the new lifestyle that rural migrants are striving for and their daily experience after migration, to determine the extent to which the act of migration puts an end to the search for a better way of life and the place of the city in the new lifestyle of migrants. To achieve this goal, several main aspects of the new lifestyle will be analysed: motivation for migration and choice of destination, work, home, garden, food, children and social life.
More...
With Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union (and before that), hundreds of ofGermans considered and realized their settlement in Bulgaria, travelling from Germany to Bulgaria by air or land. Many of them live today in Bulgarian villages located near or far from regional cities. In the new rural environment, they continue their daily practices acquired before emigration but also introduce new activities. For some of them, travelling between routine and new destinations in Bulgaria is an integral part of their lives. The aim of the article is to enrich research on contemporary immigration in Bulgaria, presenting observations on the life of Germans in the country but also on their attitudes towards migration within the country, to other countries or black to Germany.
More...
The pandemic in 2020 played the role of a turning point for starting reverse migration to the Bulgarian villages. Many urban people began living their rural dream. It is a process of changing values and philosophy of life, risking urban amenities at the expense of connection with nature. The article traces various examples of the adaptation of global experience to local cultural features. They are viewed through the author's participation in projects for media coverage of social entrepreneurship, mapping of living places, creation of a national network for an ethical economy, and monitoring the effectiveness of social services in Bulgaria.
More...
In the first part of the article, the theoretical framework is given, and the economic and political reasons are presented as to why Serbia can be considered an “informal”, “structural” or “postmodern” colony. The standard method is explained of extracting surplus from the (semi)periphery countries of the world capitalist system and, in this respect, the example of Serbia is used to shows what one of the key comprador functions is. The second part of the article provides an overview of the viewpoints of social scientists in Serbia who applied the concept of the comprador bourgeoisie (or comprador elite) as part of the global class structure to contemporary Serbian society. Some conceptual dilemmas are also considered, as well as the possibility of further theoretical and empirical research of this issue in Serbian sociology.
More...
The text analyses the question why theories with the concept of a transnational class in its centre are insufficiently recognized in sociological textbooks. It is an opportunity to present the works of two most important theoreticians with this concept in the centre of their respective theories.
More...
Starting from the assumption that Serbia is in arrears with the implementation of the concept of interactive television and the creation of new forms of advertising, the author studies the transformation patterns of media content consumption using a multi-strategy research method of the habits of the young audience. Combining survey and in-depth interview techniques with qualitative content analysis, the author concludes that traditional TV advertising in the digital environment multiplies in terms of content, which is especially noticeable in the sphere of marketing communications. Young people increasingly apply different media technologies, switching from one device to another or using them simultaneously. Based on the analysis of the behaviour of the student population in the consumption of today’s television in Serbia, we have created a model of interactive television as a multifunctional portal in the context of advertising messages.
More...
Contemporary analyses of the international reality allow it to be seen as more and more complex. Globalization, new wars and failed states are examples of challenges faced by individual actors and the entire international community. The interdependence of phenomena in their global scope necessitates the creation of international coalitions of states and organizations as part of creating resourcesin the global management of these problems. The steady growth of China’s power and the prospect of a return to global competition between superpowers complicates this picture even more. Heads of state and international organizations set ambitious goals for their organizations in the face of emergingchallenges. They assume the strengthening of unity, adaptation to the changing international reality and expansion of resources. Plans to meet the challenges of the present, go together with a demographic determinant. The low birth rate associated with the aging of the population is likely to increase social benefits in the general budget balance of countries. The article aims to analyze the development of the situation of EU and NATO countries from the perspective of the demographic challenges that they and the whole world will face in the first half of the 21st century. The text will take into account both the presentation of demographic changes from the past and in the present in the theoretical (Malthusianism, Neo-Malthusianism) and practical (population policy) dimensions.
More...
In today’s modern society, the possibilities of committing terrorist acts have significantly expanded. Information and information technologies are already being used to plan crimes or even to remove the traces of already committed ones. They are also being used for disinformation, blackmailing, racketeering, and terrorism. By doing so, the terrorists are in a position to endanger even the management of military forces and the national security of a large number of countries.
More...
The article analyzes the structures and organizations in the Republic of Bulgaria related to migration. A review was also made of the removal of third-country nationals from the Republic of Bulgaria in accordance with the readmission agreements concluded. The role of the Readmission Institute has been highlighted as an important tool for managing migration flows.
More...
The actual situation in the EU countries and in the European countries as a whole, focuses the debates on the security issues basicly on up to date issues as the terrorist threat; the geopolitical threats; the threats, based on the migration pressure on the European states and societies. This leads to a trend of underestimation and even of ignoring the fundamental problems, issued by the changes on the labour market and the corresponding changes and adjustments in the industrial relations. The globalization and the so called „delocalization“ are the reason of serious tensions in the European societies, which lead to the appearance of phenomenons like the already pretty „popular“ in France (and already pervasive in Belgium and in Italy) „social terrorism“. The workers from enterprises, which are going to be closed or moved to other place in other countries: occupy enterprises; kidnap their employers; declare their intention to demolish valuable factory equipment, to blow gas holders, to throw out in the environment big quantities of toxic agents. These actions, which scientists like Michel Wieviorka qualify as „terrorist blackmail“, as a rule lead to the payment of huge compensations to the workers for losing their jobs – they reach 36 month salaries per person. The attempts of reforming the labour market, could bring unexpected acute reactions and asymmetrical effects, including terrorism. This is the case of the first Berluscony government in Italy to reform the labour market. The result was the „resurrection“ of the terrorist „Red Brigades“. In the beginning of the 21-st century, the „New Red Brigades“, carried out several „high profile“ murders of industrial relations experts – „architects“ of the labour markets reforms. In a period of five years we expect radical changes in the industries of the developed countries, including the industries of the EU countries – the so called „Fourth Industrial Revolution“. The „Fourth Industrial Revolution“ will bring dramatic changes in whole segments of the labour market, even to the whole global labour market. The „Fourth Industrial Revolution“ could become the reason of huge „technological“ unemployment – fully comparable with the unemployment caused by the invention and the implementation of the spinning machines at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England. Today, this could lead to any kind of collisions, in case of mass layoffs and elimination of human workers from whole industries. It is entirely possible, that the effects of the „swing“ of the labour market can get into undesirable synergy with the adverse impact of terrorist threats and attacks and with the geopolitical and geoeconomic conditioned conflicts on the periphery of the continent. Due to this reason, the problems and the conflicts of the European labour market must not be underestimated and ignored as a potential source of threats to the European security.
More...
The present article attempts to situate the reflections of Bulgarian students on the “new normal” in the pandemic situation. The authors analyze the results of an empirical survey conducted in the period January-February 2022 at the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria. Under the conditions of the COVID pandemic, students were the social groups that had to radically change the mode of its basic activity, learning. Education was conducted entirely in the form of distance learning, which, along with the other anti-pandemic measures, proved to be the first serious change in the way of life of the surveyed students.
More...
The aim of the research is to explore the natural predisposition of the world’s nations to implement an effective and efficient Economic Intelligence strategy, through the calculation of an index that measures the country’s position in the network of international relations. Economic Intelligence is a new discipline introduced by scholars in order to support the national governments through new information bases designed to succeed in the complex economic environment following the development of globalization. Given that a central role in the international economic relations’ network provides a privileged position for acquiring information useful for supporting the logical aspects of strategic planning, a country with such a role has a natural predisposition to develop a successful Economic Intelligence strategy. Thus, the subject of the research focuses on analysing that predisposition by measuring the significance of the position occupied by a country in the global trade network. For that purpose, the methodology of the Social Network Analysis is used. The assumption is that by calculating the Economic Intelligence Index, that is a weighted average of the main centrality indexes related to each country within the global trade network, it is possible to measure a national entity’s inclination to developing a sound Economic Intelligence strategy. The basic conclusion of the article highlights that, notwithstanding the fact that a prominent role in the global trade network is occupied by the major countries in terms of commercial importing value, other countries characterized by a significant Economic Intelligence Index could be in a position to develop a successful Economic Intelligence strategy.
More...
Today, globalizing environmental issues have become a vital threat to all humanity, in other words; they have reached a crisis level. In line with this awareness, since the second half of the twentieth century, the international community has been in search of ways to deal with environmental issues. In this context, the concept of sustainable development, which emerged as a new paradigm for addressing environmental issues and bringing environmental, economic and social values on common ground, has long been at the heart of the world agenda. For the implementation of sustainable development, a participatory and multi-actor governance approach has been adopted as a new governing pattern. In this context, environmental governance has emerged as a concept developed by referring to the concepts of sustainable development and governance in tackling environmental problems. The way the present study handles the subject is shaped within the scope of this approach. The United Nations recognizes that environmental governance is applicable at the local, national, regional and global levels. In this context, the study is focused on global environmental governance. Within this framework, a range of international meetings held mainly under the leadership of the United Nations, as well as the final declarations published at the end of these events, were analyzed. The perspective of the literature and relevant institutions on the subject was additionally taken as a reference.
More...
Financial development is an important component of economic development. In particular, it is very important for developing countries to converge to developed countries in terms of financial development level. In this study, the convergence of the financial development indicators of the Fragile Five Countries to the average of the indicators of the four selected countries (USA, England, Australia and Japan) in the top ten in terms of financial development level for the period 1980-2020 is tested. In this respect, our study contributes to the literature by measuring the convergence of a developed country group, not a single country. The data used in the study were accessed from the World Bank official database. Stationarity test which is introduced to the literature by Nazlıoğlu and Karul (2017) based on the Fourier stationarity test developed first by Becker et al. (2006). This test gives results for both the individual and the panel as a whole. As a result of the tests, it is seen that the financial development indicators of the Fragile Five Countries do not converge to the selected country group and its average. Results showed that, the financial markets of the Fragile Five Countries are in a static structure. Their financial systems do not depth enough and so these systems are far from efficiency. Necessary precautions need to be taken in terms of inadequacy of financial indicators examined. Therefore, it can be inferred that there are weaknesses in financial systems in matters such as economic integration, liberalization, harmonization of regulations and globalization.
More...