Bulgarian Immigrant Groups to Hungary in late 19th and early 20th c. and their Impact on the Social and Cultural Life of the Host Society

Term: 2022 – 2024

 

Bulgarian – Hungarian Bilateral Academy Program is supported by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Hungarian Academy of Sciences

 

 

Partner institutes:

Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM–BAS)

Institute for Political Sciences, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence

  

Involved institutes:

Interdisciplinary Doctoral School, University of Pécs,

Department of Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology, University of Szeged,

Previous research co-operation and relations

The members of the Hungarian team of this project had regular communication and partnership over the years with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore with the Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFEM–BAS) – through participation in conferences, publications and working discussions. The partnership between the two institutions has the support of the Scientific Council of IEFEM–BAS and of its Director. In 2017, Ferenc Bodi and Ralitsa Savova participated as speakers in the international conference in Sofia (2017), organized by the Ethnographic Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and published two chapters in the volume of the conference: Vukov, N., Gergova, L., Matanova, T., & Gergova, Y. (eds) Cultural Heritage in Migration. Paradigma Publishing House, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies, with Ethnographic Museum. Sofia.

https://www.migrantheritage.com/international-conference-cultural-heritage-in-migration-programme/  

https://www.migrantheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/sbornik-Cultural-Heritage-in-Migration-2017.pdf

In 2018, 2019 and 2021, Bodi Ferenc

had several working trips to Bulgaria, coordinated with IEFEM-BAS - for field research, participation in workshops and preparation of joint activities (field research, conferences and upcoming publications) with colleagues from the Institute of Ethnography of BAS.

https://politikatudomany.tk.hu/en/migration-mobility-and-culture

Research plan (extract) – Description of the objectives and expected results:

The project will seek to extend the team's research into understudied aspects of migrations, modernity and intercultural mediation between Hungary and Bulgaria - with an emphasis both on the impact that Bulgarian immigrant groups had on the social and cultural life of Hungary, and on the impact that cultural practices mediated by Hungary had on Bulgarian society in the late 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. The following basic theoretical premises will be considered:

1. There are different modernities. The historical period called modernity gave way to the process of total modernization of life - from institutions to that of individual life strategies. The transition from the pre-modern age to modernity took place in specific places and at specific times: there was a great deal of local variation. Novelty and tradition had to live with each other in an uneasy co-tenancy: the tensions generated by this situation were different from region to region, from country to country. but the process of modernization was nowhere completely smooth. Eastern European modernity emerged from local responses from outer challenges. In this region it was a dual process: nation-building and modernization, local and global aspects, went, as in other parts of the world, hand in hand, resulting in local variants of modernity. The modernization trajectories of Hungary and Bulgaria have common and different elements. The challenges of modernity were the same for both countries, and their responses to them followed a regional pattern with local nuances. Agrarian populism, however, is a typically Eastern European historical-political phenomenon in the interwar era.
2. The Bulgarians contributed to the development of modern cities, as their rapidly growing demand for food was served by them in the vegetable markets; moreover, they enrich Hungarian agriculture and horticulture. The influence of market-gardeners on Hungarian horticulture and cuisine is well known, but their association with their community, its social life and mode of production is less studied. This community of market-gardeners certainly influenced the development of Hungarian agricultural producers' organizations. After its study from an economic-anthropological approach, it would be possible to collect the existing elements of the still fragmented knowledge. This study aims to raise interest in this subject as well as serve as an introduction to encourage further research and bolder comparison with earlier research in various disciplines such as agricultural history, ethnography, economic anthropology, sociology, social geography and economic history.
3. After the Second World War, the aspect of social development was covered by the dictatorship because this path of modernization as an alternative movement did not correspond to the prevailing ideology. That is why, we try to reveal this forgotten network and knowledge. We use the rich ethnographic heritage – documents, archives, case studies and existing information from descendants of Bulgarian market-gardeners that can be found in Hungary. Our research team aims to uncover the knowledge and organizational basis of this network. Who were these people who led this modernization movement? What were their fates? Connected in a Bulgarian-Hungarian research team, we are trying to create an abstract model that helps to understand the nature of such migration movements in the present as well.
4. The Bulgarian labour mobility process began after 1867 and continued until the Second World War. This initially labor mobility, later transformed into migration, was a bourgeois path from feudalism to capitalism with an initial accumulation of capital and at the same time a special spontaneous cultural mediation between Bulgaria and Hungary that had an impact on both societies at the end of the 19 century and the beginning of the 20th century.

 

Project Research Questions:

1. What was the driving force of this labour mobility and migration process?
2. Did this migration function as a process of social mobility, and if so, what was the intellectual background that formed these associations of market-gardeners?
3. Did this mode of production and form of association influence Hungarian popular movements such as "Quality Revolution - Garden Hungary" etc.?
4. Can we create different categories among migrations in the past?

 

 

 

Participants of the Bilateral Academy Program

Bulgarian side

Bulgarian Project Leader: Nikolai Ivanov Vukov, Ph.D.

Other project participants invited by the Bulgarian party:
Nikolai Ivanov Vukov		Associate Professor, Ph.D.
Research institute	Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM–BAS)
Web site	http://iefem.bas.bg/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/12/Nikolai.Vukov_.ENG1_.pdf

Mariyanka Zhekova Borisova		Assistant Professor, Ph.D.
Research institute	Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM–BAS)
Web site	http://iefem.bas.bg/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/12/Mariyanka.Borisova.ENG1_.pdf

Valentin Krasimirov Voskresenski		Assistant Professor, Ph.D.
Research institute	Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM–BAS)
Web site	http://iefem.bas.bg/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/12/Valentin.Voskresenski.ENG1_.pdf

Hungarian side

Hungarian Project Leader: Ferenc Bódi Ph.D.,

Other project participants invited by the Hungarian party
Ferenc Bódi		senior research fellow, Ph.D.
Research institute	Institute for Political Science, Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest
Web side	https://politikatudomany.tk.hu/en/researcher/bodi-ferenc

László Mód		Assistant professor, Ph.D.
Research institute	University of Szeged, Department of Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology, Szeged, Member of Board of Hungarian Ethnographic Society,
Web side	https://doktori.hu/index.php?menuid=192&lang=HU&sz_ID=13463

 

Ralitsa Savova		Ph.D. candidate
Research institute	Interdisciplinary Doctoral School, Political Science Program, University of Pécs
Web side	https://ecpr.eu/profile/RalitsaSavova