The Village Project : Rural Revitalization in Contemporary Bulgaria

Since the collapse of socialism, Bulgaria's population has been on the move—out of rural regions and into cities, or out of the country altogether. Yet today there is a countermovement of young, urban Bulgarians, born around 1989, seeking to repopulate rural villages and reclaim traditional Bulgarian folklife. Though many of these young Bulgarians have no direct experience with a rural lifestyle nor memories of thriving village life, their actions and movements are inspired by a nostalgic vision of the past. And so, beyond a spatial return, this rural revitalization movement speaks to visions of an alternate future, one sparked by dismay with the conditions of contemporary life.

Using ethnographic and folkloristic methods, Sarah Craycraft paints a complex, detailed picture of responses to Europeanization, carried out through neoliberal folklife projects as they collide with ongoing efforts to build a revitalized rural Bulgaria in the ruins of the past. Contextualized within a particular Southeast European nation, the study speaks to broader questions of rural revival, public-facing culture work, intergenerational folklore, and the imbrication of folklore with politics and culture.