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Sociology of Work in Bulgaria

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The Palgrave Handbook of the Sociology of Work in Europe

Abstract

Before WW II, there were few sociological texts addressing work in Bulgaria. After 1945, teaching and research activities in the field were prohibited. In the 1960s, sociology was ‘rehabilitated’ and work-related research began to develop. The sub-discipline was institutionalized at the end of the 1960s. Following the fall of communism, interest in the SoW began to wane, in preference to research on the new political system, the emerging civil society, entrepreneurship, social and ethnic minorities, and on poverty. Work-related research has been developing principally in the context of foreign donors who have imposed their research agenda. In the last two decades, the main focus of the sub-discipline has been on privatization, new forms of organization, human resource management and post-communist industrial relations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the same time there are other research traditions that are also very important, but not examined here, because of their very distant relationship with the world of work: the science and technology studies (STS)—Ivan Tchalakov and the group around him; the research on poverty and unemployment of D. Minev and M. Jeliazkova among others; the research on the agriculture and the transformation of the Bulgarian village—V. Kozhuharova and later R. Jeleva, M. Draganova, S. Stoeva; the studies on particular ethnic minorities, e.g. Romas—I. Tomova, A. Pamporov; the studies on social stratification and the middle class in Bulgaria—N. Tilkidzhiev; entrepreneurship—J. Vladimirov, and so on.

  2. 2.

    Such as the National Strategy for the Development of Scientific Research in Bulgaria 2017–2030 (Национална стратегия за развитие на научните изследвания в Република България 2017–2030) or the Fund Scientific Research (https://www.fni.bg/?q=node/14) of the Ministry of Education and Science.

  3. 3.

    A number of sociologists were persecuted because of their ideological orientation.

  4. 4.

    The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the national research centre, including dozens of institutes in different scientific disciplines.

  5. 5.

    The sociological survey “Gradat i seloto” (The City and the village) was carried out in 1967 and then in 1986. It was based on a very large sample (e.g. 18,994 respondents in 1967) and among other things, it provided interesting insights into the working population, the use of technology, educational status and so forth (http://prehod.omda.bg/page.php?IDMenu=819&IDLang=1 http://prehod.omda.bg/page.php?IDMenu=620&IDLang=1).

  6. 6.

    Interestingly, there were a number of famous sociologists who had acquired high-profile positions: e.g. Stoyan Mihailov was a member of the Central Committee of BKP, Niko Yahiel was a political advisor to T. Zhivkov, head of BKP from 1954 to 1989.

  7. 7.

    http://www.bsa-bg.org/index.php/2012-05-21-15-04-57.

  8. 8.

    For more details, see http://www.old-sociology.issk-bas.org/display.php?page=section&type=30&article=119.

  9. 9.

    More details about this survey in Elprom can be found at http://assa-m.com/npechat_st57.php#7.

  10. 10.

    See the interesting thematic issue concerning enterprise sociologists in Sotziologuitcheski problemi, 1988, Sofia or Stoyanov, S. Roliata na empiricthnite sotziologuitcheski izsledvania v promichlenia kombinat. in Sotzialna efektivnost na empirichnite sotziologuitcheski izsledvania. Izdatelstvo Naouka i izkoustvo (Gueorgiev, I., Fotev, G., Tchakalov, B. Eds.), Sofia: 1988, pp. 294–301, 331 p., Karagiaourova, D. Sotziologuitcheski prouchvania v edno promichleno predpriatie. in Sotzialna efektivnost na empirichnite sotziologuitcheski izsledvania. Izdatelstvo Naouka i izkoustvo (Gueorgiev, I., Fotev, G., Thcakalov, B. sous la dir.), Sofia: 1988, pp. 278–280.

  11. 11.

    At the beginning of the 1990s, those sociologists were among the first to be made redundant in the framework of the mass dismissals. However, in few companies, sociologists were active even in the second half of the 1990s—e.g. in my own research, I was able to meet the sociologist of the National Electric Company and the sociologist working in the Nuclear Plant “Kozlodouy” in 1995.

  12. 12.

    http://epicenter.bg/article/Tri-dni-predi-da-go-ubiyat-Lukanov-prizna-che-se-strahuva-za-zhivota-si/63968/11/34.

  13. 13.

    Some of these movements started within the dissident groups from 1988 and early 1989.

  14. 14.

    Actually, a number of famous sociologists were engaged in the newly established political movements, NGOs, trade unions and so on. It is interesting to note the largest Bulgarian opposition movement, the Union of the Democratic Forces, was established in the basement of the Institute of Sociology on 10 December 1989. Some of the significant sociologists of work also were engaged in political, trade union or civic activity: Krastiu Petkov became the founder and president of the reformed trade union CITUB (1990–1997) and later established the labour party the Obedinen blok na truda, Tchavdar Kuranov, after being active in the dissident movement, became candidate for President in 1990, supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (the new name of BKP since 1990) and so on.

  15. 15.

    As Koleva (2013) notes: “The economic transformation of Bulgarian society was favourable to the emergence of a new group of actors, willing to financially support both fundamental and applied research, regardless of the institutional affiliation of the researchers. In the first ten years of the transition, the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Foundation made possible several hundred collective and individual projects of Bulgarian researchers in the social sciences, including sociologists. A positive contribution in this respect was also made by internationally reputed foundations such as Friedrich Naumann, Friedrich Ebert, Kondrad Adenauer, MacArthur, King Baudouin, by foreign and international funds like Fonds Marshall, the PHARE program, UNDP, the programmes for scientific cooperation of the ministries of foreign affairs of Western countries. Since the late 1990s the EU framework programmes have enabled the participation of Bulgarian scholars in European projects.”

  16. 16.

    See more details at http://phls.uni-sofia.bg/documents/users/44/MP%20Trudovi%20pazari/Report_15.pdf.

  17. 17.

    This research was part of the European comparative research project WORKS—Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society (2005–2009).

  18. 18.

    See bio available at http://www.kpetkov.eu/avtobiografia.

  19. 19.

    Among these projects, I would like to mention WALQING—Work and Life Quality in New and Growing Jobs (2009–2012); WORKS—Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society (2005–2009); “SMALL”—Representation and voice in Small and Medium-sized European enterprises: monitoring Actors, Labour organisations and Legal frameworks (2002–2006), but also various projects financed by DG Employment of the European Commission and other donors.

  20. 20.

    According to Avramov (2007), the results of a study based on interviews with Bulgarian economists and sociologists, assessed the transfer of ideas from West to East. The research led to the conclusion that the Bulgarian economic research community had a propensity to confine itself to the role of recipient of theory.

  21. 21.

    Avramov (2007).

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleague Svetla Koleva for the valuable discussion about the Bulgarian SoW and her useful suggestions. Also my gratitude to Pepka Boyadjieva, who provided precious comments on the chapter.

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  1. Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Vassil Kirov

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  1. Sociology of Work and Employment, Département Homme Organisation et Société (DFR HOS), Grenoble Ecole de Management, ComUE Universite de Rhone-Alps, Grenoble, France

    Paul Stewart

  2. University d’Évry Paris-Saclay, Évry, France

    Jean-Pierre Durand

  3. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Maria-Magdalena Richea

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Kirov, V. (2019). Sociology of Work in Bulgaria. In: Stewart, P., Durand, JP., Richea, MM. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Sociology of Work in Europe . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93206-4_10

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