In The cultural Communication of Emigration in Bulgaria, Nadezhda Sotirova weaves disparate threads of Balkanism, complaining practices, and the myth of the “Bulgarian Situation” in order to illuminate local discourses on emigration in Bulgaria. Utilizing ethnography of communication and cultural discourse analysis, the author examines and contextualizes the lived experiences of Bulgarian communities through ethnographic observations, interviews, and cultural discourse analysis. Based on assumptions of communication as infused with voices of the past, reflective, constitutive, and active, this case study of emigration discourses highlights the local social reality as navigated through interaction. Sotirova examines local discourses on emigration as cultural currency available to the members of the community, where discussion of issues in Bulgaria serve to communicatively enact larger cultural notions of being (Bulgarian-ness), social relations (oplakvane), dwelling (Bulgarian Situation), and action (emigration).

In response to the cultural challenges in society and scholarship, this handbook presents the conceptions, assumptions, principles, methods, topics and issues in the studies of cultural forms of human communication—cultural discourses—by experts from around the world. A culturalist programme in communication studies (CS), cultural discourse studies (CDS), as represented in this handbook, is a new current of thought in human and social science and a form of academic activism, but above all, it is a fresh paradigm of research committed to enhancing cultural harmony and prosperity on the one hand and facilitating intellectual plurality and innovation on the other hand. This handbook is the first of its kind; it is concerned with the identities of, and interactions between, the world’s diverse cultural communities through locally-grounded and globally-minded, culturally conscious and critical approaches to their communicative practice. Contributors apply such insights, precepts and techniques, not merely to discover and describe past and present communication, but also to design and guide future communication. This handbook is ideal for scholars and students interested in cultural aspects and issues of communication/discourse, as well as researchers of other fields looking to apply cultural discourse methods to their own projects.

This volume responds to the question: How do you know when you belong to a country? In other words, when is the nation-state a homeland? The boundaries and borders defining who belongs and who does not proliferate in the age of globalization, although they may not coincide with national jurisdictions. Contributors to this collection engage with how these boundaries are made and sustained, examining how belonging is mediated by material relations of power, capital, and circuits of communication technology on the one side and representations of identity, nation, and homeland on the other. The authors’ diverse methodologies, ranging from archival research, oral histories, literary criticism, and ethnography attend to these contradictions by studying how the practices of migration and identification, procured and produced through global exchanges of bodies and goods that cross borders, foreclose those borders to (re)produce, and (re)imagine the homeland and its boundaries.

In 1980, SAGE published Geert Hofstede’s Culture’s Consequences. It opens with a quote from Blaise Pascal: “There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees that are falsehoods on the other.” The book became a classic—one of the most cited sources in theSocial Science Citation Index—and subsequently appeared in a second edition in 2001. This new SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence picks up on themes explored in that book. Cultural competence refers to the set of attitudes, practices, and policies that enables a person or agency to work well with people from differing cultural groups. Other related terms include cultural sensitivity, transcultural skills, diversity competence, and multicultural expertise. What defines a culture? What barriers might block successful communication between individuals or agencies of differing cultures? How can those barriers be understood and navigated to enhance intercultural communication and understanding? These questions and more are explained within the pages of this new reference work. Key Features: 300 to 350 entries organized in A-to-Z fashion in two volumes Signed entries that conclude with Cross-References and Suggestions for Further Readings Thematic “Reader’s Guide” in the front matter grouping related entries by broad topic areas Chronology that provides a historical perspective of the development of cultural competence as a discrete field of study Resources appendix and a comprehensive Index The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence is an authoritative and rigorous source on intercultural competence and related issues, making it a must-have reference for all academic libraries.

This volume explores the processes of economic migration, the social conditions that follow it and the discourses that underlie research into it. Reflecting critically on economic migration and on the process of studying and creating knowledge about it, the contributors address the question of whether recent enquiries into modernity bring a newer and better comprehension of the nature of dislocation and movement, or whether these serve simply to replicate familiar modes of placing people and individuals. The book is organized into perspectives in and on specific continents - Europe, Asia and Africa - in order to explore notions regarding economic migration within and across regions as well as towards displacing the Eurocentrism of many studies of migration.

The expansion of the European Union in May 2004 through the entry of ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe, has generated considerable media interest - interest which was revived by further expansion in January 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania became the latest nations from the east to join. Rather than focus exclusively on changes within the EU labour market and related policy debates, this book offers a careful, grounded analysis of the social and cultural processes bound up with migration flows between Britain and Bulgaria, placing these flows in the wider European perspective. As such, Accession and Migration will be of interest not only to migration scholars but also to policy makers at local, national and international levels.

This book explores trends in migration from Bulgaria to Switzerland since Bulgaria joined the European Union (EU) in 2007. Due to several unique factors, this in-depth case study provides a basis for understanding transnational migration in a wider European context. Bulgarians represent a fairly small community within Switzerland, and are quite scattered throughout the country. They come from various regions in Bulgaria with very different socio-economic profile. In Switzerland, apart from differences in linguistic regions and the federal system, there are significant regional disparities, providing a variety of contexts for exploring this transnational migration, causes and consequences. The first part of the book analyses who migrates and why, addressing regional disparities within Bulgaria. The text explores the impact of economic differences, educational background, and other factors that play into immigrants’ motivations to move. The next part of the book examines different migratory movements and transnational practices between Switzerland, Bulgaria, and other destination countries for Bulgarian immigrants. It addresses larger socioeconomic shifts and resulting impacts at individual, household, community, and national levels. Finally, the book assesses all of these factors within the context of shifting immigration policies. This work draws on mixed-method empirical research conducted in both countries over a three-year period, analysed within four major frameworks: transnationalism and migrant networks, social inequality, regional disparities and development, and immigration policies. The results will be of interest for researchers working in a variety of social science fields, including anthropology, geography, sociology, social psychology, law, public policy, political science, international studies, demography and exploring issues related to migration and development, social and regional disparities, inequality, employment, social networks, social identity and others.

Global communication can be difficult in the best of circumstances. The contributors in this book take seriously the premise that one can examine communication within specific global settings and scenes with the goal of ensuring that the meanings made among those within specific communities is more clearly understood. This includes recognizing that we often communicate based on specific assumptions and act in ways that have normative bases that are shared with those within communities, but are often difficult to discern or navigate by those who are not members of them. Situated within the Ethnography of Communication research program, the contributors in this volume use Cultural Discourse Analysis to examine such practices, a theory and methodology developed by Donal Carbaugh over the past thirty years. The book is a celebration of his work and career, in which forty-four prominent Communication scholars and practitioners come together to use this framework to examine pressing communication issues across the globe. The book includes a preface by Gerry Philipsen that is an academic history of Carbaugh’s career, an introduction outlining the history and current practice of Cultural Discourse Analysis, sixteen data based chapters using the framework to examine a broad range of inter/cultural communication practices across the globe, and an epilogue by Carbaugh reviewing this research and its future trajectory. The book is a handbook of Cultural Discourse Analysis for examining the latest in Cultural Discourse Analysis research and learning how to do such work that will be useful to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in a broad range of fields, inter/cultural communication scholars, and all those who seek to better understand and communicate in the global world today.