The research problematizes local uses of "American" culture wars. How is the American debate on political correctness constructed and narrated in the Bulgarian public sphere, and what are the objectives of this translation? Analyzing media discourses, the study attempts to interpret the stakes of different local actors and their arguments to translate global narratives into local contexts.
Milla Mineva argued that in Bulgaria these global narratives are imported through conservative perspectives, arguments, and stories.
Curiously, at first glance, American arguments against political correctness seem to be directly imported into the Bulgarian public sphere––but in fact, they often enter through Russian sources, producing a specific process of mutual amplification of arguments, creating a constellation that manages to bind American conservative critiques, Russophile positions, and anti-American sentiments.
Through the use of these global narratives, local conservatives are able to recast national identity as a "conservative" identity, inscribing it on the global stage through claims of recognition. At the same time, these narratives block possible demands for progressive social change and in fact succeed in mobilizing social support for the reproduction of the status quo.
Milla Mineva, sociologist, program director of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". Board member at the Foundation for Social and Humanitarian Research and the Bulgarian Sociological Association. Currently Democracy Fellow at the IWM.
Ivan Vejvoda, Permanent Fellow at the IWM, introduced the speaker and moderated the ensuing discussion.
Afterwards: The Premiere of the Video "Osnažena/Empowered" by Milena Jesenska Fellow and journalist Milica Kravić Aksamit. The story analyzes the improvement of anti-trafficking policies in Serbia and the EU, through the specific perspective of the survivors.
