Elitza Stanoeva

My research explores the adoption of a socialist political ideology as manifested in the design of Sofia’s city center. Under socialism, the monumentality of the city center was rigidified not only in its architectural form but also in terms of the living body, be it a participant in a mass parade, a consumer of socialist productive abundance, or an ‘acculturated’ citizen believing in national progress. The analysis traces the changing visions of Sofia’s center, which mirrored major shifts in party politics throughout the Eastern bloc.

Introducing the concept of a “global city,” Saskia Sassen’s book is a forerunning research of economic and social processes of global reshaping based on extensive analysis of three of the largest urban economies in the world – New York, London and Tokyo. Its publication in Bulgarian language will be a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature in Bulgaria in the context of an increasing academic attention and research interest in the cross-disciplinary urban problematic.