Overview
- Adopts a human ecosystem framework in its in-depth examination of the ageing population in a post-socialist state
- Provides rich empirical research to the larger macro understanding of the consequences of social transformations taking place across economic, social and environmental spheres
- Suggest possible effective policy and intervention recommendations that will be of significance especially for other post-socialist countries facing the ageing population dilemma
- Offers an insight to a little known post-Socialist state, and thus contributes to knowledge on the social-economic-environmental development of contemporary Bulgaria in the English literature
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About this book
This book is about ageing in Bulgaria. How do Bulgaria’s elderly—abandoned by the state and left behind by their adult children and grandchildren—adapt to their continuously shifting environment and a state of perpetual uncertainty? Drawing on dozens of interviews with older people in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia as well as a village in the Bulgarian Balkans, Iossifova unravels how the dramatic socio-political transitions of the past eighty years have influenced the lifecourse of older people today. She carefully traces their patterns of everyday life in order to draw out the mechanisms through which older people cope with their meagre pensions, sustain their ailing bodies and make do in their tattered homes. Iossifova argues that ‘ageing in place’ as a popular paradigm underpinning neoliberal policy agendas has no place in Bulgaria and the wider Global East, where translocal ageing is the norm.
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Keywords
Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“The book is a must read for aging and social policy studies as it is for housing scholars such as myself. … The book will enchant academics and students alike through the quality and clarity of its narrative and with a writing style that makes the reader pause with delight.” (Adriana Mihaela Soaita, Eurasian Geography and Economics, April 21, 2021)
“Iossifova’s short book offers an evocative and authoritative analysis of the everyday experience of ageing in the ‘global east’ country of Bulgaria. Challenging ‘western’ concepts such as ageing in place and highlighting the resilience and adaptive capacities of older people for whom change has been the one constant in their lives, it is a must-read for all researchers and students interested in the social dimensions of ageing.” (Tim Schwanen, Professor of Transport Studies and Geography and Director of Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford, UK)“Deljana Iossifova’s book on Bulgaria’s forgotten elderly is an impressive mix of theory, ethnography, and policy critique. The book is about the everyday lives of Bulgaria’s ‘greatest generation’—children of the inter-war and World War II periods—who managed to adjust and thrive through five decades of state socialism. They were once workers, poets, teachers, engineers. The Transition that followed the collapse of state socialism was supposed to bring freedom and prosperity, but it did so for the very few. For Bulgaria’s aging population it brought mostly poverty, insecurity, and humiliation. Many lost the joy of daily contact with children and grandchildren, who left Bulgaria for greener (Western) pastures in the 1990s and early 2000s. The former poets and teachers became ailing retirees living on meager incomes in dilapidating homes with surprising resilience. You call this freedom? Iossifova is not only a talented researcher, but also a brilliant writer with a strong inclination for investigative journalism. The interview excerpts are riveting—most readers will not be able to go through the book without a tear in the eye. Iossifova’s urban and architectural expertise allows her additional insights into how physical space can be reformed to at least partially alleviate the severe hardships that characterize the lives of Bulgaria’s elderly. This is an important book on an important topic: how to allow the world’s growing aging population to live with dignity.” (Sonia A. Hirt, Dean & Hughes Professor in Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Georgia, USA)
“Iossifova’s book draws on the lifecourse stories of older people living in Bulgaria’s rapidly growing capital city and depopulating countryside. Iossifova goes beyond urban-rural comparisons, tracing the role of household practices, state policies, and economic hardship in these translocal geographies of ageing. With clarity and empathy, the book examines how political and economic turmoil transformed a generation’s expectations and experiences of older age. It represents an excellent resource not only for readers interested in ageing, but for those looking to learn about contemporary Bulgarian society more broadly.” (Dr Anna Plyushteva, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Dr Deljana Iossifova is Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Manchester and Chair of the Urban Studies Foundation.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Translocal Ageing in the Global East
Book Subtitle: Bulgaria’s Abandoned Elderly
Authors: Deljana Iossifova
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60823-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-60822-4Published: 22 November 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-60825-5Published: 22 November 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-60823-1Published: 21 November 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 146
Number of Illustrations: 18 b/w illustrations
Topics: Human Geography, Urban Geography / Urbanism (inc. megacities, cities, towns), Urban Studies/Sociology, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Social Anthropology