Inhalt des Dokuments
Elitza Stanoeva
[1]
- © CMS
elitza.stanoeva@metropolitanstudies.de [2]
Center for Metropolitan Studies (CMS)
TU Berlin
Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7, TEL 3-0
10587 Berlin
- Dissertation
- Lebenslauf / Curriculum Vitae
- Publikationen, Vorträge etc. / Publications, Lectures etc.
Dissertation
Sofia: The Socialist City in Its Monumental
Vision and Practice
The dissertation explores the
changing political ideal of the socialist city as it was articulated
in the socialist reconstruction of Sofia – its blueprint and plans
as well as their incomplete realizations – throughout the Cold War
era. Looking for the essence of the socialist city, the research
focuses on the city center of the capital, which was planned and
designed to showcase the ideology embraced by the regime. Therefore,
the center of Sofia is studied first and foremost as a space of
visualization of power and, accordingly, the urban plans and
architectural projects for its arrangement are treated as expert
solutions of a political task rather than as autonomous creative
ideas.
Tracing the manifestations of the state ideology in
the urban landscape of the socialist city, the analysis employs a
dynamic notion of ideology understood as an operative set of policies
of state crafting and social engineering, which underwent regular
changes despite invariably pledging adherence to Marxism-Leninism. The
urbanist enactment of the operative ideology is analyzed through the
dual lens of monumentalization and discipline. In this approach,
monumentalization is understood as transcending architectural
monumentality in the strict sense and also affecting the politically
determined use of public space as well as the public conduct of the
“New Man” as imagined by the Party. Similarly, the disciplinary
functions of the city are identified not only in the pursued projects
of social engineering but also in the architectural frame of public
life, which was likewise informed by the political imagery.
Within this analytical framework, the dissertation gauges the
interrelations between operative ideology, urban monumentality and
discipline in three distinctive phases of the Cold War era, each
shaped by specific policy priorities. Initially, during the Stalinist
period, the socialist center of Sofia was developed primarily as a
political stage. The monumental aspirations invested in urbanism gave
expression to the leader cult dominating the political imagery at the
time. Within an architectural frame of power towers, the disciplinary
functions of public space were best represented by the mass parade
that mobilized popular support in semi-military fashion. Subsequently,
in the period commencing with de-Stalinization, the regime sought to
enhance its legitimacy with soft techniques of social engineering that
relied on the promise of mass prosperity and material satisfaction. In
accordance with this change of raison d’être, the city center was
diversified with places of everyday leisure and consumerism. The
disciplinary effect that the city center was anticipated to exert was
to educate citizens in “politically correct” consumer tastes and
practices, whereas its monumental mission was to showcase the
superiority of the command economy of socialism. The third and final
period of research, which covers the last two decades of socialism,
witnessed a nationalist turn in Party politics that reached its
symbolic pinnacle in the celebration of the 1,300th anniversary of the
Bulgarian state in 1981. Before becoming the main stage of this event,
the center of Sofia was redesigned with special concern to highlight
the cultural continuity of the nation. In this context, discipline and
monumentality functioned through aesthetization of space and cultural
refinement of citizens.
Studying the path of socialist
urbanism throughout these three periods, the analysis takes into
account both the implementation of politically sanctioned projects and
the frequent impediments and non-realizations. The detected
inconsistencies and changing priorities in the urbanist realm are not
treated as a sign of failure in the implementation of the socialist
city model but rather as an essential part of its idiosyncrasy as they
reflected the shifts in the regime’s operative ideology over
time.
Lebenslauf / Curriculum Vitae
February – May 2006
Visiting Fellow at
Berliner Kolleg für vergleichende Geschichte Europas, Freie
Universität
December 2005 – January 2006
Visiting
Fellow at Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur
Ostmitteleuropas, Leipzig
since 2005
PhD student at
HU (thesis advisors: Wolfgang Hardtwig, HU and Ivaylo Ditchev, Sofia
University), fellow at Transatlantic Graduate Research Program
Berlin-New York
since 2004
Associate Editor of
Critique & Humanism journal (Bulgaria)
2004 (fall
semester)
Teaching Assistant at Plovdiv University, Bulgaria
(seminar on Ontology)
2003 – 2004
MA in History,
Central European University – Budapest
2003 (summer
semester)
Teaching Assistant at Plovdiv University, Bulgaria
(seminar on Introduction in Philosophy)
1997 – 2002
MA in Philosophy, Sofia University “St. Kliment
Ohridsky”
Publikationen, Vorträge etc. / Publications, Lectures etc.
PUBLICATIONS
In preparation: “Sofia: Building a Nation-State Capital
(1878-1939)”; to be included in Makas, E.G., T. Damljanovic (eds.).
Planning Central and South-Eastern European Capital Cities in the Age
of Nationalism. Routledge
2006. “Football and the City.
An Extraordinary Month in the Life of Berlin.” Sotziologicheski
Problemi, 3-4: 114-130 (in Bulgarian)
2005. “Sofia Trams
(1901-1934): A Discourse on Urban Modernization.” Critique &
Humanism, 2: 259-282 (in Bulgarian; English version forthcoming in
Eurozine Electronic Network)
2004. “The Market Hall in
the Modern Topology of Sofia: Symbolic and Socio-Political
Projections.” Sotziologicheski Problemi, 3-4: 289-306 (in Bulgarian)
2004. “International Atelier for Photo and Video
Documentaries “Visual Roads for the Intercultural Dialogue” (11-14
November 2004, Tzigov Chark).” Sotziologicheski Problemi, 3-4: 394-7
(in Bulgarian)
2004. “Visual Roads for the Intercultural
Dialogue.” Kultura, 45 (26 November): 2 (in Bulgarian)
2001. with D. Denkov, V. Vidinsky. Roma Schools in Bulgaria 2001.
Sofia: Open Society Foundation (Bulgarian and English editions)
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & INVITED LECTURES
2007 (April) From Palace to Mausoleum: The Scenography of Power,
Sofia (1879-1956); invited lecture at Sofia University, Department of
Sociology, MA Program “Sociological Diagnosis of Contemporary
Times”
2006 (September) The Central Square: Stage and
Décor of the Political; invited lecture at International Summer
School “Globalization and Intercultural Communication,”
Kiten/Bulgaria
2005 (May) Social Differentiation Translated
into Spatial Arrangement (Sofia, 1878-1924): From Ethnically Enclosed
Neighborhoods towards Class-divided Residential Quarters; presentation
at InASEA Conference “Urban Life and Culture in Southeastern
Europe,” Belgrade
2004 (November) Restructuring of the
Market Center of Sofia – Visualization of Political Strategies and
Ideologies; presentation at International Atelier for Photo and Video
Documentaries “Visual Roads for the Intercultural Dialogue,”
Tzigov Chark/Bulgaria
2000 (October) The Migration of
Bulgarian Turks in 1989; presentation at International students’
seminar with a comparative curriculum in humanities, Ankara
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