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- Title
MOBILE OBJECTS: CORECOM AND THE SELLING OF WESTERN GOODS IN SOCIALIST BULGARIA.
- Authors
Guentcheva, Rossitza
- Abstract
Historians and anthropologists researching socialist consumption would most commonly analyze the peculiar CORECOM establishment as a Western model of consumerism that was either a locus of resistance to the socialist regime or symbolized the privilege of the political elite in the country (nomenklatura). This paper takes a different approach that differs from the prevailing research, as it focuses on the study of the practices of selling and purchasing of Western objects at Bulgarian CORECOMs. The author argues that purchasing Western objects at CORECOM was a unique shopping experience for the Bulgarian consumer, which was differed significantly from Western consumer styles and was relative and context dependent. The Bulgarian consumer (the CORECOM customer, the store clerk , the political elite) were active agents in the creation of new meanings for Western objects through the practices of selling and purchasing ( stealing, hiding, lobbying and issuing fake invoices). At the intersection of the socialist authoritative discourse and Western consumerism, Western objects lost their original meanings and acquired new ones.
- Subjects
BULGARIA; BUSINESS enterprises; HARD currencies; FOREIGN exchange; CONSUMPTION (Economics); CONSUMERISM; COMMERCE
- Publication
Balkan Studies / Études Balkaniques, 2009, Vol 45, Issue 1, p3
- ISSN
0324-1645
- Publication type
Article