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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Geographies of transition heritage, identity and tourism in post-socialist Bulgaria Naumov, Nikola Sotirov Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 06. Oct. 2021 GEOGRAPHIES OF TRANSITION: HERITAGE, IDENTITY AND TOURISM IN POST-SOCIALIST BULGARIA A THESIS SUBMITTED BY Nikola Sotirov Naumov BSc MBA MSc IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 21 MAY 2018 KING’S COLLEGE LONDON Abstract In 1989 the fall of the Soviet Union brought new economic, socio-cultural and political realities to many Eastern European states, which were faced with a long and difficult period of transition. Along with economic restructuring and political changes, most of the post- socialist republics experienced a ‘cultural transition’, adopting new cultural policies concerning heritage management, interpretation and development. In this new social and political context, heritage has become an important site for the construction and contestation of new post-socialist identities as well as an important economic development tool through heritage tourism. The research explores the development, management and interpretation of cultural heritage in socialist (1944-1989) and post-socialist Bulgaria (1989-2016), focusing particularly on the period of transition before and after 1989. Alongside a national level analysis of the shifting institutional and policy context for the development and maintenance of cultural heritage in Bulgaria, the thesis investigates two case studies. The case study of Sofia investigates the role of specifically socialist heritage sites in the post-1989 strategies of heritage development. The case study analyses the ongoing disputes and debates regarding the management and interpretation of socialist heritage in the post- 1989 era and explores the changing importance of socialist heritage as sites of collective memory and potential (communist) heritage tourism attractions. The second case study explores the role of UNESCO World Heritage Status across socialist and post-socialist eras in the Ancient City of Nessebar. Drawing on various confrontations and tensions largely associated with the development of mass tourism, the main purpose of this case study is to demonstrate the contested nature of World Heritage designation of Nessebar in different political contexts and to explore the changing value of World Heritage as a tool for economic regeneration and political recognition. Overall, the thesis contends that a focus on heritage brings to light the ambivalent, contested and unfinished nature of political, economic and cultural transition in Bulgaria. Acknowledgement My PhD journey at King’s College has been an incredible experience full of challenges, obstacles, achievements and personal growth. I came to King’s as a confused young student with unclear goals and career aspirations knowing very little about being a researcher. Six years later, I am leaving King’s as an early career researcher with ambitious career goals, a full-time academic with teaching experience and qualifications, and a happily married husband. I could not have accomplished any of these without the amazing support of so many people and their time, input, insights and encouragement. First, I would like to express my gratitude to Keith Hollinshead and Andrew Holden who encouraged me to pursue a doctoral degree after I finished my Master’s. Without your stories and motivation, I would have never thought about starting this new chapter of my life. Second, I owe enormous debts to the supervisory team for their constant support, patience and reliability. Many thanks to Tony Johnston, Debbie Potts and David Green who helped me embark on my PhD journey and supported my first steps in human geography. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors - Ruth Craggs and David Harrison. Your critical perspectives, constructive feedback, constant encouragement, patience and sense of humour made this journey a part of my life I would never forget. You changed the way I understand the world around me, both academically and personally. Third, I am grateful to all my research participants and the staff at various institutions that I visited and who helped me with the data collection process. I am particularly grateful to the librarians at the British Library, King’s College Maughan Library, UNESCO-ICOMOS Documentation Centre in Paris, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of Bedfordshire, National Library of Sofia, the State Archives in Sofia and Burgas, and National Institute of Immovable Cultural Heritage in Sofia. Fourth, I would like to express my gratitude to all my PhD friends and colleagues at University of Bedfordshire, UKCBC, King’s and University of Northampton who have helped me with their feedback, academic and moral support. Thanks a million, to my best critical friends-Dean Hristov, Adi Weidenfeld and Stanislav Ivanov. Last but not least, a big thanks to my family for always supporting me to achieve new things in life. And a big thank you to my wife for being there with me, for living with this never- ending midnight readings, writing-ups and sleepless nights. You know I would not make it without you. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Aim and Objectives ....................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Outline of the thesis ...................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Definition and scope of heritage ................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Critical approaches to heritage .................................................................................................... 11 2.3.1 Politics of heritage management: the ‘Authorised Heritage Discourse’ .............................. 12 2.3.2 Heritage and politics of nationalism: deconstructing national identity ................................ 13 2.3.3 Heritage and memory: collective remembrance and forgetting ........................................... 16 2.4 Political economy of heritage ..................................................................................................... 19 2.4.1 Heritage, tourism and impacts of heritage development ...................................................... 20 2.4.2 Politics of World Heritage: conservation and development discourses ............................... 22 2.5 Heritage, tourism and identity construction in Central and Eastern Europe ............................... 28 2.5.1 Heritage and socialist principles (1944 – 1989) ................................................................... 29 2.5.2 Heritage in the post-socialist era (1989- 2017) .................................................................... 36 Chapter 3 Research Methods ................................................................................................................ 43 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 43 3.2 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 44 3.3 Adopting a Qualitative Approach ............................................................................................... 46 3.3.1 Case Study Analysis............................................................................................................. 47 3.3.2 The selection of case studies ...............................................................................................