Esperanto, Civility, and the Politics of Fellowship: A

Home , Akademio de Esperanto, Christopher, Comrade, Esperanto club, Esperanto literature, Esperanto movement

ESPERANTO, CIVILITY, AND THE POLITICS OF FELLOWSHIP: A

COSMOPOLITAN MOVEMENT FROM THE EASTERN EUROPEAN PERIPHERY

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate School

of the University of Notre Dame

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Ana Velitchkova

Omar Lizardo, Director

Graduate Program in Peace Studies and Sociology

Notre Dame, Indiana

July 2014

ANA MILENOVA VELITCHKOVA

2014

ESPERANTO, CIVILITY, AND THE POLITICS OF FELLOWSHIP: A

COSMOPOLITAN MOVEMENT FROM THE EASTERN EUROPEAN PERIPHERY

Abstract

Ana Velitchkova

This dissertation examines global, regional, state-, group-, and person-level processes involved in the growth of the movement formed around the constructed international language Esperanto. The Esperanto movement emerged in the global arena in the late nineteenth century as a response to inequalities in the nation-state field. In the course of several decades, the movement established a new global field based on the logic of equal communication through Esperanto and on the accumulation of cultural capital. While the field gained autonomy from the nation-state field, it has not been recognized as its equal. Persons endowed with cultural capital but lacking political and economic capital have been particularly drawn to Esperanto. Ironically, while attempting to overcome established unfair distinctions based on differential accumulation of political and economic capital, the Esperanto movement creates and maintains new distinctions and inequalities based on cultural capital accumulation.

Ana Velitchkova

At the regional level, the Esperanto movement became prominent in state- socialist Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. The movement found unexpected allies among independent states in the Eastern European periphery. The growth of the Esperanto movement as the modal movement in the region coincides with the institutionalization of a unique form of civility favoring comprehensive socio-cultural development and the fellowship principle. According to Eastern European civility, the familiar distinctions between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, and between the public and the private spheres taken for granted in the West become blurred. The organizational forms the Esperanto movement developed, its practices, and its grounding in three universalist discursive fields−world culture, Marxism, and fellowship−served as institutional carriers of Eastern

European civility. The institutionalization of the hybrid Eastern European civility can explain the puzzling case of the Bulgarian transition to democracy. While the country lacked a Western-type civil society and a history of anti-communist contention, it still managed to establish a peaceful and stable democracy.

These findings are based on historical and comparative process tracing involving five independent data sources: original archival research, interviews, and participant observation, and available survey and organizational data.

To my grandparents' generation, who believed in communism To my parents' generation, who believed in the transition to democracy but quickly found out it wasn't what they had expected it to be To my generation, who are struggling with the question: "Now what?" I hope this work helps us build a future on a firmer ground...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of figures ...... vi

List of tables ...... vii

Acknowledgments...... viii

Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1

Chapter 2: Methods ...... 9 2.1 The beginning of the project ...... 9 2.2 Multiple units of analysis ...... 10 2.3 Theoretical strategy ...... 11 2.4 Global field positionality as a foundation of a historical and comparative cosmopolitanism ...... 12 2.5 Research designs for the substantive chapters ...... 15 2.6 Data strategy ...... 17

Chapter 3: A language movement for global understanding and communication equality19 3.1 Beginnings of the Esperanto movement ...... 20 3.1.1 Creation of the Esperanto language: Zamenhof's dream realized .....20 3.1.2 Mobilizing a base: The pledge to learn the international language, the original list of Esperantists, and the address book practice .....22 3.2 Carving a niche in the world social space ...... 23 3.2.1 Organizing a movement: The first world congress and the Boulogne Declaration establish the principles of the Esperanto movement ..23 3.2.2 Making it stick: the World Esperanto Association (UEA) ...... 26 3.2.3 Seeking global recognition: Esperanto and the League of Nations ..28 3.2.4 Hybrid fields: Forming alliances or creating divisions? Esperanto in service of the labor movement ...... 29 3.2.5 Stabilization of the Esperanto field as a secondary global field: UNESCO recognition of Esperanto as a global cultural heritage and failure to obtain recognition from the United Nations ...... 34 3.3 An international language as a unifying logic: The internal workings of the Esperanto field ...... 34 3.3.1 Self-identification with the international language and possession of language skills as illusio and capital of the Esperanto field ...... 34

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3.3.2 "Eternal beginners" as low-status participants in the Esperanto movement ...... 37 3.3.3 "No 'crocodiling' (speaking in one's native language) allowed here": Immersion as a skill-developing, disciplining, and status-defining practice ...... 38 3.3.4 Instrumental Esperantists as high-status participants ...... 40 3.3.5 "The easiest international language": The simple ideology of the Esperanto movement ...... 42 3.4 Autonomy "wars" in the Esperanto field ...... 44 3.4.1 Maintaining a boundary between Esperanto and the private/economic spheres: Tourism as an intermediary field ...... 44 3.4.2 Maintaining the boundary between Esperanto and the political field: Too cozy with the state? The Bulgarian Esperanto movement as a scapegoat of the political autonomy struggle ...... 47 3.5 Summary and conclusion ...... 49

Chapter 4: The puzzling case of the Bulgarian democratic transition: A cooperative civil society behind the Iron Curtain? ...... 51 4.1 Civil society actors ...... 52 4.1.1 Plurality of actor types and actor mandates ...... 52 4.1.2 Transnational social movements behind the Iron Curtain ...... 55 4.1.3 A cosmopolitan movement of the non-ruling cultural and professional elite ...... 67 4.2 An enduring political culture? ...... 70 4.2.1 Civility as fellowship ...... 70 4.2.2 Institutionalization of a comprehensive model of development ...... 75 4.3 Integrative civil society practices ...... 79 4.3.1 A neutral international language as the foundation of an international community ...... 79 4.3.2 A three-level organizational infrastructure in service of overcoming spatial, political, and issue-related distances ...... 80 4.3.3 Esperantujo (the Esperanto state): direct communication technologies ...... 82 4.3.4 Mediated communication technologies ...... 82 4.4 Summary and conclusion ...... 83

Chapter 5: The making of an internationalist public behind the Iron Curtain: Bulgarian Esperantists construct a model of comprehensive development at the wake of World War II ...... 86 5.1 Small states and world enmities ...... 87 5.2 Publications as a reflection of publicness and civility ...... 89 5.3 Manifesto of the flagship magazine of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union ...... 90 5.4 Internationalism as a cultural strategy of the weak ...... 91 5.5 Major topics of interest to Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946-7 ...... 94 5.6 Coordinating activities at multiple scales ...... 98 iv

5.7 Civilizational boundary work ...... 105 5.8 Language and its support structure ...... 108 5.8.1 Publications ...... 109 5.8.2 Language-based activities ...... 110 5.8.3 Organization, membership, and financial stability ...... 111 5.8.4 Meetings ...... 112 5.8.5 Correspondence...... 113 5.9 Comprehensive development ...... 113 5.10 Politics...... 116 5.10.1 Relations with the state ...... 116 5.10.2 Democracy ...... 118 5.10.3 Labor ...... 119 5.10.4 Peace ...... 120 5.11 Affect, fellowship, and sociability ...... 121 5.12 Summary and conclusion ...... 124

Chapter 6: Theoretical discussion and conclusions ...... 128 6.1 Summary of the findings ...... 128 6.2 A world social space ...... 132 6.3 Complex inequalities ...... 135 6.3.1 Universalism at the periphery of the world system ...... 136 6.3.2 Affecting the status/class structure of state-socialist societies ...... 136 6.4 Public sphere and civility ...... 137 6.4.1 Context and civility ...... 139 6.4.2 Actors: positioning publics in the world social space ...... 140 6.4.3 Forms of publicness or communication technologies involved ...... 143 6.4.4 Content: giving legitimacy to logics ...... 146 6.4.5 Outcomes: producing legitimate culture ...... 147

Bibliography ...... 149

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: Transnational social movement organization fields by country, 1953-2003 ..57

Figure 4.2: Bulgarian transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953- 2003 ...... 60

Figure 4.3: Czech(oslovak) transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953-2003 ...... 61

Figure 4.4: Polish transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953-2003...... 62

Figure 4.5: Romanian transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953- 2003 ...... 63

Figure 4.6: Number of transnational Esperanto organizations by country, 1953-2003 .....64

Figure 4.7: Organizational chart of the Esperanto movement ...... 69

Figure 4.8: Timeline of the publication of national Esperanto periodicals in the second half of the 20th century ...... 78

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Membership categories for the Esperanto movement ...... 35

Table 4.1 Support for the comprehensive socio-cultural model of development in former state-socialist countries, World Value Survey, 1990 ...... 76

Table 5.1 Topics appearing in five or more segments in Bulgara Esperantisto, 1946-7...... 96

Table 5.2 Geographical scope by temporal mode of segments published in Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946 ...... 100

Table 5.3 Geographical scope by temporal mode of articles published in Bulgara Esperantisto in 1947 ...... 101

Table 5.4 Geographical scope of segments published in Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946 and 1947 reporting on meetings ...... 112

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the gentle and continuous support of Lyn Spillman.

Lyn has been the biggest advocate of this research project since its inception in her sociology of culture class. She saw the importance of understanding the Esperanto movement and encouraged me to keep digging when others thought I should drop the project. Her enthusiasm and trust in the process of exploration were there to replenish mine when I had almost ran out of them. Lyn has tirelessly served as a trustful sounding board emboldening me but also being a corrective of my missteps throughout the process.

I would not have made it to the end without her, for which I am truly and extremely grateful. Intellectually, I am indebted to her for making culture a meaningful concept to me sociologically. For someone coming from a background in politics, movements, structuralism, and literature, hierarchically compartmentalized, Lyn's focus on meaning making has opened an entire new world of theoretical understandings that completely undermines the hierarchy.

I hold in special appreciation my academic advisor Omar Lizardo, who has provided me with the intellectual freedom and a space to explore all the theoretical and empirical directions I needed to explore in order to formulate the final product of this research. Omar has inspired me to think big and keep reading, love theory and engage with it, but not lose sight of the empirical reality. He has guided my intellectual

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development from a respectful distance, for which I am grateful. Omar understood that what I needed most was an opportunity to acquire the intellectual resources necessary to tackle the problem that fascinated and frustrated me but that was too big for me to handle when I started. I cherish deeply the opportunity he gave me and the intellectual voice I have been able to develop because of it. Omar's scholarship has influenced my thinking tremendously. The structuralist in me wanted to look for order and see the big picture but the humanist in me also wanted to populate it with real people acting in the world as is and not as we wish it were. Omar has suggested multiple directions in which I could pursue these two interests.

Robert Fishman has served as the academic model for the kind of scholar I would like to become. He has always been kind, appreciative of everyone's contribution, disinterestedly engaged with the specificity of the research at hand, inquisitive, and generous with his comments, support, and positivity. I am greatly indebted to him intellectually as well for sensitizing me to the comparative approach of research, for introducing me to regime theory, and for paving the way for thinking about friendship in theoretical terms. He helped me prepare for my interviews and while listening to my describing my puzzling findings, he saw something unique in the Bulgarian case and encouraged me to pursue it, which proved to be very rewarding both theoretically and personally.

The latest addition to the amazing group of mentors I have had the fortune to learn from is Ann Mische. She has brought in a new energy and a new enthusiasm to the sociology department and to the Kroc Institute that are contagious and that have spilled

over into my research. Ann's attentiveness to both people and research is inspirational.

She has offered yet another fresh approach to understanding movements, peace, and culture. Her theoretical treatment of the future, of how hopes and plans may make change possible, has provided the needed justification for looking at Esperantists' efforts, which may appear distant and non-understandable to a contemporary U.S. audience, with the deserved seriousness.

Christian Davenport met me when I felt lost and terrified in a metaphorical labyrinth of multiple institutional boundaries and demands that seemed dangerously about to crush me. He helped me find a way "out": gather the courage to grow to see the boundaries from above and find my place in the labyrinth. Privately, I have jokingly and sacrilegiously but appreciatively and endearingly referred to him as "Christian the savior". Christian's main concern is the power differential between the state and the people. I am happy to report that I have carried this concern in my cultural forays and am back to present on the institutional foundations of this differential.

Early in my graduate studies at Notre Dame, I also had the opportunity to work with Jackie Smith, whose unique global perspective has strongly influenced my thinking about global processes. Her hope in and commitment to contemporary global emancipatory movements have inspired my respect and care for similar efforts across time and space, such as the Esperanto movement. I am particularly grateful to have had access to the dataset of transnational social movement organizations that Jackie has compiled in collaboration with Dawn Wiest (Smith and Wiest 2012b). The initial motivation for this project was provided by an analysis of these data.

I have had two institutional homes at the University of Notre Dame, the

Department of Sociology and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. The

Department of Sociology offers a vibrant, supportive, ambitious, and creative environment allowing people like me, who upon entering grad school may not be the proverbial cream of the crop, to reach far beyond what they had thought they could do.

Two training workshops in social movements and politics and in culture have been particularly useful for developing my social scientific skills through regular discussions of participants' ongoing research projects. The department chair Rory McVeigh has been the most dependable chair I could ever imagine. Amy, Ann, Austin, Becky, Beth, Bill,

Brad, Brandon, Brandon, Brandy, Brian, Bryant, Cheng, Chris, Chris, Cole, Dan, Dave,

David, David, Ellen, Erika, Erin, Gene, Guillermo, Heather, Hilary, Hyae Jeong, Jade,

Jason, Jeff, Jenny, Jessica, Jessica, Joe, Jon, Josh, June, Karen, Kari, Katie, Kraig, Kristi,

Laura, Linda, Lisa, Liz, Mary Ellen, Megan, Mehrdad, Melissa, Meredith, Mike, Mike,

Nate, Nicolas, Pat, Pete, Peter, Rich, Russ, Sara, Sarah, Stef, Terry, Tracy, and Trish are the people with whom I have shared most laughs, cries, hopes, frustrations, staplers, cookies (for the people), dancing, tea, hotel rooms, meals, drinks, and/or ideas.

The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies is a unique place where normative commitments to peace and justice meet intellectual breadth and rigor in a multi-disciplinary conversation. It takes time and patience to untangle the many threads of this conversation, which at times may become maddeningly complicated. The Institute is thus an excellent environment for learning to dissect the intersections of multiple institutional logics at work. The Kroc Institute has been very generous in its financial support for the newly founded joint PhD program, of which I have had the honor of being xi

an inaugural participant. Danielle, Debbie, Leslie, and Matt are the other sociology and peace studies PhD students who have joined the program since. Together with Ann

Mische and this year's visiting fellow Shannon Golden, we have been struggling to define the meaning of peace in sociological terms. Alma, Andre, Anna, Asher, Barb, Cathy,

David, Elena, Erik, Ernesto, Gary, George, Hal, James, Janna, Jason, John Paul, Karin,

Kathrin, Kristen, Larissa, Laura, Lenore, Madhav, Mary Ellen, Pamina, Pat, Peter, and

Ryne have been particularly kind to me at Kroc. Several cohorts of Kroc MA students from around the world have kept me hopeful.

Beyond these two institutional homes, the University of Notre Dame has offered a generous support for all my research and professional development efforts, for which I am grateful. During the 2012-13 academic year, I was the beneficiary of the Dominica and Frank Annese Fellowship in Graduate Studies from the Nanovic Institute, which allowed me to dedicate myself to writing, analyzing my data, and deepening my theoretical skills fulltime. A Zahm dissertation research travel grant from the Graduate

School allowed me to conduct the archival research for the project in the winter of 2011-

2012. A Study Language Abroad grant from the Center for the Study of Languages and

Cultures funded my unusual Esperanto language immersion program in the summer of

2011. A 2010 Notabaert pre-dissertation research grant from the Graduate School, a 2009 graduate travel and research grant from the Nanovic Institute, and a 2009 Graduate

Student Professional Development and Recruitment Grant from the Institute for

Scholarship in the Liberal Arts facilitated various data collection portions of the research.

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Outside of Notre Dame, a reading group dedicated to Marxist writings organized by several faculty members from Indiana University South Bend has allowed me to think and talk at length about the historical experience of state-socialist Eastern Europe. I am particularly grateful to Benjamin and to Paul who invited me to participate in the group and who have been stimulating conversation partners since.

I have had the opportunity to present portions of this research at several meetings of the Social Science History Association and of the American Sociological Association.

My discussants Josh Pacewicz and Xiaohong Xu have provided insightful comments that have furthered my arguments. I thank them for that.

Of course, without Esperantists, past and present, this project would not have been possible. Esperantists created a unique movement in an attempt to overcome great global injustices. Movement participants also facilitated my research in innumerable ways. Eastern European Esperantists talked to me about their experiences in the movement and helped me organize my interview grand tour in the region. Viennese

Esperantists were excellent hosts during my research trip to Vienna, Austria. Indre offered her home during my first week in the city. The librarians at the Esperanto museum of the Austrian National Library, Andrea, Bernhard, S-ro Cimpa, and S-ro

Mayer, made my archival experience pleasant, straightforward, and enriching. I also had very positive experiences while learning the Esperanto language, with excellent teachers and lovely co-learners. I hope I am doing justice to the experiences of a community I have grown to deeply respect.

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My family has been a constant source of support for me in whatever ways they have been able to. My parents have instilled in my brother and I a hopeless idealism that no amount of realist experiences can quite eradicate. They also gave everything they had, including sleep, so that we can get a higher education and have a chance to live with dignity. I probably owe my stubbornness and patience to them as well. My deepest love and appreciation go to them.

Last but not least, there are the special people who have sustained me for long periods of time through grad school in a foreign place and whose very names lighten my spirit: Alberto, Alex, Anil, Armando, Aur, Emmanuel, Frances, Hyae Jeong, Irma, Jen,

Jenny, Jime, Joe, John, Jon, June, Karl, Katie, Maria Helena, Mariana, Mehrdad, Melissa,

Mike, Peter, Raúl, Stef, and Svetla. Several cohorts of house-mates have contributed to making the old Marion-street house a peace house and my home in South Bend and must be added to the list too. In reverse chronological order they are Doris, Sharon, Fernanda,

Rachel, Vincent, Josh, Karla, Lulu, Carly, Shashi, Otim, Christina, Titik, and Lily. While doing research in Vienna, I also felt at home sharing a lovely apartment and a lovely time with Josh and Klaus. I hope I have been as good of a friend to them as they have been to me.

I feel honored, grateful, and humbled to have had the chance to meet, learn from, and share amazing experiences with all these wonderful people and with many others with whom I have crossed paths on occasion during the seven-year journey of completing a joint PhD in sociology and peace studies.

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CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION

"[W]riting... reveals this destination of discourse as projecting a world... [constituted by] the ensemble of references opened up by the texts,,, [and] addressed... to whoever knows how to read" (Ricoeur 1971: 535-7)

"[T]the schemes of perception and evaluation... are the product of previous symbolic struggles and express... the state of symbolic relations of power" (Bourdieu 1991: 234)

In this dissertation, I focus on the cultural and institutional history of the

Esperanto movement and its implications for understanding the history of Eastern Europe as well as broader global social developments. I am particularly interested in global processes related to creating and maintaining inequalities and to challenging and remaking social and symbolic boundaries. I use the terms "cultural" and "institutional" for their narrow sociological meanings. The term "cultural" in its theoretical use in this work involves meaning making (Ricoeur 1971; Spillman 2012). In its descriptive use and reflecting lay understandings, the term is also applied to activities perceived as distinct from other activities understood as "political" (cf. Bourdieu 1993). The term

"institutional" relates to organized or patterned habitual actions, dispositions, or discourse

(cf. Bourdieu 1984, 1993; Meyer and Rowan 1977). Through a historical process tracing,

I uncover alternative meaning making practices at the global, regional, and national levels and situate them in the contexts of their production. The exercise reveals not only the existence of different meaningful social worldviews associated with particular positions 1

in the world social space but also the contingent and power-laden nature of much of what we take for granted (including our favorite moral positions).

The Esperanto language and movement have a long history. In a work with delimited theoretical goals such as this, I necessarily must forgo many of the rich details of this history, some of which may be of interest because of their political relevance, others because of their oddity, yet others because of their linguistic, literary, or sentimental value. Such details are certainly valuable for projects of various kinds. To

Esperantists, particularly veteran Esperantists, most of what I choose to present in what follows may appear obvious. It is precisely the level of taken-for-grantedness of ideas and practices that matters for the theoretical arguments advanced in this study. Non-

Esperantists unfamiliar with Esperanto may in turn be surprised by the extent of taken- for-grantedness found in the Esperanto movement and the degree to which such taken- for-granted ideas and practices have spilled over into the broader global society.

The dissertation makes several theoretical contributions adding to and bridging the sociology of culture, institutionalism, global sociology, the study of civil society and the public sphere, and the study of social movements. The theoretical arguments are grounded in historical cultural and institutional analyses with an emphasis on Eastern

Europe thus also contributing to historical and comparative sociology. In the first substantive chapter, the dissertation traces the establishment of a cultural logic centered on an international language in competition with the dominant logics of the state and the economy and the development of a unique institutional order on the basis of this logic at the global level from the end of the nineteenth century and throughout most of the

twentieth century (cf. Bourdieu 1993; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012). Through this analysis, the dissertation draws insights from and combines the field theoretic approach (Bourdieu 1984; Fligstein and McAdam 2011; Martin 2003), the institutional logics perspective (Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012), and the meaning making approach in the sociology of culture (Spillman 2012), and extends them to the global level.

In the second substantive chapter, the dissertation identifies a unique form of civility (cf. Ikegami 2005), which became institutionalized to different degrees in the independent countries of state-socialist Eastern Europe. The Esperanto movement, as the most prominent transnational movement in the region during the period, is representative of this form of civility. Eastern European civility is characterized by mass support for comprehensive development and by the practice of the principle of fellowship (cf. Chang

2011; Fishman 2004; Opp and Gern 1993). For Eastern European civility, the lines between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, as well as between the public and the private spheres institutionalized in

Western societies, are blurred (cf. Wimmer 2013). Evidence for the continued existence of this form of civility post-1989 is most prevalent in the countries in which the

Esperanto movement had been able to institutionalize its practices during the state- socialist period, namely in Bulgaria and in Poland.

The existence of this unique form of civility can explain the puzzling case of

Bulgaria, a small, independent country in the periphery of the Soviet Union. The

Bulgarian case has been ignored because it does not conform to existing explanations of

the popular contentious origins of the 1989 democratic transitions in Eastern Europe and of democratic politics in the region afterwards (e.g. Ekiert 1996). For this very reason, the case is theoretically significant. While Bulgaria underwent a peaceful democratic transition in 1989 and has remained a peaceful and stable democracy ever since, similarly to the Central European states that populate analyses of Eastern Europe, the country does not have the same history of post World War II contentious politics as its Central

European counterparts and, ostensibly, lacks a civil society. If contentious politics and a

Western type civil society cannot explain the Bulgarian outcome, what can? I argue that the form of civility I identify constitutes a plausible foundation for the successful

Bulgarian transition to democracy1.

The third substantive chapter of the dissertation traces the emergence of Eastern

European civility in the early years of state-socialism in the meaning making (Spillman

2012) of the internationally engaged Esperanto public (cf. Perrin and Vaisey 2008;

Tarrow 2005) in Bulgaria following World War II. The practice of fellowship as a form of international politics by Bulgarians is to be conceived as a strategic response to a lack of political power in the international arena (cf. Scott 1990). The practice of the fellowship principle in domestic affairs, as a conflict avoidance technique (cf. Straughn

2005), in turn can explain the comprehensive model of development, which takes into consideration the interests of multiple constituencies. The comprehensive socio-cultural model of development developed in the early state-socialist years and still popular post-

1989 is a hybrid (cf. Hannerz 1996; Tomlinson 1999) of three universally oriented

1 It even explains the biggest challenge of the Bulgarian transition, corruption.

discursive fields (Spillman 1995):(1) global cultural models emphasizing the role of language, culture and art, education, science, international organizations, the nation-state, democracy, and peace in generating socio-cultural development (cf. Boli and Thomas

1997; Drori et al. 2003; Lizardo 2005; Meyer et al. 1997; Meyer, Ramirez, and Soysal

1992), (2) Marxism, as the understood and lived universalist economic and social doctrine of state-socialism (cf. Riga 2008; Spillman and Faeges 2005), and (3) the locally institutionalized principle of fellowship itself (cf. Chang 2011; Fishman 2004; Opp and

Gern 1993), generalized beyond persons to collective and abstract entities (cf. Straughn

2005).

Based on the findings, the theoretical portion of the dissertation proposes a new conceptualization of the global arena that incorporates and amends the prevailing realist, world-system/political economy, and institutional/world culture formulations. Each of these social scientific approaches to understanding global processes privileges one type of logic (cf. Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012). The realist approach focuses on power politics among nation-states (Mearsheimer 2001; Morgenthau 1948; Waltz 2010).

World-system analyses center on economic capital accumulation and inequalities associated with the establishment of core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral regions of the world (Kentor and Boswell 2003; Smith and White 1992; Wallerstein 2004). The institutionalist/world culture perspective emphasizes the importance of dominant cognitive (including normative) models increasingly used to frame action around the globe (Boli and Thomas 1997; Meyer et al. 1997). The world social space, I argue, is a theoretical space mapped onto the physical space of the globe where competing logics

coexist and where advocates of competing logics vie for space, literally and metaphorically.

The conceptualization of the global arena as a world social space in the above terms allows a fresh view of global inequality dynamics. Each logic is associated with a form of capital, which is unequally distributed (cf. Bourdieu 1983, 1984). The state/political logic is associated with military power or capital in the form of brute physical force (cf. Weber 1946). Nation-states are endowed with different military capabilities, which creates one layer of global inequalities between nation-states. Within nation-states, access to the political process and the state is also unequally distributed.

The economic logic is associated with economic capital, which is unequally distributed between and within nation-states as well (Kentor and Boswell 2003; Korzeniewicz and

Moran 2005), which adds a second layer of inequalities. The availability of and access to cognitive models varies between and within countries too, which suggests the existence of yet another layer of global inequalities, on the basis of cultural capital (cf. Beckfield

2003; Boli and Thomas 1997; Bourdieu 1984; Inglehart and Baker 2000). The distributions of the various types of capitals intersect and jointly define a complex mosaic of positions within the world social space.

Inequalities within the world social space are thus complex and beg asking the old question of how inequalities are created, maintained, and challenged once again, this time considering interactions of multiple logics and types of capital. The question of inequalities has raised heated debates as it has been discussed within the institutional domains of particular logics (political, economic, cultural). The suggestion I make to also

consider dynamics between the institutional domains of these logics seems daunting.

Based on my research problem and my unique case: understanding the Esperanto phenomenon, I simply point out the importance of the question and offer a starting point for future discussions.

The Esperanto movement, according to the multiple-logic/multiple-capital framework I propose, can be conceived as a collective effort of persons endowed with cultural capital but associated with social entities (such as nations or status groups) that lack military/political and economic power to overcome their partially disadvantaged position in the world social space. The strategy of the Esperanto movement can be defined as an institutional "exit" strategy (Hirschman 1993) consisting of disassociation from the military/state/political and the economic logics and formulation and legitimation of a different logic, namely the language/communication logic tightly linked with the community and other cultural logics (cf. Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012). In pursuing this strategy, the movement found allies among small nation-states, which saw themselves in disadvantaged positions in the global distribution of military/state/political power. This gave the movement a "voice" (Hirschman 1993) in unexpected places such as state-socialist Eastern Europe.

The dissertation also advances a reformulation of the concept of the public sphere as a set of historically specific efforts to legitimize or delegitimize particular logics. The public sphere thus encompasses a dynamic complex of historical actors, of a number of strategies or mechanisms these actors employ to create and filter cultural innovation (cf.

Spillman and Faeges 2005) in a given context, and of the outcomes of these strategies in

the form of cultures and institutions, which despite being constantly produced and reproduced (cf. Peterson and Anand 2004), we perceive as given or as "structures" at any particular moment. It is therefore through the public sphere that particular power arrangements between institutional logics become institutionalized and that inequalities based on the distribution of the capitals associated with these logics become accepted. A common mechanism employed to assure the ultimate form of legitimacy for a logic is the tendency toward universalism or universal applicability of the proposed innovation (cf.

Boli and Thomas 1997; Riga 2008; Wimmer 2013). The use of collective nouns such as

"the people", "humanity", etc. signal the deployment of the strategy. Legitimation efforts, however, stem from particular locations within the world social space, thus raising concerns regarding the feasibility of the proposed universalism on a universal scale and the associated possibility of establishing a new power imbalance. Good intentions, therefore, are not sufficient.

CHAPTER 2:

METHODS

The research methods for this dissertation are similar to the methods of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I started with an odd piece−the prominence of the Esperanto movement in state-socialist Eastern Europe. On one hand, I was interested in figuring out how this piece would fit in the whole picture and did not stop working until a complete big picture emerged. The project is thus global in nature. On the other hand, in order to produce the big picture, I needed to find the exact place for each of the pieces of the multiple kinds of information related to the project I collected over the course of the research. The project has thus involved multiple categorizations and comparisons.

2.1 The beginning of the project

I started this research project with a broad interest in Eastern European civil society and in globalization. With regard to selecting a case to study, my initial analytical strategy was to identify the international non-governmental organizations with the most extensive ties to the world polity in Eastern Europe. World polity ties are said to facilitate the diffusion of global models into local contexts (Boli and Thomas 1997). An analysis of the composition of the transnational social movement organizational field (Smith and

Wiest 2012b) in Eastern Europe during the state-socialist period revealed that by all

measures of prominence, the Esperanto movement was the most prominent movement that developed voluntary non-governmental organizations with a social change goal in the region (see the second substantive chapter for details). Being the typical (modal) transnational movement in Eastern Europe during state-socialism according to Smith and

Wiest's (2012b) data, the Esperanto movement was selected for an in-depth historical and comparative analysis as a representative case (Bennett and Elman 2006; Snow and Trom

2002) providing a window into Eastern European civil societies.

2.2 Multiple units of analysis

The challenge of this project has been to sort out the interacting demands of multiple units of analysis operating at different scales. The first focus of this project is the

Esperanto movement, which as a truly global movement operates at the global scale. The first substantive chapter is therefore dedicated to understanding the Esperanto movement as a global institutional phenomenon. Eastern European civil societies, and the Bulgarian one in particular, are another focus of the dissertation. National civil societies are thus the units of analysis of the second substantive chapter. Global movements and national civil societies only exist to the extent to which persons make them happen. Accordingly, the third substantive chapter examines the content of the main publication of the Bulgarian

Esperanto movement in order to understand the meaning-making process of Eastern

Europeans following World War II and the establishment of state-socialism.

2.3 Theoretical strategy

My theoretical strategy involved a continuous theory testing throughout the course of the research until I found a theoretical framework that could accommodate all pieces from the puzzle I had been putting together. The starting theoretical points for the project were the sociological global institutionalism (Boli and Thomas 1997; Meyer et al.

1997) and world-system theory (Boswell and Chase-Dunn 2000). I also gained insights from anthropological accounts of globalization (Hannerz 1996; Tomlinson 1999), the multiple modernities thesis (Casanova 2011; Eisenstadt 2003), international relations' theories, and various theories related to social movements, civil society, the public sphere, the state, and the economy. Ultimately, the chapter on the global Esperanto movement constitutes a global extension and integration of field theory (Bourdieu 1984;

Fligstein and McAdam 2011; Martin 2003), the institutional logics perspective (Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012), and the boundary-making approach (Wimmer 2013). The comparative chapter on civil societies builds on Ikegami's

(2005) civility thesis and argues for the existence of multiple forms of civility based on particular historical organizations and practices. The chapter on the development of

Bulgarian internationalist publics is indebted to Spillman's (1995, 2012) cultural and structural approach situating meaning making in the context of discursive fields, to Perrin and Vaisey's (2008) conceptualization of publics as technologically mediated enactments of citizenship, and to Wimmer's (2013) boundary-making approach.

2.4 Global field positionality as a foundation of a historical and comparative cosmopolitanism

In order to make sense of social phenomena that from our point of view as contemporary observers in the global north do not make sense or appear strange or extraordinary, we need to understand (at least, if not adopt) the point of view of the historically situated participants in the phenomena of interest. John Levi Martin (2011) refers to this kind of explanations as first-person analysis. Standpoint theory developed by gender scholars (Collins 1997; Stoetzler and Yuval-Davis 2002) offers one such approach. Standpoint theory, I argue, is not only relevant for notions of gender, race, and class but also for any other groupings relevant to persons (cf. Wimmer 2013), including groupings at the global level. Institutions and their logics are developed from particular standpoints in the context of particular power relations and need to be analyzed as such.

I propose the notion of global field positionality (cf. Anthias 2002; Sheppard

2002) as a better concept than global identity (Kim 1999) in reflecting persons' self- understanding as members of meaningful groups (Wimmer 2013) variously situated in the world social space. The notion of global field positionality recognizes the multiplicity of standpoints and persons' experiences of their actual or desired place with regard to imagined spaces (cf. Anderson 1983) and fields (Bourdieu 1984; Fligstein and McAdam

2011; Martin 2003) relevant to them in the world social space. Global field positionality is a sort of intersectionality (cf. McCall 2005; Yuval-Davis 2006) at the global level, although not all relevant intersecting membership categories may be subordinate.

Universalism as a strategic behavior has been associated with persons in particular global field positions, specifically those endowed with mixed opportunities, rich in cultural capital but limited in other ways, for instance the Russian Bolsheviks

(Riga 2008; cf. Calhoun 2008; Wimmer 2012). Universalism refers to ideas and practices with aspirations of all-encompassing applicability. As a form of universalism, cosmopolitanism has been of particular interest to scholars who by virtue of their own field position tend to find affinity with cosmopolitan promises (take Kant as an example).

The difference between universalism and cosmopolitanism is subtle. While both contain normative and prescriptive elements for general application (cf. Calhoun 2008; Delanty

2006), cosmopolitanism is more explicitly associated with the empirical realities of globalization and the global orientations of persons (e.g. Pichler 2012; Saito 2011).

Universalism and cosmopolitanism, however, have multiple manifestations (Beck and Sznaider 2006; Casanova 2011). It may be difficult to adjudicate between the various universalisms and cosmopolitanisms. Politics, in fact, is often a struggle to legitimate some version of universalism. Sociologists wary of advocating any particular form of universalism and cosmopolitanism may still find the cosmopolitan outlook methodologically useful. Beck and Sznaider (2006) offer a method for studying universalisms, which they refer to as "methodological cosmopolitanism". Methodological cosmopolitanism breaks with "methodological nationalism" or the assumed taken-for- grantedness of the nation-state as the relevant unit or context of analysis (Beck and

Sznaider 2006). Instead, it leaves the units and contexts of analysis associated with universalisms as variable (Beck and Sznaider 2006; cf. Wimmer 2013).

I build on Beck and Sznaider's (2006) work but diverge from their argument in one significant way. Methodological cosmopolitanism, I argue, is not only appropriate for studying social developments in the "second age of modernity" in the 21st century, as

Beck and Sznaider (2006) suggest, but is the appropriate methodological approach for earlier periods as well. "Global reflexivity", or global awareness, ostensibly associated with the so-called "globalization era" of the last several decades, goes further back in time. For example, while cosmopolitan or global interdependencies and risks (Beck 1999;

Keohane and Nye 1977) have not come to the attention of scholars focusing on powerful states until the late 20th century, smaller and less powerful states have had to navigate such uncertainties much earlier. In this dissertation, I illustrate the applicability of the approach for the period following World War II with regard to the Esperanto movement and its activities in small independent Eastern European states in the periphery of the

Soviet Union. I focus on several concepts playing key roles in contemporary globalization discussion that are also relevant to the Esperanto movement, namely transnational activism, the global (or transnational) public sphere, and (global) civil society.

My argument with regard to comparative and historical cosmopolitanism as the methodological approach I advocate is as follows. There are multiple ways of conceiving the universal and the cosmopolitan in particular because orientations and actions with presumed universal implications are situated. As many have argued, cosmopolitans are

"rooted" (Delanty 2006; Stark, Vedres, and Bruszt 2006; Stroup 2012; Tarrow 2005).

While advocates of the rooted cosmopolitanism approach assume the nation-state is the relevant context for rootedness, I echo Beck and Sznaider's (2006) and Wimmer's (2013) 14

call to consider the units of analysis as variable, based on the empirically observed experiences of participants in the studied phenomena. The goal is to trace the "universal" understandings of historical actors as they develop in a particular historical contexts, at whatever spatial scale they may appear or refer to.

The Esperanto movement offers an excellent case to illustrate historical and comparative cosmopolitanism as the relevant method for analyzing actions and claims with universal or cosmopolitan aspirations. Explaining the Esperanto phenomenon calls for adopting the standpoint of Eastern European cultural elites. Understanding their version of universalist cosmopolitanism requires understanding their position with regard to the local, the national, the world-regional, and the international context. The dissertation thus has a triple focus: the movement in the global context; Eastern European civil societies in a comparative perspective; and the meaning making of Esperanto activists in the Bulgarian context.

2.5 Research designs for the substantive chapters

The first substantive chapter is an in-depth historical case study (Bennett and

Elman 2006; Clemens and Hughes 2002; George and Bennett 2005; Snow and Trom

2002) of the development of the institutional logic of the Esperanto movement considered in the context of a global comparison with other, in particular the nation-state, logics. The unit of analysis is the global movement and its institutional logic at the level of the globe.

The bulk of the evidence for this chapter is based on movement documents (Johnston

2002) supplemented by participant-observation (Lichterman 2002) and interview data

(Blee and Taylor 2002). The period covered starts in the late 19th century with the origins 15

of the Esperanto movement and ends with some contemporary manifestations of the institutional logic of the Esperanto movement; the analysis zooms in for depicting critical junctures (Mahoney 2000; Pierson 2000) for the institutional development of the logic of the Esperanto movement.

The second substantive chapter is constructed on the basis of a comparative historical analysis (Della Porta 2002; George and Bennett 2005; Mahoney and

Rueschemeyer 2003) with countries and their civil societies as the units of analysis. The comparisons are between independent Eastern European counties and other countries, particularly in the West, and among Eastern European countries focusing on the state- socialist period with the goal of understanding the unique Bulgarian case. This chapter is based on comparative macro-organizational analysis (Minkoff 2002) (of social movement organizations), overview of publication metadata and textual analysis of its content

(Johnston 2002), interview and participant observation data (Blee and Taylor 2002;

Lichterman 2002), and cross-country survey data analysis (cf. Klandermans and Smith

2002).

The third substantive chapter is an in-depth case study (Bennett and Elman 2006;

George and Bennett 2005; Snow and Trom 2002) of the development of the Esperanto movement in the early years of state-socialist Bulgaria. The chapter is based on content and textual analysis (Johnston 2002) of the major publication of the Esperanto movement in the country, Bulgara Esperantisto, in its first two years of publication following World

War II, 1946 and 1947.

2.6 Data strategy

In order to achieve data triangulation (Snow and Trom 2002), data for this dissertation come from five independent sources including original archival research (cf.

Johnston 2002), original semi-structured interviews (Blee and Taylor 2002), original participant observation data (Lichterman 2002), and analyses of available survey data (cf.

Klandermans and Smith 2002) and organizational data (Minkoff 2002). Data from existing sources include the World Value Survey and Smith and Wiest's (2012b) dataset of transnational social movement organizations. Participant observation data come from occasional participation in movement activities in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania in 2009, and in Denmark, Slovakia, and the United States in 2011.

Semi-structured interviews with thirty-two veteran members of the Esperanto movement in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania who have been active since at least the 1980s were conducted in 2009. The sampling procedure consists of a combination of snowballing–relying on the leadership of national organizations to put me in contact with activists–and directly contacting country delegates, usually active volunteers not in leadership positions, listed in the Yearbook of the World Esperanto

Association and in online sources.

Archival documents used in the analyses were retrieved from the collection of the

Esperanto Museum of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, Austria, to which I had access in the spring of 2012, and from Esperanto sources archived online. While the

Esperanto Museum's archive has preserved most historical primary Esperanto documents and contains multiple periodical and occasional publications of the various Esperanto

organizations for many Eastern European countries over time, I focus on the major periodical of the Bulgarian Esperanto movement, Bulgara Esperantisto. The periodicals reflect the contemporaneous movement interpretations of their situation, their activities, their relations with other people at home and abroad, and their relations with the governments, as well as of the relations between nation-states.

To organize and analyze the data, I used the qualitative research software

ATLAS.ti. I read and coded the original archival and interview data into a longitudinal dataset consisting of quotes/segments matched with codes corresponding to the theoretical categories that emerged through an iterative deductive and inductive process of research (George and Bennett 2005). These quotes and codes represent causal process observations (Goertz and Mahoney 2012), which are pieces of evidence collected from within cases allowing researchers to assess whether a factor is causal or explanatory as suggested by a theory and are thus the basis of the process tracing method (Goertz and

Mahoney 2012).

CHAPTER 3:

A LANGUAGE MOVEMENT FOR GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING AND

COMMUNICATION EQUALITY

In this chapter, I trace the formation and institutionalization of a global field of action (cf. Bourdieu 1984; Fligstein and McAdam 2011; Martin 2003) around the international language Esperanto. The field emerged as a response to perceived global injustices based on political inequalities in the global nation-state field (cf. Mearsheimer

2001; Meyer et al. 1997; Morgenthau 1948; Waltz 2010). The hope that a neutral international language can facilitate global understanding and communication equality to counteract the hostilities of the nation-state field has served as a unifying "logic"2 (cf.

Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012) of the Esperanto field. The differential ability of movement participants to develop Esperanto language skills, despite the simplicity of the language and significant movement efforts to teach the language, serves as a form of "cultural capital" (Bourdieu 1983, 1984) that establishes a new kind of taken-for-granted inequality within the Esperanto field analogous to the within-field inequality in the nation-state field. Meanwhile, the conflicts that have

2 An institutional logic, according to Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury (2012), involves "the socially constructed, historical patterns of cultural symbols and material practices, including assumptions, values, and beliefs, by which individuals and organizations provide meaning to their daily activity, organize time and space, and reproduce their lives and experiences" (p.2).

grabbed the attention of Esperantists have been associated with maintaining the autonomy and policing the boundaries (cf. Wimmer 2013) of the Esperanto field.

3.1 Beginnings of the Esperanto movement

3.1.1 Creation of the Esperanto language: Zamenhof's dream realized

The Esperanto language was created by Ludwik Lazarus Zamenhof, a subject of the Russian empire born in 1859 in the Polish town of Bialystok of Lithuanian Jewish parents. While Zamenhof studied medicine and became an eye doctor, his main interest, inherited from his father and grandfather, both language teachers, was language (Kökény and Bleier 1933). In a letter written to Michaux, the president of the Boulogne group on

February 21, 1905, and printed in the Encyclopedia of Esperanto, Zamenhof offers a short autobiography, which gives the background of the creation of the constructed international language (Kökény and Bleier 1933). Zamenhof spoke fluently Russian,

Polish, and German, read French, and studied eight other languages, including Greek and

Latin. While Zamenhof loved the Russian language, he felt a hated and persecuted foreigner in the land where his ancestors had been born. He thought that people from different nationalities living in his native Bialystok all hated and persecuted each other, which brought him suffering. Zamenhof wrote that he dreamt of a day when all national hatreds would disappear, when there would be a language and a land belonging to everyone using the language and living in the land, and when people would love and understand each other (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

The Esperanto language was developed between 1872 and 1885 (Lewis, Simons, and Fennig 2013) while Zamenhof was a student at a philology gymnasium in Warsaw and later a medical student at the universities of Moscow and of Warsaw (Kökény and

Bleier 1933). It wasn't until 1887 that Zamenhof was able to publish the first four booklets containing an Esperanto language learning program in Russian, Polish, German, and French with the financial help of his future wife Klara Zilbernik (Kökény and Bleier

1933). Soon after, Zamenhof also published "The Second Book" and a few other works−original and translated books, dictionaries in German and Russian, language learning programs in English and Swedish, etc.−which he advertized in newspapers and mailed out in large numbers (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

In the autobiographical letter to Michaux, Zamenhof admits having paid a high personal toll for pursuing the idea of an international language. With all his wife's dowry used up by 1889, he was left penniless and in search of a livelihood. After failing to make sufficient money through his medical practice in the south of Russia and often going hungry, Zamenhof was obliged to accept support from his father-in-law and returned to

Warsaw. Again, his financial fortunes did not improve there, which sent him to yet another region of the Russian empire in search of a living. It wasn't until his third attempt to settle in Warsaw at the end of 1897 that Zamenhof eventually succeeded in making ends meet through his practice. The experience left him tired with a hurt pride and a tortured soul (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

The sacrifices made by Zamenhof and his family in pursuit of his utopian dream were not in vain. Zamenhof's efforts led to the development of one of the most unusual

but resilient global movements in the twentieth century. The movement was implicated in

"progressive" politics throughout the century. The Esperanto language and the Esperanto movement also served as a unique channel facilitating personal connections and popular diplomacy among citizens living on the opposite sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold

War. Today, Esperanto is considered the most widely spoken constructed language. The estimated number of speakers of Esperanto around the world is two million (Lewis et al.

2013). What was it about the Esperanto language that made this possible? How did one man's utopian dream come to represent a shared goal among so many others?

3.1.2 Mobilizing a base: The pledge to learn the international language, the original list of

Esperantists, and the address book practice

Zamenhof came up with a clever idea for how to encourage the spread of the language. According to the Encyclopedia of Esperanto, his first booklet contained a page entitled "Promises", which readers could sign and send back to Zamenhof (Kökény and

Bleier 1933). The "Promises" page included the following text: "I, the undersigned, will learn the international language proposed by Dr. Esperanto if it is shown that ten million people have publically given the same promise." Opponents of the idea of an international language or those who denied its possibility could send back the card indicating they were "against" it. Those who were willing to learn the language in any case, regardless of the number of followers, were asked to respond with

"unconditionally". The first series of names and addresses of Esperanto pledges was published in 1889 and contained a thousand entries. This list grew continuously over the next several decades. The Encyclopedia of Esperanto gives the following numbers for 22

Esperantists listed in Zamenhof's original address books: 1889: 1000, 1896: 4000, 1903:

7700, 1905: 11000, 1906: 13000, 1907: 16000, 1908: 19000, 1909: 22000. Zamenhof's address books, published by the French publishing house Hachette between 1904 and

1909, also contained information about Esperanto books and periodicals (Kökény and

Bleier 1933).

The address book practice would become a regular feature of many Esperanto groups (Kökény and Bleier 1933) and continues to this day. For example, the World

Esperanto Association (UEA) publishes a yearbook in which the organization lists its national and local delegates. Address books allow easy access to useful information about

Esperanto and facilitate connections between Esperantists from near and afar (Kökény and Bleier 1933). New members of the movement can find local clubs they may wish to join while traveling Esperantists can find a friendly circle of Esperantists wherever they go. I personally benefited from the hospitality of several such groups, which I found through address books, during the course of my research.

3.2 Carving a niche in the world social space

3.2.1 Organizing a movement: The first world congress and the Boulogne Declaration establish the principles of the Esperanto movement

The first world congress of Esperantists took place in 1905 in Boulogne-sur-Mer,

France, after more than ten thousand people had signed the pledge to learn the international language. The congress adopted the so-called Boulogne Declaration, proposed by Zamenhof, which instituted the organizing principles of the Esperanto

movement (Kökény and Bleier 1933). The first principle establishes the neutrality of the movement. According to this principle, Esperanto is to develop in the entire world as a neutral human language, which could facilitate understanding between nations but not replace national languages or intervene in domestic affairs, which could serve as a peaceful language of public institutions in multiethnic and multilingual countries, and in which could be published works of interest to all peoples. Any other goals individual

Esperantists may link to the movement, the declaration stated, are their private goals for which the movement cannot be held accountable.

The second principle of the Boulogne Declaration claims that only a constructed language whose effective use has been proven in practice can serve as an international language. Because only Esperanto meets the criterion, according to the declaration, friends of the international language idea3 have united around Esperanto and work toward its development and toward the enrichment of its literature.

Because the author of the language had refused once and forever all personal rights and privileges related to the language, the third principle of the Boulogne

Declaration establishes that no one can claim ownership of Esperanto, materially or morally. Materially, the language therefore belongs to the public domain, according to the declaration, and anyone can publish any work in or about the language or use the language for any purpose. Spiritual owners of the Esperanto language would be persons considered to be the best and most talented writers in the language, the declaration further specifies.

3 At the time Esperanto was developed, a number of other constructed international languages had already been proposed, including Volapük (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

The fourth principle of the Boulogne Declaration establishes a common core for the Esperanto language consisting of Zamenhof's (1905) work "Foundation of

Esperanto", which nobody would ever have the right to change, including the creator of the international language himself. Besides this common core, any opinions related to the language would be private opinions and therefore nonbinding. As in any other language,

Esperantists have the right to express any idea that cannot be expressed through the material presented in "Foundation of Esperanto" in their own way, although imitating

Zamenhof's style is recommended by the declaration to assure the unity of the language.

The fifth principle establishes that anyone speaking the Esperanto language would be considered an Esperantist, regardless of the uses to which this person would put the language. Joining an Esperanto group while recommended is not mandatory (Kökény and

Bleier 1933).

The foundational principles established in the Boulogne Declaration would prove indispensable for the growth, unity, and survival of the movement. The neutrality principle, which started as neutrality from nations and states and which later, because of

Cold-War enmities, came to be understood as political neutrality as well, would assure not only the survival of the movement but its unique bridging role in East-West relations in the second half of the twentieth century. Emphasis on the practical use of the constructed international language would not only encourage its application to a diverse set of fields of action but would also provide a justification for the existence of the movement in state-socialist Eastern Europe where most other movements were suppressed. The communal intellectual ownership of the language would also facilitate

the spread of the language and the multiplicity of its use. The existence of a common core for the language would prevent the splintering of the language and the movement despite efforts to create purportedly "better" international languages similar to Esperanto, such as

Ido and Interligua. The last principle would provide a common identifier−Esperantist−and a sense of identification with a cross-border community on the basis of the practice of a common international language (cf. Anderson 1983; Kim 1999).

The Esperanto movement thus advanced the communication logic as a separate driving force−independent from the state/political and the economic logics but related to a cultural and the community logics (cf. Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012)−operating on the world scene.

3.2.2 Making it stick: the World Esperanto Association (UEA)

One of the most important factors that contributed to the spread and long-term survival of the Esperanto movement globally was the establishment of an organization that would stand for and uphold the principles of the movement in the world social space.

The Universala Esperanto Asocio (UEA) (World Esperanto Association) would play this role for the movement. UEA was founded in 1908 and was based on two interrelated ideas linking the international organization to local representative branches (Kökény and

Bleier 1933; cf. Fine 2010). The first idea formulated during the first world congress in

1906 by Alphonse Carles envisioned Esperanto "consuls" as access points for information of any kind related to Esperanto and as local hosts welcoming travelers. The second related idea proposed by Théophile Rousseau two years later connected the international organization to local Esperanto offices. Hector Hodler, editor of Esperanto, 26

developed these ideas on the pages of the magazine and announced the founding of UEA.

The first Esperanto office opened doors in the French town of Bourg-en-Bresse, where

Hodler lived. Esperantists quickly embraced the organization proposal because it relied on local self-sufficiency and inter-local reciprocity and could be accomplished easily and cheaply. At the first meeting of UEA held during the 1908 Esperanto world congress there already were 206 delegates or "consuls" and sixty-two offices in 249 locations across twenty-three countries with 1223 paying members (Kökény and Bleier 1933). By

1911, the organization had enlisted 885 local delegates and had 158 offices in forty-seven countries counting 7804 members (Kökény and Bleier 1933). These organizational practices have continued until today. A Yearbook published yearly by the organization facilitates communication about and among the local branches of UEA.

The organization gained prestige among the general population because of its humanitarian effort of connecting families who found themselves separated, stranded on the opposing sides, when World War I erupted all of a sudden (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

The Geneva office of UEA served as a dispatcher receiving letters coming from territories associated with one of the warring parties and forwarding them to territories under the control of the other warring party. The service was not limited to Esperantists and the office received an enormous amount of correspondence. While the membership and the activities of UEA decreased during World War I, after the war, the membership quickly increased and reached a peak of 9000 members in the late 1920s (Kökény and

Bleier 1933).

3.2.3 Seeking global recognition: Esperanto and the League of Nations

After the Esperanto movement established a global base and organized itself internally, its next goal was to seek external recognition. The end of World War I and the founding of the League of Nations provided an avenue for obtaining recognition from a global political institution (Forster 1982). In the movement's history (Kökény and Bleier

1933), the process is remembered as follows:

"During the first meeting of the League of Nations in 1920, delegates proposed a resolution on Esperanto requesting that the Secretary prepare a report on the language. The proposal was deferred but a similar proposal was made the following year. Meanwhile, the Vice Secretary General of the League, Dr. Nitobe had visited the congress in Prague and reported favorably on the experience. The proposal was accepted and the Secretary was commissioned to prepare a report. An extensive survey was conducted and a Conference on Esperanto at Schools was held in April 1922. The report of the Secretary was presented to the third meeting of the League in September 1922. The report was officially accepted but the request for introducing Esperanto at schools was forwarded to the Commission for Intellectual Cooperation. The resolution of the Commission made in August 1923 was to recommend the study of living languages as one of the most powerful means for intellectual rapprochement of people of different nations and therefore to not favor Esperanto. A resolution based on the Commission's recommendation did not pass at the convention of the League because of political intrigues, and the matter remained as it was. The report of the Secretary still contained a clause recommending Esperanto for international telegraphy. In 1924, the Persian delegation proposed a resolution recommending the treatment and the rate for the so-called "clear language" (a code for Esperanto). This resolution was unanimously accepted and was therefore the first international recognition of Esperanto as a used language. In 1925, the International Telegraph Union in its global conference in Paris followed the recommendation of the League and changed its rules so that Esperanto was recognized as a "clear" language next to Latin. The success was attributed to the five-year patient work of Edmond Privat." (Kökény and Bleier 1933)

One of the most vehement opponents of Esperanto at the League of Nations was the French state (Forster 1982). As a declining power, France was eager to at least keep

French as the language of international diplomacy (Forster 1982). A vibrant field of

cultural production was already well established in France (Bourdieu 1993), which must have provided a model for the kind of leading role France would be able play in the world social space given its declining political power.

3.2.4 Hybrid fields: Forming alliances or creating divisions? Esperanto in service of the labor movement

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Esperanto movement grew in parallel to the labor movement. Leaders of the labor movement−cultural elites from subordinate national groups (Riga 2008)−occupied similar positions in the world social space as participants in the Esperanto movement. The affinities between the two movements must have been strong because hybrid labor Esperanto groups started forming locally as early as 1905 in The Hague, Hamburg, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, etc.4 (Kökény and Bleier 1933). National hybrid organizations soon followed suit in

Czechoslovakia, Germany, and the Netherlands, starting in 1911. The first international hybrid organization with antimilitaristic and anti-capitalist goals was formed in 1906 with the name Internacia Asocio Paco-Libereco (International Association Peace-Freedom, later to become Liberiga Stelo (Freedom Star), but did not have many members outside of France. The World Esperanto Association would also consider forming a labor section.

The amicable relationship between the Esperanto movement and the labor movement was soon put to a test however. Following World War I, the international labor Esperanto organization was reinvigorated by the efforts of Eugène Lanti who edited

4 The Encyclopedia of Esperanto dedicates two lengthy articles to the labor topic (Kökény and Bleier 1933). The history of the labor Esperanto movement presented here is based on these entries unless otherwise noted.

the newspaper Esperantista Laboristo (Esperantist Worker) and helped reform the organization and rename it to Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (SAT) (World Anational

Association). In an article entitled "Away with Neutrality", Lanti outlines the goals of a hybrid Labor Esperanto movement in opposition to the goals of the Esperanto movement.

Lanti writes that 1) Esperanto for workers is not a goal but a means, 2) therefore,

Esperantist workers must organize themselves completely independently, 3) to not only promote but also apply the language, and 4) Esperantist workers do not have to organize themselves into a kind of International connecting national associations but they ought to connect with each other directly in a global anational organization (Kökény and Bleier

1933). Besides stating a need for a separate movement, these goals delineate two main differences between the neutral Esperanto movement and the Labor Esperanto movement: emphasis on the practical use of the Esperanto language and an organizational structure not based on national associations.

The first congress of the reformed organization in 1921 in Prague adopted bylaws very much in line with Lanti's proposal. SAT would a) use in practice the international language Esperanto for the class goals of the working people; b) as best they can and with dignity, facilitate the relationships of the members, as well increase in them a strong sense of solidarity; c) teach, educate its members so that they may be the most capable and most perfect of the so-called internationalists; d) serve as a mediator in the relationships of associations using different languages, whose purpose is analogous to that of SAT; d) procure and in every way possible help the creation of literature

(translations and original) pursuing the ideal of the association (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

In an effort to set itself apart from the neutral Esperanto movement, the 1922 SAT 30

congress disallowed members of the organization to also be members of the neutral

Esperanto movement. The absolute ban, however, was lifted in 1925 (Kökény and Bleier

1933) indicating that the boundary between the neutral movement and the labor

Esperanto movement was set and was not facing serious threats.

Soon, the hybrid movement would face a challenge from a different direction: various partisan tendencies within labor would threaten the unity of the labor Esperanto movement. As early as 1923, SAT adopted a decision to disallow ideological struggles within the organization. In 1928, SAT added another clause to its bylaws by which the organization defined another boundary, this time separating itself from the partisanships of the political sphere. The clause states that SAT is not a political but an educational and cultural organization. Furthermore, SAT's goal for its members is to be understanding and tolerant with respect to the political and philosophical schools on which worker parties and unions involved in class warfare rely. The organization, the clause concludes, seeks to prevent in its members the dogmatism of the teaching they receive in their particular environments by comparison of facts and ideas by means of free discussion

(Kökény and Bleier 1933). The clause was likely a response to fears of communist takeover. Anarchist members had already left SAT and started their own organization in

1924-5 because of discontent over Soviet domination of the organization and its publications (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

This clause was foreshadowing a schism that would take place within the labor

Esperanto movement only a few years later. During the 1930-1 SAT congresses, communist members close to the Soviet Union first boycotted the event and then

unsuccessfully attempted to take control over the leadership of the organization. SAT remained nonpartisan but communist Esperantists left the organization and started their own labor Esperanto international organization called Internacio de Proleta

Esperantistaro (IPE) (International of the Proletarian Esperanto Movement). IPE was founded in 1932 in Berlin and sought to recruit national labor Esperanto associations, some of which had had tenuous relations with SAT in part because of the latter's resistance to nation-based organizing. IPE was openly ideological embracing dialectical materialism while opposing imperialism and what it perceived as anti-nationalist opportunism and social democratic reformism. Because of this schism, SAT lost all its

Soviet members, more than two thousand individuals, counting for close to a third of the entire membership of the organization, among others. The national associations of

German, Japanese, Bulgarian, and North American labor Esperantists joined the Soviets in their exit from SAT. By 1934, the national affiliates of IPE counted fourteen thousand members whereas SAT was left with 1500 individual members (Kökény and Bleier

1933).

As the power of the Soviet Union grew and as its world standing improved, communist Esperantists appear to have lost favor among the Soviet leadership.

Esperantists began to be seen not as facilitators of the communist idea but as foreign infiltrators (Forster 1982). In 1937, the IPE office in Moscow closed to reopen in London and Esperantists began to be specifically targeted in Stalin's Great Purge because of their foreign contacts (Forster 1982). Critical opinions about the Soviet regime both left the

USSR and came in through Esperantists (Forster 1982). At the beginning of World War

II, IPE stopped its activities and eventually urged its members to join the neutral

Esperanto movement (Forster 1982).

After the big schism and because of the perceived necessity for SAT to remain nonpartisan, Lanti himself resigned from his leadership position in the organization in

1933 in order to distance his strongly anti-nationalist position from the more neutral position of the organization. In Lanti's view, Esperanto should not be a secondary but a primary language. Anti-nationalists around Lanti were against national languages and cultures and for the struggle of the working classes against exploitation and for elimination of the class structure. Cognizant of the heretic nature of this view, anti- nationalists would form their own faction while remaining supportive of SAT (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

Despite the schism, financial difficulties, and declining membership, SAT has remained the longest surviving labor Esperanto organization with a global scope until today (SAT n.d.). The organization has served as an institutionalized hybrid buffer between the Esperanto movement and various left political movements and parties (not counting Eastern European groups during the state-socialist period). Esperantists with left political leanings could find avenues for engagement within the organization without bringing their political concerns into the Esperanto movement thus allowing it to keep its political neutrality.

3.2.5 Stabilization of the Esperanto field as a secondary global field: UNESCO recognition of Esperanto as a global cultural heritage and failure to obtain recognition from the United Nations

The Esperanto movement suffered serious blows by Stalinism, Nazism, and

World War II (Lins 1988). After the war, however, the World Esperanto Association

(UEA) and the movement resumed their activities (van Dijk 2008). The biggest success of the Esperanto movement in this period was the recognition of Esperanto as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO attributed to the efforts of Croatian jurist Ivo Lapenna, then president of UEA (van Dijk 2008). An effort similar to the 1920s' effort at the

League of Nations to gain a recognition from a global political organization, however, did not succeed. Despite a worldwide campaign resulting in almost a million individual signatures and 3,843 endorsements from organizations representing about seventy million members, the 1966 Esperanto petition was not approved by the United Nations (van Dijk

2008). The Esperanto field would thus continue its activities as a secondary global cultural field, autonomous from but unequal to the global political field.

3.3 An international language as a unifying logic: The internal workings of the Esperanto field

3.3.1 Self-identification with the international language and possession of language skills as illusio and capital of the Esperanto field

The membership categories (Table 3.1) associated with the Esperanto movement point to the distinct importance of self-identification and of language skills as roads to

full movement membership. Per the Boulogne Declaration, everyone who speaks the language is considered an Esperantist. Not every Esperantist, however, self-identifies with the movement. Esperantists who do not self-identify with the movement are still welcome to fully participate but self-select out of full membership and high status within the movement. These individuals learn Esperanto for reasons other than a belief in the international language as a worthy endeavor in and of itself. Many members of SAT and of IPE would fall under this category in reference to the neutral Esperanto movement.

TABLE 3.1

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES FOR THE ESPERANTO MOVEMENT

Language skills allowing No or insufficient participation in core language skills for practices participation in core practices Expressed self- Full membership: Silent/partial membership: identification with the "Esperantist" "Eternal beginners" movement No expressed self- Potential full Non-membership identification with the membership/ movement Instrumental participation: "Esperantist"

The category of "eternal beginners", referring to people who never master the language beyond the beginner level but who nevertheless choose to remain in the movement, further demonstrates the importance of language capital for achieving full membership in the Esperanto movement. The reality of the continuous presence of

"eternal beginners" in the Esperanto movement, however, also implies that self- identification with Esperanto, even at the cost of enduring a low status, is an important element of membership in the movement.

Full members in the Esperanto movement thus appear to possess two characteristics. They have acquired a sufficient level of Esperanto language capital to qualify as Esperantists. In addition, they also self-identify as such. The broader point that can be derived from examining the membership categories of the Esperanto movement echoes Bourdieu's claim that membership in an institutional domain or field depends on a combination of an identification with the logic of the field (illusio) and acquisition of the form of capital that defines the field in terms of practical operation. This is in contrast to the institutionalist argument about a loose coupling between institutional mandates and actual practices (Meyer and Rowan 1977). Loose coupling of institutional mandates and practices creates low-status membership categories, as the case of "eternal beginners" of

Esperanto demonstrates. Possession of the capital defining the institutional domain, on the other hand, confers high status in the domain regardless of how closely one identifies with the domain thus making access to the highest positions in the domain much easier.

3.3.2 "Eternal beginners" as low-status participants in the Esperanto movement

The term “eternal beginners”, referring to participants in the Esperanto movement who for one reason or another never reach some level of fluency in Esperanto, is rather derogatory. Unlike the hardcore members, they cannot participate in the most valued movement activities such as translating into or from Esperanto, writing original texts in the language, teaching the language, or using Esperanto for other communicative purposes that demonstrate its value as a universal second language. The eternal beginners challenge the core claim that Esperanto is an easy language and that anyone can learn it.

Since they represent such a contradiction, the eternal beginners are rather marginalized in the movement. They are usually silent observers and followers. Or, they “crocodile”

(speak in their native tongues). “Crocodiling” is looked down upon and discouraged. A brief interaction I participated in while taking a week-long Esperanto language course illustrates the point:

“There are people who come every year to these courses but who still cannot speak the language. They are the ‘eternal beginners,’” a man explains to me. “I’m one of them,” a woman says at once. This is the first time I’ve heard her talk. Folks laugh uneasily.

Because of the effort to provide opportunities to anyone showing some interest in learning the language and because of the commonly held belief that the Esperanto language is one of the easiest if not the easiest language to learn out there, it is assumed that the only reason “eternal beginners” remain eternal beginners is because of a lack of sufficient effort. Esperantists, in my experience, are good-natured and polite people, so it is very unusual to hear anyone say anything overtly negative about anyone, including the

“eternal beginners.” Brief remarks establishing a boundary between the true Esperantists 37

and the “eternal beginners,” however, can be heard on occasion. Not speaking the commonly agreed upon language of communication practically eliminates the possibility of having a conversation even if no intent to be exclusive is present. Another interaction makes this clear:

I am attending a local Esperanto meeting in the town of X. I am invited to sit next to the president of the local club. Next to me, on the other side, an elderly woman is sitting who does not participate in the conversations around. “Mrs. Y is Mr. Y’s wife. She’s been coming to these meetings for years but she cannot say much besides ‘Hello’, ‘How are you?’, and ‘Good bye,’” says the president before moving on with telling me about his experiences in the movement. I sense the disapproving tone in his voice.

When explicitly asked about why he is in the movement, one eternal beginner of thirty years responded that he likes the “social aspect” of the movement. Yet, he continues to promote Esperanto despite the disapproval of other members who see his efforts as more hurtful than helpful for the movement [I don’t know if expressed discouragements were ever spoken to his face]. The person is involved in public relations and in publishing efforts. "Eternal beginners" thus may find alternative reasons to stay in the movement, in the form of "selective incentives" (Olson 1965), including ties to friends and significant others, in addition to the self-identification with the movement.

3.3.3 "No 'crocodiling' (speaking in one's native language) allowed here": Immersion as a skill-developing, disciplining, and status-defining practice

Individuals who identify with the idea of Esperanto but who are not quick enough to learn the basics of the language and thus become potential members of the "eternal beginners" category may drift away from the movement. The low status associated with the category is experienced as degrading and alienating. In the absence of continued

strong identification with the movement and/or of selective incentives, the logic of the institutional domain is likely to lose its value and eventually lead to "exiting" (cf.

Hirschman 1993). For example,

One participant in a week-long Esperanto course I took told me after the end of the course that he found the experience frustrating. As a beginner with no prior second language learning experience, he found the "No crocodiling" (no speaking in one's native language) rule particularly offensive. For a week, he had felt helpless and lost with little avenue for communicating his needs. The person felt discouraged and was moving on to doing other things. Yet, he remained interested in the language in general and approving of the idea of Esperanto as an international language of communication.

"Crocodiling" means speaking in one's own language or in a language other than

Esperanto. The term is associated with Andreo (András) Cseh, who developed an

Esperanto immersion teaching technique. In the reputable international week-long or longer courses in which I was able to partake, an immersion-like experience is effected through imposing the "No crocodiling" rule for all participants. While the rule is intended as a fun way to assure the maximum amount of learning in the shortest possible time, it is psychologically taxing.

The same practice, which some novices experience as a challenging but efficient method of accumulating the skills/capital central to the functioning of the institutional domain in which they are interested in participating, other novices experience as a disciplining technique that defines their low status. What distinguishes the novices who experience the intense learning as challenging from the novices who experience it as degrading is their preparedness in terms of similar prior learning experiences, in this case language- or language-like learning. The former are more likely to develop the skills/capital conferring high status in the field while the latter are less likely to acquire 39

such skills/capital and thus become low-status members of the field if they have to or choose to remain in it.

3.3.4 Instrumental Esperantists as high-status participants

In contrast to "eternal beginners" and to novices who find the language not as easy as it is presented to be, I was immediately welcomed and felt at home in the movement. The following is a personal reflection following a portion of my field experience:

When I attend Esperanto meetings or meet Esperantists, I always say that I am a sociologist interested in studying the movement in Eastern Europe during communism, through which I try to convey my intended position as an external observer. I present myself in Esperanto. People often ask me about how long ago I started learning the language and when I explain that I've been learning it for a few weeks, they get excited and encourage me to keep speaking. My efforts to speak are congratulated. When I explain that my Esperanto is not very good, people are usually surprised and congratulate me for my skills.

My ability to communicate in the language, albeit imperfectly, only after a few weeks of learning it is a source of excitement because it confirms the generally held belief that the Esperanto language is easy. I am made to feel accepted because

Esperantists can point at me and say: “See, she can speak the language only after a few weeks!” I am considered an Esperantist despite the openly instrumental nature of my involvement in the movement.

Another case of instrumental participation comes from Eastern Europe. Following the 1989 transitions to democracy, the Esperanto movement in the region experienced a decline and lost members. A popular explanation for this decline among Esperantists is the availability of other means to travel and engage in consumerism, among other

explanations. This argument is plausible but difficult to corroborate because instrumentally-oriented participants in the movement would have left it long ago and would be difficult to locate. While attending the world congress of Esperanto in 2011, however, I fortuitously met an Eastern European Esperantist who had been involved in the movement for instrumental reasons during the 1980s–participation in the movement provided a way to cross the Iron Curtain and travel abroad. After 1989, the person left the movement and lived abroad. Twenty years later and back living in the native country, the person decided to rejoin the Esperanto movement–the person spoke the language and thought participation in the movement would be a great hobby.

Another case of instrumental participation is evident in the following excerpt from my field notes while attending an Esperanto language course:

A few folks are hanging out in the foyer of the school/dorm where the course is taking place. People are talking about what they do and why they are there. As usual, I say that I am a sociologist and that I study the Esperanto movement. One young man insists on telling me that he is not involved in the movement because of its ideals. It’s just a hobby for him. He works with computers, as a number of other folks do. Programmers often learn about Esperanto through Wikipedia when they do a search for artificial languages. He speaks the language well and as far as I can tell he is treated no differently from anyone else.

The presence of language practitioners who lack expressed commitment to the

Esperanto language is plausibly welcome because they demonstrate that the ideal logic of the Esperanto field “works” in practice. Even if one does not hold the ideal, one's actions show its merit. Believers in or supporters of the ideal Esperanto logic who do not practice it, however, are marginalized because they challenge the ideal, as if they say: it doesn’t really work.

3.3.5 "The easiest international language": The simple ideology of the Esperanto movement

The Esperanto movement does not have much of an ideology besides the belief that the Esperanto language is one of the easiest languages and that it can therefore be very useful for international communication and understanding. The name of the language comes from the pseudonym Zamenhof used when he published his first book, namely "Doktoro Esperanto" (Dr. Hoping) (Kökény and Bleier 1933).

There is in fact evidence that partially supports this belief. Esperanto is classified as a European language and is a mixture of elements of various European languages.

Basic Esperanto grammar consists of sixteen rules with no exceptions (Zamenhof 1905).

The language uses the Latin alphabet and is phonetic. Its 28 sounds come from the Slavic languages but are common for other languages spoken in Europe too. As a foundation of the Esperanto vocabulary, Zamenhof chose the most “international” or shared roots among those available in the languages he knew. In practice, a vast majority of the

Esperanto vocabulary roots come from the Romance5 languages, thus making learning vocabulary easy for speakers of these languages. Another large set of roots comes from the Germanic language family. In terms of word formation, Esperanto follows the logic of German and the Slavic languages. Similarly to these languages, Esperanto includes a set of prefixes and suffixes with predefined meanings, which provide flexibility and allow language users to be creative with their wording yet be able to convey the precise meaning they want to convey. Almost any root can turn into any part of speech using

5 The Romance languages include French and Spanish among others.

appropriate suffixes (Zamenhof 1905). Word order and sentence structure are also mostly flexible, which can easily accommodate the usual practices of speakers of (at least)

European languages. As a mixture of elements of most European language families,

Esperanto offers beginners some familiar ground, upon which they can build their communicative skills more easily. Reportedly, it takes ten times less time to reach a proficiency level in Esperanto than to reach the same level of proficiency in English or in another common national language (Maxwell 1988). As my experience of learning the basics of the language in several weeks also demonstrates, Esperanto is indeed a very easy language in comparison to other languages.

What distinguishes other fast learners of Esperanto and I from actual and potential

"eternal beginners", according to the limited data I have, is our prior language learning experience or other strong educational background. For example, I have a strong background in the main language families at the origin of Esperanto. Another fast learner in one of the language courses I took has a strong background in multiple computer languages. For actual and potential "eternal beginners", on the other hand, Esperanto seems to be their first significant exposure to a non-native language. An example from my field notes suggests that Esperantists themselves are likely aware that not everyone has equal chances of learning the language:

I am waiting for an interview at the premises of the Esperanto club in the town of Z. A man rings the bell and is greeted by two Esperantists. He tells them he has heard about the Esperanto language and how easy it is, and he is here to get more information about it. He is from a village close by. He asks about how useful the language is. They tell him there are Esperantists all around the world with whom he could communicate in the language. They give him some brochures. Before he leaves, they try to teach him a few words, like: “Saluton/Hello!”, “Ĝis/Bye!” The man has a difficult time repeating the words. After he is gone, the two 43

Esperantists briefly debate how likely it is that this man can learn the Esperanto language. One is skeptical about this ever happening. The other one is more hopeful and insists on giving the man the benefit of the doubt. What is left unsaid in this conversation is the visibly low social status of the man apparent through his timid appearance, clothing style, and possible ethnic origin.

If even one of the easiest languages out there is difficult to learn for some people−specifically those with less access to education and other practical learning opportunities−and serves as a basis for distinctions and inequalities, what can be said about more difficult languages serving as international languages, such as English,

French, Spanish, etc. or about other skill-based fields (which is most fields)?

3.4 Autonomy "wars" in the Esperanto field

Conflicts within the movement reveal the importance of the boundaries that differentiate Esperanto as a field from other fields with which Esperanto shares segments of the world social space. The acuteness of a boundary conflict indicates the centrality of the boundary for maintaining the autonomy of the movement. Two types of boundary- related conflicts have been particularly important for the Esperanto movement. The first type of Esperanto conflicts has focused on the boundary between the Esperanto field and the private/economic spheres whereas the second type has focused on the boundary between the Esperanto field and the political field.

3.4.1 Maintaining a boundary between Esperanto and the private/economic spheres:

Tourism as an intermediary field

In the early 1980s, the Polish Esperanto movement experienced a conflict that left deep scars for many in the country's movement. Decades later, veterans of the conflict

still remember it as a traumatic event. The conflict was between a young group of

Esperanto leaders and the "old guard" of the movement. The young Esperantists were worried about the autonomy of the movement and advocated refocusing on the language and privileging true Esperantism. They aimed at moving the movement toward the science end of the social space and their preferred activities were related to inter- linguistics, the new branch of linguistics the movement advanced to deal with the so- called international language problem. Interviewees were most proud of the conferences they had been part of as members and leaders of the movement as well as of the published scholarly outputs of these conferences. The "old guard", on the other hand, which reportedly maintained strong connections with the communist leadership of the country, privileged mass participation and the practical use of the language and downplayed the risk of diluting the movement's purpose.

The occasion that exacerbated the conflict was the movement's policy regarding access to the services of the Esperanto tourist agency in the country. The young

Esperantists argued that the trips organized by the agency should be restricted to

Esperantists. Their justification was the fear of losing the specificity of the movement based on the practice of the international language. They dismissively dubbed the trips open to the public "shopping trips". Participants in these trips, they argued, did not care about Esperanto but found in the Esperanto tourist agency a way to travel abroad and engage in consumerism. The old leadership, by contrast, saw open access to the agency as a recruitment tool for new members. Open access, according to them, was also necessary for financial reasons. They argued that there weren't enough Esperantists to fill up all the seats and make the trips economically viable. 45

The conflict ended by the ousting of the young leadership of the Polish Esperanto movement. A newly elected leadership consisting of Esperanto veterans sought to overcome the divisions created by the conflict and reunite the movement by refocusing the movement's attention on hosting an Esperanto world congress on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the publication of the "first book" outlining Zamenhof's invention. A quarter of a century later, however, when I interviewed members of the young Esperanto leadership from the 1980s, I was confided in a sense of betrayal and bitterness. Some of the former young leaders had never returned to the movement. They had experienced the conflict as deeply political and remembered it as a socialist-era conflict opposing their creative efforts to foster scientific progress against the conservative forces associated with the socialist state working to stifle that progress.

In the case of the conflict within the Polish Esperanto movement in the 1980s,

"politics" involved a struggle over the nature and boundaries of a unique field of action formed around the Esperanto language. One party in the conflict sought to widen the field by encroaching upon the neighboring field of tourism. The other party of the conflict saw the efforts of the latter to open up to the field of tourism as endangering the existence and autonomy of the Esperanto field by eliminating the intermediary field of tourism, which served as a buffer and a boundary between the private/economic sphere of personal consumerism and the cultural field of Esperanto. Instead, this party sought to elevate the status of the Esperanto field by moving it closer to the scientific field.

3.4.2 Maintaining the boundary between Esperanto and the political field: Too cozy with the state? The Bulgarian Esperanto movement as a scapegoat of the political autonomy struggle

The struggle to isolate the Esperanto field from the field of politics was not decided once and forever with the adoption of political neutrality on the part of the World

Esperanto Association, as an official representative of the international movement.

Eastern European Esperantists had to find ways to accommodate the state-socialist regimes. Nowhere was the accommodation as openly affirmed as it was in Bulgaria. The

Esperanto movement in the country was able to quickly recover from World War II,

Nazism, and Stalinism and create a space for itself in an environment hostile to popular mobilization outside of labor and peasant organizing. The movement achieved this by drawing connections between its history of involvement in the labor Esperanto movement and by contributing to the shaping of a project of development that linked the country to the "civilized" world (see chapter 5). The Bulgarian Esperanto movement also promoted the achievements of state-socialism, for example through publishing a magazine called

Nuntempa Bulgario (Contemporary Bulgaria). In return, the Bulgarian state allowed the movement to flourish.

A notable example of the association between Esperanto and Eastern European state-socialism was the world peace Esperanto movement (Mondpaca Esperantista

Movado or MEM). One of the movement's vocal leaders was the self-avowed Bulgarian communist and Esperantist Nikola Aleksiev, who had served as secretary of the

Bulgarian Labor Esperanto Association before World War II and later as president of the

Bulgarian Esperanto Union. The movement criticized U.S. militarism, NATO, and the political neutrality of the Esperanto movement (Aleksiev 1982).

Following the 1989 fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the Esperanto movement has felt a need to disassociate itself from state-socialism. Because of its history of open association with the communist bloc, the Bulgarian Esperanto movement has become a scapegoat in this distancing effort of the international movement. The shaming of Bulgarian state-socialist Esperanto history is a mechanism for effecting such distancing. An example from my field notes illustrates the mechanism:

I am attending a session during the 2011 World Esperanto Congress in Copenhagen. An elderly Eastern European Esperantist volunteers an account of his experience with a Bulgarian Esperanto language course in his youth. He equates the summer language camp he attended in Bulgaria to a concentration camp experience. He remembers the campers being locked in a decrepit building with no way out. He concludes with affirming that the Bulgarian participants did not know the language but were there because of some communist party affiliation.

Other Esperantists are not as extreme in their judgment of Bulgarian Esperantists during state-socialism but are similarly dismissive. When referring to interactions with

Bulgarian Esperantists at the time, one of the above-mentioned young Polish Esperanto leaders from the 1980s pointed out the "naiveté" of the former, undoubtedly drawing parallels between the autonomy struggle in the Polish movement and the lack thereof in the Bulgarian movement.

The ostracization and shaming their national movement has experienced because of its particular state-socialist history has made contemporary Bulgarian Esperantists representing the movement in any official capacity very self-conscious. No other national

group of Esperantists professed their organizational and personal political neutrality as unanimously as the Bulgarian Esperantists I interviewed did. The only exception was the daughter of a communist Esperanto leader who was proud of her late father's contribution to the movement and shared with me a memoir narrating this contribution. She also talked about experiencing the surprising and painful bitterness of anti-communist name- calling following the transition to democracy, which had turned former friends against her and her family.

3.5 Summary and conclusion

This chapter traced the history of the creation and early growth of the Esperanto movement based on promoting the international language Esperanto. The movement was founded on the idea that a simple and easy to learn international language can not only facilitate international communication and understanding but eliminate inequalities based on national differences. For this reason, the movement was attractive to members of the cultural elites of small countries. The movement pursued its goals through the establishment of a global institutional space around the simple logic of a neutral language for international communication such as Esperanto.

Ironically, even a language as simple and easy to learn as Esperanto can serve as a source of distinctions (cf. Bourdieu 1984), on the basis of the language skills of desirous members of the Esperanto movement. A cultural form of capital such as language capital represents an embodied resource that takes time and effort to develop. A lack of early acquisition of such embodied resources creates disadvantages and experiential gaps difficult to overcome later on. Efforts to close such gaps through intense training and 49

exposure in a short period of time, such as through immersion learning programs, can backfire by being experienced as a psychological shock and thus can lead to hardening rather than eliminating the resource differences at the origin of embodied cultural inequalities. Individuals relegated to a low status based on the distribution of language capital tend to silently endure the disadvantaged status, focusing instead on other benefits of movement participation, or exit the field (cf. Hirschman 1993).

Meanwhile, major conflicts associated with the Esperanto movement have concerned the autonomy of the Esperanto field and relatedly the boundary making and remaking that facilitates or endangers this autonomy (cf. Wimmer 2013). Esperantists invested in the Esperanto movement have found infringements upon the Esperanto field by other fields, particularly strong fields such as the political one and the economic one, dangerous and have resisted them. An example of such a conflict was the conflict over the establishment of a hybrid labor Esperanto movement. The hybrid movement has straddled the space between the Esperanto movement and the labor movement. While facing some resistance, the hybrid labor Esperanto movement has remained viable as long as it has remained politically neutral serving as a buffer between politics and the

Esperanto field. As soon as the hybrid movement entered the sphere of the political field in the early 1930s, however, its autonomy was endangered. Later attempts by

Esperantists to flirt with the political sphere were frowned upon, resisted, and shamed.

CHAPTER 4:

THE PUZZLING CASE OF THE BULGARIAN DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION: A

COOPERATIVE CIVIL SOCIETY BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN?

After its 1989 transition to democracy, Bulgaria found itself without a history of rebellion against communism. While the country's Central European neighbors could attribute their transitions at least partially to a contentious civil society tradition (Ekiert

1996), Bulgaria appeared to lack such a civil society. Despite this perceived shortcoming, the country remained peaceful all throughout the transitional period and its democracy persisted. Internationally, Bulgaria was a team player as well: the country joined NATO and the European Union and followed the IMF experts' recommendations to introduce a currency board. In contrast to Bulgaria, many countries undergoing similar transitions in

Eastern Europe and throughout the world around the same time experienced violent conflicts or failed to establish democratic governance institutions (e.g. Bond et al. 1997;

McFaul 2002). How was it possible for a country to achieve such a positive outcome without a history of contention and, ostensibly, without a civil society?

My argument will be that Bulgaria developed a civil society of a different kind:

Bulgarian political culture was centered on a cultural politics of fellowship building and comprehensive socio-cultural development, which has sustained the democratic project in the country. The Esperanto movement, which became the most prominent movement not

only in Bulgaria but in Eastern Europe more broadly during the state-socialist period, exemplifies this cooperative form of civil society. The unique form of Eastern European civility typified by the Esperanto movement is distinct from Western models of civil society in several other ways as well. It blurs the lines between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, as well as between the public and the private spheres institutionalized in Western societies (cf. Wimmer 2013).

A set including the organizing principle or logic of fellowship, a comprehensive organizational structure bringing together institutional domains operating autonomously in the West, and a number of additional integrative practices serve as institutional carriers

(Scott 2008) of Bulgarian civility, which is the most extreme case of the ideal type of cooperative civil society found in other parts of Eastern Europe as well.

4.1 Civil society actors

4.1.1 Plurality of actor types and actor mandates

Historical sociologists have associated the advent of capitalist modernity with specific historically developed types of individual and collective actors (Meyer and

Jepperson 2002). The ideal individual type is rational, moved by the "spirit of capitalism", formed by a "protestant ethics", living in a rationalized social world and determined to uphold its civic and political rights in organized fashion in opposition to the state (cf. Adams, Clemens and Orloff 2005; Meyer and Jepperson 2002; Weber

1958). The ideal collective-actor type of capitalist modernity is represented by a variety of political and civic associations and collective entities (publics, nations, etc.) (cf.

Alexander 2006; Anderson 1983; Baldassarri and Diani 2007; Boli and Thomas 1997;

Habermas 1989; Meyer and Jepperson 2002; Meyer et al. 1997; Spillman 1994;

Tocqueville 2000). Despite being recognized as contingent historical achievements, these ideal types of the rational individual and of the rationalized collective actors have acquired categorical dominance and have become the taken-for-granted modern actors. I demonstrate the contradictions latent in the institutional expectations behind these categories and the empirical possibility of historical alternatives to these ideal types.

Civic and political associations and entities are expected to perform conflicting tasks. Associations represent collective interests in pursuit of the common good. Yet, a consensus on what constitute the common good is less than evident. Therefore, on one hand, associations are often connected with struggles for inclusion in collective entities

(groups entitled to rights) and for social change (e.g. Alexander 2006; Boli and Thomas

1997). A variety of groupings broadly referred to as social movements tend to be equated with contention and with challenges against authorities and particularly against the state

(McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001; Snow 2004; Tarrow 1998). Political developments under capitalist modernity have thus been associated with conflict and claims-making involving such collective groupings. On the other hand, associations and collective entities are believed to play integrative roles providing the social glue necessary for social cohesion and solidarity by connecting individuals located in distant social locations and by championing visions of the good society (cf. Anderson 1983; Alexander 2006;

Baldassarri and Diani 2007; Boli and Thomas 1997; Spillman 1994). Associations in this sense are charged with the normative task of constituting a "civil" sphere (Alexander

2006). The dual mandate of associations and collective entities−as associated with both 53

conflict and cohesion−creates theoretical confusion and normative tensions not only for the contexts to which these ideal types have been exported but also for the contexts to which the categories are native.

The diffusion and institutionalization around the globe of the ideal actor types associated with Western modernity do not proceed in a uniform manner. World-systemic, world-regional, national, and individual differences remain (cf. Beckfield 2003; Frank,

Meyer and Miyahara 1995; Inglehart and Baker 2000; Lizardo 2005). However, our understanding of the types of actors that develop in contexts outside the global West where the ideal actor types described above were first developed is limited (Ikegami 2005 is an exception). Understanding puzzling cases such as the Bulgarian case may thus benefit from understanding the actor types that became institutionalized in such contexts.

The biggest challenge to capitalist modernity during the twentieth century was presented by communism. Communism served as the founding principle of a number of states for at least half a century. Several generations were born and lived under a communist experiment of a sort. This actual experience is referred to as state-socialism.

The rivalry between the state-socialist Soviet bloc and the West was as much of a political battle as it was a battle of modern ideologies and practices. The rivalry was reflected, among other things, in the opposition between two models for how progress and modernity can and should be achieved. The Soviets championed the promotion of social, economic, and cultural rights tagged onto the earlier universal ideology of

Marxism. The United States championed the promotion of political and civil rights.

Relatedly, I expect the types of actors and the type of civility which became

institutionalized in the Soviet bloc to also be different from the types of actors and civil society institutionalized in the West.

Under non-democratic regimes, where political mobilization potentially critical of the regimes is suppressed, the contentiousness and rationality of Western actor types may be difficult to sustain. Alternative historical examples are logically possible and have been documented. In pre-modern Japan, for example, social integration and solidarity as well as social change was achieved through aesthetic networks cutting across social strata

(Ikegami 2005). The aesthetic principle and not the rationalization principle was the leading one in that context (Ikegami 2005). The major organizational form of Japanese civility in that period in turn was not the association but the diffuse artistic network

(Ikegami 2005). Artistic gatherings and channels for movement of persons and their works served as "free spaces" (Polletta 1999) allowing creativity and self-realization

(Ikegami 2005). In the following sections, I contend that the leading principle of

Bulgarian and Eastern European civility was the fellowship principle matched with a comprehensive notion of development as culturedness whereas the major organizational form was a hybrid of the Western-type of associations and horizontal friendship networks.

4.1.2 Transnational social movements behind the Iron Curtain

If one starts a research project on a region by identifying relevant actors, as I did, and if one is interested in collective actors striving for social change with a universal or global orientation, as I was, one may want to examine the population of transnational social movement organizations active in the region for the period of interest. Jackie Smith

and Dawn Wiest have collected data on such actors (2012b), which I consulted for this initial step of the analysis. Organizations with extensive ties to the world polity matter because they are believed to facilitate the diffusion of global models into local contexts

(Boli and Thomas 1997) and would therefore be likely culprits for channeling external influences on the development of domestic civil society at the origin of the 1989

Bulgarian and Eastern European revolutions (cf. Evangelista 1999; Kaldor 1999; Snyder

2011).

Contrary to common assumptions that Eastern Europe lacked civil associations during all but the last years of the communist era (e.g. Kaldor 1999), social movement organizations with transnational linkages (TSMOs) were active in the countries of the region well before democratization (Figure 4.1) (Velitchkova 2010). In fact, the population of TSMOs with Eastern European memberships experienced a steady growth since the 1950s6, similarly to albeit less intensely than the pattern of TSMO growth found in Western countries (Figure 4.1). Among Eastern European countries, Poland had the largest transnational social movement organizational field, followed closely by

Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Bulgaria and Romania were not too far behind. Albania (as well as another communist country outside the region, China), on the other hand, lagged behind. Thus, it appears that independent Eastern European countries were somewhat open to the world, via the intermediary of transnational social movement organizations, even during the worst years of the Cold War.

6 Albania is one exception due to the deliberate isolationist policies of the regime.

700

600

500

Bulgaria Czechoslovakia/Czech Rep. 400 Poland Romania Albania # # TSMOs China 300 Sweden US

200

100

1953 1963 1967 1971 1977 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 Year

Figure 4.1: Transnational social movement organization fields by country, 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012b).

There are three visible stages of growth of the transnational social movement field in Eastern Europe in Smith and Wiest's (2012b) dataset (Figure 4.1) (Velitchkova 2010).

A slow first stage, from at least the 1950s7 to the mid 1970s, corresponds to the rise of the

UN system (cf. Smith and Wiest 2012a). In the middle stage, from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, the growth curves become steeper following the signing of the Helsinki

Accords−a treaty advancing human rights' rule across Europe,−signaling a further and

7 The dataset starts collecting data only in 1953 (Smith and Wiest 2012).

more visible opening of the region (cf. Kaldor 1999; Snyder 2011). A third stage of sharpest increase in the number of transnational social movement organizations from the early 1990s to the 2000s follows democratization. The growth of social movements following democratization and that following the Helsinki process is thus a continuation of practices that started much earlier.

Of the 562 transnational social movement organizations in existence in the world in 1988, 247 or 44% had members in Eastern Europe (Velitchkova 2010). With an average of 44 ties to countries from around the world, transnational social movement organizations with Eastern European members were much better connected than the average transnational social movement organization in the world having 31 country ties in that year (Velitchkova 2010). A significant number of these country ties were to

Western (OECD) countries, 16.68 ties on average, a much higher number than the average number of OECD country ties, 11.7, of all world transnational social movement organizations (Velitchkova 2010). The Iron Curtain was been gradually lifted, at least since the mid-1950s, a process that was accelerated in the late 1970s, well prior to democratization.

The most prominent of transnational movements in the region during the Cold

War, in terms of number of organizations, was the Esperanto movement (Figures 4.2-5)

(Velitchkova 2010). The pattern of growth of Eastern European social movements, as distinguished by issue (e.g. Esperanto, human rights, peace, women’s movement etc.), was not uniform (Figures 4.2-5). Prior to democratization, the size of the Esperanto

8 Prior to 1990, there were a total of 24 OECD countries.

movement organizational subfield was much larger than the size of the subfields of other movements9. With fifty-seven transnational organizations active in the region in 1988, the Esperanto movement constituted one third of the entire transnational social movement organizational field of most Eastern European countries (except Albania, where it constituted one fourth of the field) and was by far the movement with the largest organizational presence10. In terms of number of organizations, the human rights movement, the peace movement, the environmental movement, the socialist/global economy movement, and the women’s movement were much smaller (Figures 4.2-5).

The prominence of the Esperanto movement is evident in the organizational data since the 1950s, much earlier than the growth of the human rights and the peace movements, spurred after the signing of the Helsinki Accords (Kaldor 1999; Snyder 2011). Also, the movement was active, to various degrees, throughout Eastern Europe, and not only in its central part. Furthermore, the growth of Esperanto organizations with members in

Sweden and in the US, among others, closely parallels the growth of such organizations in Eastern European countries throughout the Cold War (Figure 4.6). This suggests a significance of the movement for East-West citizen-based transnational relations during the period. Interviews I conducted with leaders of the World Esperanto Association and of Eastern European national associations further indicate that the Esperanto movement

9 This changed with democratization: the population size of transnational Esperanto organizations slightly decreased while other movements, particularly the human rights movement and the environmental movement, experienced a steep growth throughout the 1990s.

10 The human rights movement came second with twenty-nine transnational organizations in the region overall.

provided one of the few channels of direct communication between ordinary citizens in

Eastern Europe and the rest of the world at the time.

Bulgarian TSMOs

35 Environment

30 Esperanto Socialist/Global Justice 25

Human Rights # TSMOs # 20 Peace 15 Women

1953 1963 1967 1971 1977 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 Year

Figure 4.2: Bulgarian transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012b).

Czech TSMOs

50 Environment Esperanto 40 Socialist/Global Justice Human Rights

30 # TSMOs # Peace 20 Women

1953 1963 1967 1971 1977 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 Year

Figure 4.3: Czech(oslovak) transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012b).

Polish TSMOs

50 Environment Esperanto 40 Socialist/Global Justice Human Rights

# TSMOs # 30 Peace Women 20

1953 1963 1967 1971 1977 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 Year

Figure 4.4: Polish transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012b).

Romanian TSMOs

Environment 40 Esperanto Socialist/Global Justice 30

Human Rights # TSMOs # Peace 20 Women

1953 1963 1967 1971 1977 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 Year

Figure 4.5: Romanian transnational social movement organization field by issue, 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012b).

40 Bulgaria

Czechoslovakia/Czech Rep. Poland

30 Romania Albania

# Esperanto Esperanto # TSMOs China

20 Sweden US

Year

Figures 4.6: Number of transnational Esperanto organizations by country, 1953-2003 (Smith and Wiest 2012b).

Data on country ties show that, in terms of its connectedness, the Esperanto movement was one of the most important movements in Eastern Europe during the communist era as well (Velitchkova 2010). For instance, in 1988, it not only had the highest number of organizations (57), but also it was the best connected one. A transnational Esperanto organization with Eastern European branches had members in seven Eastern European countries, in seventeen OECD countries, and in a total of thirty- six countries around the world on average11. A country membership in a transnational

Esperanto organization usually meant that the country in question had a national affiliate and local members and that the national affiliate sent a delegation to at least the regular annual meeting of the transnational organization and sometimes to other special gatherings, cultural events or language courses, organized at an ad-hoc basis. Annual meetings were often week-long conference-style gatherings featuring presentations, deliberations, cultural events, socializing, and sightseeing. In addition, members maintained personal contacts through correspondence and sometimes through personal visits (see next section for further details).

Esperanto was prominent not only at the aggregate level, in terms of organizational population, but also at the individual level, in terms of organizational membership and personal acquaintances. The four countries with the highest number of individual members in the World Esperanto Association in 1988 were Eastern European:

Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary (Velitchkova 2010). Esperanto indirectly

11 For comparison, human rights organizations with Eastern European branches were active in four Eastern European countries on average and had ties to sixteen OECD countries and to thirty-two countries around the world in 1988.

reached a large portion of Eastern Europeans. My interviews suggest that Esperantists were well known as such in their respective circles of family and acquaintances, in schools, at the workplace, and even in the military. Receiving a letter from abroad would be an important event for the entire family and community. Esperantists would show the letters, postcards, and magazines that they had received to their acquaintances, which would often provoke discussions about their content, generally of “human interest.” A network technique that takes into consideration the size of the population in a given country and the size of the average personal network12 offers a way to estimate the possible reach of the Esperanto movement. Using this technique, I estimate that in

Bulgaria, 16% of the population likely had a personal acquaintance who was a member of the World Esperanto Association in 1988. In Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, 10%,

7% and 7% of the populations, respectively, were likely to know a member of the World

Esperanto Association. In Romania, by contrast, only .03% of the population probably knew a member of the World Esperanto Association in 1988. These estimates do not include Esperantist acquaintances who were only members of local, national, and other international Esperanto organizations (such as professional or other interest organizations). In the Romanian case, the estimate may underestimate the possible reach of the movement. In 1985, Ceauşescu made all civil society organizations illegal, which explains the low number of official membership in the World Esperanto Association.

However, my Romanian interviewees suggest that private Esperanto gatherings continued to occur despite the official ban. Considering the possible influence of all Esperantists,

12 See Moody, James. 2006. "Fighting a Hydra: A Note on the Network Embeddedness of the War on Terror." Structure and Dynamics 1 for a detailed description of the technique.

the Esperanto movement reached, directly or indirectly, a significant number of Eastern

Europeans.

My analysis of the composition of the transnational social movement organizational field in Eastern Europe indicates that by a number of measures of prominence, the Esperanto movement was the most prominent movement that developed voluntary non-governmental organizations with a social change goal in the region. Being the typical (modal) transnational movement in Eastern Europe during state-socialism, the

Esperanto movement was selected for in-depth qualitative analysis as a representative case providing a window into Eastern European civility.

4.1.3 A cosmopolitan movement of the non-ruling cultural and professional elite

Who became an Esperantist in Eastern Europe during state-socialism?

Organizational data and personal interviews with active members of the movement in

Eastern Europe suggest that despite claims of inclusiveness (see previous chapter),

Eastern European Esperantists were predominantly members of the cultural and professional elite. Notwithstanding the simplicity of the language and the related rhetoric of being an international language for the common person, active membership in the movement requires language competences that are far from being common (cf. Bourdieu

1984; Fraser 2007). Strong educational background facilitates the development of such skills. Thus, under the umbrella of the Esperanto movement, numerous professions– including artists, doctors, journalists, lawyers, postal and railway workers, scientists, teachers, writers, etc.–would organized their own Esperanto groups.

Eastern European Esperantists have had a comprehensive vision of the word and have been interested in a variety of issues, which was also reflected in the Esperanto organizational population in the late 1980s (Figure 4.7). Esperanto organizations were dedicated to global social change related to environmentalism, human rights, religion, and peace. Other Esperanto groups were invested in professional developments, culture, exotic activities, and other mundane topics of human interest. Almost anyone was welcome under the umbrella of Esperanto, including amateur radio enthusiasts, car enthusiasts, chess players, cyclists, handicapped people, homosexuals, naturists, photographers, tourists, vegetarians, etc. The joining of issues pertaining to distinct

Western institutional domains under one umbrella in Eastern Europe is reminiscent of the communist promise outlined in Marx's essay "The German Ideology" (Tucker 1978) to avoid specialization and be able to do one thing in the morning, another in the afternoon, and a third one in the evening. The Esperanto language and Esperanto organizations are thus mechanisms through which the institutional boundaries between the cultural and the political domain as well as between the public and private sphere have been challenged.

The Esperanto movement similarly challenges the distinction between the domestic and the international arenas. The movement has developed an impressive multi- level organizational structure spanning local community clubs, national associations, and international organizations (Figure 4.7). Groups representing each of these spatial scales not only deal with issues pertaining to that scale but also make connections between the local, the national, and the international level (see next chapter for a further discussion)

(cf. Stark, Vedres, and Bruszt 2006).

World Esperanto Association

Transnational Esperanto environmental groups (cyclists, Youth Esperanto Association (transnational) naturists, ornithologists, tourists, vegetarians)

National Youth Esperanto National Esperanto groups environmental groups

Transnational Esperanto rights oriented groups (blind, Transnational Esperanto peace groups handicapped, homosexuals)

National Esperanto peace National Esperanto rights groups oriented groups

Transnational Esperanto religious groups (Baha’i, Professional Esperanto associations (artists, journalists, Buddhists, Catholics) jurists, post & railway workers, writers, scientists, teachers)

National Esperanto National Esperanto religious groups professional associations

Esperanto hobby groups (automobile, book clubs, International Academy of Sciences - San Marino (Esperanto chess, photographers, philatelists, radio amateurs) university)

Correspondence service Hospitality service (free couch surfing)

National Esperanto associations

Local Esperanto clubs (usually in Cultural groups (theater troupes, Nationally sponsored Travel agencies several major cities/towns) radio, publishing houses) language courses

Language courses run by local clubs

Figure 4.7: Organizational chart of the Esperanto movement13.

13 Excluding the World Anational Association (SAT) never mentioned in my interviews, which represents a separate branch of the movement, which opposes the nation-state system, and was thus opposed by Eastern European Esperanto organizations (see previous chapter for details on SAT). 69

Two particular organizational forms−the hospitality service and the correspondence service−most clearly differentiate the Esperanto movement from rationalized Western organizational models (cf. Boli and Thomas 1997) and therefore deserve a special mention. The hospitality service is a precursor to couch-surfing and aids traveling Esperantists in finding a host and often a place to stay at a discount or even for free in almost any country they visit. Through a similarly organized pen pal service,

Esperantists find individual correspondents throughout the world as well, which frequently would also lead to direct contacts during organizational meetings or during private visits. These two services represent hybrid organizational forms combining features of a Weberian rationalized organization with the ideal of fellowship, grounded in strong emotions and strong personal ties, to which I turn next.

4.2 An enduring political culture?

4.2.1 Civility as fellowship

A major guiding principle of the Esperanto movement, which I heard of, observed, and personally experienced in my interactions with Eastern European

Esperantists, is what I call the principle of fellowship. An excerpt from my field notes while conducting interviews with active veteran members of the movement in Bulgaria illustrates how civility as fellowship is manifested in the contemporary context:

"As I entered the office of the Bulgarian Esperanto Association, the secretary greeted me and walked me into a room that looked more like a typical Bulgarian living room than like an office. After she invited me to take a seat on the sofa, she offered me coffee and chocolates and attended to me as if I were a personal guest and not a stranger coming in for a random business inquiry. Bulgarians pride 70

themselves in being hospitable, a quality that the austerities of the transition to capitalism put in jeopardy for awhile as people limited their social visits lest they use up the sparse resources of their hosts. This welcome, however, reminded me of the lavish reception any respectable Bulgarian hostess would offer to her guests even if she were surprised and had little to offer.

While waiting for the president of the association to finish a phone call, I ended up in possession of two pocket Esperanto dictionaries, a little phrase book, and a CD with an introductory Esperanto course. It felt like these were gifts, although I was asked to contribute a few leva14 to cover the expenses for the paper."

Later, I realized these materials were sufficient to give me a strong foundation in the language. Being greeted like a house guest and leaving with Esperanto publications as gifts was a common experience for me while conducting interviews with Esperantists in

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania in the summer of 2009. My notes from Bulgaria continue:

"When the president finished his phone conversation, he joined us at the coffee table. Introductions and mandatory IRB clarifications over, I proceeded with asking him about his experience with the movement. He had been active in the movement since the 1970s. What was his motivation to remain in the movement for this long? He made great friends through Esperanto! Really!? [I don't know if I were able to hide my surprise. Armed with Western civil society- and public sphere-style hypotheses expecting talk of human rights, democracy, civic duty, volunteering, or at least self-interest, or opposition to the state, I had no idea what to make of friendship. My world culture thesis melted into thin air, I thought.]"

Interview after interview, Esperantists talked about making cherished, affectionate, personal connections (cf. Fishman 2004) that had little to do with rationalized/instrumental and/or contentious styles of public interactions expected by

14 Lev (pl. leva) is the Bulgarian currency. As of writing, the exchange rate between the lev and the dollar is about 1.5BGN for $1.

Western scholars and supposed to serve as the foundation of politics (but see Eliasoph

1998).

Soon, I did uncover motivations that sounded more "political." Language neutrality and communication equality are two of the most important characteristics of the Esperanto language for the active veteran Eastern European Esperantists with whom I interacted. Language neutrality means that the language is not associated with any ethnic group or nation-state and thus nobody can claim ownership of the language or benefit from it at the expense of others (see previous chapter for a further discussion of neutrality). Language neutrality is closely associated with communication equality. Equal communication depends on equal mastery of the language of communication, according to my interviewees. A neutral international language as simple as Esperanto is believed to provide the best medium for equal communication worldwide. Language neutrality and communication equality are correlates to the expectations of horizontal relationships associated with the fellowship principle.

Sensitivity about the language question among Eastern European Esperantists is heightened so much so that the only two instances of hostility I have experienced in my years of interactions with Esperantists were related to language use. At the beginning of this research project and prior to learning the Esperanto language, I attempted to conduct interviews with Esperantists in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania in English,

French, or Spanish. While I was able to find responsive respondents able to speak one of these languages, two persons I contacted expressed frustration about my language choice.

My field notes include the following comments on these uncharacteristic experiences:

"One person, with whom I attempted to set an interview in Esperanto by using an online translator and a dictionary, in addition to saying that I need to learn the language and that speaking in English or French is not acceptable, also commented on my bad grammar before asking me to write to her later when I learn Esperanto."

In the second case, after experiencing difficulties communicating in English during an interview with three people of seemingly different political persuasions (the third person invited himself to participate in the interview), I was told by one of the original interviewees that I needed to read the "literature of Esperanto" [about its history] and that the interview was purposeless.

On numerous occasions, Eastern European Esperantists referred to English as an imperialist language. Esperanto, by contrast, was presented as an antidote to language imperialism (see also the previous chapter). The language sensitivity of Esperantists indicates the involvement of language in power dynamics (cf. Bourdieu 1984, 1991;

Fraser 2007) and the political nature of the movement.

Yet, my Eastern European interviewees overwhelmingly claimed non- partisanship for themselves and for the Esperanto movement as a whole. What had originally, in the 1950s, been a strategic choice for the movement at the international level has become a defining characteristic of movement participants15 (see also the previous chapter). The veterans of the Eastern European Esperanto movement I interviewed were not directly involved in politics nor did they like politics. The claim that the movement is non-political is not surprising because this stand allowed it to not

15 In the past, individual Esperantists or groups would champion various political causes. The movement as a whole, however, would disavow such involvement as representing the movement at the international level.

only survive the Cold War but also to be a major social link between the East and the

West and include people of a variety of political orientations, within Eastern Europe and in the rest of the world. It is somewhat surprising that individual Esperantists claim to be non-political, twenty years after the transitions to democracy. Non-partisanship can be interpreted as a boundary-making strategy simultaneously privileging conflict-avoidance and passively opposing politics as usual (cf. Scott 1990).

Slowly, a clearer picture began to emerge. The Esperanto movement, as the typical movement of state-socialist Eastern Europe, represents a form of civility that is different from the civil society common in what Eastern Europeans call "the West." The driving principle of civil-ness in this context is not rationality and individualism (Boli and Thomas 1997) or contention (McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001) but sociability (cf.

Simmel 1972) and fellowship. It recognizes the intrinsic relationality of society.

Horizontality, represented by language neutrality and communication equality, hospitality, generosity, friendship, and non-partisanship are elements of the unique form of Eastern European civility, which I refer to as fellowship.

Civility as fellowship is not restricted to the Esperanto movement but is present in

Eastern European societies more broadly. For example, friendship networks played key mobilizing roles in the ostensibly "spontaneous" mobilization during the East German revolution (Opp and Gern 1993). Also, one cannot help noticing the similarity between the non-partisanship of Esperantists, the "Anti-Politics" of Czech dissident and later president Vaclav Havel (Kaldor 1999:479), and the recent long-term anti-political establishment protests in Bulgaria (Junes 2013; cf. Eliasoph 1998). Politics as we know it

is antithetical to the principle of fellowship; yet fellowship is not without political consequences.

4.2.2 Institutionalization of a comprehensive model of development

Unlike social movements familiar to scholars in the global North/West, which tend to focus on a single cause or a single cluster of causes, the Esperanto movement in state-socialist Eastern Europe appears to have contributed to the institutionalization of a comprehensive model of development. Under its umbrella, a variety of causes from personal to professional, cultural, and political interests could at least find a space for consideration (cf. Figure 4.7). The Esperanto movement in the region was not directly responsible for any contentious action directed at the state. Instead, the movement worked on establishing a collaborative relationship or at least a relationship of exchange or tolerance with communist governments (cf. Simmel 1972; Straughn 2005). By focusing on consensus building and network bridging, the Eastern European movement contributed to the establishment of a vision of progress that married Marxist ideas of economic development with world cultural models understood to constitute modern culturedness and civilization. The movement was thus part of a process of transforming the collective cognitive frameworks of a new generation of state leaders, intellectuals, and working people alike, the majority of whom wanted reforms within the framework of this local comprehensive socio-cultural civilizational model but not radical social change

(Table 4.1) (cf. Joppke 1995).

TABLE 4.1

SUPPORT FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE SOCIO-CULTURAL MODEL OF

DEVELOPMENT IN FORMER STATE-SOCIALIST COUNTRIES, WORLD VALUE

SURVEY, 199016.

Strong support for Weaker support for Global comparisons comprehensive comprehensive development development Bulgaria Poland Czech Romania China Sweden United Republic States Social Movement Strong Approval Human rights 79.40% 70.40% 62.00% 72.60% 26.60% 59.30% 50.50% Disarmament 69.90% 67.80% 55.20% 59.70% 41.10% 30.60% 26.80% Ecology 74.50% 63.20% 56.60% 55.50% 55.60% 40.80% 44.70% Women's 45.90% 39.50% 21.50% 32.00% 27.70% 20.70% 32.20% Confidence in international institutions European Union 50.10% 58.80% n/a 47.60% 29.60% 58.10% n/a NATO 27.50% 38.30% 42.40% 46.80% 22.10% 35.90% 51.60% Demands for Change Economic system 73.10% 67.70% 65.10% 50.00% n/a 45.50% 32.40% needs fundamental changes Government should 73.70% 55.60% 51.00% 42.80% n/a 55.60% 33.70% be made much more open to the public Society must be 22.10% 16.00% 44.80% n/a 5.20% 6.10% 6.80% radically changed Governance ideal Who should take 5.4 5.6 5.2 5.2 5.1 3.3 3.5 more responsibility? (1-People…10-The government)

16 In the case of Romania, the earliest World Value Survey was conducted in 1993, several years after the "revolution."

Evidence for a high level of consensus on such a civilizational model can be found even after the fall of state-socialism. According to the first World Value Survey conducted in Eastern Europe after 1989, there were two groups of Eastern European countries in terms of their citizens' support for the comprehensive vision of development

(Table 4.1). A strong majority of citizens in one group of countries including Bulgaria and Poland supported the comprehensive vision, as reflected in their support for a variety of social movements and in their suspicion of the U.S.-led NATO. In another group of countries including the Czech Republic and Romania, there was a strong support for the

Western political vision (support for the human rights movement and less suspicion of

NATO) and much less consensus on the comprehensive approach.

I attribute these differences to the different levels of institutionalization of

Esperanto-like organizations, practices, and cognitive frames. One measure of institutionalization associated with the Esperanto movement is the regularity of appearance of national Esperanto periodicals throughout the period. The continuous production of a national periodical suggests organizational stability, fairly constant access to resources, and continuous opportunities for acquiring civic experience. By this measure, the level of institutionalization of Esperanto was the highest in Bulgaria and in

Poland, where we saw the highest level of support for comprehensive socio-cultural development. The Esperanto movement in these countries had been able to continuously publish a national periodical for most of the state-socialist period, except during

Stalinism (Figure 4.8). In Czechoslovakia and Romania, by contrast, where there was not a consensus on a comprehensive civilizational model after 1989, the movement had not been able to publish a national organizational periodical continuously. National 77

Esperanto periodicals in Czechoslovakia experienced a long interruption during most of the 1950s and the 1960s. The movement in the country could publish a national periodical only after the Prague Spring and attitudes toward the communist regimes, revealed during interviews with local Esperantists, were much more hostile than attitudes in Bulgaria and in Poland. In Romania, I could only find evidence for occasional short- lived efforts to produce a national periodical. The different level of institutionalization of local civil society organizations, practices, and cognitive frames affected the civic experiences of citizens of these two groups of countries and, consequently, affected their civil expectations.

Figure 4.8: Timeline of the publication of national Esperanto periodicals in the second half of the 20th century.

4.3 Integrative civil society practices

A number of practices associated with the Esperanto movement have played integrative roles by bringing together a diverse set of interests and by creating a sense of participating in an international community (cf. Anderson 1983; Kim 1999).

4.3.1 A neutral international language as the foundation of an international community

The Esperanto language plays the most important unifying role for the movement as both a practice and an idea (see previous chapter for more details). The practice of the

Esperanto language allows persons with diverse interests to find a common ground through a common means of communication. The limited ideology of the Esperanto movement is based on the principles of language neutrality and communication equality which, together with the simple, logical, and flexible character of Esperanto, are said to distinguish the international language from national languages such as English.

Esperantists argue that a non-native speaker of English is at a disadvantage when communicating in English with native English speakers. Therefore, English, intentionally or unintentionally, serves the interests of the countries which have adopted it as a national language. Esperanto, by contrast, is believed to eliminate such disadvantages because it does not belong to any nation. Consequently, it is considered to be an international language par excellence.

Given the importance of the Esperanto language, the transmission and practice of the language are among the top priorities of the movement. Language courses, the main mechanism for member recruitment, take place locally, nationally, and internationally

and can be organized by any organization. Local clubs, schools, universities, and summer camps are among the most common venues where language instruction takes place.

The movement also created a variety of spaces for both direct and indirect individual and group communication in Esperanto within and between countries. During the Cold War, the Esperanto movement provided one of the few channels of communication between ordinary people in Eastern Europe and in the West. Personal correspondence–letters and postcards,–organizational publications, books, and other documents written in Esperanto, as well as radio broadcasts, could traverse the Iron

Curtain when few other materials had the same fortune and when the scarcity of information made it in high demand.

The goal of promoting the Esperanto language leads to significant efforts to demonstrate how communication in the language is possible and effective.

Communication and cultural production done almost exclusively in Esperanto make the movement virtually inaccessible without some Esperanto language competence and thus lends an exclusive character to it. The rather obscure nature of the language and the movement, however, provide Esperantists with internal cohesion and some degree of autonomy from the state and the broader society.

4.3.2 A three-level organizational infrastructure in service of overcoming spatial, political, and issue-related distances

As noted above, the Esperanto movement developed a flexible three-level organizational infrastructure (Figure 4.7) that allowed Esperantists to pursue their various interests while assuring the spread and persistence of the movement over time and across 80

the globe. After experimenting with a variety of alternatives, the movement decided on having the World Esperanto Association (UEA) represent the movement internationally17. The organization espouses political neutrality and serves as an umbrella organization for national Esperanto associations (see previous chapter for further elaboration). The organization holds annual week-long congresses where decisions about the directions the movement should take are made. It also publishes a Yearbook listing national and local contact persons as well as an organizational periodical, among other activities (see van Dijk 2008 for a history of the UEA). Other international organizations have more narrow foci and represent various constituencies and interests within the movement. These groups often have sections under the UEA and/or meet during world congresses organized by the latter.

National associations set the directions for the Esperanto movement within the territories of nation-states. They are a bridging point between nation-states, international organizations, local groups, and individual members. National associations are thus vital to the vitality of the Esperanto movement. International Esperanto organizations besides the UEA may have national affiliates as well. Local groups in turn provide the backbone of the movement. It is in these groups where Esperantists usually have the most regular contacts with other Esperantists, as often as on weekly or monthly bases. Specialized

Esperanto groups and organizations, such as theater troupes, radio programs, publishing houses, cooperatives, travel agencies, etc. also operate locally or nationally.

17 Arriving at the organizational solution described here has not been devoid of conflict. For a history of the international organizations of the Esperanto movement, see van Dijk (2008).

4.3.3 Esperantujo (the Esperanto state): direct communication technologies

Esperantists hold regular local, national, and international meetings where they can live the Esperanto ideal in face to face interactions. The three largest Esperanto gatherings after World War II–the World Congresses of Esperanto, organized by the

World Esperanto Association (UEA), the umbrella organization for the branch of the

Esperanto movement with presence in communist Eastern Europe18,–took place in the region19 reflecting the popularity of the movement. World Congresses, conferences, and other Esperanto gatherings represent what Esperantists call Esperantujo or the Esperanto state, referring to spaces and times when Esperantists experience their ideal of international understanding and friendship based on a single neutral language. All the individuals I interviewed but one shared their excitement and fondness of such gatherings, remembering in particular the good times of socializing. The hospitality service and the correspondence service mentioned above allow Esperantists to experience

Esperantujo, or the Esperanto state, on an individual basis as well.

4.3.4 Mediated communication technologies

The movement has experimented with and developed a variety of mediated forms of communication facilitating transnational interactions as well. It has engaged in expansive cultural production to put the Esperanto communication ideal into practice.

Various types of publications have been created and (information about them) distributed

18 Another branch of the movement represented by the World Anational Association, which opposes the system of nation-states, was never mentioned during my interviews in Eastern Europe. Reportedly, it maintains close ties with the anarchist and other leftist movements in Western Europe.

19 According to the World Esperanto Association (UEA).

through the movement's three-level organizational infrastructure, at the local, national, and international levels. Esperantists have written original books, translated books into

Esperanto to showcase the cultural heritage of less powerful countries, produced language learning materials and dictionaries, and published periodicals to demonstrate the utility of the language. In addition to the professionally-, interest-, and issue-based groups mentioned above, the Esperanto movement has also developed a number of cultural and artistic organizational forms such as exhibits, publishing houses, radio programs, and theater troupes. The importance of correspondence and the organization that supported it was already mentioned as well. The Esperanto movement appears to have served as an umbrella under which almost any activity is possible. The goal has been to demonstrate that it is possible to develop and transmit culture in a neutral constructed language.

4.4 Summary and conclusion

In this chapter, I propose an explanation for the puzzling case of Bulgaria, whose democracy has endured following 1989 despite the country's lack of a history of contention and lack of a Western-type civil society. I argue that Bulgaria, but also other countries in Eastern Europe, had developed a cooperative form of civil society during the state-socialist period, which is distinct from the Western ideal type in a number of ways but which has nonetheless had the capacity to sustain the country's democracy. Bulgarian and Eastern European cooperative civil society blurs the lines between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, as well as

between the public and the private spheres institutionalized in Western societies (cf.

Wimmer 2013).

To support this argument, I trace the actor types that became prominent in Eastern

Europe following World War II. I find that the modal transnational movement in Eastern

Europe during the state-socialist period was the Esperanto movement. The Esperanto movement attracted primarily members of the non-ruling cultural and professional elite in the region. The movement served as an umbrella under which Esperantists could engage with a comprehensive set of issues including environmentalism, human rights, religion, peace, professional development, literature, art, personal connections, hobbies, tourism, etc. Esperanto organizations dedicated to these issues allowed both particular issue focus and unity under Esperanto. Two hybrid organizational forms, the hospitality service and the correspondence service, highlight Esperanto's reliance on strong personal ties indicative of what I call the principle of fellowship.

I then trace evidence for the existence of the fellowship principle associated with the Esperanto movement in the contemporary context. I also find evidence for citizens supporting a comprehensive model of development in Eastern Europe, based on World

Value Survey data following 1989. The support for a comprehensive socio-cultural model of development was particularly strong in countries where the Esperanto movement had been able to establish strong roots, as evidenced by the continuous publication of a national Esperanto periodical. These countries include Bulgaria and Poland. The civic experiences of citizens of these countries during state-socialism likely affected their civil expectations following 1989.

Finally, I list several practices facilitating institutional integration by bringing together a diverse set of interests and by creating a sense of participating in an international community (cf. Anderson 1983; Kim 1999). Besides the three-level organizational structure of the Esperanto movement, which links together a number of issues locally, nationally, and internationally, the Esperanto movement could also rely on the unifying role of the Esperanto language. Esperanto is considered a neutral international language that facilitates equal communication because it does not belong to any particular nation and because it does not allow undue communication advantage on the basis of a native language competence20. Esperantujo or the imagined Esperanto state

(cf. Anderson 1983), referring to the spaces and times when Esperantists engage in direct communication with one another, is another mechanism encouraging integration and solidarity. A number of mediated communication technologies, including but not limited to books, periodicals, and radio programs further solidify the integrative role of

Esperanto.

20 While there are native speakers of Esperanto, the language is primarily a second language.

CHAPTER 5:

THE MAKING OF AN INTERNATIONALIST PUBLIC BEHIND THE IRON

CURTAIN: BULGARIAN ESPERANTISTS CONSTRUCT A MODEL OF

COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT AT THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR II

In the previous chapter, I argue that state-socialist Eastern European countries

(Bulgaria and Poland most notably) developed models of a civil society of a different kind. Eastern European state-socialist civility involved elite actors engaged in transnational activism and producing a political culture based on the principle of fellowship and emphasizing comprehensive development. In this chapter, I go back in time to the early years of state-socialism to trace some of the origins of Eastern European civil societies. I focus on the Bulgarian case because, with its lack of contention, it is the most puzzling case. I trace the discursive practices of an internationally engaged and domestically rooted public (cf. Perrin and Vaisey 2008; Tarrow 2005) represented by the

Esperanto movement following the end of World War II. Bulgarian civility, I find, is grounded in three institutionalized discursive fields (Spillman 1995): (1) global cultural models, particularly those emphasizing the role of language, culture and art, education, science, international organizations, the nation-state, democracy, and peace (cf. Boli and

Thomas 1997; Drori et al. 2003; Lizardo 2005; Meyer et al. 1997; Meyer, Ramirez, and

Soysal 1992) in engendering socio-cultural development, (2) Marxism, as the understood

and lived universalist economic and social doctrine of state-socialism (cf. Riga 2008;

Spillman and Faeges 2005), and (3) the locally established principle of fellowship (cf.

Chang 2011; Fishman 2004; Opp and Gern 1993), generalized beyond persons to collective and abstract entities (cf. Straughn 2005). Bulgarian civility thus emerges in the early state-socialist period as an all-inclusive hybrid (cf. Hannerz 1996; Tomlinson 1999) of the universalist orientations (cf. Boli and Thomas 1997; Riga 2008; Wimmer 2013) of these three discursive fields.

5.1 Small states and world enmities

Following the pattern established by earlier Sovietologists, notable analyses of

Eastern Europe following the 1989 revolutions tend to focus on domestic and international developments related to the Soviet Union, the most powerful and by implication the most significant player in the region (e.g. Burawoy and Krotov 1992;

Checkel 1993; Collins 1995; Koslowski and Kratochwil 1994; Risse-Kappen 1994). This focus on big players reflects the bipolar international arrangement of the Cold War and the superpower game it involved. Small countries in such accounts only figure as an afterthought, in the case of the Soviet Union reflected in the common denominator "the

Soviet bloc". As the geopolitical theory predicts, it is expected that:

"Geopolitically strong states impose alliances upon weaker states adjacent to their immediate zone of military extension; conversely, weak states seek the protection of adjacent strong states or give in to the imposition of alliance." (Collins 1995:1583, italics in the original).

The rest of Eastern Europeans, however, had ideas and interests of their own, which often worried the Soviets, not without reason (Ekiert 1996; Kramer 2003). The

influences between the regional hegemon and the small states in its orbit were thus reciprocal (Kramer 2003). Yet, the perspectives of citizens of the small and less powerful countries in this context are often overlooked. To what extent did they align themselves with the global hegemons or try to oppose them? How did they relate to their own states and navigate international enmities?

World-system theory conceives of state-socialism as the institutional approach of part of the semi-periphery organized around the Soviet Union and previously known as the "second world" to oppose the hegemony of the global core led by the United States while spearheading its own development in an effort to catch up (Boswell and Chase-

Dunn 2000). The argument relies on the underlying assumption that the peoples living under this institutional arrangement would be on board with the approach. In support of world-system theory, the unique cluster of values of citizens of former state-socialist countries in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s are attributed to a path dependent process of development under communism (Inglehart and Baker 2000). Eastern European scholarship, however, has demonstrated the efforts of a number of Eastern European dissidents to oppose state-socialist regimes (e.g. Ekiert 1996). The underlying assumption behind this line of work is the prevalence of dissatisfaction with the state-socialist regimes in the region (e.g. Kuran 1991). These appear to be opposing views. Is there a way to adjudicate between the two?

Going back in time to survey Eastern European populations is obviously not an option. Rather than give up on finding an answer, I propose an empirical approach that may move us closer to an answer. My analytical strategy is to delve into the meaning

making efforts of the most prominent volunteer and autonomous transnational movement in Eastern Europe following World War II, the Esperanto movement (Figures 4.2-5).

How did members of the non-ruling cultural elite in Eastern Europe who participated in the movement understand their efforts? Did they see their international activities as ways to undermine the regimes or as efforts to boost up their countries' position in the global arena?

5.2 Publications as a reflection of publicness and civility

The following analyses are based on content and textual analysis (Johnston 2002) of the flagship periodical of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union, Bulgara Esperantisto

(Bulgarian Esperantist), in its first two years of publication following World War II and the establishment of state-socialism in the country, 1946-7. Periodicals are some of the most important expressions of publics (Perrin and Vaisey 2008). To the extent to which national Esperanto periodicals appeared continuously in Eastern Europe during the state- socialist period (Figure 4.8), they are a manifestation of a successful realization of internationalist publics in the region. Continuous publication in that context meant that the editorial boards of Esperanto periodicals managed to meet the demands of three distinct audiences: the general domestic public, which provided the membership base and assured financial stability of the Esperanto movement; state authorities charged with overseeing cultural production in the name of the people's republic; and international partners, within the Soviet bloc and across the faultline that would eventually become known as the Iron Curtain. As such, Esperanto periodicals served as bridges between these audiences and their contents can be construed as a collective artifact reflecting 89

some common aspects of the visions of the world framing comprehension of the world at the time. This taken-for-granted common ground for understanding reality also objectified in a collective cultural form constitutes the simultaneously embodied and materially manifested meaningful experience of being part of an internationalist public.

Studying the material manifestation of the experience, i.e. the content of the Esperanto periodicals, can thus shed light on the commonalities of the embodied experience of being part of an internationalist public in state-socialist Eastern Europe following World

War II.

5.3 Manifesto of the flagship magazine of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union

The first issue of Bulgara Esperantisto (Bulgarian Esperantist) following World

War II came out in July 1946. Its first task, outlined in its leading article, was to reclaim its history as a progressive publication. It had been the forum of Bulgarian Esperantists for twenty-three years before "fascist" censorship interrupted it in 1942. Paper shortages following the communist takeover in 1944 had not allowed its earlier relaunch. Bulgara

Esperantisto was to serve the organizational needs of the Esperanto movement, a reportedly narrower task than that of the alternative publication, Internacia Kulturo

(International Culture), which had partially replaced it in the meantime. Nonetheless, this first eight-page issue of Bulgara Esperantisto, written uncharacteristically in Bulgarian rather than in Esperanto, laid out an ambitious agenda. It was to be the point of connection not only for all Esperantists but also for businesses and for professional, political, and other organizations. It envisioned itself as a sort of a news agency, transmitting information through Esperanto domestically and internationally. To this end, 90

all Esperantists would have various opportunities to actively engage with the magazine.

The magazine was to focus on language questions, news about the life of local clubs and the movement abroad, book publishing, international correspondence, the activities and finance of the Esperanto cooperative, etc. (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(1): 1).

5.4 Internationalism as a cultural strategy of the weak

At the beginning of 1946, as Bulgarian Esperantists began to reestablish their activities, they found their country and themselves in a context of international isolation.

The country's historical association with Germany (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(2): 1), combined with its allocation to the Soviet sphere of influence in the Churchill- Stalin agreement on the division of the Balkans (Resis 1978), had brought Bulgaria's international standing to a low point. Bulgarian Esperantists were keenly attentive to their country's international reputation:

"In many countries: England, America [sic], France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and others, significant portions of the people's masses are not aware of the true situation in our country. This is due to the enemy propaganda in these countries21." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(2): 1)

To rectify the situation and counter what they perceived as misinformation propaganda orchestrated by Bulgaria's enemies, the Esperanto movement in the country would engage in a propaganda campaign of its own. The movement identified wartime

British Prime minister Winston Churchill as the representative figure of such enemy

"intrigues" and associated them with warmongering (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(2): 1).

With World War II looming dangerously from the recent past, Bulgarians were

21 All translations are mine unless otherwise noted.

apprehensive of the potential negative consequences of low international standing. A resolution adopted by the congress of Bulgarian Esperantists outlines the primary concerns of Bulgarians in the international arena at the time as follows:

"All the best national efforts are put into the struggle for attaining a just and dignified democratic peace and for guaranteeing the continued right of development of the country in assuring for its people the opportunity to benefit from the goods they create." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(3): 3)

For small countries in precarious situations, international and domestic politics are closely intertwined. Thus, once misinformation was identified as the culprit for

Bulgaria's international standing, the Esperanto movement decided to raise international awareness of the country's domestic achievements. All efforts, public and private, were understood to count and to have politically relevant effects. Popular as opposed to official diplomacy then became the preferred approach to raising international awareness.

Everyone had a role in such efforts. In pursuing the national interests of their small country, Bulgarian Esperantists found a match between their concerns and the communist rhetoric of popular participation.

One of the concrete and effective mechanisms for carrying out popular diplomacy, according to Esperantists, was correspondence. Correspondence thus acquired a status of the highest form of activism. The following paragraph summarizes the thinking of the time:

"We had to present to the world the truth about our free, democratic, and loyal motherland. We had to show to the world the genuine efforts of our people to strengthen our democratic achievements, to eliminate the remnants of fascism, to overcome the economic difficulties, and to achieve a fast, well-deserved, just, and dignified peace... We did this not by using the traditional official ways of international and diplomatic relations. The new approach that we adopted was the

approach of direct communication and connections of the broad segments of our people with the peoples in other countries, via individual and collective correspondence connecting factories, mines, enterprises, train stations, professional organizations, mass organizations, cooperatives, women and youth groups, cultural houses, schools, etc. with businesses, organizations, and collectives abroad with similar professional, cultural, and economic interests." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(2): 1)

With their international ties and international language competences, Bulgarian

Esperantists were well positioned to play a key role in popular diplomatic efforts.

Leading to their 1947 congress, the leadership outlined this role as follows:

"At this congress, with all due solemnity, we will manifest our power and will to engage in even more energetic work and struggle to build our people's republic, in defense of peace and democracy in the Balkans and in the entire world and against the warmongering organizers of a new bloody world war." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(8): 1)

The Bulgarian state, according to the Esperanto movement, was a powerful partner with whom the Bulgarian people could collaborate in pursuing the national interest. A series of articles dedicated to examples of partnerships with the state populate the pages of Bulgara Esperantisto (Bulgarian Esperantist), the main periodical of the

Bulgarian Esperanto movement. For example, in its very first issue after the war, the magazine published a long interview with an Austrian Esperantist and minister for food,

Dr. Hans Frenzel, which was to offer a model for a symbiotic relationship between the movement and the state (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(1): 4). In the interview reportedly given to Austrian Esperantist, the minister noted that, similarly to the creator of

Esperanto Dr. Zamenhof, he believed conflicts between nations occurred because of a lack of understanding, among other causes. Dr. Frenzel thought Esperanto could facilitate the exchange of information on a variety of issues. Furthermore, the minister believed

Esperanto could facilitate international trade. Finally, the minister argued that Esperanto should be introduced as a mandatory subject in school. Small nations needed to be leaders in this process because big powers already considered their languages to be international languages, according to Dr. Frenzel. It was logical, therefore, for the

Esperanto movement to seek partnership with the leaders of small nation-states and use state capacities to further the goal of promoting peaceful and just international communication. Dr. Frenzel's argument about the mutually beneficial relationship between small nations and Esperanto was reiterated in a later issue of Bulgara

Esperantisto (1946(4): 5) but this time it was presented as the position of the Bulgarian

Esperanto Union without citing the Austrian minister. The argument was made in the context of an appeal addressed at educators throughout the country in an effort to encourage them to urge the Bulgarian government to follow the Austrian example and introduce Esperanto as an elective in school. In the Bulgarian Esperanto worldview, from very early on, the lines between culture, education, and politics, between the public and the private spheres, and between the domestic and the international arena became blurred.

5.5 Major topics of interest to Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946-7

The Bulgarian case is the case raising suspicion regarding the possible collaboration between the Esperanto movement and the communist state the most. In my interviews and participant observation, Esperantists from elsewhere occasionally pointed out the "naiveté" of Bulgarian Esperantists or made sarcastic comments regarding the closeness of the movement and the communist party-state in that country. Even in this case, however, the focus of the movement was primarily on its own activities. Table 5.1 94

shows all topics covered in five or more segments (articles or distinct sections thereof) of the flagship magazine of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union, Bulgara Esperantisto

(Bulgarian Esperantist), in its first two postwar years of publication22. Discussions related to the state are only the eighth most prominent topic in 1946 and the twenty- second most prominent topic in 1947. In these formative years when the movement was establishing itself in the new political context of communist rule after World War II,

Bulgarian Esperantists cared most about organizing themselves, recruiting new members, teaching the language, and connecting with other Esperantists directly at meetings or indirectly through publications or correspondence (Table 5.1). All topics can be grouped in four large semantic clusters: language and its support structure; comprehensive development in which culture plays an important role; politics; and affect, fellowship, and sociability. After examining some general characteristics of the content of Bulgara

Esperantisto in 1946-7, I discuss each of the topic clusters in turn.

22 An effort was made to read all segments that appeared in the publication in 1946 and in 1947 and code all topics referenced in them.

TABLE 5.1

TOPICS APPEARING IN FIVE OR MORE SEGMENTS IN BULGARA

ESPERANTISTO, 1946-7.

1946 1947 Topic Number of Topic Number of segments segments Publication 77 Organization 81 Organization 58 Instruction 59 Meeting 41 Correspondence 58 Instruction 38 Publication 54 Membership 28 Meeting 52 Correspondence 26 Youth 41 Language 25 Finance 32 State/government 22 Language 31 Finance 21 School 21 Ads 21 Propaganda 21 Book 20 Labor 19 Democracy 18 Literature 19 Information 18 Book 18 Politics 17 Exhibit 18 Movement 16 Hungary 18 Culture 14 Cooperative 17 History 13 Friendship 17 Peace 13 Membership 17 Labor 11 Ads 16 Beginning/formation 10 Planning 16 Cooperative 10 Praise 16 Fascism 10 State/government 16 Mass participation 10 Democracy 15 A. Grigorov 9 Stamp 15 Development 9 Beginning/formation 14 I. Sarafov 9 Culture 12 Literature 9 Economy 12 Connection 8 A. Grigorov 11 France 8 Connection 11 Justice 8 Fascism 11 Radio 8 Music 11 School 8 Radio 11 S. Djudjev 8 Exam 10 Struggle 8 History 10 96

TABLE 5.1 (cont.) 1946 1947 Topic Number of Topic Number of segments segments Biography 7 Mass participation 10 Dictionary 7 Netherlands 10 England 7 Science 10 Netherlands 7 Tourism 10 Solidarity 7 Volunteering 10 Translation 7 Yugoslavia 10 World War II 7 Balkans 9 Youth 7 Czechoslovakia 9 Austria 6 Education 9 Friendship 6 Hospitality 9 Language activity 6 Information 9 The people 6 I. Sarafov 9 Poland 6 Language activity 9 University 6 Library 9 A. Petkov 5 Movement 9 Czechoslovakia 5 Peace 9 Disapproval 5 Profession 9 Education 5 Biography 8 Exam 5 Celebration 8 Misinformation 5 England 8 N. Alexiev 5 Example 8 Praise 5 Participation 8 Profession 5 Poland 8 Repression 5 Private 8 Romania 5 Republic 8 S. Hesapchiev 5 Understanding 8 Society 5 University 8 Us 5 Brotherhood 7 USSR 5 Difficulty 7 Disapproval 7 Enthusiasm 7 Fair/grand exhibit 7 G. Dimitrov 7 I. Lapenna 7 Politics 7 Postcard 7 Railroad 7 Sweden 7 Travel 7 Austria 6 97

TABLE 5.1 (cont.) 1946 1947 Topic Number of Topic Number of segments segments Dictionary 6 Donation 6 S. Djudjev 6 Translation 6 A. Petrunov 5 Development 5 D. Ivanov 5 M. Tsonkovski 5 Nationalism 5 The people 5 Resolution 5 Sociability 5 USSR 5 World War II 5

5.6 Coordinating activities at multiple scales

The Bulgarian national Esperanto magazine would serve an important role connecting multiple scales and domains of interest to the Esperanto movement. The second page of the inaugural post-war issue of Bulgara Esperantisto, for example, was dedicated to the forthcoming twenty-ninth congress of Bulgarian Esperantists, which was to take place in the southern Bulgarian town of Asenovgrad. The program included three days of lectures, meetings, socializing, and cultural programs, and one last day of excursions. A noteworthy meeting highlighted by the publication was the meeting of

Esperanto teachers. The meeting agenda included a report on teaching Esperanto in school, Esperanto teaching methods, and plans to organize Esperanto teachers (Bulgara

Esperantisto 1946(1): 2).

Alongside the national congress, an international conference was to take place bringing together Esperantists from two Balkan nations, Slovenia and Romania. The plan was to build international solidarity through inter-organizational collaboration, a common publication, and exchange of materials, literature, newspapers, and magazines. A special mention was made for Eugen Relgis, a writer and pacifist and president of the Romanian

Esperanto association23 (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(1): 2).

In recognition of the local hosts of the national congress and the Balkan conference, the magazine praised the successful recruitment efforts of the Asenovgrad

Esperanto club. The club had increased its membership from thirty to fifty-four members in a year. Finally, the magazine encouraged all local clubs to report the collected membership dues to the association to allow the preparation of a financial report to be presented at the national congress (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(1): 2).

Most segments published in Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946-7 have clear temporal and geographical orientations (Table 5.2 and 5.3). The vast majority of segments (40% in

1946 and 56% in 1947) are reports informing the readership of the magazine of happenings occurring locally, nationally, and internationally. The second most prevalent type of segments (33% in 1946 and 18% in 1947) in the magazine consists of recommendations and wishes (in the imperative or the subjunctive modes) outlined by the editorial board and the leadership of the movement with regard to the orientation of the movement or with regard to actions its members should take. The third type of segments are concrete plans (10% in 1946 and 8% in 1947) concerning upcoming events of which

23 soon to escape to Latin America.

the magazine informs its readers. The last important type of segments deal with history

(7% in 1946 and 5% in 1947), connecting the movement to events of national and international significance. The drop in the number of segments in the imperative and subjunctive modes and the simultaneous increase in the number of reports in 1947 can be explained by an increase of movement activity following the initial desire for movement revival at the end of the war, which had almost decimated the movement (Lins 1988).

Indeed, a number of reports (14) in 1947 discuss some sort of beginning: a foundation of a new group, the launching of a new publication, or another type of novel activity.

TABLE 5.2

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE BY TEMPORAL MODE OF SEGMENTS PUBLISHED IN

BULGARA ESPERANTISTO IN 1946.

International National Local Total History 6 (46/8) 7 (54/10) 1 (8/3) 13 (100/7) Reports 33 (46/45) 27 (38/39) 14 (19/40) 72 (100/40) Plans 5 (29/7) 8 (47/12) 2 (12/6) 17 (100/10) Subjunctive/Imperative 22 (37/30) 29 (49/42) 17 (29/49) 59 (100/33) Total 73 (41/100) 69 (39/100) 35 (20/100) 178 (100/100) Note: raw number (row percent/column percent)

100

TABLE 5.3

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE BY TEMPORAL MODE OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN

BULGARA ESPERANTISTO IN 1947.

International National Local Total History 3 (30/5) 4 (40/7) 3 (30/5) 10 (100/5) Reports 40 (34/63) 23 (19/40) 51 (43/78) 118 (100/56) Plans 5 (29/8) 9 (53/16) 4 (24/6) 17 (100/8) Subjunctive/Imperative 8 (21/13) 23 (59/40) 7 (18/11) 39 (100/18) Total 64 (30/100) 57 (27/100) 65 (31/100) 211 (100/100) Note: raw number (row percent/column percent)

The temporal/modal composition of segments vary depending on their geographical scope as well as on the year of publication. In the first postwar year of publication of Bulgara Esperantisto, the largest number of reports (46%) relate information about organizations, events, and people with an international scope. The large proportion of international reports in this first year of publication of the Bulgarian publication underlines the international character of the movement, its active nature, and the desire of the Bulgarian branch of the movement to be connected to the rest of the movement, primarily in Europe. The first post-World War II issue of Bulgara

Esperantisto, for example, included a report on the fortieth anniversary congress of the

Swedish Esperanto Federation, which was attended by participants from nine countries.

The report indicated that the movement was strong and worked well. The issue also advertized the relaunch of Heroldo de Esperanto, a monthly publication of the independent international Esperanto movement. Reporting on a vibrant international movement activity was certainly intended as a means to motivate local participation.

101

Foreign countries mentioned in five or more segments in that first postwar year include

France (in eight segments), England and the Netherlands (in seven segments), Austria and Poland (in six segments), and Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the USSR (in five segments). In 1947, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Sweden, in addition to an expressed interest in regional Balkan cooperation appear in five or more segments as well. A focus on both Western and Eastern Europe as well as on big powers and on small countries does not indicate support for the two-pole hegemonic politics of interest to the big powers, namely the USSR, the United States, and Great Britain (cf. Grozev and Baev

2008; Resis 1978).

While the number of reports with an international focus increases from thirty- three in 1946 to forty in 1947, it is surpassed by local reports, the number of which more than triples in one year, from fourteen to fifty-one, amounting to 43% of all reports published in the later year. Bulgarian Esperanto activists were busy building the movement at the local level and Bulgara Esperantisto was eager to report on this activity.

The already noted decrease in the number of segments in the imperative or subjunctive mode is likely due to this increased local activity. This is not to say that the national leadership relinquished control over the direction of local activism. On the contrary, local reports would often be accompanied by praise or disapproval aiming at providing examples for what to do and what not to do. Still, in 1947, the local level reached parity with the international and the national levels, at least in terms of the number of segments dedicated to each of the geographically distinct scopes, with sixty-four, fifty-seven, and sixty-five segments focusing on the international, the national, and the local level respectively (Table 5.3). 102

The number of segments dedicated to the movement's plans does not change much between the two years. Most plans published in Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946-7 have a national scope and relate to forthcoming national events. Consistent planning and a lack of a significant change in the number of reports with a national scope, which reflects stability in activities occurring at the national level, combined with the regularity of appearance of national Esperanto periodicals throughout the period (Figure 4.8), suggest a high level of institutionalization of the movement at that level reflecting the institutional importance of the nation-state (Meyer et al. 1997).

The presence of a notable number of segments dedicated to history, particularly during the first year of publication of Bulgara Esperantisto after World War II, six and seven at the international and at the national level respectively, suggests an effort to situate the movement on the right side of history both domestically and internationally.

The important page three of the inaugural post-war issue of Bulgara Esperantisto was dedicated to the organization's national history represented by one of its heroes. The occasion to ponder on history was a celebration in memory of Angel Petkov, nicknamed

Angelo, who had passed five years earlier. The celebration involved an eulogy from

Kostadin Bujukliev, representative of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union, which the publication printed in full. Angelo was remembered in this eulogy for his love for his people and for his hatred of their oppressors and was given as an example to follow by

Esperantists in the future. Angelo had been engaged in the international branch of the movement working on developing international democratic solidarity for a dozen of years. He had been involved in mass recruitment, language instruction, editorial work, and leadership in the Esperanto Labor Union while fearlessly facing difficulties and 103

repression. He had enjoyed receiving letters from factories and mass organizations from the Soviet Union, France, England, Czechoslovakia, etc. His legacy was now left in the hands of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union. It was the organization's duty, Bujukliev exhorted, to develop mass international connections, engage in popular education around the world informing people of the achievements of the country, and work for a just peace and a future without exploitation, war, and misery. This eulogy reads as an effort by the movement to ingratiate itself before the government through associating the history of

Esperanto in Bulgaria with the history of the labor movement in the country. Further evidence for this can be found on the same page, where the magazine announced the forthcoming publication of an autobiography by Trifon Hristovski, who had been involved in the Bulgarian labor Esperanto movement as well, which the periodical praised for its social, literary, and folkloric qualities.

The next page of the inaugural post-war issue of Bulgara Esperantisto, dedicated to the Esperanto movement abroad, contained the interview with the Austrian minister for food24, Dr. Hans Frenzel, discussed above. In response to the question since when he had been involved in the movement, the minister responded that he had learned Esperanto in

1919 and that his father had also been an Esperantist. Dr. Frenzel evoked several memories associated with Esperanto. During the fifteenth World Congress of Esperanto in 1923, Dr. Frenzel was able to communicate with professional colleagues. During the

1924 congress in Vienna, he had given a lecture on the organization of nourishment. As an officer during World War II, the minister had been in contact with French and Polish

24 http://www.rechnungshof.gv.at/en/austrian-court-of-audit/history/ing-mag-dr-hans-frenzel.html

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Esperantists, including members of the local resistance. In the writing of history by

Bulgarian Esperantists, the personal and the political get intertwined, further supporting the claim that the boundaries between the private and the public sphere in Eastern Europe were blurred.

5.7 Civilizational boundary work

On the pages of Bulgara Esperantisto, Bulgarian Esperantists engaged in valuation and devaluation work through which they sought to define the boundaries of a unique civilizational project. Culturedness, or the valued form of culture, was synonymous with embracing progress involving a comprehensive cultural, economic, and political development. Distinctions (cf. Bourdieu 1984; Wimmer 2013) would be drawn in several ways. First, an opposition was created between the "enemies", including foreign forces engaged in misinformation propaganda and warmongering represented by

Churchill, as noted above, and a vague notion of "us", seemingly including the Bulgarian people and Esperantists among others. The enemy category also appears to have excluded other countries' peoples: ordinary citizens, workers, youth, women, etc. in foreign countries were assumed to be potential allies; hence, efforts were made to inform them of the "true" situation in Bulgaria. Second, culturedness was opposed to a lack thereof or to backwardness. A lack of "culture" and backwardness, however, often remained unnamed and underdefined. This is so, I argue, because they functioned as a cultural taboo and as a taken-for-granted background against which progress and development made sense.

Third, an explicit distinction was drawn between "serious", "meaningful", and "socially useful" matters such as matters pertaining to cultural, economic, and political 105

development, on one hand, and personal and sentimental matters, on the other hand.

While the latter were still acceptable, they were expected to not be of primary concern to

Bulgarian Esperantists. A fourth distinction was drawn between justifications for the movement based on the intrinsic qualities of the Esperanto language and justifications based on its practical use. This last distinction I surmise likely reflected differences between Esperantists supporting neutrality and those supporting the communist political project.

In the following segment, the editors of the Bulgarian organization periodical engage in two-pronged boundary work. On one hand, they distinguish between "cultured" and other, meaning "uncultured", members. On the other hand, they define which content is "serious", "meaningful", and "socially useful" and which is not:

"Many fellow-thinkers involved in correspondence provide excuses for not being able to write letters on serious topics because of a lack of preparation. This may indeed be the case for some. However, there are also more cultured fellow- thinkers who waste their time and resources writing sentimental letters. This article is addressed at these fellow-thinkers. With it, we aim at pointing out the futility of such correspondence and at directing them to making their correspondence socially useful and meaningful. Through our letters we should strive to inform the world about our people's republic, about her history, about our people's culture, about the economic, cultural, and political development in the context of a people's democracy, established in our country since September 9 [1944]. Among this, we could also briefly talk about our personal interests, experiences, activities, and desires." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(10): 1)

"Cultured" members are thus urged to write about "serious", "meaningful", and

"socially useful" topics identified with cultural, economic, and political progress. The editors would not even bother addressing members who are not "cultured". Yet, the rhetorical strategy of the call is to equate culturedness with seriousness and by extension a lack of seriousness with a lack of culturedness. The strategy is apparently aimed at 106

devaluing the prevalence of a sentimental and personal approach practiced even by

"cultured" members of the movement. I would argue, however, that the moralizing and rather frustrated tone of the call also suggests the leadership of the movement faced an uphill battle in this last effort.

While in this instance the movement leadership attempted to devalue this widely prevalent sentimental and personal approach, in other instances the editorial board used the very same sentimental approach in pursuit of effectiveness. The approach pertains to the principle of fellowship, widely prevalent in Esperanto activities, which I discuss below.

Another set of distinctions the publication editors attempted to establish was the distinction between the intrinsic qualities of the language as opposed to the practical use of the language. After reporting on the successful propaganda efforts of a local group in the town of Sliven initiated by the lawyer Ivan Chernyaev and consisting of weekly fifteen-minute broadcasts using the town's loudspeaker system, the editors of Bulgara

Esperantisto attempted to redirect local activism:

"As we praise the Esperantists of Sliven for their good initiative, the editorial board must, however, note the following: As we have already written, advertising the international language by talking about the language itself and praising its qualities is not practical and does not lead to good results. Pointing out to the citizenry the results of its practical use, such as mentioning interesting facts regarding our international contacts, say interesting letters, etc. would lead to better results." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(8): 6)

The necessity to make this exhortation suggests the prevalence of two competing justifications for the promotion of the international language Esperanto at the time. For some Esperantists, the language was, and according to my interviews still is, a

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worthwhile endeavor in and of itself. Such accounts tend to focus on linguistic questions.

For other Esperantists, the worth of the language was and is to be found in its instrumental use. What counted as practical use, however, may surprise contemporary observers.

In the next sections, I outline four clusters of meaning of interest to Esperantists in the middle of the twentieth century based on the boundary work of the Bulgarian

Esperanto leadership and on the appearance of topics in five or more segments in the national periodical of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union in 1946-7 (Table 5.1). The first semantic cluster centers on the Esperanto language and on its organizational support structure. The second cluster outlines the role of the Esperanto movement in furthering a comprehensive model of development. The third cluster focuses on the meaningful relationship between the Esperanto movement and politics. The last semantic cluster deals with the fellowship principle common in the region.

5.8 Language and its support structure

Despite efforts to divert attention away from the Esperanto language to its practical use, the top priority of the Esperanto movement, based on the appearance of topics during the first two post-World-War-II years of publication of Bulgara

Esperantisto, remains the functioning, wellbeing, and continuation of the Esperanto language itself and of the movement that formed to promote it.

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5.8.1 Publications

By far, the most important topic discussed in Bulgara Esperantisto in 1946 concerned the Esperanto publications. Seventy-seven of the 178 segments I coded (about

43%) dealt to some extent with the topic of publications. Seventeen of the segments dealt with books and seven dealt with dictionaries; the majority, however, were related to periodicals. Twenty-one of the segments were ads, all but one of which advertised some type of publication. The first 1946 issue of Bulgara Esperantisto included ads for

Heroldo de Esperanto (Esperanto Herald), the forum of the international Esperanto movement, for an Esperanto-Bulgarian dictionary by Asen Grigorov published by the

Bulgarian Esperanto Union, and for a brochure containing the Esperanto text and the

Bulgarian translation of a letter by Zamenhof on the origin of Esperanto as well as some basic information on the language also published by the Bulgarian Esperanto Union. The second issue published ads in Esperanto and in Bulgarian for a book of postcards featuring excerpts from Leo Tolstoy, Romain Rolland, and Maksim Gorky, as well as from Bulgarian political figures Todor Pavlov and Mihail Genovski, among others; an ad for an album of Bulgarian Esperantists from 1923; and an ad for a free catalog of

Esperanto publications available through the Bulgarian Esperanto Union. In the third issue, the ads were for five international magazines: Esperanto Internacia (International

Esperanto), Heroldo de Esperanto (Esperanto Herald), la Juna Vivo (The Young Life),

Esperantista Revuo (Esperantic Review), and Laborista Esperantisto (Laboring

Esperantist) from London, Prague, and the Netherlands. Local clubs were encouraged to organize subscriptions so that copies of each of the magazines were available to club members. The fourth 1946 issue featured ads for Internacia Kulturo (International 109

Culture), a progressive and anti-fascist international magazine published by the Bulgarian

Esperanto Union in sixteen issues per year. Readers were encouraged to send separate issues of the magazine as gifts to their international pen pals. Bulgarian subscribers would have the opportunity to publish free ten-word announcements in the magazine on a first-come-first-served basis. The fifth issue repeated the ad for Internacia Kulturo promising free announcements to Bulgarian subscribers. It also advertized the translated poems of the important Bulgarian poet Hristo Botev, a reader of fundamental texts in

Esperanto by Zamenhof published in France, and an Esperanto-Bulgarian/Bulgarian-

Esperanto dictionary with grammar and a reader including Bulgarian prose and poetry translated by Ivan Krastanov, a Bulgarian teacher from the town of Pirdop. The last 1946 issue announced the ninth edition of an Esperanto course by Atanas Atanasov published in Sevlievo, the second/third issue of the 1946 volume of Pola Esperantisto (Polish

Esperantist), which featured an article on the democratization of Poland, a new edition of the Bulgarian-Esperanto dictionary by Asen Grigorov published by the Bulgarian

Esperanto Union, another language course/reader by Ivan Sarafov also published by the

Bulgarian Esperanto Union, and another Bulgarian-Esperanto dictionary by Atanas

Nikolov published in the town of Sevlievo. The only advertisement that did not relate to a publication announced the availability of Esperanto badges to be ordered through the

Bulgarian Esperanto Union.

5.8.2 Language-based activities

The functioning of the movement relied on the practice of the Esperanto language. Language instruction, therefore, needed special attention, which was reflected

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on the pages of Bulgara Esperantisto. Thirty-eight segments (21%) were dedicated to instruction in 1946 and fifty-nine (28%) in 1947. For example, in the summer of 1946, the Bulgarian Esperanto Union organized a ten-day training for teachers and translators considered essential for the growth of the movement in the country. The course would deal with topics such as language instruction methods, translation, text analysis, and comparative linguistics. The price of the course was 1,000 lev. The inaugural issue of

Bulgara Esperantisto announced the publication of an Esperanto reader with a forward from Prof. Dr. Stojan Djudjev and including historical and literary materials designed for advanced language courses and self-directed learners, including those taking Esperanto exams. The issue also encouraged fellow Esperantists from around the country to form local clubs to organize language courses, plan other activities, and facilitate international correspondence. The objective was to be in service of a democratic society through developing broad international connections. Bulgara Esperantisto also featured a regular section dedicated to beginning language learners, which included a brief Esperanto text followed by its Bulgarian translation, reading questions, and linguistic remarks.

5.8.3 Organization, membership, and financial stability

Bulgara Esperantisto was also an important organizing tool for the Bulgarian

Esperanto movement. Fifty-eight (33%) and eighty-one (38%) of the segments were dedicated to the movement's organization in 1946 and in 1947 respectively; twenty-eight

(16%) and seventeen (8%) of the segments in the two years were dedicated to discussing issues related to membership; and twenty-one (12%) in 1946 and thirty-two (15%) in

1947 were dedicated to finance. The Bulgarian Esperanto movement clearly worked hard

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to recruit members and ensure the financial stability of its local and national organizations.

5.8.4 Meetings

A significant portion of segments in Bulgara Esperantisto were dedicated to meetings, namely forty-one (23%) in 1946 and fifty-two (25%) in 1947. Table 5.4 presents the geographical scope of the segments reporting on meetings referenced in the periodical in the two years. While the number of national meetings remained almost the same in the two years, the number of local meetings presented in Bulgara Esperantisto almost doubled, from twelve to twenty-two, between 1946 and 1947. The decreased number of reported international meetings, from twenty in 1946 to fourteen in 1947, likely reflects the increased focus on local organizing rather than on decreased interest in international happenings.

TABLE 5.4

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE OF SEGMENTS25 PUBLISHED IN BULGARA

ESPERANTISTO IN 1946 AND 1947 REPORTING ON MEETINGS.

International National Local Total 1946 20 (49) 17 (42) 12 (29) 41 (100) 1947 14 (27) 18 (35) 22 (42) 52 (100) Note: raw number (row percent)

25 In a few instances segments report more than one meeting or meetings with more than one geographical scope.

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5.8.5 Correspondence

At the 1945 congress of Bulgarian Esperantists, the association made a decision to begin a coordinated campaign of international mass correspondence (Bulgara

Esperantisto 1946(3): 3). Individual Esperantists were encouraged to use Esperanto to write to individuals and organizations from around the world to describe the true conditions in the country in order to challenge the misinformation spread through "enemy propaganda" (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(2)). As the preferred movement tactic in service of popular diplomacy, correspondence occupied a large section on the pages of Bulgara

Esperantisto. Twenty-six (15%) of the segments in 1946 and fifty-eight (27%) in 1947 mentioned correspondence. The following quote illustrates the kind of correspondence encouraged by the publication:

"Yordan Stefanov, a worker in the paper factory in the town of Gara Iskar, wrote a letter to his friends Esperantists in England, through which he praised Mr. John Mack for his defense of democratic Bulgaria in the British Parliament. Mr. Mack responded with the following letter..." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(2): 5)

5.9 Comprehensive development

Reporting on the commemoration marking the fifth anniversary of the passing of

Angel Petkov (Angelo), a lifelong member of the Bulgarian Esperanto movement, the editors of the first postwar issue of Bulgara Esperantisto outlined the following platform for Bulgarian Esperantists:

"Dear fellow-thinkers, Now, [Angelo's] lifework is in the safe hands of the members and leaders of the Bulgarian Esperanto Union. We will best honor Angelo's memory if we continue to tirelessly and faithfully build mass international ties between our motherland

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and foreign countries, if we engage in popular education among the broadest segments of the peoples of the entire world regarding the situation in our country liberated from fascism, if we guard what has been achieved since September 926 [1944], and if we join in our entire people's effort to build a just and dignified peace, in pursuit of a bright future without exploitation of one person by another and without wars and misery." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(1): 3)

This platform included the defining features of a vision of the future that tied together a domestic Marxist-influenced form of development aiming at the elimination of exploitation and misery and international relations based on "mass" participation emphasizing peace, justice, and human dignity. The Bulgarian Esperanto movement envisioned itself as playing a key role in this process through connecting the country with the rest of the world and through engaging in popular education around the world.

In the leading article of its fifth issue for 1946, Bulgara Esperantisto identified the contemporaneous cultural progress as a leading cause of the success of the Esperanto movement in Bulgaria. The formation of a cooperative was a major organizational outcome that was both the manifestation of this success and the means through which the movement envisioned furthering its cultural development goals. The article thus argues:

"Our work will most efficiently benefit from the books and other materials, which the cooperative will procure, thus showcasing Bulgarian literature and culture to the world" (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(5): 1)

At the beginning of the following year, the movement reintroduced its vision of progress centered on culture, peace, and fellowship and emphasizing the role of the

Esperanto movement. The leading article in 1947's first issue talked about a peaceful future when the "world family" would engage in peaceful creative work, when good

26 The date of communist take-over in the country.

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neighborly relations would predominate, and when cultural exchange including correspondence, exchange of periodicals and books, international travel and personal visits, creative competition in the domains of science, culture, and civilization, etc. would be the norm. Again, Esperanto was seen as playing a key role (Bulgara Esperantisto

1947(1): 1).

A review of an Esperanto book from the same issue professed faith in progress through scientific development. Dr. Dorner, a novel by the Danish Esperantist H. L.

Eggerrup, expressed hope in the bodily and spiritual elevation of humanity through artificial insemination (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(1): 5).

In the second issue of the same year, the periodical listed themes it encouraged subscribers to discuss with their foreign penpals. The three themes mentioned related to the cultural, political, and economic achievements of the country (Bulgara Esperantisto

1947(2): 2). With regard to cultural developments, the periodical urged correspondents to take advantage of internationally recognized days and actions, such as the international women's day March 8, to connect or reconnect with relevant organizations abroad, such as women's groups, and exchange information about struggles and successes in an effort to build international solidarity around these issues. With regard to political developments, the periodical advised readers to discuss the recent positive peace treaty

Bulgaria signed in recognition of its fight against fascism and of its democratic policies.

With regard to economic developments, the periodical pointed to the two-year national economic plan and encouraged letter-writers to be specific in identifying local examples of what the plan proposed.

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In terms of activist tactics, the movement encouraged it members to engage in development activism involving participation in volunteer brigades, rallies, commemorations, and correspondence in order to improve the international standing of the country following World War II (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(3): 3).

The opening article of a later issue summarized the comprehensive development work of Esperanto by equating it to the work of Bulgarian culture houses:

"Culture houses are homegrown products of the great period of our Enlightenment. Because of the five-hundred year yoke, the Bulgarian people was backward in terms of culture and education and needed to put in all efforts to catch up with the developed peoples. What the school created, the culture houses further developed... Following September 9, 1944, an era of new flourishing and comprehensive development began for culture houses... Esperanto and culture houses have a similar character and do a similar kind of work. Everywhere in villages and in towns there are culture houses. Our Esperanto activists must actively work to form circles involving members of culture houses, ... to provide [Esperanto] publications to culture houses' libraries, to form friends of Esperanto who would subscribe to Bulgara Esperantisto...." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(5): 1)

5.10 Politics

In the early post-World War II years, Bulgarian Esperantists were not shy to express their political opinions. With many leaders coming from the labor Esperanto movement, the association's periodical was overtly left-leaning. The most commonly addressed political topics included relations with the state, democracy, labor, and peace.

5.10.1 Relations with the state

The Esperanto movement had a complicated relationship with the state during the state-socialism period. At times, the state was a partner and a fellow. At other times, the relationship was rather instrumental.

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Working with, as opposed to against, state agencies, particularly those dedicated to education and culture, became part of the strategy of the Esperanto movement. The first post-World War II issue of Bulgara Esperantisto reported on a labor Esperanto meeting in Nancy, France where local state leaders pledged their commitment to introducing Esperanto in school. The movement also pointed out on numerous occasions the example of the Austrian state's role in education and development. The intention seems to have been to encourage a similar role for the Bulgarian state. For example:

"Important announcement: The Austrian ministry of Education allowed the instruction of Esperanto in school. The official announcement includes teaching plans for Esperanto. The first national examinations for teachers of Esperanto will take place in the fall. Only specialists who have passed their teacher examinations have the right to teach at all levels of education." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(1): 8)

The movement was eager to point out advancements in the direction of state- movement partnership. The post-war government, the publication argued, unlike the pre- war regime, created beneficial conditions for the development of the Esperanto movement (Bulgara Esperantisto 1946(3): 3).

At other times, the relation between the Esperanto movement and the Bulgarian state involved a level of instrumentality covered up by expressed devotion. Movement survival in the context of rigid government oversight required ceremonial allegiance to the party-state. While paying lip service to the communist state and the USSR, the movement pursued its own goals. The following example illustrates the point, to a comic effect. A 1947 Bulgara Esperantisto article entitled "September 9, the Great Day of

Freedom, Is Celebrated by Bulgarian Esperantists" started with: "The thirtieth anniversary congress of Bulgarian Esperantists coincides with the bright date marking the 117

third anniversary of the people's antifascist rebellion." The article continued with a lengthy inventory of key words associated with the communist regime including among others the "labor competition" in pursuit of the national "economic plan", elimination of

"fascist" elements and "reactionary agents", the communist leader Georgi Dimitrov, the

USSR, etc. In an odd twist of logic, the article exclaimed in conclusion: "Let all members of the association be counted! Let all subscribers of Internacia Culturo (International

Culture) and Bulgara Esperantisto pay their subscription dues!" (Bulgara Esperantisto

1947(8): 6). Evidently, the author of the article was preoccupied with procuring members and financial stability for the movement.

Sometimes, however, the closeness of the relationship between the movement and the communist state sounds not only sincere but passionately so:

"The Esperanto youth of the town of Lom will demonstrate in action their affection for the people's power [euphemism used to refer to the communist government] when they facilitate the achievement of the two-year plan not only in terms of cultural and educational goals but also in terms of economic goals." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(8): 5; italics mine)

5.10.2 Democracy

Bulgara Esperantisto did not miss a chance to emphasize the democratic nature of the newly established communist regime. In 1946, a referendum took place in Bulgaria allowing the country's citizenry to decide on whether the country would become a republic or remain a monarchy. The periodical regularly reported on the event and its significance and encouraged its readers to write about the Bulgarian republic to their correspondents abroad (1947(2): 2, 1947(10): 1).

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Democracy was relevant to Bulgarian Esperantists because they associated it with comprehensive development. True democracy in their minds involved political and economic development (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(4): 1). In an article listing possible topics to be engaged in international correspondence, Bulgara Esperantisto linked democracy and development as follows:

"Our life is undergoing a transformation on the road to a new democratic development which was the struggle and dream of our Revival..." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(1): 2)

5.10.3 Labor

Labor was added to the mix of democracy and development promoted under the umbrella of Esperanto as well. In a constructive critique addressed at the movement, "an elderly fellow thinker" expressed his opinion on the "future perspectives" of the movement as follows:

"The Esperanto movement will not succeed unless it begins economic and practical work in addition to its cultural and educational work... [The needed] element, according to us, is to undertake any common collective work... The Esperanto literature should highlight practical knowledge applicable in life, such as professional guides... in the area of the various industries, trades, and arts... Esperanto must indeed be the language of labor democracy." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(5): 2)

The establishment of an Esperanto cooperative suggests that the movement followed the advice of this fellow thinker.

The Bulgarian Esperanto movement also borrowed the idea of involving mass organizations in its work from the labor movement and aimed at engaging the masses in its activities. This first segment is an example of an effort to collaborate with mass organizations: 119

"For help in writing letters, contact the cultural and educational sections in those mass organizations of which you are members: unions, cooperatives, culture houses, etc." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(2): 2)

In this next segment, the publication reported on a local movement activity involving the "masses":

"In the village of Glavatsi, in the region of Vratsa, the Esperanto group organized an evening of literature and music, which enjoyed mass participation. The comrade Venko Georgiev opened the gathering with a relevant speech, which was followed by reading of poems by Zamenhof and by Bulgarian writers, of stories from the Esperanto life in our country, of letters from abroad, etc. At the end, many expressed desire to join the open Esperanto course and the local Esperanto circle." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(3): 6)

5.10.4 Peace

The topic of peace was so important to Esperantists at the wake of World War II that Bulgara Esperantisto dedicated its 1947 new year issue to it. Peace in the leading article for the year was understood as a necessary condition for the comprehensive development envisioned by the movement. In another issue of the same year, the publication noted the political importance of the peace treaty signed by the country as a foundation of world peace (1947(2): 2). The same issue later informed its leadership of the decision of the newly founded Japanese Institute for Perpetual Peace to use Esperanto together with English as an official language for its reports (1947(2): 7). To Bulgarian

Esperantists, the post-World War II peace, however, appeared fragile and endangered by imperialist and reactionary warmongering, so they saw themselves as actively engaged in the struggle for peace (1947(6): 2). The 1947 conference of Bulgarian Esperantists adopted a resolution in which a healthy and long-lasting peace was declared to be of primary concern to Bulgarian Esperantists and which the association vouched to pursue

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through establishing brotherly international relations in addition to through promoting comprehensive development (1947(4): 1). Peace was thus seen as both the source and the outcome of and therefore inseparable from comprehensive development and cooperative relationships, according to Bulgarian Esperantists. The following excerpt from the 1947 new year's issue brought peace and comprehensive development together most clearly:

"The blessed beams of peace will shine on the last countries still disconnected from the all-human family. Permanent peaceful neighborly relations will form again. Humanity will dedicate itself to quiet and peaceful creative work. A life of peaceful development will bustle again bringing back to life boons which had faded. Letters, magazines, books, and mutual visits will be exchanged. Libraries will be full of readers and creators. Noble competition between nations will take place. The victory will belong to that nation which harbors limitless possibilities for creativity in the fields of science, culture, and civilization. In this, we, Esperantists, will demonstrate our most elevated role, that of connecting peoples from the entire world, with the help of Zamenhof's wondrous creation, the international language Esperanto." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(1): 1)

5.11 Affect, fellowship, and sociability

Despite the attempted devaluation of sentimentality noted above, emotional content abounded on the pages of Bulgara Esperantisto as well as in my personal communication with veteran Esperantists. Affect colored the tone of much of what was written: a significant portion of Bulgara Esperantisto segments were written primarily in the subjunctive or imperative modes (18% or the second largest type after reports in

1947), reflecting the importance of emotionality.

Emotional content was also subject to discursive elaboration. In 1946, seven segments were explicitly dedicated to solidarity, six segments to friendship, and five segments each to disapproval and praise. In 1947, seventeen segments were dedicated to friendship, sixteen to praise, nine to hospitality, eight to celebration, seven to each

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brotherhood, disproval, and enthusiasm, and five to sociability. The following excerpt from an article titled "Fellowship through Esperanto" illustrates the fellowship expectations created through the Esperanto movement:

"In Laborista Esperantisto (Labor Esperantist) from the Netherlands, we read the following: 'My wife, who has been suffering from a chest disease for a few years, is pregnant. There exists a vaccine to protect the child from this disease... [but it was] unavailable. Three weeks before the birth, I wrote to a correspondent in Denmark... Six days later a response arrived from his wife... 'Send me the address of your doctor. I'll do everything that is possible to help you... Ten days later, I received the vaccine..." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(5): 4)

Fellowship-related terms were used not only for relations between individuals but were extended to abstract categories, including the state as well. The quote listed above referencing the Esperanto youth's affection for the communist state provides an example.

Another example is the reference to an organization dedicated to friendship with the

Esperanto idea:

"An Austrian association of the friends of Esperanto was founded in December 1946 in Vienna... Its goal is to unite those who do not speak the language but who want to aid in the victory of the Esperanto idea." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(3): 5)

The notion of fellowship is tied to communism through the term "comrade", adopted as the common greeting among persons by communist parties. An example from a local Esperanto professional group illustrates the original meaning of the term laden with positive affect:

"Let us, the comrades from the main railway workshop, organize ourselves in the [Esperanto] circle to connect with our colleagues from the entire world in order to find out how they live, work, organize, and struggle for a better life. By learning from their experience, let us raise the transportation work in our country!" (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(8): 7)

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International camaraderie and brotherhood were common motivations for participation in the Esperanto movement. The following example from Bulgara

Esperantisto's chronicling of local mobilization illustrates this:

"A beginner Esperanto course was organized in the small village of Vratsa drawing in some twenty participants, primarily among the youth. Radoy Faldjiyski, a dentistry student, leads the course. He opened the course with the talk: 'Esperanto: Origins, development, present, and future" underlining the importance of the language as a means of mutual familiarization and brotherly cooperation among nations. There is great enthusiasm." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(2): 8)

Brotherhood and cooperation in pursuit of peace were regular themes of international meetings as well. During this period, the Bulgarian Esperanto movement was involved in efforts to build regional solidarity among its Balkan neighbors. Bulgarian

Esperantists regularly participated in regional meetings and Esperantists from Balkan countries were regular guests at meetings organized by Bulgarian Esperantists. While ties with Romanian and Yugoslav Esperantists were mentioned on a regular basis (Table 5.1), mentions of cooperation with Greek and Turkish partners was conspicuously missing.

Bulgarian Esperantists still attempted to maintain ties with Esperantists from outside the

Soviet sphere of influence, most notably with the Esperanto movement in France,

England, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden (Table 5.1).

Meetings were judged by the level of hospitality extended to participants. Official meeting programs featured extended periods for "Welcoming of the guests" and "Getting- to-know one another" events. On the occasion of the thirtieth congress of Bulgarian

Esperantists, Bulgara Esperantisto's report included the following details:

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"On September 5, tens of fellow thinkers from Sofia welcomed the arriving Esperantists at Sofia's train station with flowers, flags, and music... The welcoming at Plovdiv's train station was equally solemn. After the welcoming speeches, several hundred congress participants formed a great rally walking down the main street...

The typical get-to-know evening took place on Freedom hill. Despite the weak preparation on the part of Plovdiv's Esperantists, we all had a great intimate time among singing and dancing until late at night." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(9): 1)

In outlining recommendations addressed at local clubs for how to successfully do their work, Bulgara Esperantisto focused on fellowship and hospitality too:

"Recommended are evening meetings over tea, etc. The organization of regular walks, mutual visits, etc. would also be beneficial to the group and to Esperantists. They could practice the language, share opinions on our forthcoming work; and this would create more closeness among Esperantists." (Bulgara Esperantisto 1947(8): 8)

5.12 Summary and conclusion

This chapter traces the origins of the comprehensive socio-cultural model of development favored by Bulgarians following 1989, as outlined in the previous chapter, to the early years of state-socialism in the meaning making of Bulgarian Esperantists. In its early form, the Bulgarian comprehensive model of development integrated several types of interests: an interest in culturedness and education associated with accumulation of a cultural capital of a worldwide quality; an interest in economic development; an interest in participation of the working masses in a democratic polity; and an interest in peace conceived as both a precondition and a consequence of the other forms of development. The integration of these various interests into a comprehensive model of development was possible because of the strong legitimacy of the fellowship principle, which advocates cooperation and understanding. Instead of mandating a deliberate choice 124

among these interests, the principle of fellowship encouraged the pursuit of all of them in the interest of conflict avoidance. The chapter thus provides a qualified partial support for the world-system thesis expecting a popular endorsement of the developmental strategy of state-socialism.

The upholding of the fellowship principle in the arena of international relations was a strategic choice for a small country in the global periphery such as Bulgaria.

Eventually, what starts as a strategic choice may turn into a custom, the way business is done as usual. Evidence in this and in the previous chapter suggests that this is what has happened in Bulgaria. The form international cooperation took, however, was different from the primarily state-centered approach prevalent elsewhere. Bulgarian Esperantists advocated popular diplomacy through mass participation aiming at elevating the global position of the country. International correspondence was a favored tactic in service of popular diplomacy. Work on domestic comprehensive development was understood to also improve the international standing of the country. These practices constitute mechanisms through which the lines between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, and between the public and the private spheres have unintentionally been blurred (cf. Wimmer 2013) in the Bulgarian context.

The legitimacy of the fellowship principle, which appears to have played such a consequential role for Bulgarian civility, is manifested in its generalization and use in reference to collective and abstract entities, including the nation-state. The extension of the fellowship principle to such entities further blurs the line between the public and the

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private spheres characteristic of Western ideal types of modernity27. Collective entities, according to the fellowship principle, are understood as communities of fellow persons or as anthropomorphized representations functioning as fellow persons. With regard to the state, for instance, the (small "b") "big brother" analogy is appropriate although in a sense that is different from the meaning assigned to it in the United States. Whereas in the

United States, the term is understood as referring to an uncivil organizational machine tasked with monitoring and disciplining individual behavior, reminiscent of Orwell's

1984 or Foucault's Panopticon (cf. Alexander 2006; Kaldor 1999), in Bulgaria the analogy is with a civil relation with an actual elder brother or kin. This elder brother, even when frustrating or abusive, remains a relative and thus an important part of one's social network. When a need arises, the expectation is to potentially rely on each other.

The state in the ideal case of a state-society relationship based on fellowship is therefore not an opponent but a facilitator of individual cultivation and wellbeing providing opportunities for education, cultural expression, and overall progress. The mutual dependency, even if on unequal terms, is the basis of community and solidarity.

International relations, in turn, are expected to function in the same solidaristic terms, a difficult balance of dependency and fellowship (cf. Keohane and Nye 1977).

A common language and understanding in a context where the fellowship principle is prevalent acquires a particular importance. The Esperanto movement thus adeptly positioned itself to meet the international language and communication needs of small international players such as Bulgaria. A lack of understanding can easily break a

27 The problem of corruption is the negative side of this development. Corruption arises when the principle of fellowship collides with the principle of bureaucracy and wins.

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relationship that has taken time and effort to develop and maintain. It is not random therefore that the language question has been an important issue in building an international community in Europe.

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CHAPTER 6:

THEORETICAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Summary of the findings

The Esperanto movement emerged in the global arena in the late nineteenth century as a response to inequalities in the nation-state field (cf. Mearsheimer 2001;

Meyer et al. 1997; Morgenthau 1948; Waltz 2010). In the course of several decades, the movement established a new global field (cf. Bourdieu 1984; Fligstein and McAdam

2011; Martin 2003) based on the logic (cf. Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012) of equal communication through Esperanto and on the accumulation of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1983, 1984). The movement relied on a robust three-level organizational structure spanning local, national, and international practices.

Published Esperanto address books including contact information for local representatives from around the world have been one of the most important mechanisms for assuring movement cohesion and endurance.

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The Esperanto field gained autonomy from the nation-state field through concerted efforts to defend the principles (i.e. the boundaries) of the movement (cf.

Wimmer 2013). A hybrid labor Esperanto field, which grew in parallel to the Esperanto field, served as a buffer between Esperanto and the nation-state/politics field. The most severe conflicts associated with Esperanto were thus exported to this hybrid field, which shielded the movement from politics and preserved its unity. While the Esperanto field has been recognized globally, by UNESCO, as a "cultural" field, it has not been recognized by global political entities and thus it has not achieved equality with the nation-state/politics field.

Persons endowed with cultural capital but lacking political and economic capital have been particularly drawn to Esperanto (cf. Riga 2008). Ironically, while attempting to overcome established unfair distinctions based on differential accumulation of political and economic capital, the Esperanto movement creates and maintains new distinctions and inequalities based on accumulation of cultural capital (cf. Bourdieu 1983, 1984). The low-status membership category of "eternal beginners" highlights the necessary acquisition of language skills for achieving full movement membership as well as the differential ability of persons to acquire such skills. In state-socialist Eastern Europe, the movement thus became primarily a movement of the cultural and professional non-ruling elite despite its rhetoric of offering a language for the common person and despite its political affinities with leftist ideals.

The Esperanto movement became prominent in state-socialist Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. The movement found unexpected allies among

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small independent states in the Eastern European periphery. In the global arena, small peripheral countries had limited political and economic capital, which made their capital profile similar to the capital profile of Esperanto movement adherents. Some countries found the cultural strategy of the Esperanto movement appealing and in line with their own interests and let the movement flourish. This group of countries included Bulgaria, where the movement was able to claim participation in the pre-World War II labor movement, and Poland, where the creator of Esperanto Zamenhof was born.

The growth of the Esperanto movement as the modal movement in state-socialist

Eastern Europe coincides with the institutionalization of a unique form of civility favoring comprehensive socio-cultural development and the fellowship principle. The organizational forms the Esperanto movement developed, its practices, and its grounding in three universalist discursive fields−world culture, Marxism, and fellowship−served as institutional carriers (Scott 2008) of Eastern European civility. Under the umbrella of

Esperanto, a variety of organizations at the local, national, and the international scale allowed Esperantists to engage with a comprehensive set of issues including environmentalism, human rights, religion, peace, professional development, literature, art, personal connections, hobbies, tourism, etc. Two hybrid organizational forms, the hospitality service and the correspondence service, highlight Esperanto's reliance on strong personal ties indicative of the prevalence of the principle of fellowship (cf. Chang

2011; Fishman 2004; Opp and Gern 1993). The practice of a language considered international through a set of direct and mediated forms of communication facilitated the development of a sense of and an aspiration to participate in a global community (cf.

Anderson 1983; Kim 1999). In terms of discourse (Spillman 1995), Eastern European 130

civility takes the state at its word in pursuing the communist ideal of progress (cf. Riga

2008; Spillman and Faeges 2005; Straughn 2005). It is also tied to a broad notion of world culture (cf. Boli and Thomas 1997; Drori et al. 2003; Lizardo 2005; Meyer et al.

1997; Meyer, Ramirez, and Soysal 1992). Culturedness involves professional development, education, scientific development, artistic development, and personal betterment. The third discursive field (Spillman 1995), Eastern European civility is associated with is grounded in the principle of fellowship (cf. Fishman 2004; Opp and

Gern 1993), which extends to individuals as well as to collective entities. The principle of fellowship encourages collaborative relations not only between persons but also between persons and the state, and among states themselves. The unique blend of organizations, practices, and discourse strategies constituting Eastern European civility results in a blurring of the familiar distinctions between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, and between the public and the private spheres taken for granted in the West. The world looks different and works differently from the vantage point of persons in small nation-states in the Eastern European periphery.

The different form of civility that developed in Eastern Europe can explain the puzzling case of the Bulgarian transition to democracy. While Bulgaria lacked a Western- type civil society and a history of anti-communist contention, present in the model cases of successful democratic transitions, the country still managed to establish a peaceful and stable democracy. The institutionalization of the hybrid Eastern European form of civility in Bulgaria can account for both the successes and the failures (i.e. corruption) of

Bulgaria post 1989. Roots of a hybrid Bulgarian civility can be traced back to the early 131

years of state-socialism following World War II in the meaning making of Bulgarian

Esperantists. Efforts to accommodate a variety of interests driven by the principle of fellowship resulted in a comprehensive socio-cultural vision of development, signs of which can also be found after the country's transition to democracy.

6.2 A world social space

Understanding the Esperanto phenomenon requires advancing a new conceptualization of world social and political dynamics in field-theoretic terms as a world social space28 (cf. Bourdieu 1984, 1991). The world social space as an ideal type is comprised of historically developed fields of action (Bourdieu 1984; Fligstein and

McAdam 2011; Martin 2003). Fields are defined by their institutional logics (Friedland and Alford 1991; Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012) and a corresponding capital

(Bourdieu 1984, 1991). An institutional logic involves "the socially constructed, historical patterns of cultural symbols and material practices, including assumptions, values, and beliefs, by which individuals and organizations provide meaning to their daily activity, organize time and space, and reproduce their lives and experiences" (Thornton,

Ocasio, and Lounsbury 2012: 2). Capitals "exist in objectified form−in the form of material properties−or, in the case of cultural capital, in an incorporated form" (Bourdieu

1991: 230). For instance, the economic field is defined by a logic of economic exchange and accumulation and by economic capital.

28 While Bourdieu's conceptual toolkit has been used primarily for analyzing ideal social spaces mapped onto nation-states as units of analysis (e.g. Benson and Saguy 2005; Bourdieu 1984; Eyal 2005), it can be useful for understanding phenomena with a global scope as well (e.g. Igarashi and Saito 2014; Illouz and Nicholas 2003; Kim 2011; Marginson 2008; Weenink 2008; cf. Wimmer 2013).

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As historical formations, fields of action in the world social space are characterized by various and changing degrees of institutionalization, spatial coverage, autonomy with regard to other fields, and composition resulting in a complex and dynamic topology of nested and crosscutting institutional configurations. The world social space is marked by inequality and contestation. For instance, the establishment and global spread of the logic of the scientific method as the foundation of the scientific field was one of the great achievements of modernity (Drori et al. 2003). Struggles to counter the advancements of the economic logic or the religious logic are examples of autonomy struggles aiming at maintaining the autonomy of the scientific field against economic or religious encroachments. Territorial disputes and conquest, in turn, are examples of historical approaches to changing the composition of the nation-state field using physical force (cf. Mearsheimer 2001; Meyer et al. 1997; Morgenthau 1948; Waltz 2010).

Struggles to legitimize or delegitimize various types of logics or capitals, to expand or limit their territorial coverage, to establish or challenge boundaries between fields, and to change the composition of already established fields are sources of historical change in the world social space.

The conceptualization of global dynamics as a world social space builds on and expands previous global theories in a number of ways. World-system theory (Boswell and Chase-Dunn 2000; Kentor and Boswell 2003; Smith and White 1992; Wallerstein

2004) focuses on the processes of unequal exchange and accumulation of economic capital and the resulting formation of core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral world regions.

While undoubtedly important, economic processes are not the only processes operating at the global scale. World-system theory, however, offers fewer insights for understanding 133

other types of global dynamics, including the continuing but varying importance of the nation-state, the proliferation of other institutional fields, and the historical character of institutionalized actorhood and its role in social change. According to the world-system perspective, in a world perceived to be driven solely by the economic logic, the Esperanto movement does not make sense. In the proposed world social space formulation, the economic processes identified by world-system theory are one type−based on an economic logic−of many other processes integral to global dynamics.

In its emphasis on multiple institutional dynamics, the world culture approach

(Boli and Thomas 1997; Meyer et al. 1997) addresses some of issues left unexplained by world-system theory. However, it is a top down approach privileging exogenous effects and largely ignoring conflict and endogenous processes and local creativity (e.g. hybridity, creolization, cultural entrepreneurship, etc. [Campbell 2004; Hannerz 1996;

Tomlinson 1999]). The world culture approach thus cannot account for institutional formations that do not fit its simple global diffusion model, such as multiple modernities

(Casanova 2011; Eisenstadt 2003), inequalities and regionalization (Beckfield 2010), and the hybrid form of civility exemplified by the Esperanto movement. The world social space approach I propose acknowledges the world-culture findings demonstrating the establishment of a set of dominant global institutions, such as the nation-state system, international governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and science, among others (Boli and Thomas 1997; Drori et al. 2003; Meyer et al. 1997). As important as these institutions are, however, they coexist with a plethora of other institutional logics, such as religion, family, etc. (cf. Casanova 2011; Eisenstadt 2003; Thornton, Ocasio, and

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Lounsbury 2012), which have developed in multiple forms and combinations across time and space.

Finally, the world social space integrates insights from international relations' realism (Mearsheimer 2001; Morgenthau 1948; Waltz 2010). Realists recognize the importance of power politics among nation-states driven by the logic of brute force (cf.

Weber 1946). As critics of realism have recognized, however, brute force is only one approach to international relations increasingly challenged by global norms, institutions, and interdependencies (e.g. Keohane and Nye 1977).

6.3 Complex inequalities

The world social space approach offers a model of global dynamics consisting of a historically evolving set of multiple and related fields of actions organized around central logics and corresponding forms of capital. Capitals are unequally distributed within and across fields (cf. Bourdieu 1984, 1991). Particular positions in the world social space are consequently associated with unique sets of capital actors occupying these positions possess. For example, the cultural and professional elites involved in the

Esperanto movement in small countries in the Eastern European periphery, despite possessing cultural capital, lacked economic capital as well as the political capital valued in the nation-state field. The complex inequalities created through the uneven distribution of various forms of capital in the world social space fuel discontent, which occasionally leads to struggles and social change. The Esperanto movement was implicated in at least two processes associated with inequality and change:

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6.3.1 Universalism at the periphery of the world system

"Global reflexivity", or global awareness, ostensibly associated with the so-called globalization era of the last several decades, goes further back in time, as the phenomenon of the Esperanto movement suggests. While cosmopolitan or global interdependencies and risks (Beck 1999; Keohane and Nye 1977) have not come to the attention of scholars focusing on powerful states until the late 20th century, smaller and less powerful states have had to navigate such uncertainties much earlier. Similarly to bolshevism, which it could be argued was a case of the construction of a universalist class ideology on the basis of marginal ethnic experiences (Riga 2008), Bulgarian (and likely

Eastern European) Esperanto-style cosmopolitanism is a case of the construction of a universalist internationalist ideology on the basis of national experiences at the periphery of the world system. Cultural and professional elites in the small independent Eastern

European countries may have occupied high-status positions in their national societies; internationally, however, this domestic high-status intersected with the low international status of their countries. Given such complex intersectional positions, it is not surprising why a form of universalism based on alternative criteria for valuation (cf. Riga 2008;

Wimmer 2013), such as comprehensive and culture-heavy forms of development and fellowship, may have been attractive to the Eastern European cultural and professional elite.

6.3.2 Affecting the status/class structure of state-socialist societies

Support for a comprehensive development model may have been high across the board, at least in some Eastern European countries, but the distribution of the skills and

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experiences privileging access to and befits from the model of development was much less widespread. The organizational composition of the Esperanto movement and the boundary work in which members of the movement's leadership were involved suggest that the Esperanto movement likely contributed to the creation and maintenance of a status/class structure in state-socialist societies based on cosmopolitan cultural capital (cf.

Bourdieu 1984; Fuller 2000; Hanley 2003; Igarashi and Saito 2014; Kim 2011; Konrad et al. 1979; Marginson 2008; Riga 2008; Sklair 1997; Weenink 2008). Members of the

Eastern European cultural and professional elite with access to educational opportunities could develop language skills and participate in a cosmopolitan movement such as

Esperanto more fully than members of other status groups. Instead of serving as the international language of the common person, as the movement claimed, Esperanto may have ironically and unintentionally facilitated the development of a "cultured" class not only distinguished from the working class but also likely responsible for the collapse of the state-socialist system (cf. Fuller 2000; Joppke 1995).

6.4 Public sphere and civility

The term "public sphere" is problematic. It refers to a number of distinct phenomena: from Oprah's establishment in the U.S., to aesthetic publics during

Tokugawa's Japan, to Western European Enlightenment salons and coffee shops, to contemporary transnational protest and its media representations, among others

(Habermas 1989; Ikegami 2005; Illouz 2003; Thorn 2007). One approach to dealing with the empirical diversity of public sphere manifestations is the normative/purist approach, which favors one manifestation−usually Habermas's deliberative democracy vision−and 137

insists on its universality while denigrating others. Margaret Somers's (1995) early warning that a strand of this approach has solidified into a conceptual metanarrative constituting "Anglo-American citizenship theory", which limits empirical research, has not yet reached all quarters. This hegemonic theory affects how people value various forms of publicness (Polletta and Lee 2006). A second approach denies the analytical usefulness of the concept altogether (e.g. Tilly, quoted in Emirbayer and Sheller 1998), to no avail. The concept keeps resurfacing.

To counter the risk of letting purists dominate the debate, empirically minded sociologists have advocated studying the various historical manifestations of the public sphere (e.g. Emirbayer and Sheller 1998; Koller 2010). This approach has produced important correctives to purists' accounts (e.g. Abbott 2010; Adut 2008; Calhoun 2010;

Eliasoph 1998; Fine 2010; Ikegami 2005; Illouz 2003; Lichterman 1999; Mische 2009;

Perrin and Vaisey 2008; Polletta and Lee 2006; Smilde 2011; Stark, Vedres, and Bruszt

2006). Despite these significant contributions, a theoretically unified treatment of the multiple manifestations of the public sphere is lacking. Building on the third, a fourth approach would trace the commonality between the distinct phenomena identifiable as public-sphere manifestations and offer a conceptualization that is empirically faithful to and useful for analyzing any of them. I attempt this last approach in my analysis of

Eastern European state-socialist publicness following World War II.

I define the public sphere as a set of historically specific efforts to legitimize or delegitimize particular institutional logics. The public sphere encompasses a dynamic complex of particular historical actors deploying perceivable (cf. Adut 2012), at least to

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some extent, strategies to create and filter cultural innovation (cf. Spillman and Faeges

2005; White 1995) in a given context resulting in constantly (re)produced cultures and institutions (cf. Peterson and Anand 2004), which we perceive as given or as "structures" at any particular moment. This definition implies several analytical dimensions: (1) a historically specific social context where cultural innovation takes place; (2) actors involved in (a) creating, (b) filtering, and (c) being the subject of cultural innovation; (3) form or the "where" and "how" of creating and filtering; (4) content or the "what about"; and (5) outcome or the "what for" of cultural innovation, which can be objectified in material forms or embodied in personal experiences, and intended or unintended (cf.

Adut 2012; Emirbayer and Sheller 1998; Fraser 2007; Koller 2010). These dimensions are variable and interrelated.

The quality of publicness (cf. Adut 2012) can be derived from any of these dimensions, provided that dimension is associated with a collectivity. Consequently, most definitions of the public sphere suffer from a synecdoche fallacy. A synecdoche fallacy occurs when a part is used to define the whole. Debates over what constitutes the public sphere stem from theoretical conflations failing to distinguish between some of these dimensions, disagreements over which dimensions matter more, disagreements over what values these dimensions take or should take, or disagreements over the possible relations between these dimensions.

6.4.1 Context and civility

The historical variability of public-sphere manifestations is not random. Cultural innovation occurs in a particular social context and changes it so that any new cultural

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innovation faces a different context. Studying the public sphere is therefore a historical enterprise. Historical and ideal contexts, however, often merge in public-sphere discussions, particularly in normative political theory. It is common to associate the public sphere with the context of civil society (Emirbayer and Sheller 1998; Habermas

1989; Kaldor 2003). Scholars agree Anglo-American citizenship and civil society are historically contingent institutional developments (Alexander 2006; Somers 1993). Civil society emerged in Britain and in the United States as a separate and contested sphere, autonomous from although in communication with the state and the economy, to provide a space for citizen association and exchange on the basis of fundamental rights in the liberal democratic tradition (Alexander 2006; Emirbayer and Sheller 1998). Once defined historically, however, the civil-society concept is assumed to travel unproblematically to different contexts (e.g. Cohen and Arato 1992). Yet, as this dissertation attempts to demonstrate, the forms civility takes vary across time and space (see also Ikegami 2005).

This implies that the forms publicness takes in different contexts vary as well. Therefore, this work acts as a call for a comparative and historical approach to studying both the forms of civility and the forms of publicness associated with the former, lest uncritical ahistorical conflations of particular forms of civil society and publicness act as hegemonic and symbolically violent (cf. Bourdieu 1991) cultural-theoretical models when exported to other contexts.

6.4.2 Actors: positioning publics in the world social space

What makes a sphere "public" in terms of the actors dimension is the involvement of a collectivity in the creation or filtering of cultural innovations or as recipients of such

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innovations. The nineteenth-century English poor, for example, were subjects of social innovations elaborated by moderate reformers in the bourgeois public sphere, from which radical reformers and the poor were excluded (Calhoun 2010). Differentiating among actor types is tied to inequality, power struggles, and exclusion (Fraser 1992, 2007), in other words to the position actors occupy in the world social space. Actors in disadvantaged positions denied roles in creating or filtering cultural innovations and thus relegated to positions of subjects of innovations may form counter-publics to create alternative social visions, as Eastern European Esperantists did (cf. Polletta 1999). A phenomenon like Oprah is public (Illouz 2003) because it involves collective filtering, in this case of acceptable ways of dealing with individual misery. Popular culture and popular symbols are outcomes of such public filtering processes.

Definitions of the global public sphere (Stichweh 2003; Thorn 2007) prioritize this public-sphere dimension and focus on the universal actor or on potentially or actually the entire world or all nation-states as subjects of cultural innovation. Universally intended pronouncements have a normative and contentious character because they rarely involve universal filtering, let alone universal creativity.

Legitimate actorhood is not a given for any context. Actors endowed with the right to a social role are also historical institutional developments (Meyer and Jepperson

2000; Frank and Meyer 2002). In the case of Anglo-American civil society, incorporation into the civil sphere has been a long uncertain process (Alexander 2006). In the French case, legitimate political voice is correlated with class position and cultural capital

(Bourdieu 1984). The moderate bourgeois public sphere that Habermas offers as an ideal

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existed since its origin alongside other forms of publicness, including that of rulers, mass

(uneducated) opinion, literary publics, religious publics, etc., and defined itself in opposition to a more radical public sphere (Calhoun 2010). The two were separated along class lines and the positions within these were similarly determined by cultural and economic capital (Calhoun 2010). While rhetorical capital allowing rational deliberation was the valued form of capital in the bourgeois public sphere, social capital (group membership and charisma) was equally if not more important in the radical public sphere

(Calhoun 2010; cf. Bourdieu 1983, 1991). Critics of the Habermasian ideal point to similar contemporary inequalities (e.g. Fraser 1992, 2007). Cultural norms related to particular rhetorical competences, however, still define who can be a legitimate actor in contemporary contexts (e.g. Polletta and Lee 2006; cf. Bourdieu 1984, 1991).

Unequal legitimacy creates two kinds of actors, active participants and passive participants (audience/bystanders) (cf. Adut 2012; Stichweh 2003). Active participants are endowed with voice in setting the collective agenda, creating cultural innovation, and filtering it (cf. Adut 2012; Bourdieu 1984; Habermas 1989), whereas passive participants are relegated to the role of observers and recipients of cultural innovation (cf. Adut 2012;

Calhoun 2010). Passive participation may be accepted or challenged though.

Emancipatory movements struggle to carve alternative public spaces or join mainstream ones (Alexander 2006; Fraser 2007; Polletta 1999). Challengers' forms of participation in public spheres often do not conform to the rational-deliberative ideal of the bourgeois public sphere or to the current norms of civility. Charismatic representation (e.g. Illouz

2003), storytelling (e.g. Polletta 2006), protest (e.g. Beyeler and Kriesi 2005), and even terrorism (Stichweh 2003), are some of the alternative forms of participation in the public 142

sphere. As one model of citizenship, and with it a dominant model of legitimate actorhood, becomes globalized (cf. Alexander 2006; Kaldor 2003; Meyer et al. 1997), excluded actors may look for alternative ways to come together across borders to struggle for recognition and participation (e.g. Beyeler and Kriesi 2005; Guidry, Kennedy, and

Zald 2000; Langman 2005; cf. Frank and Meyer 2002).

The role of the state as an actor in the public sphere is another touchy issue. In the

Anglo-American citizenship theory, the state represents an "uncivil" sphere against which the civil sphere struggles (e.g. Alexander 2006). State participation is thus excluded from the ideal public sphere in this tradition. For other actors excluded from the public sphere associated with this type of civil society, however, the state can be an important ally

(Fraser 1992; e.g. McAdam 1983). In the French case, access to the state or the bureaucratic field is one of the central arenas of public struggles (Bourdieu 1998). In the global arena, states, state agencies, and international governmental organizations can serve leading roles in promoting cultural innovations (e.g. Frank, Hironaka, and Schofer

2000; Ramirez, Soysal, and Shanahan 1997). Thus, the state involvement in the public sphere cannot be a necessarily excluded or negative constant. State participation is another variable in historical analyses of existing publics.

6.4.3 Forms of publicness or communication technologies involved

Form relates to the medium in which public spheres manifest themselves in space, time, and language29. Most definitions of the public sphere include communication as one

29 Language varies not only across nation-states and ethnicities but also across class, gender, etc. Language thus not only facilitates communication within groups but also creates boundaries across groups.

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of its features (Calhoun 2010; Emirbayer and Sheller 1998; Habermas 1989; Koller

2010). My definition also presupposes some form of, although not necessarily verbal, communication. With increasing the size and geographic dispersion of the group involved in a public sphere comes the problem of reaching out and conveying information of interest to the entire group. Face-to-face deliberative interactions, the democratic ideal of the classical public sphere represented in the New England town hall meeting (Bryan

2003), are increasingly rare. When new such initiatives arise, they are limited to a particular location (e.g. Baiocchi 2003; but see Fishkin and Laslett 2003).

Technological inventions have allowed information to travel across time and space and connect previously isolated groups and individuals trans-historically, nationally, and globally. The rise of print media, for instance, is associated with the rise of both the experience of a national community and the national public sphere (Anderson

1983; Habermas 1989). New media also have the potential of connecting even more distant persons across national borders (Dahlgren 2001; Langman 2005; Thorn 2007).

The experiences of diaspora communities (e.g. Bowen 2004; Tololyan 1996; Werbner

2004) and of transnational social movements (e.g. Beyeler and Kriesi 2005; Guidry,

Kennedy, and Zald 2000; Langman 2005; Olesen 2005; Smith and Wiest 2012a,b; Thorn

2007) have forced scholars to rethink the spatial definition of the public sphere within the limits of the nation-state (Fraser 2007; Salvatore, Schmidtke, and Trenz 2013). The spatial manifestation of the public sphere is therefore to be recognized as variable (cf.

Olesen 2005; Perrin and Vaisey 2008). In some instances, publics are local (e.g. Baiocchi

2003). Some even argue that local situatedness and personal relations, combined with a shared past, are the building blocks for social order (Fine 2010). In other instances, 144

publics are national (e.g. Anderson 1983; Ikegami 2005). In yet other instances, they are transnational or even ostensibly global30 (e.g. Guidry, Kennedy, and Zald 2000; Olesen

2005; Thorn 2007). Transnational publics in turn have different kinds of national rootedness (Stark, Vedres, and Bruszt 2006). The empirical reality of publicness across space is messier than the concepts of local, national, transnational, and global imply.

Rootedness relates to another formal aspect of publics, their network foundation.

The networks involved consist of individuals or groups but they also have a symbolic aspect (Abbott 2010; Emirbayer and Sheller 1998; Ikegami 2005; Langman 2005; Mische

2009; Stark, Vedres, and Bruszt 2006; White 1995). Notions such as "netdoms" (White

1995) and "symbolic spaces" (Abbott 2010) link "structural" (i.e. relational or organizational) and "symbolic" (related to meaning and values) aspects of the public sphere and highlight its contingent character bounded by spatial, organizational, and symbolic resources and constraints31. Social creativity, Harrison C. White (1995) argues, emerges in the in-betweens when such spaces get connected.

Language is an essential cultural innovation allowing communication and publicness. While for national publics the common-language problem may not be evident32, it appears with full force with the rise of transnational publics (Fraser 2007).

30 The edited volume by Guidry, Kennedy, and Zald (2000) outlines the tension between the global aspiration and intended scope of the concept of the "global public sphere" and its actual transnational realizations.

31 "Discursive fields" (Spillman 1995; Wuthnow 1989; cf. Bourdieu 1984) are similar concepts.

32 Bourdieu (1984) points out that the kind of language competence which confers legitimacy to a political voice varies systematically across class positions within a nation-state as well.

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Which language should two parties speaking different languages use to communicate?

Historically, the answer has been contested.

6.4.4 Content: giving legitimacy to logics

The public sphere involves a group's capacity to focus its attention and often direct action and resources in a particular direction33. Thus, the concept of the public sphere acquires a particular relevance for understanding social change. The content of the public sphere is the matter of common interest to a group of people at a particular time.

Content relates to valuation, which is contested and variable. Content may be devalued as

"trivial" or assigned value. Human rights, for instance, which now claim universal value, were once34 controversial (Kaldor 1999). The very distinction between triviality and importance is thus a normatively charged, contested, and variable construct (cf. Abbott

2010; Adut 2012). The ability to set the agenda for a public sphere is tied to legitimate actorhood, discussed above.

Any matter, however, has the potential of becoming of common interest (or visible) to some group of people (cf. Adut 2012). Illouz (2003) offers a fascinating account of how individual misery has become a matter of popular interest in the United

States through the Oprah Winfrey Show. Similarly, Adut (2012) argues that negatively valued matters can be popularized through scandal. Other matters, which may presently appear trivial to some, such as popular culture and personal tastes, can reveal class distinctions and affect group boundaries and thus be socially consequential (cf. Bourdieu

33 It is thus understandable why theorists of democracy are fascinated by the concept (e.g. Calhoun 1993; Cohen and Arato 1992; Fraser 2007).

34 And still are to some.

146

1984; Lizardo 2006). When a matter is denied access to a central "political" public sphere, it can nevertheless still become public through other popular or subaltern public spheres (e.g. Fraser 1992; Illouz 2003). "Cultural" or "aesthetic" publics can thus acquire political relevance in contexts where "political" publics are limited (e.g. Ikegami 2005).

Whereas a strategy of politicization (Fraser 2007) may work in some contexts, for example the boundary of public and private in a Western context, a strategy of neutrality and depoliticization may be more suitable for others, as the Esperanto case demonstrates.

6.4.5 Outcomes: producing legitimate culture

The implicit or explicit role of a public sphere is to create a cultural innovation that will become a new social fact (cf. White 1995) and context for new legitimation efforts. The institutionalization of innovations takes two forms, objectivation and embodiment. Objectivation refers to materially or socially observable phenomena, such as adopting laws, creating organizations, or producing works of art (Habermas 1998;

Ikegami 2005; Illouz 2003). Embodied outcomes consist of establishing shared habits of thinking, feeling, and acting within a group (cf. Bourdieu 1984). Examples include taken- for-granted practices, shared values, and cognitive-emotional states such as feelings associated with collective identity, aesthetic appreciation, etc. (Alexander 2006; Ikegami

2005; cf. Anderson 1983; Spillman 1994). Eastern European civility is also an example of such a cultural innovation.

The outcomes of the public sphere can be intended or unintended. Often, however, it is difficult to determine if an outcome was intended or not. Rational deliberation in the public sphere, for instance, has had the intended goal of facilitating the

147

political project of democracy (Habermas 1989). To what extent this project is attainable is a matter of debate. The Japanese identity and political culture, by contrast, are the unintended consequences of aesthetic publics (Ikegami 2005). Eastern European civility falls under this last category.

148

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