Much of the recent research attempts to promote and define the notion of transcultural memory tend to focus on 'the forms of remembering across nations and cultures' and on the 'negotiation of colonialism, decolonization, migration, cultural globalization and cosmopolitanism in literature and other media'. Taking these attempts as a point of departure, this article aims at discussing the narrative biographical interview as an instrument for exploring the complex dynamics and dis(utopian) content of memory on the move, which remains without publicity or representation in art and the media. The claims for 'history from below' and for 'getting into the actor's world', emblematic for oral history and biographical studies, are applied to migrants' biographical narratives to show how the 'traumatic disruption of life's continuities' triggers reflection and social criticism from below on the collectively sanctioned modes of remembering of different cultures/cultural pasts. The article also reveals the emancipatory potential of the biographical interview for developing the culture of mobility of middle- and low-socialstatus people, which is based on shared memories of 'surviving' in a variety of (hostile) environments.
Abstract Thirty years after the transition to democracy in Bulgaria, there is a lack of social and community support for people living with dementia and for their families and caregivers. Both residential and assisted living facilities in the country have remained both unpopular and underdeveloped, and based on in-depth biographical and expert interviews and focus groups, we shall discuss the subjective experience of informal caregivers of people living with dementia, accumulated in the confined space of home and family. We shall try to show how inconsistent application of the European Union's social policies as well as the existence of enduring socio-cultural stereotypes relating to parental care places caregivers in passive, but over-responsible and implicitly critical positions towards the management both of public and private services for older people in Bulgaria.
"Wie stellen sich junge Leute in Bulgarien ihre Rolle in der Gesellschaft und ihren beruflichen Weg vor? Wie können sie Einfluss auf politische Entwicklungen nehmen, und welche Rolle spielt die Religion in ihrem Lebensentwurf? Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen diskutiert der Beitrag unterschiedliche Strategien der jungen Bulgaren, die in einer Situation extremer politischer und wirtschaftlicher Probleme aufwachsen, was auch Konsequenzen für die Religiosität der jungen Generation hat." (Autorenreferat)
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