The historical upheavals in Southeast Europe since the early 20th century brought about deep transformations of people‘s life courses. The concept of ʻlife courseʼ enables the understanding of human lives within their socio-cultural and political contexts, stressing people‘s everyday experiences and agency.
The papers in this volume discuss problems such as the impact of migration and mobility on families, such as economic migration transforming traditional structures into individualistic strategies. Other papers give examples of ruptures of life worlds caused by the impact of dramatic historical events. Demonstrating the agency of actors instead of presenting them as passive victims, some authors present approaches that are innovative for the region. Apart from various forms of migration and their impact on life courses, the volume also includes contributions on the role of religion and social memory in the family.
Editorial
Family and Kinship
Zlatina Bogdanova, Sofia Family, Kinship and State in Contemporary Bulgaria: A Study of Social Security after Socialism
Marta Botiková, Bratislava Social Settings as a Research Objective of Family Studies
Lenka Jakoubková Budilová, Prague Property Transmission and Household Developmental Cycle: Continuity and Change. The Case of a Czech Village in Bulgaria (1900–1950)
Family, Religion and Memory
Elena Petkova-Antonova, Sofia How Socialist Emancipation Has Changed Bulgarian Muslim Women
Irina Stahl, Bucharest The Communist Impact on Religion in Romania
Veneta Yankova, Shumen Family Memory and Popular Historiography: About the Tatars from Bulgarian Dobrudja
Mobility, Transnational Families, Identities
Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou, Athens Adolescent Initiation and Community Regeneration: Celebrating the Epiphany among Greek-Americans in Tarpon Springs, Florida
Sebastian Kurtenbach, Münster Patterns of Transnational Family Life under the Condition of Poverty. A Case Study from Plovdiv-Stolipinovo
Nacho Dimitrov, Sofia The Family in the Life-World of Labour Migrants: The Case of the Karakachans in Post-Socialist Bulgaria
Lumnije Kadriu, Prishtina/Vienna The Transnational Family: Between Preserving the Old and Acquiring a New Way of Life
Ivaylo Markov, Sofia Family and Mobility: Continuities, Shifts and Generational Dynamics Among the Albanians from the Republic of Macedonia
Desislava Pileva, Sofia Name and Language as Cultural Markers of (Self-)Identification of Mixed Families’ Offspring
Female Labour Migration
Ana Luleva, Sofia Just Work? Bulgarian Female Labour Migration to Italy and the Moral Economy of Care
Moyuru Matsumae, Tokyo Bulgarian Migrant Women and their Life Courses: The Case of Care Workers from Bulgaria to Italy and Greece
Displacement, Family and Gender
Aytek Soner Alpan, San Diego, Gülen Göktürk, Eskişehir Gendering the Displacement: A Critical Perspective on the Greco-Turkish Experience of War and Displacement (1919–1923)
Arbnora Dushi, Prishtina Intergenerational Memories of the Border History
Raluca Mateoc, Fribourg The Deportations of 1949 in the Western Romanian Countryside: Identifications and Recollections at the Edge of Time
Ermela Broci, Tirana The Displacement of Monuments as a Double Loss: Reactions of Ordinary People and of Heroes’ Families to the Displacement of the Monument “Five Heroes of Vig” in the City of Shkoder
Addresses of Editors and Authors Instructions to Authors