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The purpose of this paper is to identify the attitudes of Bulgarians towards country’s historical monuments, communist heritage, communist heritage tourism and their willingness to participate in communist heritage trips.

The sample includes 359 respondents recruited via an online survey. Mann-Whitney U-test is used to identify the differences in the respondents’ attitudes towards communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria on the basis of their age, gender, frequency of visit to historical monuments, attitudes towards country’s communist past, prior visit to, familiarity with and attitude towards communist monuments and identification of communist monuments with country’s heritage.

The respondents who visited historical monuments more frequently, had more positive attitudes towards communist past of the country and its communist monuments, those who had visited and were very familiar with the communist monuments were more supportive towards donating money for the restoration of communist monuments and their inclusion in tourism supply.

The paper reveals that domestic communist heritage tourism demand exists in Bulgaria and tour operators need to focus on including communist heritage in tourism supply.

Communist heritage is controversial and different social groups perceive it differently, depending on their attitudes towards communism as a political, economic and social system.

The paper compares the attitudes towards historical and communist monuments and revealed that communist monuments received less support for inclusion in tourism supply than historical monuments; the respondents were less inclined to participate in trips to them and to donate money for their restoration.

The very headline of this presentation hints at least two things. First, what is meant is the history of American sociology, though it is some what awkward to say so outright. Second, the history of American sociology is accomplished, in an impor tant sense, but one should not say that so out‐right, either. In philosophy, as Wittgenstein advised, whereof we can not speak, thereof we must be silent. A different rule reigns in sociology: whereof we can hint at, thereof we must prove. My first task, there fore, is to prove that no matter how embarrassing it may seem one canspeak of a his tory of American sociology after all. My second task is to prove that it has already been on a course of development specifically characteristic of it. And, finally, my last point will be that this specific course is brought to its desired end. Every thing in its own time. Talking about the history of American sociology is extremely risky. But it is the risk that it makes it worth trying. Part of the risk stems from the issue if there is a history of sociology at all, as well as from the issue if there is American sociology in the proper sense of the word. Apart from this, there is the consideration that it may be the American nature proper of that sociology that makes it the least likely to have its own history. First things first.

The history of Bulgarian librarianship comprises a history of survival under change imposed by foreign rule. This chapter traces the historical development of Bulgarian libraries and LIS education through the lens of Bulgarian history. Part I presents an overview of Bulgarian history, focusing on four dramatic epochs. During Ottoman rule (1393–1878), Bulgarian libraries survived by hiding. The second epoch, European intervention, Russian, occurred under the Austro-Hungarian, and German rule (1878–1944). Bulgarian LIS survived by adopting European practices and the German academic model of library education. The third epoch, Soviet rule (1944–1989), saw a massive suppression of information, Bulgarian libraries survived by maintaining an undercurrent of dissent. The fourth epoch began in 1989 with the onset of democratic reforms. Bulgarian librarianship survived the financial crisis and anarchy of that epoch by adopting foreign practices and establishing partnerships with foreign library institutions. Part II describes agents of change acting within the Bulgarian LIS field during the radical change from Soviet to democratic rule. The change agents included the formation of a union, cooperation among Bulgarian libraries, and international cooperation with Western institutions.

Research for this chapter incorporated literature reviews, surveys of accredited Bulgarian LIS programs, interviews with Bulgarian and American LIS professionals, and bibliometric analysis of Bulgarian publications.

This chapter aims to address the question of the evolution of economists’s reception of Marxism in France, and thus to complete the more general history of the development of Marxism among French academics. To do so, we follow the relationship to Marx’s work of the economist François Perroux, a priori typical of the reversal reception of Marxist ideas in the 1950s, moving from open hostility to enthusiasm. Indeed, an incisive critic of Marx’s writings before the war, then head of the scientific institution of the Vichy regime, Perroux became in the postwar period a leading figure in the diffusion of Marx’s ideas in France. He founded the ISMEA (Institute of Mathematical and Applied Economic Sciences) which published the journal Études de marxologie, and eventually penned the preface to Marx’s economic works in 1963 for the Pléiade. By following this sinuous path, we show that the way Perroux related to Marx’s work helps us shed light on the various shifts in Perroux’s relationship to the science and politics of his time.

The paper is making a preliminary evaluation of dark tourism potential in Bulgaria. Dark tourism is underestimated research topic in Bulgaria – a country with long and rich cultural heritage, belonging to orthodox religion, with ambiguous impacts from the communist/socialist political regime and nowadays being a typical destination for mass and 3 “S” (sun, sand, sea) tourism. The research topic is approached by starting with an inventory and classification of the main tourist attractions/sites for dark tourism according to the most widely applicable theoretical typologies, inclusively their territorial density, cities location, authenticity and commercialization. The general counterpoint is the non-western approach and the hypothesis that dark places/attractions can be explored as potential tourist resources, diversifying the cities destination supply. The places related to death within the death-tourism framework are explored within the urban landscape. The research applies supply-demand approach and includes semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders from the supply side and a questionnaire accessing the tourist’s perspective and readiness from the demand side. Special attentions is given to the cities as concentrating the major part of the dark sites/attractions in the country, being at the same time integral part of the public areas and urban landscape, with special designation and/or combination of additional recreational functions. The data and results from the conducted research revealed that dark tourism in Bulgaria, in the narrowest sense is relatively unknown, unexplored type of tourism, difficult to distinguish and overlapping with other types of tourism mainly in the cities. The paper also raises the discussion about the necessity to extend the dark tourism research in the cities, taking into account the non-western approach and cultural sensitiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The methodology of the research, in its nature, is purely qualitative, widest and most applicable (Biran A., Hyde K., 2013), (Wight, 2006) (Light, 2017) and follows two main stages: inventory, classification and potential of the dark tourism sites/attractions in Bulgaria and supply-demand approach for pilot exploratory study of the reediness of the suppliers and main stakeholders from one side, and the tourist’s perceptions from other side.

The data and results from the conducted research revealed that dark tourism in the narrowest sense in Bulgaria is relatively unknown, unexplored type of tourism, difficult to distinguish and overlapping with other types of tourism mainly in the cities. The findings challenge the predominant understanding of dark tourism typology, spectrum, and type of places/attractions (Light, 2017). Within the tourism-death relationship framework in the non-western approach with narrow focus in Bulgaria as research area, the author can confirm that the concept of dark tourism research should be extended taking into account the religion (relationship to death), historical development and political regime. The results obtained clearly show that the main difference from the western approach lies in on completely different conceptual basis, which differs from the concept of dark tourism. Tourism is mostly linked with recreation, leisure, and entertainment, while the dark places/sites related to death and suffer are mostly linked to religion, historical or political heritage. Besides being different both create and conduct to a behavior and visit of such places with deserved respect, honor and part of national identity and culture.

The study’s focus is narrow and limited at national level as part of “eastern” (non-western) context of tourism-death relationship framework. The findings resulted from pilot exploratory study provide theoretical and practical insights into understanding of dark tourism and its potential development in Bulgaria by considering the availability of dark sites/attractions, supply (readiness of main stakeholders) and demand side (tourist’s perspective). The paper limits the research in the post-modern context stressing on tourism/leisure and commercial use of death as attractions and places. Other limitations are pilot character of the exploratory study and the limited number of respondents.

The paper delivers practical insights into understanding of dark tourism and its potential development in Bulgaria by considering the availability of dark sites/attractions, supply (readiness of main stakeholders) and demand side (tourist’s perspective).

Most of the research in the field of dark tourism as expression of tourism-death relationship framework are concentrated on the “western way of thinking” (Light, 2017, p. 297) covering countries from West Europe, USA, Australia (Foote, 1997), (Bowman M., Pezzullo P., 2010, p. 188). The use of Western frameworks for understanding the tourism-death relationship in other parts of the world and particularly in Bulgaria as Eastern European and orthodox country may not be appropriate. For the specific research area – the case of Bulgaria, theoretically although incorrect, a parallel is possible between the western post-modern secularism and atheism as official communist policy between 1940 and 1990 (Metodiev, 2013). Darkness of sites/attraction identified within the tourism-death relationship and exploitation of the death is seen supporting and commemorating the sacrifice of the “heroes” of the time keeping them “eternally alive” and as symbols, incarnations of the “sacral” political power.