Waste as a struggle, waste as a festivity

Current Issues around Waste in  Sofia, Bulgaria

prelegere susţinută de Velislava Petrova, Universitatea din Sofia “Sv. Kliment Ohridski”

Waste and dirt have always followed the human civilization through its history. However, they have just recently become such a complicated topic. What we consider as dirt or waste is a matter of individual category and social convention at the same time and it varies from one historical context to another. What is the most typical and striking about the category, is its ability to forcefully pass through what we consider fixed boundaries: between the individual and the collective, private and public, nature and culture. Narratives on waste have become plural, and garbage itself gets lost within the multiplicity of categories each of them demanding its own approach of dealing with.

Velislava Petrova is an assistant professor in the Department of Theory and History of Culture (Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria). She holds a double PhD (co-tutelle de thèse in Sociology and Anthropology from Paris Descartes University and Sofia University. Her Phd was on informal urban markets and post-socialist transformation and she is currently working on material culture and more specifically on waste and food.