Outclassed by Former Outcasts: Petty Trading in Varna

Abstract

People caught in circumstances of social upheaval differ in the ways in which they adjust to instability and change. Occasionally individuals at less privileged socioeconomic levels engage in socially devalued practices such as the small‐scale trading enterprises that have been degraded ideologically during 45 years of communist rule in Bulgaria. In this article we explore the ways in which people adjust to change by examining ethnographically the practice of trader tourism in Bulgaria. We argue that such an examination supports a rethinking of the concept of boundaries, if boundaries are fluid sets of constraints that individuals negotiate when reacting to monumental stress. Specifically, we consider the reactions of population groups within Bulgaria to the post‐1989 economic crisis. We also suggest that members of each group react in group‐specific strategies of temporary inclusion, permanent inclusion, and exclusion , [economic anthropology, survival strategies, markets and trader tourism, capitalism con. communism, Roma/Indo‐Roma/Gypsies, Eastern Europe/Balkan/Bulgaria, transition/boundaries]