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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The new social mouvements : the case of the Bulgarian green movement

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This study examines the Green Movement in Bulgaria (1987-2014) as a typical and specific example of the New Social Movements. It focuses on the interconnection between environmentalism, politics and participation. We present the movement along with its evolution and analyse it on three levels: macro (through its relation to the most important contemporary issues, phenomena and processes); meso (in the national context during the past three generations); and micro (through the prism of individuals and their experience). Our general approach is interdisciplinary, combining qualitative, comparative and quantitative methods. Bulgaria’s green movement is a citizen and political movement of a new type. In the context of the New Social Movements, it is an actor of challenging the status quo; a moral corrective of the power, which implements a genuine ‘citizen environmental politics.’ Secondly, it introduces and fosters New Culture and New Politics based on a novel set of values, practices and behavioural models: one where the individual is essential. Thirdly, it is one of the pillars of Bulgarian civil society, a key factor in democratizing the socio-political life. Last but not least, it is a vehicle of an Eco-humanism originating in the specific environment that gave birth to the citizens’ movements in Eastern Europe under the totalitarian regimes and during the Democratic Transition. It also embodies a specific national attitude towards nature, traditionally stemming from peculiarities of Bulgarian culture.