“Privileged” and “deprived” in the Rhodopes: how Local Inhabitants become Activists Fighting to Keep Small Mountain Communities Alive

Abstract

The presented research focuses on the ways people from small village communities in the Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria) have united to take measures against the realization of private business interests and investments – the opening of quarries for the extraction of marble and ballast that would disrupt the established regimes of environmental protection in the region of the Middle Rhodopes - these are the protected areas included in the UNESCO biosphere reserve Chervenata sténa (Red wall) and the ecological network “Natura 2000”. The text is focused on people’s strategies of coping with change and uncertainty such as protests and social resistance movements that mobilize public support through social, kinship and political networks. The following issues are discussed in more detail: the emergence of new political, cultural, and ecological awareness of mountain communities fighting against the environmental exploitation of their territories; the role of the new inhabitants and their families in preserving local livelihoods and traditions, and the many forms of negotiation on how living together, including different visions and even conflicts on practices of resource management, sustainability, and heritage.