Folklore and Dynamics of Identities in United Europe – the case of Bulgaria and Estonia

Folklore and heritage research are key components of Estonian and Bulgarian culture and society from both the point of view: of cultural development as well as developing of the national sciences. They are also very important in the context of the EU-membership of both states. The position of "New European states" of Bulgaria and Estonia determinate dynamics of the process of national and European identification, logic, symbols and forms of their manifestation. The focus of the research of the work group has been transmitted to the research of lore culture in environment of open society. The purpose of the Bulgarian-Estonian research teams is to find out the impact factors/initiating factors of folklore (expressions, narratives, prejudices, identities and myths) that lead to the emergence of some and extinction of others. In other words, continuity, discretion and instigating impulses are studied. Folklore circulates in both formal and informal socio-cultural groups, which leads to the question about cohesion and humanity as creators of social and cultural capital, factors preventing (cultural) conflicts and increasing tolerance in multicultural and traditional settings. Consequently, changes in identities, and in several sub-genres of folklore as expression of intangible cultural treasures, and activity practice are studied in both communities. One part of the common-study will be in-depth folkloristic research, that has an important role in revealing its forgotten parts to the nation and keeping alive the actively used parts, in helping orient in our own culture and global tendencies, their intermingling, and keeping a course on valuing general human tendencies. In an information society, there is acute need for complex electronic servicing systems; adding these to state culture data corpora, folklore among others, is a normal tendency in both Estonian and Bulgarian society that are members of e-republic.

Activities