Title: Managing invisibility : dissimulation and identity maintenance among Alevi Bulgarian Turks /
Authors: Sözer, Hande.
Year: 2014
Subjects: Aliani (Bulgarian people) Ethnic identity.; Ethnic relations Bulgaria.; Ethnic relations Turkey.; Religious minorities Bulgaria.; Religious minorities Turkey.; Ethnic relations; Bulgaria Ethnic relations.; Turkey Ethnic relations.
Abstract: Sözer examines complicated invisibilities of Alevi Bulgarian Turks, a double-minority which faces structural discrimination in Bulgaria and Turkey. While the literature portrays minorities visibility as a requirement for their empowerment or a source of their surveillance, the book argues that for such minorities what matters is their control over their own visibility. To make this point, it focuses on the concept protective dissimulation, a strategy of self-imposed invisibility. It discusses cases indicating Alevi Bulgarian Turks strategies of dealing with historically changing majorities in their larger societies and argues that dissimulation actually reinforces the intergroup distinctions for the minoritys members. The data for the book was gathered during 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Bulgaria and Turkey.
Contents: Acknowledgments -- List of maps -- List of abbreviations -- Paradoxical invisibility : fortifying invisibility for empowerment in the face of disempowering structural invisibilities -- Open methods for researching hidden populations : epistemological and ethical issues -- Dissimulation : retaining minority identity while pretending to be part of the majority -- Alevi Bulgarian Trks' self-perceptions of the alevi ways : "the path is one; while practices are a thousand and one" -- Dissimilation and assimilation -- Conclusion -- Appendix a -- Bibliography -- Index.