Managing invisibility
Subtitle: dissimulation and identity maintenance among Alevi Bulgarian Turks
By: by Hande Sozer
Series: Balkan studies library -- volume 15
Publisher: Brill; BRILL
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Leiden, the Netherlands
Language: eng
Number of pages: 238
ISBN-13: 9789004279186; 9789004279193
Subjects: Aliani (Bulgarian people); Ethnic identity; Ethnic relations; Religious minorities
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-234) and index.
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgments; title: List of maps; title: List of abbreviations; title: Paradoxical invisibility : fortifying invisibility for empowerment in the face of disempowering structural invisibilities; title: Open methods for researching hidden populations : epistemological and ethical issues; title: Dissimulation : retaining minority identity while pretending to be part of the majority; title: Alevi Bulgarian Trks' self-perceptions of the alevi ways : "the path is one; while practices are a thousand and one"; title: Dissimilation and assimilation; title: Conclusion; title: Appendix a; title: Bibliography; title: Index.