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NUMAN RESOURCES AND
MOBILITY (HRM)
MARIE CURIE ACTIONS
Marie Curie
Conferences and training Courses
Series of events
(SCF)
PART B
SEMIN
B1. Scientific quality of the project “Semiotic
contributions to the minority integration modeling”
Our proposal is
based on the convergence of several important events and tendencies. On one
hand we have a very favorable international situation, seeing Bulgaria next to
its integration to EU; after ’89 in Bulgaria there were no minority conflicts
and violence and at a political level, even in international scale, was
affirmed the expression “Bulgarian ethnic model”; at the same time, though, the
permanent EU monitoring shows very persisting problems with the integration of
the minorities into the social life; there is a situation of peaceful, but
separate co-existence of three major and several marginal ethnic groups,
which as soon as possible should be overcome because represents a source of
unpredictable social tensions, incompatible with the EU standards. On the other
hand during the last three decades semiotics expanded its field of application
over almost all humanities and in several universities in
Our academic
experience and scientific background put us in a very favorable position to
organize and promote the training of young researchers, who will be able in
future to accomplish empirical research and analysis within the minority
communities and thus contribute to the understanding and overcoming of the
problem of the embarrassing ethnic separation in Bulgarian society. This will
be entirely original enterprise because of the unique configuration and
historical course of the ethnic co-existence – the so-called “Bulgarian model”,
equally distant from the multiculturalism of the advanced industrial societies
and the ethnic cleansing in the neighboring countries.
We have already
developed an efficient know-how of the semiotic schools. The
program consists of two parts: 1) theoretical lectures; 2) Workshops,
practical courses, round tables, discussions, interviews and field research.
Usually the mornings are dedicated to the first part. The keynote speakers have
2 mornings (8 academic hours) each to present to the researchers the
theoretical framework and the originality of their contribution to the research
field. The researchers get acquainted and receive handouts with the most
important texts of the keynote speakers, watch multimedia presentations or
video materials.
The afternoons are
dedicated to the training of the practical implementation of the theoretical
models. The forms of the training are different and depend on the individual
experience of the keynote speakers. That’s why we just have listed above the
most frequent forms of training, but the list is open also to new ways of
skills transfer. In the last two days of each school the researchers are doing
a kind of “homework” which is estimated by the keynote speakers.
The conferences are
supposed to be organized 5-6 months from the semiotic schools. Their purpose is
to provide an update of the state of the art of the semiotic research. Part of
the keynote speakers could coincide with those of the semiotic school, as well
as part of the researchers. But the focus here is the acquaintance with the
latest publications and interdisciplinary developments, relevant for the chosen
topic and the overall project orientation – the minority integration models.
The conferences take place both the mornings and the afternoons and they are
divided in various sections. The sections are chaired by the keynote speakers,
and they open them with plenary lectures. Then the researchers present their
papers or accounts of practical experience, if they are result of the
participation to the courses of the semiotic school.
We have chosen
themes for the conferences and the schools which provide a coherent and
complementary scientific content for the whole project. The themes are:
Conference I: Consumer culture and lifestyles in
the minorities.
Conference II: Minorities
and media.
Conference III: Weddings
and other rituals in contemporary minority groups.
Semiotic school I: Education and social adaptation of
minorities.
Semiotic school II: Family culture and minorities.
Semiotic school III: Semiotics of gender.
Our point of
departure is that there are several opposing tendencies about minority
integration, which are well observable in our society today. We grouped these
tendencies in encouraging and discouraging and we dedicated the six events to
them. We qualify as encouraging tendencies
the adoption of the minorities of modern lifestyles, based on the consumer
culture; the increasing presence of minority representatives among the TV and
other celebrities and ethno-specific cultural promotion through media; the slow
but constant process of motivation for education in all levels. As
discouraging tendencies we tried to underline those elements of the minority
lifestyles which are not necessarily negative in themselves, but which
represent a major reason for the mainstream ethnic group to be reluctant of
accepting the cultural difference. Crime is just an effect of the overall
discriminative situation, so we will try to go beyond and examine its origins.
So we will focus our inquiry towards the
identity formation inside the family and the gender inequalities among minority
groups, which on one hand are enforced (as group authenticity) by the hostile
social environment and on the other are the most evident arguments for the
populist “anti-minority” opinions. The problem goes even deeper since some of
the minority family rituals and relations of power are incompatible with the
existing legislation.
With Conference I
we intend to provide the researchers with models and competencies about one of
the most flourishing spheres of semiotic studies – the culture of consumption
and lifestyle sociological segmentation. There should be emphasized those
models of cultural development, which preserves the minority cultural identity,
but not as an imperative appurtenance, but as a freely chosen lifestyle. This
shift should be studied very carefully because it seems that it is the only way
to achieve a multicultural liberal community, where the cultural differences
are considered a gain for the lifestyle perspectives and not inherited
barriers. And also the structure of the interethnic hatreds changes completely
when the groups are formed as free lifestyle choice and not as a compulsory
demographic datum. The list of possible keynote speakers is very large, the
best configuration will be if we involve two representatives of the British
school of cultural studies, one from France, one from Italy (Milano or Torino) and one from
Germany (Berlin or Dortmund).
With Conference
II the researchers will face another crucial perspective of the minority
integration process – the use of media. The media are historically affirmed as
the most powerful institution for cultural homogenization. Now this role is
mostly assumed by the state television and radio. In the conference should be
emphasized on those models which examine the involvement of the as much as
possible minority representatives in the electronic media. Complementary part
of the conference should take into consideration the ways in which the minority
groups understand and use media in their everyday life; if there is a unified
model of perception or it is a particular case in each group; whether the
overall influence of media reinforces the authentic identity and the borders
with the mainstream culture or, on the contrary, increases the motivation for
participation of the social life, etc. The invited keynote speakers will be
decided after Conference I and Semiotic school I since the themes are
overlapping.
With Conference
III the researchers will enrich their modeling competence with semiotic and
anthropologic contributions about one of the fundamental rituals in any ethnic
group – the wedding. It is a very important element of the whole of the
community life and often this ritual is the carrier of fundamental shifts of
the individual identity. On the contrary, in the mainstream globalized
societies the wedding is more and more an excess of consumption, entirely in
the logic of the marketing of services. This conference should provide a better
understanding of the positive sides of the minority life.
With Semiotic school I the
researchers will achieve theoretical and practical training, following the
above described model of program. The School entitled “Education and social
adaptation of minorities”, will be a good initial
attempt at contributing to the finding of more relevant answers to the
following questions:
1) What is the degree of correlation
between symbolic (virtual) order and the existing social structure in terms of
various minority types: ethnic, subcultural, religious, according to sexual
orientation etc.
2) Whether (and in what relation to one’s
belonging to a minority group) there is correlation between social
stratification within a nation’s society and the levels of communicative
competence.
3) How minorities regard and interpret the
signs/messages of official government institutions expressed in the laws and
regulations providing access to education for all citizens; are these messages
understood the way institutions expect them to be.
4) How government and educational
institutions regard and interpret signs/messages from minority groups expressed
in the actual response of these groups to laws, regulations and requirements
for the citizens.
5) Is there any specific autonomous system
for gender-based distinction between minority members in terms of education and
social adaptation, and how does it look.
The Semiotic school
II will develop further the training of the researchers, both on
theoretical and practical level, focusing on family culture of the minorities.
More specifically:
1) What is the degree of correlation
between the symbolic (virtual) and the actual family structure as regards the
organization of relations and hierarchies in family decision-making.
2) What are the specific gender-based
responsibilities of minority members in the ‘management’ of sign flows in the
family structure.
3) How minorities regard and interpret
signs/messages from official state (incl. medical) and religious institutions
expressed in laws and regulations on family planning and maintenance; are these
messages understood the way institutions expect them to be.
4) How state and educational institutions
regard and interpret signs/messages from minority groups expressed in the
actual response of these groups to laws, regulations and requirements for the
citizens.
5) What are the signs/messages sent by the
various communities as regards homosexual families and the possibility of
making homosexual marriage legal.
The Semiotic school III will try to
bring the gender discourse into the minority integration case. The following
could represent the main theoretical modules:
1)
Family Culture in Respect of Sex and
Gender
2)
Gender Representations in Ethnic
Minorities
3)
Gender Culture and Sexual Minorities
4)
Legislative Problems and Sexual Minorities
5)
Gender Constructed and Deconstructed
Practical training: Workshop: “Gender and Politics of Transition”
Research
training 1: “Gender Signs in Folk Rituals”
Research
training 2: “Gender in School Education”
B2. Quality of the research training
The
most important part of our proposal is our experience in organizing the
training of young people by distinguished scholars at an international level.
Our semiotic schools were divided in two modules – one dedicated to lessons for
students where our guest lecturers were presenting the basic theory and the
main concepts of their own approach; and a second module, dedicated to various
conferences, workshops, round tables, tests and video and multimedia
demonstrations, where participants were acquainted with the state of the art of
the theory and its application to concrete texts or other cultural and media
events.
This important
know-how could easily be used for the training of the eligible researchers and
it is our firm conviction that the present project on the minority issue will
represent a challenge and improvement for our work. It is within our capacities
to provide also a complementary training in research management and
communication of results, including the new media and forms of data
distribution. The structure of our semiotic schools is well balanced between
the theoretical and practical aspects of the training.
B3. Quality of the host
The New Bulgarian University is a non-governmental non-profit
educational and research institution officially established with an Act of the
Bulgarian Parliament in 1991. In June 2001, NBU received full accreditation for
the maximum period of 5 years. The university’s mission is to be an innovative
and interdisciplinary academic institution, which attracts highly, qualified
scholars in order to maintain and enhance its unique research and teaching
environment. Main research areas of NBU are psychology, cognitive science,
anthropology, archaeology, semiotics, political science, public administration,
music, theatre, and history of culture. The university has collaborative
agreements and joint projects with many European universities and research
centers, including joint research projects within the FP5 and FP6, joint
agreements for ERASMUS-SOCRATES exchange, etc.
The
concept for the creation of Southeast European Centre for Semiotic Studies has
been stated at conferences of the International Association for Semiotic
Studies and at the International Congress of the Balkan Association of Semiotic
Societies.
At a meeting of the
Balkan Association of Semiotic Societies in May, 1998, the necessity of the
opening of a Center for Semiotic Studies with
The South East
European Center for Semiotic Studies at New Bulgarian University has already 11 years of experience in organizing
international semiotic schools and conferences, among which several with
themes very close to the present project: Difference and Identity (2001);
Otherness: Signs, Perception, Representation (1998); Sign Theories and Cultural
Identity (1995). We have permanent contacts with the key figures in the semiotic
field: Eero Tarasti
(Helsinki), Roland Posner (Berlin), Winfried Noeth (Sao Paulo),
The
Center has been prepared the following research projects:
“Homo Balkanicus: signness and cultural
identity”, “The Balkans from the Side of Europe: Mobile European boundaries on
the Balkan map”, “The Image of the ‘Neighbor’ in Bulgarian and Greek Schools”,
“Balkan café”, “East Europe vs. the Balkans: signs of cultural
identity”, “Languages of subcultures” “Signs of European Welfare: Modern
Lifestyles and Traditional Forms of Consumption”, "Tolerance or Violence: Signs of minority
differences in Europe.” “Creative and
Performing Arts in the Community”.
The EFSS
is held annually since 1995 and is aimed at establishing useful contacts
between students in semiotics, as well as in other scientific domains with
relevant interests, and outstanding researchers in the field of semiotics. The
center has organized 11 Early Fall School in Semiotics with total 70
guest-lecturers, more than 100 students form abroad and more than 250 students
form Bulgaria attended these events.
Director of the Southeast European Centre for Semiotic
Studies is prof. Maria Popova,
D. Sc.
Name: Prof. Maria Nikolova
Popova, D.Sc.
Date of Birth: 20 November
1938
Address: 41a, Evlogi Georgiev blvd.
Phone: +359
2 989 55 75
mobile: +359
88 8 605 497
E-mail: mpopova@nbu.bg
Education:
- Doctor of technical sciences
- Professor
- MA, Master thesis on Radio-electronics, Technical University, Sofia
Current place of work: New
Scientific interests: Culture, semiotics and communication
Experience:
Lecturer at
Selected publications:
Books:
“Semiotics and Communication”, NBU 2005
“The Precise Methods and the Creation/Audience Relation”, Sofia, 1984
“Psychological and cultural aspects of speech communication”,
“Sonographische Untersuchungen
der Greisenstimme”, VEB – Thieme Verlag,
Papers:
“Semiotics, Communication, Reality”, NBU 2003
“Hierarchy in semiotics”, Semiotishe Berichte, 4, Vienna, 1989;
“The political symbolism of the communist party and the oppositional
coalition in Bulgaria”, IASS – Semiotica, N.Y., 1992;
“Model of the Interpersonal Communicative Process in Methodology of
Mathematical Modeling”, Sofia, 1992;
“The Meaning of Cultural Symbolism in the Psychological Paradigm”, Semiotika 97 – 314, 1993, 3;
“Homo Balkanicus – The Semiotic approach in
comparative analysis”, NBU, Sofia, 1994
Membership:
Bulgarian Semiotic Society
IASS – International Association of semiotic researches
BASS – Balkan Association of Semiotic Societies
All project events will
take place in Bulgaria. Annual inflation in
Four of the events will
be held in
Hotel Flagman is
located near the beach and has 10 luxury apartments (the price for an apartment
is 51 ˆ per night), 10 apartments (43 ˆ per night), 12 double rooms (30 ˆ per
night) and 22 rooms with 2+1 beds (40 ˆ per night). The hotel has conference hall
(rental price is 50 ˆ per day) with 80 places, restaurant with 230 places (15 ˆ
full board per day), day bar, currency exchange and fitness.
One conference will be held at the “Smoljan” hotel in town of Smoljan,
Bulgaria (http://www.rozhen.com/bg/places/smolian.php).
The region is situated 250 km southeast of the capital of Bulgaria,
Sofia. The town is
close to the winter center Pamporovo. The price of the
bus ticket from Sofia to Smoljan and back is approximately 40 ˆ per person.
Hotel Smoljan has 12 single rooms (The price of room is 14 ˆ per night), 22
double rooms (20 ˆ per night) and 4 apartments (40 ˆ per night). It also has
conference hall (rental price is 50 ˆ per day), restaurant (15 ˆ full board per
day) and day bar. The hotel is situated at the town’s center.
One conference will be held at NBU (www.nbu.bg) in
The participants in the event will use the university restaurant “Artes”.
The price for full board per day is approximately 20 ˆ per person.
B4 Management and feasibility
B4.1 Organizational management
Management structure
The Scientific Committee will
include 5 members of the Board of the Southeast European Center for Semiotic
Studies. The Committee will consider all application materials and essays in
order to select the best eligible researchers. The Committee will also be
responsible for all aspects (particularly related to the financial part) of the
proposal. Project coordinator will be Prof. Maria Popova,
D. Sc., who will be responsible for the scientific part of the project, as well
as for the management and financial implementation of the project. The project
coordinator will supervise all event coordinators and the secretariat. Event
coordinators will be responsible for the scientific value of each event, as
well as for the financial aspect of the event. The secretariat (2 project
assistants) will support the project coordinator in the organization and
management, as well as the event coordinators in their daily duties. They will also
be responsible for secretarial service and supply for the project.
All available resources of NBU
will be used to support the events in the project – i.e. in the project will be
used overhead projectors, multimedia projectors and all other necessary
technical equipment.
The proposal comprises 3
conferences and 3 Early Fall Schools. The proposed topics of each event are
strongly related to the main topic of the proposal. In one conference 5 keynote
speakers and 40 eligible researchers (approximately 12 eligible researchers
from Bulgaria, 20 eligible researchers from member states and 8 eligible
researchers from third countries per event) will take part. In one Early Fall School
6 keynote speakers and 54 eligible researchers (approximately 16 eligible
researchers from Bulgaria, 30 eligible researchers from member states and 8
eligible researchers from third countries per event) will take part. Please,
note that several keynote speakers and/or eligible researchers may take part in
two or more events in the series.
The duration of the project is
30 months – approximately 2 events annually. All six events are related and
will study all aspects of minority life and problems. All event coordinators
will be in connection with the project coordinator to synchronize all duties
for the implementation of the project, as well as with the secretariat.
B4.2. Publicity and selection
We will provide publicity of
the events by using the website of NBU (http://www.nbu.bg) and the website of
the International Association for Semiotic Studies (http://www.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/AIS/)
for each particular event. We will also prepare advertising materials and brochures
of the project and for each event individually. All eligible
researchers will enjoy their participation in the events due to the full grants
available and the good material environment at NBU, as well as the location of
hotel Flagman in Sozopol and hotel Smoljan in Smoljan. We will disseminate all
necessary information via Internet, e-mail, and regular mail. Candidates will
receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national
origin, disability, age, or sexual orientation. At least 40% of project
participants will be women.
All applications
will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee and only a limited number of
eligible researchers will be selected to take part in project events. The
selection will be based on scientific research achievements and publications featuring
the topic of each particular event. As for young eligible researchers, they
will be selected on the basis of essays discussing the minority problems. The
emphasis will be on their practical experience in field research and the number
of publications on project topics.
B4.3 Dissemination
All available ways for
dissemination of project events and proceedings will be used. We will launch an
Internet forum on the NBU website available to anyone interested in discussing
any problem related the project topics. At the same time we will use the NBU
and the IASS websites to publish on-line materials, the most interesting and
useful results as conclusions and decisions from all events of the series, as
well as proceedings. After each event the materials will be published in a
separate volume in the collection. We also will send the materials and
proceedings to the members of Bulgarian Parliament and the Bulgarian Government
in order to attract their attention to the problems of minorities and the best
solutions for them. This will be very important as regards Bulgarian future in
EU.
B4.4 Financial management
A contribution from the EU is
requested to cover the living and travel allowances of the eligible researchers.
The requested participation fee is 100 ˆ per eligible researcher. The participation
fee will cover printed materials for each event and 2 coffee breaks per day.
Project budget:
Number of participants: 1
Location of participants: Bulgaria
Project duration: 30 months
Number of conferences: 3
Number of training courses 3 (3 Early Fall Schools)
Number of eligible event participants in group 1: 141
Number of eligible event participants in group 2: 141
Number of eligible event participants in group 3: 0
Total number of event participants: 315
Participation fee according to publicized rates: 100
ˆ
Requested contribution to participation fee: 28200
ˆ
Total organizational costs: 84677 ˆ
The organizational costs will cover:
- Invitation and participation of keynote speakers - 35577 ˆ
- Proceedings of each event - 9000
ˆ
- Rental of venue and translators’ outfit 16550 ˆ
- Translator 9450
ˆ
- Rental of bus for city transport (only for
- Event secretariat and materials, incl. training materials 8000
ˆ
- Publicity 2000
ˆ
- Laptop needed to keep the documents
for each event and for multimedia presentations 1800 ˆ
- Digital camera needed for taking
pictures and advertising material for dissemination of the events
300 ˆ
- web-design and Internet forum
1000 ˆ
B5. Added value to the Community and relevance to the objectives of the
action
All the events, organized in the project “Semiotic contributions to the minority
integration modeling” will be of significant value in their attempt to provide
solutions for one of the main European and International socio-political
problems. Such events are especially relevant for the Balkan region, where minority
problems inherent to the overall historical development. Bulgarian and Balkan
societies are in special need of understanding minority problems of different
kinds for their involvement in social and political values of United Europe. On
the other hand, these scientific events will be of great relevance to public
interest in the fields of ethnic, gender, language and cultural minorities and
will certainly influence community policies in better education and adaptation
of the minorities.
The
proposed research project is of great importance for the so-called social,
ethnic, gender and personal identification and self-identification as a basis
for minority social, cultural and financial status in modern community.
Semiotic
approach applied to minority problems is inter- and
multi-disciplinary and will provoke large number of scholars from
different fields of research and will spread public interest in society.
Perhaps
the problems of minorities are among the most apparent ones, but from semiotic
point of view they can be seen (and considered) in the more general frame of
the problems of language, cultural, market and economic diversities in
establishing the New Europe, and last but not least – the specificity of the mental
“picture of the world” that different communities have.
Training
courses under the project will involve early stage researchers and more
experienced ones from different fields of interest. This is one of the easiest ways
to influence them to partake in democratic European values. Such courses will present
real opportunities for scientific and cultural exchange and cooperation between,
on one hand, early stage and more experienced researchers, and on the other
hand, keynote speakers from European countries.
The
problem of gender minorities is presented as a special part of this project,
but not only as a research problem. One of its main purposes is to involve
women and attract women’s interest and provoke their activities in gender
research with effect in the real life of modern society.
The problems of minorities in Europe have their own ethnic, religious,
cultural and geopolitical specificities and long history of establishment,
original development and periods of crucial crises. For these reasons European
problems are of great importance for researchers. The project on minorities
deals with social and personal difficulties on the basis of community differences
and without any doubt Europe and especially the Balkans provide models of
global understanding. Solution to these problems (to any extent), with the corresponding
social and cultural effects, will offer one more model, that of New United
Europe. It will be very interesting to develop
a modeling system – the culture and its signs – which is the objective of the
Project “Semiotic
contributions to the minority integration modeling” and the related events.
B6. Previous proposals and contracts
There are no any previous
proposals and/or contracts.
B7. Other issues
The proposed project is not
associated with any ethical or safety issues.
Table A.
|
Does your proposed research raise sensitive ethical questions related to: |
Yes |
no |
|
- Human being |
|
x |
|
- Human biological samples |
|
x |
|
- Personal data (whether
identified by name or not) |
|
x |
|
- Genetic information |
|
x |
|
- Animals |
|
x |
Table B.
|
Confirmation: the proposed
research involves none |
yes |
no |
|
of the issues listed in
Table B |
x |
|
NUMAN RESOURCES AND
MOBILITY (HRM)
ACTIVITY
MARIE CURIE ACTIONS
Marie Curie
Conferences and training Courses
Series of events
(SCF)
PART B
SEMIN
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