Existing Here and There: Imaginary Homeland of Bulgarian Turks

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyse the image of homeland. The study concentrates on the social construction of the homeland image within the framework of Lefebvre’s spatialisation theory, Foucault’s notion of power, and Certeau’s storytelling concept, in order to investigate the case of a group of immigrants who came from Bulgaria to Turkey in 1989. A group of immigrants were interviewed in order to conceive how Bulgarian Turks’ homeland images have been socially constructed. In this work, homeland image is reconceptualised as a mental production process of the relations of individual/natural space, individual/physical space, individual/society, and society/space. The identity of a Bulgarian Turk in Bulgaria is detected as the identification with ethnicity and religion. As one of the components of the imaginary homeland, natural space is examined as a starting point of ‘sense of place’, and a base for physical/architectural and social spaces. Another component, physical/architectural space is investigated as an envelope for spatial practices. It is also undertaken in two different realms as private and public space in regard to society/space relations. Spatial practices which obey the imperatives of power relationships in society and space (in Foucault’s notion), but at the same time transform these power relations (in Certeau’s notion), are also analysed in order to understand the image of homeland. Narrative practices are seen as a key for understanding both the identity and the image of space. It is indicated that the boundaries of the image of homeland cut across the cartographic borders of physical space of Bulgaria and Turkey. © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2013.