YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, ARTSAKHPRESS. Shortly before New Year’s, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, published a book titled “Disasters and the Quality of Life” by a team from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFEM-BAS), the Institute said on its website.
The publisher says the book “analyses unique empirical data from countries hit by floods, earthquakes, bio-infections (including COVID-19), technological catastrophes, migrations and mobilities, in order to provide a model of ethnological research into various types of disasters. Special attention is given to their role in the communities’ quality of life”.
The book is based on research under an IEFEM-BAS project titled “Local Disasters and the Quality of Life: Cultural Strategies in Overcoming Natural, Technological and Biological Catastrophes”, funded by the National Science Fund – Ministry of Education and Science. Assoc. Prof. Elya Tzaneva is Editor-in-Chief, and Assoc. Prof. Mila Maeva and Asst. Prof. Yelis Erolova are on the editorial team.
The book features 13 articles by 17 scholars from Bulgaria and China, most of them anthropologists, but also by sociologists, philosophers and economists. Part One focuses on four local disasters that struck areas in Bulgaria in the 2011-2017 period: the earthquake in Pernik in 2012 (a natural disaster); the flood and landslide in the village of Asparuhovo in 2014 (a natural disaster involving the human factor); the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the Strandzha Mountain in 2011 (a biological disaster); and the explosion in the village of Hitrino in 2016 (a technological disaster). The scholars analyse the impact on pensioners; children/students; disabled/sick people; ethnic minority communities (Roma, Turks); and unemployed people.
Part Two includes contributions from Chinese scholars. It shows how catastrophes and disasters challenge societies to develop a methodology and activate specific resources to adapt and cope with crises from an environmental, social and ideological perspective.
Part Three throws a bridge to the current problems stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The book is the fourth in a series of publications about disasters and their impact on human groups and communities in different countries. All four books have been initiated, prepared and implemented by Bulgarian ethnologists.
