Post-Socialist Informality Rural Style: Impressions from Bulgaria
The informality phenomenon is widespread in both rural and urban areas of transitional economies, but most of the current empirical research on informality targets the urban context. The pulse of the rural economy is known to be a slower one. Remoteness,
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Introduction Transition affected both rural and urban areas, but in a different way. After the regime change in Bulgaria, the regional disparities in post-socialist areas increased. It is not uncommon that every area offers a different set of resource endowments and opportunities for economic activities, but the transition diminished the attractiveness of rural areas significantly. In Bulgaria, after joining the European Union, once again the rules changed significantly, with the most important repercussions for rural areas coming from the Common Agricultural Policy. The transition has been a bumpy ride. Today, a quarter of a century after the fall of the communist regime, the majority of one whole generation is looking at the ruins of its lifelong efforts and tries to make sense of the situation. The most pressing problem for rural areas is the lack of employment opportunities. If it is difficult to obtain a waged job, people can attempt to migrate or stay and try to work on their own account. If things go well, they might even create some jobs. Depending on their understanding of the new rules, their life stage, experience, resource endowments and ambitions, rural people
D. Traikova (*) Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies, Halle (Saale), Germany © The Author(s) 2017 A. Polese et al. (eds.), The Informal Economy in Global Perspective, International Political Economy Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40931-3_8
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draft their ‘road maps’ for how to move on with their lives and careers. It is well known that in transitional societies the written rules do not correspond to the lived practices of average people (Williams and Horodnic 2015a, b, c, d). Disappointed and feeling let down by the government, individuals seek to avoid the state and transfer many of their activities into the informal realm (Morris and Polese 2014; Williams and Franic 2015, 2016; Williams et al. 2014, 2015). This chapter contributes to the literature on context-specific research in informal rural entrepreneurship (for reviews, see Williams 2016; Williams and Nadin 2010). This is illustrated with practices for dealing with the post-socialist challenges in rural areas of Bulgaria. The chapter proceeds with a short outline of some peculiarities of Bulgarian rural areas and rural entrepreneurship in particular. Then data and the method are introduced. The heart of the chapter encompasses descriptions of practices of rural entrepreneurs in their effort to take control of their economic faith. Examples for interwoven influences of perceived institutions, locational characteristics and individual preferences illustrate the complexity of the rural informality phenomenon and call for more nuanced quantitative approaches for the future.
Rurality
and Post-Socialism
Rural and urban disparities are not a new issue. Similar to other former communist countries, in Bulgaria, rural outmigration existed long before 1990. At times, it has been also fueled by the ideology of overcoming rural backwardness and
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