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The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (Next Wave: New Directions in Womens Studies) | 
 enlarge | Author: Kristen Ghodsee
Creators: Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan, Robyn Wiegman
Publisher: Duke University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 540752
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0822336626
Dewey Decimal Number: 331.409499
EAN: 9780822336624
ASIN: 0822336626
Publication Date: 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Crisp, clean, unread & unmarked paperback with light shelfwear to the covers - NICE!
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Product Description
This compelling ethnography of women working in Bulgaria’s popular sea and ski resorts challenges the idea that women have consistently fared worse than men in Eastern Europe’s transition from socialism to a market economy. For decades western European tourists have flocked to Bulgaria’s beautiful beaches and mountains; tourism is today one of the few successful?and expanding?sectors of the country’s economy. Even at the highest levels of management, employment in the tourism industry has long been dominated by women. Kristen Ghodsee explains why this is and how women working in the industry have successfully negotiated their way through Bulgaria’s capitalist transformation while the fortunes of most of the population have plummeted. She highlights how, prior to 1989, the communist planners sought to create full employment for all at the same time that they steered women into the service sector. The women given jobs in tourism obtained higher educations, foreign language skills, and experiences working with Westerners, all of which positioned them to take advantage of the institutional changes eventually brought about by privatization.Interspersed throughout The Red Riviera are vivid examinations of the lives of Bulgarian women, including a waitress, a tour operator, a chef, a maid, a receptionist, and a travel agent. Through these women’s stories, Ghodsee describes their employment prior to 1989 and after. She considers the postsocialist forces that have shaped the tourist industry over the past fifteen years: the emergence of a new democratic state, the small but increasing interest of foreign investors and transnational corporations, and the proliferation of ngos. Ghodsee suggests that many of the ngos, by insisting that Bulgarian women are necessarily disenfranchised, ignore their significant professional successes.
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| Customer Reviews:
Great story- not just for academic reading! May 29, 2006
Claudia Copeland (New Orleans, LA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Red Riviera tells the engaging story of an economic, historical, and cultural revolution with a "ground level" focus on the lives of several women working within the tourist industry in Bulgaria. The portraits of these stereotype-defying women reveal a picture of far greater complexity than the statistical studies of the economic outcome of certain populations after the fall of communism. In a uniquely neutral look at life before and after the fall of the state run communist regime in Bulgaria, Ghodsee shines light not only on the good and bad points of communism vs. capitalism, but also on the way that the communist system inadvertently prepared some members of its society (exemplified by these women working in the tourist industry) to thrive after the advent of capitalism, while other members were utterly unprepared for the sudden change in "the rules", and floundered when the communist system that supported them collapsed.
The book is fascinating as a study of the dynamics of the change from communism to capitalism. However, the real beauty of the book is the sheer delight of reading it. Ghodsee maintains the rigor of an academic study but writes with the clarity and rich descriptiveness of an entertaining work of fiction. The result is a book that races along as if it were a novel- the story of a major economic and cultural revolution, as seen through its focus on the lives of these intriguing women.
In short, highly recommended!
An excellent book for teaching undergrads about postsocialism! March 5, 2006
A Reader
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Red Riviera is a detailed, ethnographically rich study of the transition away from communism in Bulgaria, compellingly told through the eyes of women employed in the tourism industry. The book is short enough to assign for an undergraduate class and is written in a clear and accessible prose that is free from too much academic jargon. At the same time, the arguments advanced in the book are fascinating and controversial enough to inspire interesting and engaged discussions. In addition to exploring the details of the daily lives of men and women experiencing economic transformation, the book deals with how cultural capital gets revalued after socialism, and the relationship between Western feminist NGOs and women's organizing. A very good contribution to the literature of postsocialist cultural studies.
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