BULGARIA – Sofia Platform Foundation (Sofia / Bulgaria)
Sofia Platform was founded in 2013. Two strands characterize the work of the NGO: Through historical-political education on wheels, Sofia Platform pursues the goal of carrying political education work in Bulgaria, especially in regions outside the capital, in order to promote a democratic culture and the examination of the communist past. In 2018, 500 students, 120 teachers and 300 citizens in 21 Bulgarian cities were involved (http://sofiaplatform.org/an-incredible-year-comes-to-an-end/). In addition, Sofia Platform is actively involved in the identity debate, which the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are grappling with with transition experiences. Specifically, it is about the questions: Who are we and why are we how we are? Does the state of the current political culture have anything to do with the lack of coming to terms with the communist past, with the experiences during the transition or with the current democratic challenges? Sofia Platform was originally founded as part of the events around the Arab Spring in order to support countries in transition phases through their own experiences and lessons learned. Since 2014, the focus has been on the question of how the lack of addressing the transition affects the current social and political situation in Bulgaria. Sofia Platform has a large network of national and international experts in formal and non-formal political education, such as historians, teachers and cultural workers, and is part of Networking European Citizenship Education (NECE) and Networking Arab Civic Education (NACE).
The workshop explores the way the generation of transition understands the notion of “otherness” and how their current perception has been influenced by the process of transition towards democracy in the post-communist space. The participants present the results of a small scale study on the topic, conducted in several countries from Eastern and Central Europe. […]
Communism and its long shadows Bulgaria embarked on the path to transition towards democracy on 10 November 1989 when the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party relieved Todor Zhivkov of his duties as a Secretary General of the Party and as a Head of State. After almost half a century of authoritarianism, the political
Bulgaria: Remembrance versus ignorance Read More »
OTHERNESS THROUGH THE EYES OF THE GENERATION OF TRANSITION IN BULGARIA The biggest and arguably most important group of people in Bulgaria today is the so called “generation of transition”. Those are the individuals, born between the late 1960s/early1970s and 1989. They are currently taking most important decisions and serve as a driver in today’s
Bulgaria and the issue of “Otherness” Read More »
