The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies) [Paperback]

Kristen Ghodsee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2005 | Series: Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Red Riviera explores gendered inequalities in Bulgaria’s postsocialist tourist industry, focusing on the forces and factors that have enabled women, in particular, to dominate this sector. Kristen Ghodsee’s well-written study adds provocatively to debates on cultural capital and capitalism, gender, and postsocialist transformation.”—Gail Kligman, coauthor of The Politics of Gender after Socialism

“This engaging book draws readers into unfamiliar tourist playgrounds in Bulgaria. Kristen Ghodsee deftly intertwines ethnographies with widely held assumptions about how the transition from communism to the free market affected the economy, the society, and the people. Tourism has rewarded the highly educated women who dominate the industry. She further questions the relevance of women’s NGOs which emphasize non-economic issues rather than focusing on education and jobs.”—Irene Tinker, author of Street Foods: Urban Food and Employment in Developing Countries

“Where are the women in globalized tourism? On the Bulgarian beach front! Yes, the Bulgarian beach front. The Red Riviera takes us along on the surprising journeys that thirty-something, orange-haired Desi and the younger Svetla are navigating as they steer their ways through the postsocialist, capitalist market tourism economy. Suddenly we see waitressing as a privileged job; we see university entries shrinking; we see the whole meaning of being a woman in a tourism job changing. This is an engaging, smart, and feminist book.”—Cynthia Enloe, author of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire

About the Author

Kristen Ghodsee is the John S. Osterwies Associate Professor in Gender and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (November 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822336626
• ISBN-13: 978-0822336624
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #810,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kristen Ghodsee has her Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley and is the Director and John S. Osterweis Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College. She is the author of two books and numerous articles on gender, postsocialism, civil society and Eastern Europe. She is the recipient of national fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Fulbright, the National Council on Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER), the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Ghodsee has also won residential research fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, the Max Planck Institute in Rostock, Germany, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great story- not just for academic reading!, May 28, 2006

By 

Claudia Copeland (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies) (Paperback)

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!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for teaching undergrads about postsocialism!, March 5, 2006

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A Reader "A Reader" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies) (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what an ethnography should look like, November 15, 2009

By 

Almelle (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies) (Paperback)

I read this book while conducting a major literature review. And when I say I read this, I mean I actually read it. No skimming, no first and last chapter, no hurrying... just enjoyment, thoughtful reflection, and slow digesting. It was that good, especially in comparison to most other academic ethnographies out there!

Briefly, Kristen Ghodsee looks at how women in Bulgaria have dealt with the transition from socialism to capitalism. Through stories of women working in the European tourism industry, she suggests that access to cultural capital (primarily skills and education) became more important in determining the success of women in the transition than access to money or networks. One of the areas women worked in during Soviet times was tourism, and many women continue to work in tourism now. She indicates that there is a sharp difference between women who have used their portfolio of capital successfully in the transition, and women who have not, but that the cultural capital developed during socialism matters. She further suggests that NGOs and feminists advocating for non-economic rights have not helped Bulgarian women get what they want -- economic access through education and further skills building.

I truly enjoyed the experience of reading this book - from humorous dialogue, to case stories of young and middle-aged women in the Bulgarian tourist industry, to a thoughtful history of Soviet tourism and the realities of the post-Soviet Eastern European economy. Ghodsee has done a great job in writing this, and I highly recommend it. This is what an ethnography should look like!