STRATIFICATION, INEQUALITIES AND MOBILITY
The scope of the section is extremely relevant in the light of the goal of “Reducing inequalities” in the National Development Program of Bulgaria 2030. Growing inequalities and the conviction of a lack of justice, the danger of polarization with a weak middle class are a worrying symptom of the state of Bulgarian society, the study of which the efforts of the members of the section are aimed at. The section conducts theoretically oriented internationally comparative empirical studies, based on individual quantitative and qualitative data. We work in constant collaboration with international research networks within the framework of the European Social Survey (ESS), the International Social Research Program (ISSP). An important research focus is on regional inequalities in the Danube region and in South-Eastern Europe. Thematically, the section refers to Research Committee 28 of the International Sociological Association “Social Stratification and Mobility”. The members of the section have a long teaching experience in higher education institutions and offer training to doctoral students in programs in the field of sociology of social stratification, social inequalities and mobility, sociology of gender, regional inequalities, digital inequalities.
Current project
“Digital divide and social inequalities: levels, actors and interactions”; head of research team: Prof. Rumiana Stoilova. This is an interdisciplinary project financed by the National Science Fund under contract КП-06 ПН55/7 from 2021 (2021-2024). The research team includes sociologists, political scientists and PR specialists from IPS, Sofia University, UNWE and Burgas Free University.
The goal of the project is to study the possibilities for extending the benefits of online use in order to improve the life chances of various categories of users and decrease the socio-economic and socio-demographic inequalities through the technological transition to digitalization.
The expected project result is identification, analysis and comprehensive description of the possibilities for decreasing inequalities through the technological transition to digitalization. The team’s aim is to generate new knowledge about the processes and mechanisms of drawing new “offline” benefits from the digital transition; the empirical basis includes focus group discussions, interviews and meetings with stakeholders, and secondary analysis of comparative international data from the European Social Survey and from SHARE.
Contact with the project team: Prof. Rumiana Stoilova; Ch. Assist. Dr. Stefan Markov.