Rampant Development in a Park of the People: Save Pirin and Lessons in the Resistance against Neoliberalism

Abstract: Understanding neoliberalism as a many-headed heterogenous global tendency, this thesis aims to investigate, analyse and gather lessons in the global resistance against it. It is particularly focused on Pirin National Park in Bulgaria, where government changes to its management and development have sparked year-long protests. I ask how neoliberalism manifests itself in Bulgarian environmentalism and how and why protesters exercise their democratic right to contest Bulgaria’s future through the politicisation of a national park. Speaking in the vein of political ecology, I bring together theories on neoliberalism, environmentalism and conservation in order to conceptualise and outline the contours of an environmental resistance to neoliberalism in Bulgaria. I find that the campaign articulates its claims in the realm of legality and doesn’t engage with the idea of neoliberalism or its ideology. This is a result of the historical, social and political context in Bulgaria. In conclusion, I argue that the complex ripples caused by such a movement, open the possibility for both radical and reformist changes. Entertaining the idea that neoliberalism is variegated, imply that its resistance is too, and cases such as these are not black and white.