Creating Bicultural Identities: The Role of School-based Bilingual Paraprofessionals in ontemporary Immigrant Accommodation (Two Kansas Case Studies)

This study locates the professional and informal practices of school-based bilingual paraprofessionals (paras) in the context of the larger social phenomenon of acculturation, cultural brokerage, and identity construction. It demonstrates how the paras in two Kansas communities transform an assimilationist mandate into something quite different, the promotion of bicultural identities, as part of a process called “additive biculturalism.” Additive biculturalism incorporates Weiss’s characterization of paras as cultural brokers (1994), but expands upon it significantly. As the first part of additive biculturalism, bilingual paras model and promote bicultural identities among the English-Learner students and parents they work with. As the second part of additive biculturalism, the paras struggle to remove the hierarchic inequality between Anglo and Latino identities so that being bicultural can be a stable and viable status, rather than a transitional, low-status one. The paras can only succeed in promoting two identities if they make both of those identities separately attractive. To support the assertion requires clarification of definitions of cultural brokerage and assimilation (within the context of acculturation) and a review of theories of multiple identity and cultural hierarchies

Tourism and industrial heritage: between local authenticity and community appropriation - The case of S. João da Madeira, Portugal

This doctoral research, within the framework of cultural tourism, focuses on the industrial heritage in the context of an industrialized territory and explores the perceptions of both the local community and the stakeholders that are involved in the planning and implementation of tourism programs. The main goal of this study is to highlight the importance of industrial heritage for tourism, so it analyzes this resource for tourism usage considering the perceptions of authenticity by the local community, particularly the historical and current endogenous resources associated with the industry. To this end, aiming a richer understanding of the research context, a case study approach was used in the municipality of São João da Madeira, northern Portugal, a pioneer destination in the implementation of industrial tourism circuits in national territory, focusing these circuits on heritage, active industry and technology centres. The present research aims to fill the gap of empirical research in cultural and heritage tourism context, specifically industrial heritage tourism, and concerning the community perceptions about their own resource’s authenticity, namely: heritage values, place identity and future behavioural intentions, using both a qualitative and quantitative approaches. The intention is also to explore and understand the key concept of the contribution of industrial tourism circuits to the development and competitiveness of an industrial territory according the stakeholders’ perspective. With this purpose, the main objectives were defined to understand the contribution of industrial tourism circuits to the development and competitiveness of an industrial territory, and to analyse the relationship between industrial heritage values and place identity as antecedents of authenticity perceived by the local community, resulting in community participation ideals and support for tourism development in São João da Madeira. These two objectives have originated four specific goals: 1) to understand the contribution and the role of industrial tourism circuits to the enhancement, value creation, differentiation and development of an industrial territory; 2) to identify the identity elements (tangible and intangible) associated with industry and industrial heritage, those capable of promoting a holistic tourism experience and potentially implemented by the destination; 3) to analyse the role of heritage values and place identity in the authenticity perceived by the local community; and 4) to analyse the importance of authenticity perceived by the local community towards their participation ideals and their support for tourism development. In order to meet these objectives, a mixed methodology was adopted with quantitative and qualitative data collection, these data being analysed, integrated, compared and discussed. This allowed taking advantages of the complementary of using both methodologies, thus improving the validity of the results and successfully addresses the central research questions. For this purpose, in the qualitative methodology, in-depth interviews were applied with 10 direct stakeholders in industrial tourism circuits. As quantitative methodology, online and face-to-face questionnaires were applied to a sample of 389 individuals permanently living in the municipality of São João da Madeira. To answer the first specific objective, it was performed an interpretative analysis based on the interviews transcripts using the Webqda software. The other three specific objectives were also addressed through a quantitative analysis. A conceptual model was tested through the structural equation technique using SPSS Statistics and AMOS. From the interviews analysis it was concluded that the industrial tourism circuits stakeholders try to bring local community and the industrial tourism programmes closer, allowing the resident to participate in tourism activities whenever, due to the activity specificities, it is feasible. However, it was found that the local community has no active voice in the planning and structuring of the programmes, being called only as a consultant of the process. It should also be noted that, in the context of community interpretation, mainly in places of industrial heritage and industry open to visitors, authenticity is an essential element to be considered. It was identified that the residents understand the transformations in their heritage and are interested in preserving both its tangible and intangible elements. It was also found that a diversified tourism offer, based on differentiated industrial resources, promotes local culture and traditions, creates value for the territory, improves the image and encourages the destination sustainability while fostering, albeit indirectly, territorial development. The analysis of the results obtained, established from the eight hypotheses formulated, lead to the conclusion that heritage values and place identity, based on endogenous industrial resources, influence the residents' understanding of their territory as a tourist destination, namely when objective and existential authenticity are considered. Similarly, the results of perceived objective and perceived existential authenticity are positively and significantly correlated with community participation ideals. Also, the perceived objective authenticity proved to have a positive impact on the perception of tourism development, whereas perceived existential authenticity in tourism development perception of proved to be negative and therefore not statistically significant. Based on the results obtained through multiple methods, this research concludes that local people have the capacity, through identity assumption, to confer authenticity to endogenous resources of their territory and can play a crucial role in the decision-making process towards a sustainable tourism development. It is expected that the results of this study contribute to a better understanding of industrial tourism in Portugal with useful practical and theoretical suggestions. The discussion section highlights that the results that contribute theoretically to the deepening of the authenticity concept from the resident's perspective while, in practice, they enable planning and development strategies in industrial tourism destinations, which may, at the same time, be applicable to other community-based cultural contexts.Esta investigación doctoral dentro de la temática del turismo cultural, se centra en el patrimonio industrial en el contexto de un territorio industrializado, y explora las percepciones tanto de la comunidad local como de los agentes implicados en la planificación y ejecución de los programas turísticos. El objetivo principal de este estudio es destacar la importancia del patrimonio industrial para el turismo, por lo que se analiza este recurso para el uso turístico teniendo en cuenta las percepciones de autenticidad por parte de la comunidad local, en particular los recursos endógenos históricos y actuales asociados a la industria. Para ello, con el objetivo de comprender mejor el contexto de la investigación, se utilizó un estudio de caso en el municipio de São João da Madeira, al norte de Portugal, pionero en la implantación de circuitos de turismo industrial en el territorio nacional, sustentados en el patrimonio, la industria activa y los centros tecnológicos. La presente investigación pretende suplir la falta de investigación empírica en el contexto del turismo cultural y patrimonial, más concretamente del turismo de patrimonio industrial, en particular en lo que respecta a las percepciones de una comunidad sobre la autenticidad de sus recursos, a saber: los valores patrimoniales, la identidad del lugar y las futuras intenciones de comportamiento desde un enfoque cualitativo y cuantitativo. También se pretende explorar y comprender un concepto clave que es la contribución de los circuitos de turismo industrial al desarrollo y a la competitividad de un territorio industrial desde la perspectiva de las partes interesadas. Con este fin, se definieron en cuanto a objetivos generales comprender la contribución de los circuitos de turismo industrial al desarrollo y la competitividad de un territorio industrial, y analizar la relación de los valores del patrimonio industrial y de la identidad del lugar como antecedentes de la autenticidad percibida por la comunidad local, teniendo como consecuencia los ideales comunitarios de participación y apoyo al desarrollo del turismo en São João da Madeira. Estos dos objetivos dieron lugar a cuatro objetivos específicos, en particular: 1) comprender la contribución y el papel de los circuitos de turismo industrial en la valorización, la creación de valor, la diferenciación y en el desarrollo de un territorio industrial; 2) identificar los elementos de identidad (tangibles e intangibles) asociados al patrimonio industrial y a la industria, capaces de promover una experiencia turística holística y potencialmente implementada por el destino; 3) analizar el papel del valor patrimonial y de la identidad del lugar en la autenticidad percibida por la comunidad local; 4) analizar la importancia de la autenticidad percibida por la comunidad local en sus ideales comunitarios de participación y en su apoyo al desarrollo turístico. Para cumplir estos objetivos, se adoptó una metodología mixta con la recogida de datos cuantitativos y cualitativos, los datos fueron analizados, integrados, comparados y discutidos. Esto permitió aprovechar la complementariedad del uso de ambas metodologías, mejorando así la validez de los resultados y expone con éxito las preguntas centrales de la investigación. Para ello, en la metodología cualitativa, se aplicaron entrevistas en profundidad a 10 agentes directos de los circuitos de turismo industrial. Como metodología cuantitativa, se aplicaron cuestionarios online y presenciales a una muestra de 389 individuos que residen permanentemente en el municipio de São João da Madeira. Para responder al primer objetivo específico, se realizó realizamos un análisis interpretativo basado en los discursos transcritos de las entrevistas utilizando el programa informático Webqda. También se respondió a los demás tres objetivos específicos mediante un análisis cuantitativo. El modelo conceptual se probó mediante la técnica de ecuaciones estructurales utilizando SPSS Statistics y AMOS. Del análisis de las entrevistas se concluyó que los actores de los circuitos de turismo industrial promueven, en general, un acercamiento entre la comunidad local y los programas de turismo industrial, permitiendo que el residente participe en las actividades turísticas siempre que, por las características de la actividad, sea factible. Sin embargo, se comprobó que la comunidad local no tiene una voz activa en la planificación y estructuración de los programas, siendo llamada sólo como consultora del proceso. También hay que señalar que, en el contexto de la interpretación comunitaria, concretamente en los lugares del patrimonio industrial y de la industria abierta a los visitantes, la autenticidad es un elemento clave que hay que tener en cuenta. Se ha comprobado que los residentes comprenden las transformaciones de su patrimonio y están en preservar tanto el patrimonio material como el inmaterial. Se comprobó que una oferta turística diversificada y basada en recursos industriales diferenciados impulsa la cultura y las tradiciones locales, crea valor para el territorio, mejora la imagen y promueve la sostenibilidad del destino, mientras fomenta, aunque sea indirectamente, el desarrollo territorial. El análisis de los resultados obtenidos, sobre las ocho hipótesis formuladas, permite concluir que los valores patrimoniales y la identidad del lugar, basados en los recursos industriales endógenos, influyen en la percepción que los residentes se forman de su territorio como destino turístico, concretamente cuando se considera la autenticidad objetiva y existencial. De igual modo, los resultados de la percepción de la autenticidad objetiva y existencial están correlacionados positiva y significativamente con los ideales comunitarios de participación. Asimismo, la percepción de la autenticidad objetiva también resultó tener un impacto positivo en la percepción del desarrollo turístico, mientras que la autenticidad existencial en la percepción del desarrollo turístico resultó ser negativa y, por lo tanto, no significativa estadísticamente. Con los resultados obtenidos mediante múltiples métodos, esta investigación concluye que la población local tiene el poder, a través de la asunción de la identidad, de conferir autenticidad a los recursos endógenos de su territorio y puede desempeñar un papel crucial en el proceso de toma de decisiones hacia un desarrollo turístico sostenible. Se espera que los resultados de este estudio contribuyan a una mejor comprensión del turismo industrial en Portugal con sugerencias prácticas y teóricas útiles. El tópico de la discusión destaca resultados que contribuyen teóricamente a la profundización del concepto de autenticidad desde la perspectiva del residente, así como también, en la práctica, posibilitan estrategias de planificación y desarrollo en destinos turísticos industriales, que pueden ser, en paralelo, aplicables a otros contextos culturales de base comunitaria.A presente investigação de doutoramento, inserida na temática do turismo cultural, versa o património industrial em contexto de um território industrializado e explora as perceções, quer da comunidade local, quer dos stakeholders envolvidos no planeamento e execução dos programas turísticos. O principal objetivo deste estudo consiste em evidenciar a importância do património industrial para o turismo, pelo que se analisa esse recurso para usufruto turístico perspetivando as perceções de autenticidade por parte da comunidade local, em particular dos recursos endógenos históricos e atuais associados à indústria. Para tal, objetivando uma compreensão mais rica do contexto da investigação, empregou-se uma abordagem de estudo de caso no município de São João da Madeira, norte de Portugal, local pioneiro na implementação de circuitos de turismo industrial em território nacional, circuitos sustentados no património, na indústria ativa e nos centros tecnológicos. A presente investigação pretende colmatar a carência de investigação empírica em contexto de turismo cultural e patrimonial, mais especificamente na área do turismo de património industrial, em particular no que se refere às perceções de uma comunidade sobre autenticidade dos seus recursos, nomeadamente: os valores patrimoniais, a identidade do lugar e as intenções futuras de comportamento a partir de uma abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa. Também é intenção explorar e compreender um conceito-chave que é o contributo dos circuitos de turismo industrial para o desenvolvimento e competitividade de um território industrial, tendo por base a perspetiva dos stakeholders. Com essa finalidade, definiram-se como objetivos gerais compreender o contributo dos circuitos de turismo industrial para o desenvolvimento e competitividade de um território industrial, e analisar a relação dos valores patrimoniais industriais e da identidade do lugar como antecedentes da autenticidade percebida pela comunidade local, tendo como consequência os ideais comunitários de participação e o apoio ao 9 desenvolvimento turístico em São João da Madeira. Estes dois objetivos originaram em quatro objetivos específicos, nomeadamente: 1) compreender o contributo e o papel dos circuitos de turismo industrial para a valorização, criação de valor, diferenciação e desenvolvimento de um território industrial; 2) Identificar os elementos da identidade (materiais e imateriais) associados ao património industrial e à indústria, capazes de promover uma experiência turística holística e potencialmente implementada pelo destino; 3) analisar o papel do valor patrimonial e da identidade do lugar na autenticidade percebida pela comunidade local; e, 4) Analisar a importância da autenticidade percebida pela comunidade local nos seus ideais comunitários de participação e no seu apoio ao desenvolvimento turístico. Para cumprir com os objetivos adotou-se uma metodologia mista com recolha de dados quantitativos e qualitativos, estes analisados, integrados, comparados e discutidos. Isto permitiu retirar proveito da complementaridade de recorrer a ambas metodologias, e como tal melhorando a validade dos resultados e expondo com sucesso as questões centrais da investigação. Para o efeito, aplicaram-se, na metodologia qualitativa, entrevistas em profundidade junto de 10 intervenientes diretos nos circuitos de turismo industrial. Como metodologia quantitativa foram aplicados questionário online e de forma presencial a uma amostra de 389 indivíduos residentes permanentes no município de São João da Madeira. Para dar resposta ao primeiro objetivo específico, efetuou-se uma análise interpretativa com base nos discursos transcritos das entrevistas recorrendo ao software Webqda. Os restantes três objetivos específicos foram, ainda, respondidos com a análise quantitativa. O modelo concetual sido testado por meio da técnica de equações estruturais com recurso ao SPSS Statistics e ao AMOS. Da análise das entrevistas, conclui-se que os stakeholders dos circuitos de turismo industrial promovem, na generalidade, uma aproximação entre a comunidade local e os programas de turismo industrial, possibilitando ao residente a participação em atividades turísticas sempre que, pelas especificidades próprias da atividade, seja viável. Contudo, aferiu-se que a comunidade local não tem voz ativa no planeamento e na estruturação dos programas, sendo apenas chamada para o processo enquanto consultora. De referir ainda que, no contexto de interpretação comunitária, especificamente em lugares de património industrial e de indústria aberta a visitantes, a autenticidade é um elemento essencial a considerar, tendo sido identificado que os residentes percebem as transformações no seu património, quer tangível, quer intangível, enquanto relevante para a sua preservação. 10 Verificou-se que uma oferta turística diversificada, assente em recursos industriais diferenciados, promove a cultura e as tradições locais, cria valor para o território, melhora a imagem e promove a sustentabilidade do destino, ao mesmo tempo que fomenta, ainda que por via indireta, o desenvolvimento territorial. A análise dos resultados obtidos, partindo de oito hipóteses formuladas, permitem concluir que os valores patrimoniais e a identidade do lugar, fundamentados nos recursos industriais endógenos, influenciam a perceção que os residentes formam do seu território enquanto destino turístico, nomeadamente quando consideradas a autenticidade objetiva e a existencial. À semelhança, os resultados da perceção da autenticidade objetiva e existencial estão positiva e significativamente correlacionados com os ideais comunitários de participação. De igual forma, a perceção da autenticidade objetiva revelou ainda ter impacto positivo na perceção do desenvolvimento turístico, já a autenticidade existencial na perceção do desenvolvimento turístico revelou ser negativo, pelo que não significativo estatisticamente. Com base nos resultados obtidos através de múltiplos métodos, esta investigação conclui que a população local tem poder, por meio da assunção identitária, para conferir autenticidade aos recursos endógenos do seu território e pode desempenhar um papel crucial no processo de tomada de decisão com vista a um desenvolvimento turístico sustentável. Espera-se que os resultados deste estudo contribuam para um melhor entendimento do turismo industrial em Portugal com sugestões práticas e teóricas úteis. O capítulo da discussão evidencia resultados que contribuem teoricamente para o aprofundamento do conceito de autenticidade na ótica do residente, ao mesmo tempo que, na prática, possibilitam estratégias de planeamento e desenvolvimento em destinos de turismo industrial, que poderão em paralelo ser aplicáveis a outros contextos culturais de base comunitária

An exploratory study of social innovation in for-profit social entrepreneurial ventures in India

Innovation is identified in extant research as a defining characteristic of social entrepreneurial ventures (SEVs). Social innovations are desirable as they create employment opportunities, develop new industries and introduce new business models that address social needs. In recognition, governments and practitioners worldwide are looking at ways of fostering social innovations. Although there is growing interest in social innovation in various fields of research, there is little evidence of an in-depth empirical exploration of social innovations within the context ofSEVs. Further, empirical research on social innovation in developing countries like India is lacking, though India is reported to have high levels of social entrepreneurial activity. This research intends to fill these gaps by empirically investigating social innovations in three for-profit SEVs in India. This thesis was based on the interpretive paradigm and adopted a subjective stance in exploring social innovations in for-profit SEVs. The objectives of this research are twofold. First, it attempts to understand the resource constraints under which social innovation emerges. Second, it investigates how SEV s overcome resource constraints through novel combinations of different forms of capital in line with the Schumpeterian view on innovation. In this inductive, exploratory study, qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews with multiple informants in three for-profit SEVs in India. The empirical evidence showed that social innovations are distinct in that they develop under resource constraints. In particular, access to financial and human capital was found to be lacking. The findings indicate that social capital was a key enabler of social innovations, and SEVs leveraged their social capital extensively to overcome resource constraints in their environments. Further, the entrepreneurial role of introducing a novel resource (capital) combination was performed by more collectivist forms of entrepreneurship. This included: collaborative entrepreneurship where an individual entrepreneur collaborated with a network of supporters; team entrepreneurship involving a team of social entrepreneurs; and collective entrepreneurship in a cooperative venture. This research underlines the complexity of the social innovation process and highlights the innovative use of capital fonns in overcoming resource constraints. Suggestions for social entrepreneurs and practitioners on how to manage social innovations are implicit in its finding

Touring Tourism Enterprising : Mundane Practices of Tourism Development

Tourism enterprises play a vital role in tourism development. This has inspired scholarly and policy interest in the workings of tourism enterprises, particularly the small enterprises that account for the majority. The heterogeneity of small enterprises presents challenging terrain for scholars and policymakers concerned to understand and manage enterprise development and tourism development. Scholars have called for more research to deepen understanding of tourism enterprises and tourism development. The question is how to approach this complex terrain in research and practice.Recent lines of research suggest that answers may lay in the vicissitudes of practice. Entrepreneurship scholars have lately started to examine enterprises from the vantage of practice, the research concern shifting to the constructing action of enterprising. This vantage offers much promise to deepen understanding of tourism enterprises and tourism development. However, practice perspectives have rarely been used in studies of tourism enterprises and the link between enterprising practices and tourism development has not yet been made. Drawing inspiration from nascent practice perspectives lately emerging in entrepreneurship and tourism studies, this thesis takes up the practice modality of enterprising to explore the terrain of tourism enterprises and tourism development.Using a multimethod qualitative approach, the thesis tours sites of enterprising action to offer another view of tourism enterprises and tourism development. Visiting the enterprising action of innovating, constructing, performing, intervening, and reflecting, the tour sheds light on the everyday action of enterprising to unfold an image of mundane tourism development. Orienting to the vicissitudes of enterprising practice, this thesis provides another view of tourism enterprises and tourism development, opening new avenues for research and practice.Enterprising carries ontological, epistemological, and methodological implications for research. It urges for post-disciplinary research approaches characterised by theoretical and methodological diversity geared to producing practicable knowledge through close encounters with the vicissitudes of practice. Enterprising and mundane tourism development are travelling concepts with transformative potential – not conceptual destinations, but concepts to inspire further travel

Framing English as a second language education: a comparative study of policy provision in London and New York

PhDAgainst the background of a proliferation of large non-English-speaking ethnic linguistic communities in Britain and the United States, this thesis examines the provision of English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education policies in London and New York City respectively. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I traces the transformation of English into an international linguistic phenomenon and the significance acquired by ESL and bilingual education policies. In particular, attention is focused on the educational challenges faced by English-speaking nations that are home to sizeable non-English-speaking communities. After this introductory overview, the interpretive theoretical framework, in which the thesis is based, is then presented. Drawing from the works of Yanow, Hajer and others, both ESL and bilingual education are understood as taking place within a multi-organisational context, where different players attribute different meanings to this policy. Part II goes on to explore the contrasting ways in which ESL and bilingual education policies have been framed both in Britain and in the United States. While in the UK ESL tuition has evolved as a by-product of immigration and racc-relations policies, in the USA bilingual education has however been construed as a linguistic right. Part III then introduces an empirical analysis of the provision of ESL and bilingual programmes in the context of London and New York City. This section specifically deals with the educational needs of two non-English-speaking groups: the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets and the Hispanic community in Manhattan. Following from these players' language experiences, the fieldwork is used to - identify three distinctive ESL/bilingual, education discourse coalitions, namely the assimilationists, exclusivists and social integrationists. Based on different value-systems, each of these 'policy frames' represents their advocates' particular understanding of ESL and bilingual education policies. Having finally ascertained the impact of multiple meanings on the second language education policy process, the thesis concludes by advocating further interpretive research in the analysis of public policy

LABOR MIGRATION AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE IN POSTSOCIALIST RURAL ROMANIA

The processes of industrialization and modernization, as well as those emerging from them, have produced radical changes in the lifestyle of the peasantry. These transformations went hand in hand with the degradation of community lifestyle and of the customs it contained. Among the many rituals performed by rural communities, this dissertation focuses on mummers\u27 plays. The present paper is an attempt to outline a brief history of mummers\u27 plays beginning with an age when they were simple community rituals and going to the recent decades when they entered a rapid decline, and when state institutions together with international organizations such as UNESCO introduced projects meant to safeguard them. Based on an extensive field research in Iași County, Eastern Romania, where peasant customary communities are still active today this dissertation takes a path different from most of the peasant studies that preceded it. It focuses on peasant mummers’ plays in two rural settlements and scrutinizes them in relation to the peasant economy and the peasant system of values specific to the rural universe. It analyzes their role in cementing peasant social networks and their contribution to the dynamic of peasant communities and culture. At the same time, this dissertation embraces a global perspective and observes closely the transformation of rural customary communities\u27 forms of culture under the great transformations inflicted during the last seven decades by modernization and the advent of modern forms of entertainment (sports competitions, TV, internet, computer games). Being more appealing to people, these have replaced mummers’ plays in the human consciousness despite mummers\u27 success in small-scale agricultural societies throughout centuries. Nevertheless, of all the realities produced by the Industrial Revolution, international labor migration has proven to be the most corrosive, leading not only to the erosion of rural customary communities but also of their forms of culture such as mummers\u27 plays. These transformations of rural culture have become very visible and have been observed by folklorists, state authorities, and the peasants themselves. Unfortunately, the methods implemented for safeguarding rural culture are not always appropriate to the rural culture intended to be safeguarded, or to rural communities themselves. At least in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe, the methods most often used to patrimonialize mummers\u27 plays have been folklore festivals (Cash 2012). Far from being perfect tools, these festivals involve political, economic, and power relations to which peasants are always subordinate. The close follow-up of these processes shows that, just as peasants take the path of cities in search of better resources, their traditions, too, migrate to the cities through three processes: festivalization, urbanization, mass-mediatization. Thus, peasants\u27 rituals like mummers\u27 plays turn into simple consumer items devoured by spectators through TV broadcasts and Facebook-like social networks. I used the Bourdieuan symbolic violence concept to show how, by participating in such festivals, the peasants themselves not only become the victims of an external aggression directed against their own culture but also active agents of this transformation and of the processes that lead to their subordination. In contrast to this type of patrimonialization, accompanied by symbolic violence, the dissipation of peasant culture through international labor migration has actually spread this culture across all the major cities and countries of the world. Through the story - a companion of human life and culture for millennia, people living in peasant cultures become involuntary agents of safeguarding rural culture in general and mummers\u27 plays in particular and make their traditions cross the borders of the small rural locality where they were born, to finally become transnational cultural forms. Employing a series of anthropological methods and strategies - ranging from historical analysis, archive study, participant observation, unstructured interviews, life histories, to visual methods such as filming, taking pictures of winter rural rituals, and photo elicitation, I aim at analyzing and understanding a “social arena” (Bourdieu 1993) mined by the ambiguities and ambivalences of peasants’ commitments and apprehensions concerning the promotion/practices of intangible cultural heritage forms. Simultaneously, I aim at understanding the way intangible cultural heritage is produced, promoted and contested in a postsocialist landscape of inequalities, the restructuring of the old community values, and the intensive labor migration to Western Europe, dramatically depleting the local peasant populations and the social fabric where such rituals used to be anchored in the past