This dissertation examines the interaction between neoliberal and alternative approaches to development in a post-socialist context using the Peace Corps/Bulgaria program as a case study. I use the notion of transition to complex interdependence as a framework to theorize and conceptualize the role of Peace Corps in the post-socialist development of Bulgaria and Bulgaria’s insertion into processes of neoliberal globalization. I build a conceptual framework for the study of international development volunteering that separates mechanisms that promote neoliberal social transformation from alternative or counter-neoliberal mechanisms for social transformation. The research design utilizes a mixed-methods and multiple sources data collection strategy encompassing document analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and participant observation informed by the actor-oriented approach to development studies. This approach allows me to examine how differently positioned actors in the Peace Corps/Bulgaria partnership structure - staff, volunteers, and their local partners – created and contested notions of “development” and the kind of social transformation that was enabled by Peace Corps during its operation in Bulgaria. I argue that Peace Corps/Bulgaria represents a case of a contradictory “real utopia”: a development model that simultaneously promotes, conforms to, and resists processes of neoliberalization; a model that has the potential to facilitate a transformation of the current global order towards a more equitable world based on the values of social and environmental justice rather than market rationality.
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