In this essay I look into the different practices developed by transnational migrants, especially Bulgarians living in Spain, in order to represent themselves and to represent the world. Beginning with a definition of the process of representation and building upon De Certeau and Bourdieu’s theories on the everyday practice, I analyze the different paradigms that inspire these representations: from a ‘cultural logic’, emphasizing belonging to a cultural (usually national) community, or from a ‘political logic’, emphasizing belonging to a citizens’ community. Moreover, by looking at the different localities and temporalities in which these representations are produced, distributed and consumed, I analyze the different dimensions of belonging to and participation into a cultural and a citizens’ community. The essay also shows the ways in which local and transnational media connect global events with local issues and suggests that in our current world global macro-processes and local micro-processes can no longer be located in a modern geography of nation-states but rather in a transnational unbounded space.
