Nikolai Genov

Genov received his doctorate of Philosophy and Sociology from the University of Leipzig in 1975 and his doctorate of Science from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1986.^[3]

In 1990 he became a professor at BAS. Between 2002 and 2011 he was a professor of sociology at the Institute of Sociology and Institute of Eastern European Studies of the Free University of Berlin.^[4]  From 2011 to 2016, Genov served as head of the Institute of Global and Regional Development at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Slovenia.^[5]

He has been research fellow or visiting professor at the universities of Berkeley, Berlin, Cassel/Bielefeld, Lund, Moscow, Rome, Seoul, and Warsaw. Genov organized the International Varna Sociological School (1980–1990) and has been the Director of the UNESCO/MOST Summer School (2000-2010).^[6] From 1998 till 2002 he was Vice-president of the International Council of Social Sciences in Paris. Genov has been involved in the activities of the International Sociological Association in various ways.^[7]

He was the leading researcher in five international comparative projects dedicated to the Eastern European societal transformations, interethnic relations and cross-border migration.^[8]

Genov’s scientific publications number 380 which have appeared in 29 countries.  Until 1989 his research and teaching were mostly focused on topics of sociological theory and history of ideas.

During this period he published the monographs "Talcott Parsons and the Theoretical Sociology" (1982) and "Rationality and Sociology" (1986) (in Bulgarian).^[9]

After 1989 his research and teaching became increasingly occupied with transformation processes in various parts of the world and particularly in Eastern Europe. The monographs "The United States at the End of the XXth Century" (1991) and "The Rise of the Dragon: The Modernization of South Korea" (1994), the collection "Risks of the Transition" (1994) (in Bulgarian) dealt with these topics.^[10] Building on earlier comparative work on Eastern Europe’s post-1989 transitions, he systematizes “global trends” (e.g., rationalization, individualization) and tests them empirically across regional contexts. Key outputs include Global Trends in Eastern Europe (2010) and the edited volume Global Trends and Regional Development (2012).^[11]

The research advances presented in the publications reveal a gradual transition of Genov’s studies towards the development of a synthetic sociological program. It integrates micro-level interactions, organizational dynamics, and macro/global change. He formulated the “paradigm of social interaction” to bridge fragmented theories and to organize inquiry across innovation studies, crisis management, and long-run societal transformations.

The program is elaborated in details in The Paradigm of Social Interaction (Routledge, 2021) with chapters on multi-paradigmatic sociology, upgrading social-innovation studies, and managing crises through social innovation. His monograph Challenges of Individualization (Palgrave, 2018) synthesizes historical and contemporary evidence on the constructive and destructive effects of individualization, a theme he follows in articles on Europeanization and regional transformation.^[12] Recent peer-reviewed work refines these concepts: he offers a conceptual breakdown of global trends and argues for “paradigmatic enhancement” of sociology,^[13] while applying the interaction framework to organizational transformations, commercialization, consumerism, and homogenization of global culture in the monograph Towards a Diagnosis of Our Times. A Sociological Approach to Global Trends (Routledge, 2025).