Late last year, air pollution in Sofia reached alarming proportions. Air quality meters in some parts of the Bulgarian capital reported that concentrations of fine particulate matter stood at between ten and twenty times the maximum considered safe. Though air pollution is a longstanding problem in the southeastern European country, the recent spike appears to mark something different.

So far scientists have been unable to provide a definitive explanation of where the pollution is coming from. Lacking for answers, there has been a wave of DIY attempts at solutions to the crisis, from air purifiers to masks. Low public trust in government-operated air quality readers — driven by officials’ refusal to respond to requests for more detailed data — has also fueled a movement of “citizen science” and pollution maps and apps created by “civil society.”

Yet these are fundamentally individual responses to what is, ultimately, a collective and structural problem. Pollution is a political question, which boils down to who pays the price for the consequences of economic development.