The reconfiguration of social movements in post-2011 Romania

ABSTRACT

Since 2011, a series of citizen mobilizations have emerged in Romania, from local replicas of the ‘Occupy’ movement to the 2017 and 2018 mass protests against corruption. In this article, we develop three arguments for a better understanding of the successive waves of protests that have shaken the Romanian social and political landscape since 2011. First, while each protest has a specific claim and target, the forms of commitments, repertoire of actions and relationship to politics point to clear continuities between protest events that should be analyzed as part of the same cycle of protests. Second, while some analyses have emphasized the specificities of the Romanian context, we maintain that the actors and dynamics of this cycle of protest are simultaneously deeply national, embedded in the mutations of Eastern European civil society, and in resonance with the post-2011 global wave of movements. Third, while it is indispensable to analyze these citizen mobilizations as a whole, it is equally important to understand that they result from the convergence of diverse activist cultures, from left-wing autonomist activists to right-wing citizens and even nationalist militants. Each of these activist cultures has its own logic of action and its vision of democracy and of politics.     

Orthodoxy and political myths in Balkan national identities

This article analyses the relationship between Balkan national identities and the region's dominant religion: Eastern Orthodox Christianity. After examining the concept of ‘symphonia’ between Orthodoxy and politics that developed during the Byzantine Empire, this article argues that the political myths that have emerged from Orthodoxy are the most potent in the Balkan mythical imaginary. Political myths have a direct impact on contemporary politics developing a threefold structure: the sacralisation of politics; the perception of the nation as a divine manifestation; and, the construction of a divine realm on earth.     

The Power of Ethnic Nationalism: Foucault's Bio-power and the Development of Ethnic Nationalism in Eastern Europe

Although the ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ brands of nationalism are frequently contrasted, the origins of the civic/ethnic dichotomy remain under-theorised. By building upon Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, this article argues that, during the eighteenth century, the articulation of power shifted across the board from a pre-modern control over the ending of life, to a modern expression of power as control over the production of life (dubbed ‘bio-power’ by Foucault). Given the Foucauldian claim that power is built upwards from ‘its most infinitesimal mechanisms’, it is suggested that expressions of bio-power were first enacted in that social structure most amenable to biological manipulation—the family—and then expanded upwards towards the widest understanding of a kin collective—the ethnic group. As the shift to bio-power took hold, so too did visions of the political nation-state begin to take shape in Eastern Europe. A fusion of doctrines of self-determinism with the expression of power as ‘control over the production of life’, then saw the ethnic nation-state gain credence as a social and political construct in Central and Eastern Europe. This article takes Romania as a case study through which the mechanisms of this exploratory argument can be illustrated.     

Essay on personal field experiences from an intercultural approach

In this article I intend to analyse two of the research projects I carried out among the Roma from a critical intercultural perspective. I shall discuss some of the processes referring to the educational policy of teaching Romani mother tongue in school, considering not only the direct beneficiaries of this policy, the students, but also the Romani language teachers who are also seen as a product of the said policy.     

Education After Early-Life Deprivation: Teachers’ Experiences With a Clinical Group of Deprived Romanian Adopted Children

Little is known about the experiences of teachers working with deprived adopted children. In this qualitative study, teachers and parents of 17 deprived Romanian adopted children showing behavioral problems (10 years 8 months old at time of study, 2 years 11 months old at adoption) were interviewed. Most children (76%) visited schools for special education. Behavioral problems reported by the teachers were hyperactive behavior, social problems, aggression, and a high sensitivity to the influence of others. Teachers attributed these problems mainly to the period of deprivation before adoption. Teachers applied a highly structured, warm, and accepting approach. In general, parents were satisfied with the teachers. Almost all teachers needed the advice of colleagues or other experts about the children.     

Migration in market and democracy transition: Migration intentions and behavior in Romania

This paper analyzes the determinants of migration decision-making in the context of recent market and democratic transition in Romania. Using early 1990s internal migration survey, census and population register data, the results from Lisrel path models show that market and democracy value orientation variables are significant determinants of intentions to move, controlling for individual and regional social structural and resource indicators. Similarly, district-level out-migration behavior is directly determined by the political profile of the local area. Results from the total and disaggregated rural and urban models are interpreted through a reform values and characteristics typology of migrants. At least in the early stages of Romanian transition, the results indicate that migration choice behavior is governed by a search for places with greatest opportunities in terms of market and democracy returns. Implications of the results for political system and public policy decision are discussed.     

The Trajectory of Post-communist Welfare State Development: The Cases of Bulgaria and Romania

Governments of countries undergoing a post‐communist transition face the dilemma of balancing conflicting demands for greater economic efficiency (to achieve a successful transition to a market system) with demands for enhanced social protection (to legitimize regime change through a visible improvement in living standards which includes vulnerable groups). This paper analyses the transition in Bulgaria and Romania. Unlike other European countries, these countries did not embark on retrenchment policies until the mid‐ to late 1990s, so convergence with policies of spending constraint elsewhere in Europe was belated and partial. The social problems created by strict economic policies, exacerbated by a determination to reorganize the post‐communist welfare states along the lines promoted by international organizations, are now being recognized. Post‐communist governments in South‐eastern Europe have belatedly started to address the social aspects of transition to democracy and the market. This probably reflects the process of regime change in Bulgaria and Romania, which has been characterized as a “two‐step transition to democracy”, with liberal governments only succeeding transformed communist elites in power after a protracted transition.     

对赫塔·米勒获诺贝尔奖的思考

在世人普遍憎恨集权和专制的今天,以反专制和反集权的理由而获奖的赫塔·米勒,不仅戴上了诺贝尔文学奖的桂冠,而且也因此被奉为一个为正义而战的英雄.然而当我们认真审视她的言行所表达的立场时,不能不说在反集权反专制的外表下,她是有偏狭的意识形态立场的.她所有的作品所写的都是罗马尼亚日耳曼人的故事,她一切的出发点似乎都是为了日耳曼人.她实际上是一个有着强烈的意识形态甚至种族偏见的人.     

Structured Coupling of Probability Loss Distributions: Assessing Joint Flood Risk in Multiple River Basins

Losses due to natural hazard events can be extraordinarily high and difficult to cope with. Therefore, there is considerable interest to estimate the potential impact of current and future extreme events at all scales in as much detail as possible. As hazards typically spread over wider areas, risk assessment must take into account interrelations between regions. Neglecting such interdependencies can lead to a severe underestimation of potential losses, especially for extreme events. This underestimation of extreme risk can lead to the failure of riskmanagement strategies when they are most needed, namely, in times of unprecedented events. In this article, we suggest a methodology to incorporate such interdependencies in risk via the use of copulas. We demonstrate that by coupling losses, dependencies can be incorporated in risk analysis, avoiding the underestimation of risk. Based on maximum discharge data of river basins and stream networks, we present and discuss different ways to couple loss distributions of basins while explicitly incorporating tail dependencies. We distinguish between coupling methods that require river structure data for the analysis and those that do not. For the later approach we propose a minimax algorithm to choose coupled basin pairs so that the underestimation of risk is avoided and the use of river structure data is not needed. The proposed methodology is especially useful for large‐scale analysis and we motivate and apply our method using the case of Romania. The approach can be easily extended to other countries and natural hazards.     

Peer Exploitation: Findings from a Romanian National Representative Sample of Children Living in Long‐Term Residential Centres

This study emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed‐type institutions, including a couple of abusive behaviours that have not been previously identified in long‐term residential centres.

‘Emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed‐type institutions’

A national representative sample of 1391 children (743 boys and 648 girls) seven to 20 years of age living in 44 long‐term residential centres was analysed to identify the prevalence of awareness and experience of peer exploitation. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors of peer exploitation experience. In total, 40.1 per cent of children reported that they were aware of peer exploitation, and 28.5 per cent that they were victims of such exploitation. Additionally, it was shown that (a) children who reported past abuse by a staff member were more likely to be victims of exploitation than those who did not; and (b) an increased number of children in a dorm room predicted a decrease in the odds of peer exploitation experience. This study provides a picture of the developmental environment for children in Romanian orphanages in the late 1990s, prior to subsequent child protection reforms, and underlines the prevalence of exploitation and the risk factors for peer exploitation in closed institutional systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key Practitioner Messages

• Four in ten (40%) institutionalised children reported that they were aware of at least one form of peer exploitation, and nearly three in ten (28.5%) reported experiencing at least some of these types of exploitation practices by their older peers.
• This study highlights the importance of understanding the complex milieu that comprised the daily lives of institutionalised children in Romania, including an environment that consisted of physical abuse by institution staff and awareness and experiences of exploitation.