Disrupted landscapes
Subtitle: state, peasants and the politics of land in postsocialist Romania
By: Stefan Dorondel
Series: The environment in history : international perspectives -- volume 8
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9781785331206; 9781785331213
Subjects: Peasants; Land use; Social change; Deforestation; Post-communism; Social conditions; Landscape changes; Rural conditions; Neoliberalism
Description: "The fall of the Soviet Union was a transformative event for the national political economies of Eastern Europe, leading not only to new regimes of ownership and development but to dramatic changes in the natural world itself. This painstakingly researched volume focuses on the emblematic case of postsocialist Romania, in which the transition from collectivization to privatization profoundly reshaped the nation's forests, farmlands, and rivers. From bureaucrats abetting illegal deforestation to peasants opposing government agricultural policies, it reveals the social and political mechanisms by which neoliberalism was introduced into the Romanian landscape; 'This is clearly the best study on the environmental history of Romania published to date. It is a paragon of vivid, illustrative, and intimate local history combined with an international outlook'--Joachim Radkau, Universität Bielefeld; 'Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Disrupted Landscapes takes a broad view of the transformations taking place in rural Romania in the second part of the 2000s. It presents one of the most finely granulated pictures of the workings of power in rural settings'--Diana Mincyte, The City University of New York-New York City College of Technology"--From publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Privatizing the state and the transformation of the agrarian landscape; title: Dragomiresti and dragova : two centuries of ecological and socio-economic transformations; title: Postsocialism as neoliberalism reorganizing society and nature; title: Bureaucrats, patronage, illegal logging; title: Contested forest; title: Waning pastures; title: Fragmented lands; title: Wasted rivers; title: Conclusion: A disrupted landscape; title: Glossary.