Applied Social Sciences : Sociology [1 ed.] 9781443846271, 9781443843386

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Applied Social Sciences

Applied Social Sciences: Sociology

Edited by

Patricia-Luciana Runcan, Georgeta RaĠă and Mihai-Bogdan Iovu

Applied Social Sciences: Sociology, Edited by Patricia-Luciana Runcan, Georgeta RaĠă and Mihai-Bogdan Iovu This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Patricia-Luciana Runcan, Georgeta RaĠă and Mihai-Bogdan Iovu and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4338-5, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4338-6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables.............................................................................................. xi List of Illustrations ................................................................................... xiii Foreword ................................................................................................... xv

Chapter One: Culture and Identity Local Identity, Regional Identity and Social Cohesion: Evolution and Role in Local Development (A Case Study: Timiúoara, Romania) Cătălina AncuĠa and Claudia MuĠulescu ..................................................... 3 The Birth Rate in the Village of BelinĠ (Timiú County, Romania): A Diachronic Approach Gabriela-Felicia Georgevici ...................................................................... 11 Ethnographic Study of the Sacred Tree Theme in the Wedding Rituals of the Orăútiei Mountains, Romania Maria Lungu .............................................................................................. 19 The Burial Tree in the Orăútiei Mountains, Romania: A Transition Symbol of the Axis Mundi at Social Level Maria Lungu .............................................................................................. 27 Symbolic Representations of the Body in Traditional Mentality Ioana-Delia Nadolu ................................................................................... 35 Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Research of Human Communities: Prehistory and Antiquity Atalia OniĠiu and Simona Regep ............................................................... 39 Central, National, Popular: Implications of a Sociological Study on the Public Monuments in Bucharest, Romania Raluca-Mihaela Paraschiv ......................................................................... 47

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Cultural Models and Religious Diversity: A Case Study Sînziana Preda ........................................................................................... 55 Historiography of the Germans from the Banat Highlands: Sociological and Journalistic Perspectives Cristian Rudolf .......................................................................................... 63 Exemplariness and Moral Subtlety in the Establishment and Functioning of the Traditional Romanian Family Dumitru Stan ............................................................................................. 71

Chapter Two: Emigration and Immigration Romanian Immigrants in Italy between Integration and Social Exclusion: Reflections on Research Undertaken in the Province of Rome Simion Belea ............................................................................................. 81 Current Aspects of Romanian Internal Migration Vlad-Patrick Ciocârlie ............................................................................... 89 Feminization of Romanian Emigration: A Priority for Social Studies Maria-Ana Georgescu and Doina-Emilia Herman .................................... 97 Who Leaves and Who Stays? A Case Study (Romanian Emigrant Families) Marius-Lupúa Matichescu ....................................................................... 105 Remembering the Past: Discourses on the Memory of Migration in Victoria, Romania Daniela Spînu .......................................................................................... 113 Social and Cultural Representation of Romanian Doctors’ Migration Elena Toader............................................................................................ 121

Chapter Three: School Organisation and Educational Opportunities Impact of Parents’ Socio-economic Status on Educational Aspirations in Middle School Students Maria-Cristina Avrigeanu........................................................................ 131

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Perceptions of Children’s Rights in Early Childhood Education Institutions Diana Didilică.......................................................................................... 139 Effects of School Success on Adulthood Projects of Youngsters by the End of Schooling Maria Roth, Mihai-Bogdan Iovu, Ágnes Kacsó-Dávid, Paul-Teodor Hărăguú, Anna Vincze, Csaba Dégi, Corina Voicu and Cristina Faludi..... 145 Differentiated Schools and Groups of Students: An Explorative Analysis at the Level of Educational Institutions from Oradea, Romania Sorana Săveanu ....................................................................................... 153 Gender Representations in the Organizational Culture of a Higher Education Institution in Romania Lauren‫܊‬iu-Gabriel ‫܉‬îru and Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir ......................... 161 Education, Quality and Accountability: The University of Bucharest and the Labour Market Claudia-Maria Udrescu............................................................................ 169

Chapter Four: Vulnerable People, Groups and Populations Vocational Training: Opportunities for Change in Romanian Rural Areas Maria-Roxana Ate‫܈‬oae ............................................................................ 179 European Paradigm on Cultural Policies for National Minorities: The Case of Hungary, Serbia and Romania Alina-Nicoleta Ene .................................................................................. 185 Shrinkage of Western Romania Towns Dan Lucheú.............................................................................................. 193 Equity-Based Evaluation: Means for Inclusion of Excluded Groups in Development Programmes Mihai Magheru ........................................................................................ 201 Social and Human Specializations under Stigma or Challenge on the Labour Market Andreea-Mihaela NiĠă ............................................................................. 207

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Features of Employment in Romania Lavinia-Elisabeta Popp and Felicia Andrioni.......................................... 213 Youth in Transition: Adolescents’ Opinion on Being an Adult Sergiu-Lucian Raiu and Maria Roth........................................................ 221 Perception of the Economic Recession in the Jiu Valley, Romania Cornel-Cristian ResmeriĠă ....................................................................... 229 Meanings of Diabetic Patients` Autonomy from a Doctor’s Perspective Antonio Sandu ......................................................................................... 237

Chapter Five: Communication and Social Relations Changes in Mate Selection Strategies: Intergenerational Comparisons Floare Chipea and Raluca Miclea-Buhaú................................................. 247 Act Identity, Synergetic Identity Samuil Mitra............................................................................................ 255 Is there Life after Facebook? Sociological Perspectives on the Evolution of Computer-Mediated Communication Bogdan Nadolu........................................................................................ 263 Individual and Contextual Determinants of Romanians’ Reliance on Useful Connections as a Form of Social Capital Ioana Pop, Tomina Săveanu and Sorana Săveanu ................................... 269 Extension of Software Engineering through IT Governance in Organisations: A Sociological Approach Adina Vasilu‫܊‬ă-‫܇‬tefănescu and Marius Vasilu‫܊‬ă-‫܇‬tefănescu................... 277

Chapter Six: Perceptions, Attitudes, Values Impact of Stereotypes: the Role of Passing Order and Brand on Vehicle Speed Estimation István Kósa and Csilla-Dalma Zsigmond ................................................ 285 Relevant Aspects in the Social Representation of Intelligence Magdalena Petrescu................................................................................. 293

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Social Distance Perceived by High School Students Andrea Sólyom........................................................................................ 301 Perception of the Transition Process in Post-Socialist Countries: A Comparative Approach Balász Telegdy ........................................................................................ 309 Contributors............................................................................................. 317

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-1. Birth rate in BelinĠ (1931–2011) ............................................................13 Table 2-1. Types of problems created by Romanian immigrants in Italy................86 Table 2-2. Romanian population according to the censuses of 1948, 1956, 1966, 1977, 1992, 2002, 2011, and data for the year 2009 ...............................91 Table 2-3. Evolution of Romanian emigration and total population (1985–2010) ..99 Table 2-4. Total income by the gender of the head of the household ....................101 Table 2-5. Interview Location by Size and Name .................................................106 Table 3-1. Students’ educational aspirations depending on father’s and mother’s level of educational capital........................................................134 Table 3-2. Differences in valuing school and trouble avoidance between students wanting and not wanting to continue their studies ............................148 Table 3-3. Students’ expectations and wishes to continue their studies ................149 Table 3-4. Results of regression analysis for expectations of continuing education.........................................................................................................150 Table 3-5. Mean values of household endowment recorded for the two types of school units.................................................................................................157 Table 4-1. Variables taken into account in the equity-based evaluation................204 Table 4-2. Inflation rate EU/Romania and unemployment rate EU/Romania (2000 and 2011 compared)..............................................................................218 Table 5-1. Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents...............................249 Table 5-2. Results of the multilevel models for dependent variables useful connections (minimum one vs. none) .............................................................274 Table 5-3. Factors enabling or inhibiting IT..........................................................279 Table 5-4. Results of the association of variables based on IT governance maturity and IT investments............................................................................282 Table 6-1. One Sample tests and statistics.............................................................290 Table 6-2. Perception of social distance................................................................304 Table 6-3. Value orientations ................................................................................305 Table 6-3. Value orientations ................................................................................305 Table 6-4. Desk-mate relation: percentage of acceptance .....................................306 Table 6-5. Basic characteristics of the cluster-groups ...........................................307 Table 6-6. Regression model.................................................................................307 Table 6-7. Evolution of the distribution of earnings: the GINI Coefficient in CEE states between 1989 and 2001 ............................................................313

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1-1. Ideal number of children in a family.....................................................14 Figure 1-2. Respondent’s number of children .........................................................15 Figure 1-3. Increase of the number of family members...........................................15 Figure 1-4. Depopulation in BelinĠ..........................................................................16 Figure 2-1. Evolution of population by area from 1948 to 2011 .............................92 Figure 2-2. Internal migration determined by change of residence by region (2004, 2005, 2006)............................................................................................93 Figure 2-3. The structure by gender of the Romanian emigration.........................100 Figure 2-4. Evolution of the national unemployment rate. ....................................102 Figure 2-5. Family members to migrate ................................................................107 Figure 2-6. Migrant’s situation before departure...................................................109 Figure 2-7. Migrant’s finances at family level ......................................................110 Figure 3-1. Distribution of father’s high education values among schools ...........157 Figure 3-2. Curve estimation between father’s education and GPA......................158 Figure 3-3. Graphic representation of U.P.T. culture, overview evaluation ..........165 Figure 3-4. Representations of the actual organizational culture of the two genders ..................................................................................................................166 Figure 3-5. Representations of the ideal organizational culture of the two genders ..................................................................................................................166 Figure 4-1. Birth rate in large cities in Western Romania .....................................195 Figure 4-2. Birth rate in medium cities in Western Romania ................................195 Figure 4-3. Birth rate in small towns in Western Romania. ..................................195 Figure 4-4. Death rate in large cities in Western Romania....................................196 Figure 4-5. Death rate in medium cities in Western Romania...............................196 Figure 4-6. Death rate in small towns in Western Romania ..................................197 Figure 4-7. Natural growth rate for large cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) in the Western Romania..................................................................................198 Figure 4-8. Natural growth rate for medium towns (20,000–100,000 inhabitants) in the Western part of Romania ......................................................................198 Figure 4-9. How many higher education employees did you hire between 2011 and 2012?........................................................................................................209 Figure 4-10. How much confidence do you have in the Universities of the SouthWest Oltenia Region regarding students’ training for the labour market? ......210 Figure 4-11. What are the main reasons why there is not enough specialty practice............................................................................................................210 Figure 5-1. Fractals of proximal zone development ..............................................261 Figure 5-2. Ansers to the WAY test of the mIRC users (2001).............................267 Figure 5-3. Answers to the WAY test of the mIRC users (2001). .........................268 Figure 5-4. Average number of useful connections between 1998 and 2007 ........273

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List of Illustrations

Figure 5-5. Perception of value from IT investment .............................................281 Figure 6-1. Changes in the countries’ economic situation in comparison with the socialist/communist regime in CEE countries between 1990–1992 and 1998–2001................................................................................................311 Figure 6-2. Change in acceptance of the income disparity in CEE countries between 1990–1992 and 1998–2001...............................................................312 Figure 6-3. Change in acceptance of the need for parliament in CEE countries between 1990–1992 and 1998–2001...............................................................313 Figure 6-4. Change in the idea of democracy meaning moral and/or sexual freedom in CEE countries between 1990–1992 and 1998–2001.....................314

FOREWORD

One simple definition states that sociology is the study of how society is organized and how we experience life. Changes in our social world have required sociologists to focus attention on new emerging topics. For instance, some sociologists research macro-structures that organize society, such as race/ethnicity, social class, gender roles, and institutions (e.g. family, schools, workplace). Other sociologists study social processes that represent the breakdown of macro-structures, including deviance, crime, and divorce. Additionally, some sociologists study micro-processes such as interpersonal interactions and the socialization of individuals. It should also be noted that recent sociologists have now expanded their interests to include the myriad online social activities and behaviours to which these technologies have given rise. In this complex reality of studying different structures and processes, the International Conference of Applied Social Sciences (ISSA) emerged as a multidisciplinary scientific forum. Professionals, specialists, theoreticians, and practitioners from different social science fields were given the opportunity to share their ideas and experiences. The papers included in The Volume of Applied Social Sciences: SOCIOLOGY were presented at the first ISSA Conference held in Timiúoara on June 18–20, 2012 and organized by West University of Timiúoara together with the Social Work Department (Faculty of Sociology and Psychology) and with the Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Sciences. This volume offers the reader a wide collection of quantitative and qualitative studies from different research areas like sociology of migration, sociology of education, sociology of communication, sociology of population, medical sociology, political sociology, sociology of culture or urban sociology. This volume is structured in six main chapters, helping the reader to construct a specific image on the topics covered. Culture and Identity offers the reader ten articles within the broader frame of sociology of culture. Generally speaking, culture consists of the beliefs, behaviours, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. The selected articles discuss topics like confessional and ethnic identity, depopulation, social anthropology, anthropology of body, and rituals. The results they offer help

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us understand how, using culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society’s shared values, and contribute to society. The section dedicated to Emigration and Immigration contains six studies within the frame of sociology of migration. Recent years have brought to our attention new patterns of migration. As this is a growing phenomenon in Romania, we need to reach a better understanding as to how these forms of migration are embedded into the life plans of migrants, but also their effects on a local and regional level as well as on a national or EU-level. Therefore, the selected articles address the issues of internal migration, external migration (with a focus on the medical profession), and feminisation of migration. Sociology of education has emerged as a research area interested in examining how social institutions and individuals’ experiences within these institutions affect educational processes and later social development. Education systems are embedded in regional and national social systems. Within every education system, social inequalities “persist” regardless of the differences in systems and social backgrounds. Do we face the same inequalities? Can we use the same (or even one single) theory to explain continuing patterns of inequality or do we need to adjust our theories according to national or regional contexts? These are some key-questions sociologists have struggled to answer. The six articles included in the section School Organisation and Educational Opportunities examine and discuss organisational and institutional aspects in creating educational (in)equalities. Topics cover the educational aspirations of youth, educational paths and school success, children’s rights, education and the labour market, and organizational cultures in higher-education. Vulnerability results from an interaction between the resources available to individuals and communities and the life challenges they face. Therefore, it may arise either from individual, community, or larger population challenges and requires different types of policy interventions. The topic dedicated to Vulnerable People, Groups and Populations is an extensive one containing nine articles. Authors analyze different types of vulnerabilities in both adults and youths. The conclusion they reach is that addressing the needs of the most vulnerable people and communities is not an easy task, not only because of ideological differences in assessing responsibility but also because many of these groups are low in the public’s awareness and priorities. Nevertheless, the lack of real opportunities for these segments of population exacerbates problems for the entire society. Communication and Social Relations represents a constant area of interest for sociologists. Communication studies in Europe have mushroomed

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in recent decades. Furthermore, the globalization of communication and the enlargement of the European Union have forced researchers to constantly broaden their horizons and adjust their approaches. The five articles included in this chapter deal with two main topics: new communication technologies and human relations and social capital. The last chapter of our volume, Perceptions, Attitudes, Values, includes four articles discussing topics related to the transition process in postcommunist countries, social representation and stereotypes. We believe the articles fit together well within the public face(s) of sociology, but this representation is multi-faceted. Each article has been selected on its merits, but the result is a volume in which the whole is undoubtedly greater than the sum of its parts. As editors, we have enjoyed reading the chapters and putting them together as a collection. We have also been intrigued and surprised by the unintended conversations that occur across them. By its interdisciplinary approach, this volume addresses both sociologists and the general public. By sharing it, Romanian sociological research will gain a wider visibility and acceptance. —Mihai-Bogdan IOVU

CHAPTER ONE CULTURE AND IDENTITY

LOCAL IDENTITY, REGIONAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL COHESION: EVOLUTION AND ROLE IN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT (A CASE STUDY: TIMIùOARA, ROMANIA) CĂTĂLINA ANCUğA AND CLAUDIA MUğULESCU

Introduction The gap between the development level of Romania and other European countries explains why the issue of development is a core subject for both political and academic discourse. The transition from a totalitarian, communist society implies the replacement of the discretionary decision of a dictator with the rational decisions of public authorities and territorial actors. For half a century, during the communist regime, the former was reduced to the role of executants and the latter to the role of assisted— these two factors had to regain their place and role in the process of development. The generalized character of the problem and the impossibility of its occurrence on a national scale show there is interest in the problem and justify the analysis at micro-scale levels.

Premises of the Problem The seeds of evolution are, thus, at the local scale (Ianoú & Heller 2000). The perpetuation and even increase of disparities proved, over recent decades, that the virtues of the exogenous, top to bottom development models were limited. The alternative is given by ground development (Aydalot 1985), endogenous development, and local development (Sotelo Navalporto 2000; Bottazzi 1995). Local development, more an approach method than a model, has as a strong influence on the recovery of the territorial dimension of development. Thus, territory is considered a factor

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Local Identity, Regional Identity and Social Cohesion

of development through the specific accumulation of the historic, social and cultural factors. All these make up the superstructure of the territory which explains why areas with similar geo-economic potential reached different levels of performance during the long course of history. The socio-cultural specificity of the territory includes heterogenic elements such as shared identity, a sense of belonging, community ties, spirit of cooperation, and spirit of innovation. The efficiency of revaluation and valuation of the resources of a territory depend, consequently, on the quality of the above-mentioned elements. Identity represents a premise of development, of group solidarity for the implementation of development strategies. In the classic acceptance, local and regional identity refer to the distinct features of a group at micro- and medium-scale, represented by the perpetuation of language, traditions, peculiar customs, and the circulation of a collective imagination; the sharing of these elements generate a sense of belonging to a certain group. The validity of these definitions changed with the increase of the strong modernization process, which, within the context of globalization, intense mobility and de-territorialisation, led to the fragmentation of traditional communities and identities. Local and regional identities, strictly delimited territorially, are replaced by multiple identities. The sense of belonging to and solidarity with the group is no longer built through traditional cultural means such as religion, customs, traditions, language, garments, collective memory, shelter and use of the territory. In the postmodern society, favourable premises for local and regional development are ensured by developing a sense of belonging and social cohesion focused on the place of residence and by making the inhabitants interact through rallying practices and collective participation. It is a first rank process for political actors involved in generating cooperation rather than conflict situations within the population. The concept of “community,” defined as a group of persons with a chance of having uniformity in values (Sandu 2005), becomes central, as does the concept of “sociability,” defined as a kind of positive social relationship with existing or potential advantages for all those involved (Sandu 2003). Totalitarian, communist societies, in which the traditional mechanisms for the perpetuation of identity are oppressed and eliminated from the public space, finding refuge in the family space, had, without doubt, a specific evolution. In the post-totalitarian period, local and regional identities, profoundly diminished (considered undesirable in a totalitarian context) were exposed, especially in endo-dynamic spaces with centripetal demographic fluxes, to the context of democratization and globalization. By what means can we define, in present-day Romania, local and regional

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identities and how do they act as suitable premises for the process of local identity? This is the central question to which the present study aims to provide an answer.

Case Study: Timiúoara (Banat, Romania) Evolution of the Identity-Building Processes The city of Timiúoara is the main urban pole in Western Romania and, thus, in the cultural-historical region of Banat. In the collective mind of the Romanians, Timiúoara is a cosmopolitan city, and a standard for success, as it has known two centuries of economic and urban development similar to that of other cities of Central Europe since, from the eighteenth century, it was the capital of the Habsburg province Banat. Its particular history ensured the city its surname of Little Vienna and a multi- and intercultural character specific to the entire region. “Interculturalism defines the exchange instance of cultures by reverberating differences” (Buzărnescu 2004, 64). A sine qua non element of the economic experiment of the imperial administration, the inhabitants of the region worked side by side in the various projects of the region. Plurilingualism was demanded by “the need to communicate, the economic interests, the need to understand the values of the other” (Neumann 1997), and had a pivotal role in the minorities learning of tolerant behaviour of the majority (Buzărnescu 2004). Permanent communication in the global competitive context, imposed by the production objectives of the Habsburgs, determined the making up of a common axiological field marked out by work, commitment in activity, responsibility, professional capacity, and self-control. This intercultural model was characterized by civic complementarity born of the “concern to find in common practical solutions to identical community problems, which led to the definition of a natural social cohesion, without the intervention of institutional rules” (Buzărnescu 2004, 64). It is worth mentioning that Banat was the only region in Romania where capitalism in the eighteenth century resulted in the early emancipation of the individual, with a specific value assigned to its life, and freedom of movement in the economic field of material achievement (Popa 2008). All these contributed to the emergence of a “Banatian identity,” with no ethnic barriers, emphasising priority to shared interests (Gavreliuc 2003).

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The population of Timiúoara, pole of modernity for the entire region, was characterized by an entrepreneurial spirit, openness to progress, flexibility, and a culture of development. The communist regime after 1960 promoted nationalism and the amplification of national virtues and achievements as a guarantee of territorial integrity (Boia 2010). Those from the extra-Carpathian space were traditionally open towards Central Europe, and therefore undermined the communist ideology, yet most communist leaders appointed in the counties of Western Romania were from this region, and the communists inoculated the idea that the inhabitants of these regions opposed the regime and represented a stronghold of spiritual strength. The attack on regional beliefs and identity was carried out at the level of the young generation, politically enrolled, against their will, from young ages. Their education focused on promoting the cultural identity of the country (Neumann 1997). Holidays were the holidays of the country: August 23, the national day, was the day of the insurrection (in 1944 it was the day of turning against Hitler’s leadership and joining the USSR); December 1 (celebrating the proclamation of the Romanian unitary national state on December 1, 1918); December 30 (the day of the Proclamation of the Romanian Popular Republic); January 24 (in 1859, the voting of a unique head of the state meant, in fact, the union between the two Romanian principalities, Moldova and Wallachia); January 26 (birthday of Nicolae Ceauúescu); May 1 (international labour day); May 9 (Victory day of the allied troops over Hitler’s Germany), and; October 25 (the day of the Army). What means and what chances did regional identity have for perpetuation in Banat? The people were restricted to socializing within the family if it included a third generation person who preserved the oral history of the region. Books on the history and geography of Banat disappeared from the resources of the public libraries. Tradition did not serve anything anymore; moreover, it prevented social ascension. The profound industrialization of the country after 1960 determined the rapid quantitative and oversized increase of some industrial branches in the city of Timiúoara, which determined huge flows of people from the exterior. The flows from other regions, such as the east and west of the country: Moldova and, respectively, Oltenia, were preferred and encouraged. The result was undoubtedly the gradual diminution of the identity heritage of the city population under the condition of repression of the identity processes. After 1989, the liberal and progressive nature of the population of Timiúoara, affirmed in the initiation of the 1989 Revolution and the

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general desire to reassume the social-economic processes existing before the communist regime, offered the background for the process of recovery of the identity and traditions of community life. Among traditional events are: The Banatian Rugă; open-air concerts of the most influential bands of the region and the city; projects such as “Don’t mess with the citizens of Timiúoara!”; slogans such as “Timiúoara—Little Vienna”; increase of the situations in which the geonym Banat is used, and various other initiatives meant to revaluate material and spiritual cultural patrimony (and interculturalism, multiculturalism, civic and entrepreneurial spirit). To this, we can add the establishment of structures and mechanisms for the stimulation of civic involvement: consultative councils of the districts and organization of public debates concerning the strategic plans of the Mayoralty. Local and Regional Identity of the Population of Timiúoara as a Premise of Development The study consists of conducting a questionnaire regarding the attachment to the city and the region, perceivable by the understanding of historical data, of the local and regional symbols, of the problems and solutions, and also of the structures and processes of democratic participation and involvement in the development. Starting from the progressive circumstances mentioned above, we embraced the hypothesis of differentiating those born and raised in the city and newcomers. This is why the sample consisted of twenty-two people from the former group (locals) and twenty-five from the latter category (new comers). The analysis of the questionnaires revealed the following: -

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When the subjects had to mention five attractions of the region, those born and raised in the region (36%) showed a better understanding of naming cultural-historical objectives among the regional tourist attractions of the region; the newcomers offered several non-answers (28%) or mentioned only regional tourist attractions (40%). The most prestigious event in the history of the city is considered the 1989 Revolution both by most people born in other regions (76%) and newcomers (36%), as they know and appreciate other historical events—such as inclusion in the Habsburg Empire (18%)—or other defining moments of local and regional progress, such as the introduction of electric public lighting or early industrialization (22.5%).

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Local Identity, Regional Identity and Social Cohesion

The history of the region is even less known by the newcomers, and they gave non-answers of 52%. Locals also had a high percentage of non-answers (38%), which confirms the negative impact of the communist regime in undermining regional identity processes. The most highly appreciated historic reference is, in their case, the Habsburg period (27%). The question regarding the problems of the city had the lowest percentage of non-answers, with 4% of newcomers, and 0% of natives. The new comers mentioned the standard of living (56%), the problem of the gypsies who have illegally occupied houses from the centre of the city (20%), and the degradation of historic buildings (12%). The locals commonly mentioned the standard of living (72%), some aspects concerning the morale and attitude of newcomers (23%), and the breakdown of representative buildings (5%). 52% of newcomers and 27% of locals do not recognize the problems of the region. Besides the overall economic and social problems mentioned by newcomers, the locals consider the evolution of the social content following the departure of the German minority and the arrival of new comers to be a serious problem (13.5%). Other problems are the marginalization of the region whose interests are not supported at governmental level (9%). The real interest for these problems has been evaluated by looking for solutions to the identified problems. The newcomers gave 69% nonanswers; the locals proved more interested, giving only 23% nonanswers. Real solutions are offered by only 31.5% of the newcomers and only 20% of the locals. Authorities are considered responsible for solutions in 31.5% of the newcomers and only 8% of the locals. The involvement of the civil society is considered necessary by 18% of the locals and 23% of newcomers. Regional identity is defined remarkably similarly by the two subgroups: attachment to the region (12% and 13.5%) and the determination of the inhabitants to be involved (8% and 9%). The relatively high percentage of non-answers is worth mentioning: 48% in the case of the newcomers and 45% in the case of locals. In a similar way, regional identity is defined as an attachment to the place of residence (32% of the locals and 20% of newcomers) and specificity of the place (13.5% of the locals and 12% of newcomers); 14% of newcomers consider local identity by referring to their place of birth. When asked to mention a few words describing their regional identity, 50% of both categories did not answer; 8% of newcomers declared that

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they identify themselves with their regions of origin; about 39% of locals and only 7% of newcomers mentioned features recognized as specific for the Banatian identity profile: “tolerance,” “wealth,” “ethnic diversity,” “freedom,” “development,” “respect,” “work,” etc. 76% of newcomers and 36% of locals did not answer the question in which they were asked to describe their local identity; 8% of the locals and 9% of newcomers mentioned spatial elements of the city of Timiúoara; 16% of new comers and about 50% of locals defined their local identity by referring to features recognized as specific for this region: “respect,” “responsibility,” “culture,” “tolerance,” “openness,” “freedom,” “multi-ethnical,” “civilization.”

Conclusion The hypothesis on the difference between the two subcategories (locals and newcomers) is confirmed. The persons born and raised in the city and/or the region have the elements of the traditional identity profile transmitted by the family and reassured in the years of post-totalitarian transition. They have a more profound understanding of the identity space, are more interested in its problems, at the same without being involved in them or wishing to get involved. The newcomers do not necessarily show an attachment to their places of origin but have not adhered entirely to the traditional local or regional identity. In this context, it is imperative that the authorities be involved in ensuring social cohesion, community development, and promotion of a positive sociability.

Acknowledgement This chapter is supported by POSDRU 89/1.5/S/63663 “Trans-national network of integrated management for postdoctoral research in the field of Science Communication: Institutional construction (postdoctoral school) and fellowship Programme (CommScie).”

References Aydalot, P. (1985). Economie régionale et urbaine [Regional and Urban Economics]. Paris: Economica. Boia, L. (2010). Istorie úi mit în conútiinĠa românească [History and Myth in Romanian Conscience]. Bucureúti: Humanitas. Bottazzi, G. (1995). On est toujours le “local” de quelque “global.” Pour une (re)définition de l’espace local [There is Always a “Local” of

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Local Identity, Regional Identity and Social Cohesion

Some “Global”: For a (Re)Definition of the Local Space]. Espaces & Sociétés. Les échelles de l’espace social 80A: 69–92. Buzărnescu, ù. (2004). A Model of Active Interculturalism: Romanian Banat. Timiúoara: Editura de Vest. Gavreliuc, A. (2003). Mentalitate úi societate. Cartografii ale imaginarului identitar în Banat [Mentality and Society: Mappings of Identity Imaginary in Banat]. Timiúoara: Editura de Vest. Ianoú, I. & Heller, W. (2006). SpaĠiu, economie úi sisteme de aúezări [Space, Economy and Systems of Settlements]. Bucureúti: Editura Tehnică. Neumann, V. (1997). IdentităĠi multiple în Europa Regiunilor. Interculturalitatea Banatului [Multiple Identities in the Regions of Europe: Interculturalism of Banat]. Timiúoara: Hestia. Popa, N. (2008). Etnie úi moútenire culturală în Banatul românesc [Ethnicity and Cultural Inheritance in Romanian Banat]. In N. Popa (Ed.), Banatul. Identitate, dezvoltare, colaborare regională. Timiúoara: Mirton. 25–45. Sandu, D. (2003). Sociabilitatea în spaĠiul dezvoltării [Sociability in the Space of Development]. Iaúi: Polirom. —. (2005). Dezvoltare comunitară. Cercetare, practică, ideologie [Community Development: Research, Practice, and Ideology]. Iaúi: Polirom. Sotelo Navalporto, J. A. (2000). Regional Development Models. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

BIRTH RATE IN THE VILLAGE OF BELINğ (TIMIù COUNTY, ROMANIA): A DIACHRONIC APPROACH GABRIELA-FELICIA GEORGEVICI

Introduction After World War I, a new trend appeared in social research with a monographic character in Romania—organised, systematic investigation of social reality. Starting in 1933, in parallel with the Bucharest School led by Dimitrie Gusti, the Banat-Criúana Social Institute (BCSI) also conducted sociological research using the methodological research pattern of Gusti’s School, but adapted to the local research opportunities and needs. BCSI performed interesting studies related to Banat’s depopulation, an issue that was considered a priority at the time, and their first monographic inquiry was made in BelinĠ (Timiú County, Romania), because in this village the phenomenon of depopulation was particularly prevalent. The family, in the theoretic context of the Bucharest Sociologic School, is defined as a social unit: “a number of independent spiritual, economic, juridical and political manifestations, cosmically, biologically, psychologically, and historically conditioned and integrated into a series of social relations and processes” (Costa-Foru 1945, 30–31). In the view of monographic research, the family was considered a fragment of social organisation, and that is why it was not isolated from the village, but integrated into the “ensemble of social conditions and relations where it manifests ifs functionality” (Stănoiu & Voinea 1983, 51).

Longitudinal Analysis of Birth Rate From the period of the BCSI organisation, the members’ action was directed towards the objectives of identifying the causes of depopulation

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A Diachronic Approach of Birth Rate in the Rural Area

and positive presentation of the Banat depopulation process. Opinions were divided: it was claimed that depopulation was due to the “ein Kind System” or “Keine Kinder System” copied from the Banat Swabians. However, one could not talk about social mimicry because, in the case of Romania, there was a deliberate reduction of births, and a high infant death rate (BCSI 1938). Starting from the objectives and conclusions of the research conducted by the BCSI in the village of BelinĠ, the present research aims at making a longitudinal analysis of birth rate in this village, and sets out to conduct a comparative approach between 1934 and the present in this respect. If, in the former study, 60 households were selected, this time we chose a number of 120 households in order to investigate part of family life in BelinĠ. When choosing the sample, we used unrepeated simple random selection. The research methods used in the study of birth rate for the analysis of the social determinants of family functioning are study of social documents, a sociological survey based on a questionnaire, and a survey based on an interview. The objective of the research consisted in identifying the causes of the persistence of the depopulation phenomenon. The hypotheses and questions of the research are the following: -

If, at present, the demographic phenomenon of depopulation is maintained in the locality of BelinĠ, the way it manifests itself and the cases producing it are similar to previous ones. Past mentality related to the number of children in the family (“ein Kind System”) will make the pattern reproduction persist to the present.

The population from the rural area is continually aging because of the low birth rate. Thus, from the analysis of the birth rate evolution in the locality of BelinĠ between 1931 and 2011, we can observe the phenomenon of depopulation found by the BCSI since the very beginning (Table 1-1). As a variety of human community, family is defined as a “primary group, with all its characteristics, distinct from the other primary groups due to several features” (Chipea 2001, 24–25). A child represents the fulfilment of a family, an achievement, a reason for joy, a purpose in life. A family feels fulfilled when a child is born and becomes the place that offers room for the child’s development.

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Table 1-1. Birth rate in BelinĠ (1931–2011) Year 1931 1934 1965 2002 2005 2011

Total population 2059 1996 1995 3045 2810 2725

Number of births 33 24 8 19 31 20

Number of births to 1,000 inhabitants 15.8‰ 12.9‰ 4.0‰ 6.23‰ 11.03‰ 7.34‰

Source: BCSI 1938, I.N.S.D.R.S.T., Mayor’s Office of BelinĠ

In the past, the decisions of parents/parents-in-law regarding even the size of the young family were decisive. Without the acceptance of the parents, the young couple could not have children “as they had the restriction called grundbuc (the Real Estate Register)” (BCSI 1938, 381). The families with many children made the community feel sorry for them, were mocked and even “regarded with contempt.” Answering to the question “In your opinion, how many children should a family have?” (see Figure 1-1 above), most of the interviewed subjects (81%) affirmed that an ideal family should have two children, with the following motivations: “there should be two siblings to help each other,” “because a child should not be alone,” and “to learn not to be selfish from an early age.” Those who consider that one child is sufficient (12%) gave reasons such as: “so that they do not fight for inheritance,” “if there is only one child, he or she can have a better future,” and “it is easier to raise one child.” Only four persons (7%) stated that, in a family, three children is the ideal. We note that past mentality related to the number of children in a family is maintained, and that the reproduction trend of the pattern persists. The model taken from the Swabians, the so-called “ein Kind” or “one child” system, noted in the year 1934 is maintained even in the present day. In full accordance with the data provided by the 2006 Eurobarometer (Popescu 2009, 168), according to which, in Romania, the “average of the ideal number of children is around two or slightly higher,” most BelinĠ inhabitants (81%) fall within this type of expectation.

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A Diachronic Approach of Birth Rate in the Rural Area

Figure 1-1. Ideal number of children in a family

If in the past, based on the consent of older people, a young family had a maximum two children and, at present, there is no restriction related to the number of children born in the young family from the answers received (see Figure 1-2 above), we observe that 55% of the respondents have only one child, 40% have two children, and larger families are encountered only in the case of persons of faiths different from the Orthodox religion. Consequently, in the case of existing procreation behaviour, the trend is perpetuated, and maintained the traditional pattern manifested by the BelinĠ inhabitants. In the past, the number of children in the young family was decided by the elders and was limited to two children, and the restriction was grundbuc. Moreover, they thought and acted in the following manner: “rather than having an additional child, I’d rather buy gold pieces, extend the household or build a new stable for the cattle, because these require less efforts, stress and dedication” (BCSI 1938, 367). The answer to the question related to the increase of the number of family members (if the interviewed families want to have more children) (Figure 1-3), we observe that 77% do not want to have another child. Thus, although if, at the level of expectations, the standard is two children, in reality, most subjects do not want to have another child, even if they only have one. As for depopulation, manifested for a long time in Banat and researched, as mentioned before, by the monographic team of the BCSI, the question addressed to the subjects was Have you heard of the phenomenon of depopulation in Banat (BelinĠ)? (see Figure 1-4 below).

Gabriela-Felicia Georgevici Figure 1-2. Respondent’s number of children

Figure 1-3. Increase of the number of family members

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A Diachronic Approach of Birth Rate in the Rural Area

Figure 1-4. Depopulation in BelinĠ

Thus, we found that only 58% of the interviewed persons are aware of this matter, and the remaining 42% are not aware of it and do not believe that depopulation of Banat constitutes a problem. Answering the open question related to the causes of depopulation, “What do you think is the cause of depopulation?” most subjects, irrespective of the manner of formulating their response, consider that the small number of children in the family is due to the financial situation, mentality and lack of future for the youth in the countryside. Among the answers received, some were “economic causes, shortages, poverty,” “families no longer have many children, if there are several children one cannot offer them a future,” “mentality, economic,” “families with many children are not well regarded in our area,” “life is more difficult in the country,” “absence of a high school: it is difficult to send a child aged fifteen to the city alone,” “lack of jobs,” “if there is only one, he or she does not have to share anything,” “this is the custom in our region, maximum two children, only those of other religions have many children.”

Conclusion From the analysis of the data collected by means of quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as through the analysis of social documents, starting from the formulated objectives and hypotheses, we identified several tendencies, synthesised below:

Gabriela-Felicia Georgevici

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-

-

17

Research data show that the depopulation phenomenon in Banat, including the village of BelinĠ, is not the result of some social disorganisation processes, as the “Monographic survey in the village of BelinĠ” mentioned, but the result of an intentional control over one’s own life. Thus, using the Gustian paradigm, that the birth rate is not just a normal, purely biologic factor, but a psychological one, of “social choice,” as members of the family are those who become aware of the importance of correctly sizing up the family, according to material and educational possibilities, and the opportunities in accordance with child rearing, on the one hand, and the capacity of the family and society to secure jobs and decent living conditions for the new generations, on the other. The mentality installed for a long time regarding the model of the single child family, or maximum two children, manifested in the case of most Orthodox people from the locality is maintained and transmitted from one generation to the next. This demographic behaviour also persists due to the fact that the family members are aware of the financial possibilities of the family and the necessity of bringing up children in high quality conditions, which supposes financial and emotional investments, adoption of adequate strategies for the establishment, and support of high educational careers.

Starting from this point, we should expect that the phenomenon of depopulation continues through the persistence of a low birth rate and the aging of the population in the village. The small number of children of the BelinĠ families is due to the somewhat difficult economic situation and to the mentalities inherited and transmitted to the new generation concerning the bringing up and education of a child, although the ultimate standard expressed by the subjects should be the family with at least two children. Demographic aging is a phenomenon specific to the Romanian village in general, which influences, in turn, the typical natural demographic growth of the population. The phenomenon of demographic ageing is also influenced by the exodus of the youth from the village to the city, where there are higher conditions of work and life and where they settle after graduating from high school or college studies. The changes produced in the recent years in the life of the village, in the sense of concerns for the improvement of infrastructure, ensuring the conditions for child education, of health services and jobs, and by granting facilities for those who invest in the locality, are able to make the rural localities in the analysed area more attractive for young people, which will

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A Diachronic Approach of Birth Rate in the Rural Area

trigger changes, including the sense of reducing the phenomenon of demographic aging and birth rate increase. On the same basis, we estimate that the phenomenon of Banat villages’ depopulation will be attenuated if the rural areas can become attractive to the youth.

References Chipea, F. (2001). Familia contemporană. TendinĠe globale úi configuraĠii locale [Modern Family: Global Trends and Local Configuration]. Bucureúti: Expert. Costa-Foru, X. (1945). Cercetarea monografică a familiei. ContribuĠie metodologică [Monographic Family Research: A Methodological Contribution]. Bucureúti: FundaĠia Regele Mihai. Institutul Social Banat-Criúana. (1938). Anchetă monografică în comuna BelinĠ [Monographic Survey of the Commune of BelinĠ]. Timiúoara: Tipografia Românească. Popescu, R. (2009). Introducere în sociologia familiei. Familia românească în societatea contemporană [Introduction to Family Sociology: Romanian Family in Modern Society]. Iaúi: Polirom. Stănoiu, A. & Voinea, M. (1983). Sociologia familiei [Family Sociology]. Bucureúti: Tipografia UniversităĠii Bucureúti.

ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE SACRED TREE THEME IN THE WEDDING RITUALS OF THE ORĂùTIEI MOUNTAINS, ROMANIA MARIA LUNGU

Introduction From a traditional point of view, marriage is a public ceremony organized at community level (the wedding). Marriage and affiliation are the social mechanisms for transmission of heritage and material and immaterial goods (like religion, spirituality, culture). The main function of marriage is to unite two families that usually do not have any family ties (Zamfir & Vlăsceanu 1998). In traditional communities, marriage was sacred, with the economic and social status of the young people getting married being particularly important. Parents played a pivotal role in the young people’s alliance, the birth rate was high, patriarchal relations were dominant, and union relations were taking place within the same community. In modern societies there have been many changes in marriage behaviour, such as desecration of marriage, loss of importance of economic motivation of marriage, increase in marriages with partners from very different social strata, tendencies to level the financial and professional positions of the partners at the time of the wedding, diminution or disappearance of the role of parents and relatives in young people’s union, decline of birth rate because of abnormal sexual relations, relative decline of the traditional family nucleus through the expansion of consensual couples, growth of relations between people who belong to different marriages, and growth of social tolerance towards new forms of cohabitation (Zamfir & Vlăsceanu 1998, 92–93) Wedding rituals attempt to perpetuate the principles of patriarchy but, in time, they have been undermined by socio-economic changes. Marriage is a generator of social and economic relations.

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The Sacred Tree in Wedding Rituals

Working Method Within the community of the Orăútiei Mountains, we have studied the stability of the Sacred Tree motif in wedding rituals. As a working method, we have used a semi-structured interview and discussed the following subjects: preparation for the wedding, wedding day, wedding, wedding participants, number of guests, location of the party, clothes of the wedding couple, signs of the wedding, menu, honour, and other customs. This semi-structured interview took place in three different families with three generations in order to emphasise the relationship between traditional and modern. Each family is represented by an item: Pascu Ioana married Cujerean Ion in 1952 (I); Cujerean Ileana married Ciolocoi Ion in 1970 (II); Ciolocoi Mirela married Lăscoiu Cornel in 2001 (III). Petroi Maria married Zgăvârdean Samoilă in 1945 (IV); Rujoi Elena married Zgăvârdean RăduĠ in 1969 (V); Dosa Liliana married Zgăvârdean Sorin in 1993 (VI). Mihăilă Bogdan married Herban Domnica in 1936 (VII); Lăscoi Lazăr married Lăscoi Leontina in 1962 (VIII); Lăscoi Aurica married Lăscoi Stănilă in 1990 (IX).

Analysis and Interpretation Together with passing from traditional society to modern society, there are also gradual changes in the living conditions and the social structure. It is well known that the modernizing process began in the urban environment and slowly pervaded the rural environment. The transition from traditional to modern usually takes a long time and different forms and stages. During this transition period, “popular culture” continues to operate even if it lacks vitality and, in time, will be forced to give way to modernity. The causes for this “surrender” are increase in literacy, compulsory elementary and secondary level schooling, and increase in medium and higher level education for the “children of the village”—in other words, the expansion of the possibilities for education, industrialization, and commuting. There was pressure upon the villagers, even though they try to resist it. In time, their attitude becomes less radical, and they become more tolerant

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towards the people coming to the Colony, especially because the new lodgers come from the mountains, leaving their sheep herds for the shorter and fix working hours and the monthly payments, or are working as bulldozer drivers, mechanics, woodmen, administrators, clerks, foremen etc. The expansion of forestry and connected sectors demands more and more work force, and the natives seem to face conditions the best. In time, every family has one or two employees, so that this unusual situation becomes normal, and the mentality of the natives changes and they accept the life style of people from the Colony. These activities beget income for the locals as well, helping them to face the growing material obligations they have towards a hostile regime to the mountain people and their lifestyle. (Chiúu et al. 2002, 218)

On the other hand, The orientation of resources and efforts towards the creation of levelling economic, social and living structures, in contrast with the pressures exercised upon the villagers, make young people look for their chances in towns, in industrial activities. The deterioration of rural lifestyle, the emergence of higher education conditions and the appropriate social status, but most of all the supposed urban comfort have contributed to the increasing orientation of young people towards towns. (Ibid., 217)

The people from the rural community of the Orăútiei Mountains have benefited from the modernization of everyday life. For example, the location was fitted with electricity access and, in time, this led to a change in the community. After electricity was introduced, people started using radios, televisions, cassette and record players, and then refrigerators, coolers and washing machines. All these changes led to a society oriented towards consumption. Coming back to the wedding ritual, from a comparative study conducted vertically and horizontally, both intra- and inter-generations, one can easily see that some customs have been “lost” and replaced by new ones, but have remained preserved in the collective mentality. The interviews have revealed that, in olden times, national costume was the dress of the bride and bridegroom: They used popular clothes. The bride had a headscarf and a wreath with long coloured ribbons but did not have a wedding dress. The dress was worn only in the parts around Sibiu, and they were black and with exceptionally nice embroidery, finer than they look now! (I)

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The Sacred Tree in Wedding Rituals The national costume in our parts, with white dress, white pants and white shirt with rich embroidery, were worn by the bride and bridegroom (IV, V, VII, and VIII)

This is not in vogue anymore, and has been replaced by the modern wedding dress and bridegroom attire. The bridal dress was long. At the time, it was in vogue to have the dress with gold threads, with a head wreath, long veil and a woman who had better skills would come and do the bride’s hair at home, because there were not many busses and they did not use to go to a hairdresser’s … (II, III, VI, IX).

Also about thirty years ago, there was no wedding without “wedding customs” of a wedding flag and a cup: The flag was a pole of fir tree that was peeled off and dried. A pretty handkerchief was put on top and then it was wrapped in a beautiful fabric from top to bottom. It was adorned with other handkerchiefs and ribbons. The standard bearer carried it. He was a young man from the village and he carried the flag at all times. We started making the flag on the Saturday night and finished during the night (VIII). The flag was made on Saturday night by young girls and boys from the village. It showed where the wedding was held (I, V, VII). The wedding flag is a wedding announcer. It stands before the wedding party and when people come from the church it is still in front (IV). It was a little cup with a bit of incense, ashes and basil that they would put up in a tall tree, and they would not give the bride away until the cup was shot down (I, IV, V, VII, VIII).

These things have now lost their meaning for today’s generations, and they no longer constitute an essential part of social relations: My husband had the last flag, from then on they did not make them anymore! (V). I had the last flag at my wedding. They did not make them after that. Until my wedding they used to make flags but from my wedding onwards they did not make them anymore, the times have changed … (VIII).

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These “old” customs, as compared to the experience of the newer generations, have at most a symbolical value, but not an instrumental one. Customs have been replaced by newer ones such as replacing the true bride with a smaller person, and the real bride not being allowed out of the house before the godfather pays the small bride. Money represented the symbolic price of the bride, her status: There was another tradition to dress a little girl in a wedding dress and when they asked for the bride they gave away the little girl, in order to deceive the bridegroom. People made jokes about it. In my case, there was another wedding head waiting at the bride’s house, and the wedding head that was with Cornel started to “bicker” between them. Therefore, there were two wedding chiefs: the father and the son. The father was at my house, and the son was the one who coordinated the wedding. The wedding head at my house had the duty to “hinder” the bride and bridegroom. They usually “pick” on the bridegroom and hinder his way. The bridegroom and the wedding head came to my house, and the head said: “We came looking for a girl who is a bride today!” and this is when they set out on the stairs the little girl in white dress and the head said: “I do not know if this is the girl you spoke with or if she is fit for the children that I will have prepared for marriage.” Now the godfather has to pay this little girl in order for the real bride to come out. They paid her and then they were let in the house to come to me (III). When the bridegroom came to get me, they gave him a little girl dressed in a bridal gown. They wanted to see if the bridegroom agrees and of course he did not; but in order to get me, he had to pay the little bride with chocolate or a small amount of money, whatever she asked for (VI).

Another modern custom is to break the glasses from which the grooms champagne after the religious ceremony to chase away bad luck. When coming home from the church, the grooms are greeted with bread, salt and champagne: When we got home two of the relatives, somebody close, waited for us with bread, salt and champagne (VI). We went to the restaurant with the cars. A couple of young people waited for us with bread, salt and champagne glasses. We had a bit of bread with salt, a glass of champagne and then we broke the glasses (III).

On the other hand, in olden times, even if the wedding menu in the Oră‫܈‬tiei Mountains community was relatively modest:

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The Sacred Tree in Wedding Rituals … they cooked a sour broth with mutton and cabbage, not stuffed leaves, cabbage with sausages and bacon, well cooked with sour cream. They also made pies with cheese and put them on a plate and cut them in four, and everyone took how much they wanted. They put it on a plate because they did not have the large tables they have now. They had long tables and some people ate from the same plate. They had large plates from place to place, and they put the food in and gave everybody wooden spoons and earth plates. When there was no more food they would bring some more. About 3 or 4 people ate from a large plate. This is how it was in those days! (I). Well … in those days, there were not many preparations, it was easier to have brandy and food. In those days, three or four people ate from one plate, not like now, when everyone has their own plate. They had a good broth, stuffed leaves, then the pies … cakes were more difficult to make … (VII). What could we do? We slaughtered one ram or two; we made preparations like nobody had! (IV).

In comparison to how they do it these days: at the table there were snacks, sausages, stuffed leaves, meats, cakes...and they served food again the next night, because it was a lot (VI). the wedding took “three days and three nights” (IV). Now weddings last one day and a half, maybe two days long (II, VI, and IX).

The reason why most couples have a one-day or maybe two-day wedding instead of three, and the civil ceremony on the same day with the religious one, and usually on Saturday (not on Sunday as it was in the olden days, and with the civil ceremony held three weeks before the religious one), is that there are work schedules that have transformed the community. In other words, the work schedule has reduced the duration of the wedding ceremony: In those days, on Monday people went to work, people were tired and they had to stand all night. It was hard to get up in the morning for individuals and so they had it on Saturday and rested on Sundays (VI).

The homogeneity of the community was tight in the old days, but in time, it was overcome by the consumerist desires and the demands of paid work.

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The place and the process of the wedding ceremony depended on the origin of the bride and bridegroom. In olden times, the wedding ceremony took place separately (I, II, IV, V, VII)—the bridegroom with his guests partied at his house, while the bride and her guests partied at her parents’ house. Now, the wedding ceremony takes place simultaneously (II, VI, IX), at the bride or bridegroom’s house. Coming back to the “modernizing” of the wedding ritual, it is seen also in the “innovations” in preparation and menu display levels. For example, in olden times, bread and cookies were baked at home in the oven and this activity required the participation of several people (relatives or neighbours), so a lot of work and time. They had to do it because there was no bread! You had to go to the mill and take home the flour and make the bread … we made bread in that oven (IV). Food was cooked at the bride’s and the bridegroom’s homes. He had his relatives, aunts, uncles, and neighbours from his family and also the bride had her relatives, uncles, aunts and close neighbours that came from other villages (II).

At present, most couples from the Orăútiei Mountains community prefer to order all these (bread, pies, wedding cake, and drinks) from the city some time before the wedding. This is costly, but at least they save some time: The first meal is served—the appetizers, noodle soup, mashed potatoes and meat, cookies and the next meal has stuffed leaves, cookies and sour broth. [They serve] 10 to 12 types of cookies. I personally wanted a Doboú cake on the table next to the wedding cake. In addition, there are meat cuts, cheese, stuffed leaves, mashed potatoes … They are all cooked on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning, they fry the meat, so that it is fresh. All the juices and mineral water are taken to the restaurant. The brandy came from my family and my husband’s family, and the mineral water, wine, juice and beer were bought from a warehouse in Orăútie and taken directly to the restaurant. Then we brought the bread. The cookies were not home baked, they were ordered as well (III).

On the other hand, some menus are cooked according to recipes from magazines, radio, television or the internet. No matter how hard it is to get the ingredients for these, they have become common in the wedding ceremony and compulsory in terms of social status. All these aspects reflect the changes at the social and economic levels and the way in which they are produced.

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The Sacred Tree in Wedding Rituals

Conclusions Throughout time, there was a reverse relation between the simplification of the wedding ritual and the development of the material and economic aspect. Although the economic side of the wedding ceremony was diminished, the material benefits have been maximised. As far as the derivatives of the sacred tree in the community of the Orăútiei Mountains are concerned, the customs of the wedding flag and the wedding cup have not been used for the past thirty years in this community, but they remain preserved in the collective mentality. Throughout history, the wedding ceremony system has suffered continuous adaptations and innovations (some customs have “disappeared,” but have remained preserved in the collective mentality, while others have emerged). People try to alter their social ego according to the changes in the social and economic conditions. What is fashionable today will tomorrow become a tradition. The wedding ceremony implies a constant “reconstruction” of the social and economic values. Even if “modernity” has to keep up with the progress of civilisation, cultural values have a strong resistance to change in comparison to material goods. The wedding ceremony represents another way to promote social and economic relations (Kligman 1988).

References Chiúu, ù., Benea, Doina, PăúcuĠă, I., Ilie, Delia & Pribac, S. (2002). Grădiútea Muncelului. Monografie 1 [Grădiútea Muncelului: A Monograph 1]. Timiúoara: Eurostampa. Kligman, Gail. (1988). The Wedding of the Dead: Ritual, Poetics, and Popular Culture in Transylvania. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Zamfir, C. & Vlăsceanu, L. (1998). DicĠionar de sociologie [A Dictionary of Sociology]. Bucureúti: Babel.

THE BURIAL TREE IN THE ORĂùTIEI MOUNTAINS, ROMANIA: A TRANSITION SYMBOL OF THE AXIS MUNDI AT SOCIAL LEVEL MARIA LUNGU

Premises of the Problem This topic is approached from a socio-anthropological perspective. From a sociological point of view, the role of the funeral fir tree in the establishment and development of social relations, the cohesion, communion and unity of social groups, in socio-cultural integration, order and control, the continuity of socio-cultural norms and values, and the solidarity of the community was thought worth investigating. In addition, from an anthropological point of view, we tried to identify this ritual in the community of the Orăútiei Mountains, as well as to determine its magicalreligious function.

Working Method Information for this topic has been gathered throughout the years, using the methods of participative observation and questionnaires—which later became part of the monograph “Grădiútea Muncelului and Orăútioara de Sus during the 2000–2005 period”—“well informed informants,” and also a guide dealing with the concept of the sacred tree. The interpretation of the results was made through the social hermeneutics method.

Analysis and Interpretation Within the traditional community of the Orăútiei Mountains, the fir tree is part of the burial ceremony for young people who die unmarried, be it a boy or a girl: “The fir tree is decorated for people who die unmarried” (Ana Filipescu, 74).

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The Burial Tree in the Orăútiei Mountains (Romania)

This is the fundamental reality through which the belief system shows the meaning of the ritual. In the traditional communities from the Orăútiei Mountains, the fir tree “is also used for married people who die young” (Ioana Lăscoi, 53, and Adam Lăscoi, 77). In the traditional communities of the Orăútiei Mountains, “the Big Passover” or “the Big Separation” is not understood as a definite separation from the destiny of the individual, but as an “irreversible passage” from “the land of the living” to “the land of the dead,” which can also be changed with unpleasant consequences for the whole community. The role of the fir tree in the burial of young people who died before their prime is that of the bride or bridegroom for the one who left for “the after world,” “beyond the waters” or “the other world,” while the burial is organized in a ritualistic way, such as a wedding. The fir tree is the symbol of “the bride or bridegroom of the deceased person” (Adam Rujoi, 81); “If he is a young man, the fir tree is his bride. If she is a young woman, the fir tree is a bridegroom” (Silvia Criúan, 59). There is a popular belief that people who die before their prime or unmarried are not accepted in the community of “the after world” or “the land of the dead.” Taking into consideration that people believe in the afterlife, in the existence of the soul, they imagine death as a long journey, and they take care of the deceased person’s soul like that of a living person, so that they have what they need in this journey to the after world. All these efforts are aimed to ensure the appropriate separation, the passage of the soul to the other world, so that it does not come back to haunt the living as a ghost. All these aspects show that the fear of the return of the dead is bigger than the pain of separation. The fir tree at the burial symbolizes the bride of the young unmarried man, a symbolic wedding in death, the “marriage” of the young man that left before his time to a new cosmic order (Kligman 1988, 163–164). Social norms urge that the unmarried people go to the other world married, and are integrated in the rituals of the cycle of life: “O, dear Sofie/We do not like/Your bridegroom/Because he is rather dumb/Who he is meeting/He is not telling” (Silvia Criúan, 59). During war times, it appears that the fir tree also represented a replacement for the dead person: “Fir tree, green fir tree/What wind blew on you/So that you came down/From the high mountains/From your brothers/From cool springs/You came down to the village/Where water is bitter/Mother will cry for you/And mourn you/Instead of her son/They brought you/To cry for you a lot/Just like for her son/With so much yearning” (Ioan Zgăvârdean, 78).

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It was also viewed as a companion of the dead person: “The fir tree is a companion of the deceased person” (Ioan Alionescu, 54, and Cornelia Alionescu, 53). It is popularly believed that the souls of people sit in the heavenly tree before coming to earth, and the fir tree during his eternal regeneration would bring back the soul of the deceased. The fir tree represents the bridge between the two worlds. Within the communities of the Orăútiei Mountains, “young folks go to bring back the fir tree” (George Bogdănescu, 82) because there is a special ceremony for picking and bringing back the tree: “At the funeral the fir tree has to come from a certain wood, for the young men and women that died” (Avram Manolescu, 88); “They cut the most beautiful fir tree from the woods” (Ileana Visăroi, 49). Young people from the village, or even the relatives and friends of the deceased person, go to “faraway places,” the “cleaner and purified places” of the mountain, and so the person who died is also pure and clean. If the young deceased person is from Grădiútea de Munte, young folks get the fir tree on the morning of the funeral because the mountain is remarkably close. The fir tree is brought from the woods by the young men “on the day of the burial” (Silvia Criúan, 59), because family cemeteries are remarkably close to home, usually in the house garden. In the other villages from the Orăútiei Mountains, the fir tree is brought on the evening before the burial and left at the edge of the village until the next morning, when it is brought to the house of the young deceased person: “They take it to the village on the evening before the burial” (Mina Dâneceri, 47). The fir tree is the holder of the deceased person’s soul, so they do not take it into the village until the morning of the burial in order to prevent the destruction of another young person: “The fir tree should not be taken into the village, because another young person could die. They take it to the edge of the village” (Floarea Ianoú, 81). The fir tree is brought back by “nine young men with nine hatchets that go into the mountains for it” (Maria Visăroi, 70). The number 9 signifies the death of the individual into a new cosmic dimension. It represents the culmination of the road and a new beginning in another cosmic dimension: “Nine young men bring back the fir tree and whistle and sing the song of the tree while they do so” (Gheorghe Bogdănescu, 82). Whistling probably represents praying, because, in the past, young people would kneel and pray before being killed. In time, prayers have become Christian, but before that they were pagan. The fir tree was asked to give in to faith and be the spouse of the dead person: “Each young man would strike once and the tree should fall after nine strikes” (ùtefan Băroi,

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The Burial Tree in the Orăútiei Mountains (Romania)

80); “the fir tree must be taken down with one strike. The young men strike all at once” (Maria Nasta, 77). The movement of cutting down the tree is an ancient ritual. The hatchet is the instrument in the mission of the nine young men. Since the fir tree is the “human double,” the “spouse” of the dead person, the young cutters need to be careful and treat it well, which is why they can each strike once only. This rite of cutting down the tree is reminiscent of the animist belief that trees have souls. “If they strike more than once it is a curse” (Ana Filipescu, 74); “If the tree breaks, it is a sign that somebody else from the village dies” (Elena Zgăvârdean, 58); “If at the cutting other branches fell, it means that other young men will die” (Sofron Băroiu, 80); “If they do not like the tree and they leave it there, they should expect another person to die in that village” (Ioan Filipescu, 46). The fir tree represents the youth of the dead person, their human double, and for this reason the tree has to be the same height as the deceased. Just as the young man leaves his parents, brothers, sisters, friends and favourite places, the tree leaves the mountain, the springs and grass: “Dear fir tree/You have become slanting/You have come down from the mountain/From cool springs/From the tall grass/From the mountains with sheep/From the shepherds” (Samuilă Andreúoiu, 80); “Dear fir tree/What wind blew you down/So that you came down/From your brothers?/From mountains with flowers/From my brothers/I was blown away/By the warm evening wind/That made me go down to the village” (Ana Demian, 72). According to traditional mentality, one person can affect weather phenomena only when they are integrated in nature’s course (when they are dead). The fir tree is brought down from the mountains in a special way. It is not treated like other pieces of wood in anticipation of the solemn role it will play in the burial ritual—that of bridegroom/bride, husband/wife of the deceased young person. Throughout the journey, it is carried on the shoulders by the nine young men with its peak forward: “Dear fir tree/How you were brought down/From the mountain tops/With your peak forward/By the 9 young men” (Maria Marcu, 69); “When the fir tree is brought, the people will sing the tree song and it must not be put down” (Saveta Stoicoi, 63); “The fir tree needs to be brought with its peak forward” (Grigore Zgăvârdean, 62); “All people must bear the tree and they are not allowed to put it on the ground until they reach the house of the dead person. Even there, it is not laid on the ground, it is leaned against something” (Ana Filipescu, 74).

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Just as the dead person is taken to the grave with their feet forward, the tree is brought from the woods with its peak forward: “The fir tree is brought from the woods with its peak forward because the dead person is taken to the grave with his feet forward” (Adam Lăscoi, 77). It is a very big mistake to bring it in another way, because it could have serious consequences over the effectiveness of the fir tree ritual and, of course, over the entire community. Throughout the ritual, a close parallel between the fir tree and the deceased is maintained: “It is brought with its peak forward so that there is no other dead person to follow” (Silvia Criúan, 59). When entering the village, the fir tree is welcomed by the young men and women of the village and is left there until the next day, when it is taken to the gate of the deceased person: “Young men and women are waiting for the tree in the village after it is brought from the woods” (Ion Dânúorean, 99). The fir tree is guarded, just like the dead person: “The fir tree should be guarded for one night” (Ioan Filipescu, 46); “They make a fire and stay with the fir tree” (Maria Visăroi, 70). The fir tree is adorned during the wake by young people: “It is adorned in the evening before the last night of wake” (Maria Nasta, 77); “They strip its branches off. They only leave the crown. It is adorned by young unmarried people” (Maria Nasta, 77). The ritual of the funeral tree represents a wedding ceremony integrated into the burial ritual—it is a wedding in death. This feature is shown by the way in which the decoration of the tree is done and by the active presence of the young women and men of the community: “It is adorned with handkerchiefs, strips of paper, black woollen tassels and coloured silk ribbons” (Maria Grindean, 64). The fir tree is a double kind of tree—a tree of life and death. As a funeral tree in the burial ritual, it stands for grief and is adorned with “black woollen tassels” as a sign of mourning. The special aspect of the “black tassels” is that they are made of wool, because wool is sacred. In the community studied, wool is particularly useful, and a major occupation in the area used to be sheep herding. It is still important today, but to a lesser extent. The black colour of the tassels stands for grief, pain and separation from loved ones. Wool indirectly represents the human condition as that of a lamb, part of Jesus’ great herd. The ribbons that adorn the fir tree are extremely vivid, the various colours representing “a bit of immortality” to chase away the sad and gloomy atmosphere of death. The coloured ribbons represent the sense of peace with oneself and the belief that this “ending,”

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represented by death in “our world,” is a “new beginning” in “the after world” for the person who has respected the sacred throughout their life: “They stop with the tree on the edge of the village. The girls go to it with ribbons, handkerchiefs, flowers and bells to decorate it” (Ana Filipescu, 74); “It is adorned with handkerchiefs. It is tied to the tree with two sticks in X” (Maria Popa, 73); “It is adorned with handkerchiefs, strips of paper and at the top they put a bell” (Ioan Filipescu, 46); “It is adorned by young women and men from the village with coloured ribbons and handkerchiefs with two sticks” (Ana Filipescu, 74); “The tree is left at the edge of the village and is adorned by young women and men with ribbons, handkerchiefs, strips of paper and bells. It is just as beautiful as a bride. The fir tree is the bride of the deceased” (Adam Rujoi, 81). The bell represents the cry of pain from the people left behind as the person is “gone too soon”; it also lets the divinity and others in “the afterlife” know that the soul of the deceased is coming to Heaven’s gate (Chevalier & Gheerbrant 1994): “The bell is put on top of the tree, and when the wind blows, it chimes” (Maria Trufaú, 65); “The young men put the tree on wood supports and carve the bark in a sort of spiral, like a wreath that goes around the stem” (Ana Demian, 72). The spiral stands for the journey of the soul, its ascension to the skies after death until it reaches the final destination (Chevalier & Gheerbrant 1994): “They carve a cross on two opposite sides of the fir tree” (Maria Trufaú, 65). The cross is the symbol of communication between humans and the holy. In the burial procession of the people who die unmarried, the cross comes immediately after the tree, as a guide for the deceased towards the other world (Chevalier & Gheerbrant 1994): “The fir tree is used not only for the unmarried. The order of the procession is the following: first comes the tree and then comes the cross” (Maria Visăroi, 68). On the morning of the burial day, the fir tree is taken to the house of the deceased, and they have the religious ceremony: “In the morning, they take him outside the house, they have the religious ceremony, and they take him to the grave” (ùtefan Băroi, 80); “They cut all the branches of the tree and only leave some at the top. They put it in the yard of the deceased with the top towards the gate” (Ioan Dânúorean, 99). On the way to the cemetery, the tree is carried on their shoulders by young people just like the deceased, and they all sing the song of the fir tree: “The fir tree is carried before the deceased by nine young men and is put at the end of the coffin” (Silvia Criúan, 55). The fir tree is carried before the deceased just as the union flag is carried before the wedding party. The burial tree before the deceased

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person shows the youth of the deceased and their marriage in the other world, because the fir tree stands for the partner, the bride of the departed. The tree ceremony as part of the burial ceremony, which represents a transposition of death into the wedding, stands for a social and cultural control within the community that was strongly affected by this painful event within the natural order of things: “All the way from the house of the deceased to the cemetery they sing the song of the fir tree” (Ana Filipescu Ana, 74); “First they put the tree in the grave and then they put in the coffin” (Adam Rujoi, 81); “The fir tree is set at the head of the deceased, by the cross, so that everybody knows that there lies a young person” (Saveta Stoicoi, 63). Within these rituals, young unmarried people play a significant role as they are unmarried and, thus, are pure, unaware of worldly ways. Death represents only partial destruction—only the temporary part of us dies (Kligman 1988). There is continuity between life and death, and union between “this life” and “the afterlife.” As one can see, the most frequent rituals that appear in the funeral of young people deal with separation, integration, and communion. Death and burial are as much spiritual phenomena as they are social. The death of a community member upsets the whole social order and, thus, this newly-created state generates a set of manifestations meant to reestablish social order. Especially in these painful situations, the people from Grădiútea de Munte become united and provide moral and financial support to the death-stricken family. They take part in all these specific rituals and, in doing so, try to control and re-establish the social order within the community. The fir tree ritual and all it entails represents a social phenomenon. The participation of several young people in all stages of the tree ritual show deep character, richness of sacred and profane actions and, at the same time, a compulsory character at the level of conscience, transforming the community into a communion. The whole community takes part in the process and tries to re-establish order.

Conclusions Within the traditional community of the Orăútiei Mountains, the fir tree is sacred: it symbolizes eternal life, youth, vigour and courage, and because it is an evergreen, it stands for hope, longevity and immortality. It makes people calm down, relax and contemplate. In the traditional community of the Orăútiei Mountains, the fir tree is part of the burial ritual for young people who die unmarried, be it a boy or

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The Burial Tree in the Orăútiei Mountains (Romania)

a girl. Christians believe in the afterlife, they believe in reuniting with the loved ones when they pass over. Therefore, the fact that someone loved has died does not hurt as much because death inherently follows life on earth, and people tend to look at it in a more detached way. Things change when this natural order is reversed, children die before their parents, and young people die before their prime. In this case, the death of young people is “before their time,” because it happens before the right “time” in life, since “everything should occur in its time.” In the mentality of the people from the traditional community of the Orăútie Mountains, the fir tree represents, within the burial ritual, the husband or wife of the deceased, their human double, the tree with which the deceased supposedly became familiar with and to which they entrusted their fate in death.

References Chevalier, J. & Gheerbrant, A. (1994). The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. London: Blackwell Publishing. Kligman, G. (1988). The Wedding of the Dead: Ritual, Poetics, and Popular Culture in Transylvania. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BODY IN TRADITIONAL MENTALITY IOANA-DELIA NADOLU

Introduction The image of the body is the representation of one’s own body. This image is strongly shaped culturally and socially because, from just a glance of the other, the abstract feeling of the value of one’s own body is born. From the entire ensemble of the body, the human face is the most exposed to the glance and analysis of the other: “the face represents, without puns, the capital of the body.” In traditional culture, the body is not a separate universe but a complex system of interrelations that are connected by an abundance of symbolic correspondences to the mineral, vegetable and animal worlds. In ancient societies, the “primitive mind” promotes the laws of participation and association among all living and non-living forms of the human environment (Lévy-Bruhl 1922, 7). Thus, in popular traditions, the human body is included in visible and non-visible networks of energy that run throughout the world. In opposition, in modernity, the body represents an effect of the individual social structures, a direct consequence of the broken solidarities that have connected a person with the community and the world. The social actor that uses the phrase “my body” has already interiorized the separation between the body and the person. Le Breton (1990, 19) acutely presents the transformation of a body into having a body: In the past, I was amalgamated with the water of the Great River. I was never alone. Someday I saw myself in a mirror, and I decided to become free. The only advantage of this freedom was to make me discover that I had a body and that I would have to feed it and to dress it for several years. And after that, everything will be finished.

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Symbolic Representations of the Body in Traditional Mentality

Methods Can we find in the modern social space reminiscences of behaviours that reflect the identity between the body and the person? Starting with this question, we have designed a complex research monograph into a small community from an isolated mountain region where traditional practices are still visible. The analysis was applied in the Grădiútea valley, in five villages from Orăútioara de Sus (Hunedoara County, Romania), on the basis of a complex qualitative and quantitative methodology.

Results This research has evidenced the symbolic traditional representations of different parts of the body. From the elements of the face brought into consideration, different ideas have emerged due to their deep-roots in beliefs referring to forehead, eyebrows, eyes and cheeks. A particular place was occupied by considerations of hair. Apart from the human face (where we saw how many attributes can be described for the individualization of a person), and there are still vivid beliefs and identifications regarding other parts of the body such as stature and the hands. It may be noted that, along with the face, these are the most visible parts of the body. A widely accepted statement is that smart people have large forehead. Apparently, they are also blessed in life. A narrow forehead is associated with stupid people, and it often appears dark, indicating that such people are also evil. A singular aspect refers to the forehead of women, indicating the number of children she would give birth to (equal to the number of vertical lines between the eyes). Eyebrows also have a role in the characterization of a person: thus, those with joined eyebrows are generally considered to be good lovers (this association is not available in the case of women). Joined eyebrows in association with eye colour led to a more comprehensive understanding—people with clasped eyebrows and blue eyes become poltergeists/ghosts after death and those with black eyes have an evil eye. Eye colour says something about the type of person—those with green eyes are tender, while those with brown or black eyes are good and smart. A problem still functioning in the community is the evil eye: “They look at you and you have a headache, you feel sick, and cannot eat.” The evil eye is believed to be a feature acquired by not respecting the taboos of Christian rites: “Evil eye is not inherited, is not transmitted, it is acquired. When the song of cherubim is sung in the church, the parishioners kneel, with their faces down. The priest comes out from the altar through the

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right door with the gifts, with the bread and the cup, and those who look at him to see the ritual will get an ‘evil eye.’ Not even the priest looks at the gifts.” The colour of the face is a direct indicator of certain human conditions. Healthy people have rosy cheeks and sick, suffering people have fair, pale cheeks. However, if after death, the face remains rosy, it is a sign that the person will be a poltergeist. There are certain practices that keep the face rosy, such as using special “cold creams” (sour cream from cows’ milk) and others, as examples of sympathetic magic (red Easter eggs are placed on the breast). Following first contact with the person, the hair and especially its colour cannot be overlooked. Thus, a warning in this sense is to “stay away from men and women with red hair because they are evil.” Other hair colours are not so often put to the fore. However, it seems that blondehaired people are better, and dark-haired are worse. Another problem, recognized by the entire community, is the directly proportional relationship between white hair and human luck, especially if the person is young. Hair dressing is the central motif of a rite of predestination in which counting the number of whirlpools from one’s head leads to finding out the number of marriages they will have. Taking care of the hair in women is of huge importance, calling on magic rituals in which, through sympathy with the animal and vegetable world, one pursues long and beautiful hair: “at the first girl’s bath, put tow in the water, for the hair to be long as a tow,” or “girls gather tall grass and use it to wash their hair, but when they go pick it, chickens and birds should not be outside, so they would not have a short tail.” For the community, the way the hair is dressed is another indicator of the social status of a woman: “young girls wear their hair back, and married ones have their hair in a bun.” This distinction is also a direct decoder of marital status, which, in the past, was exceedingly strict. Women were not allowed to wear their hair back, and the girls were not allowed to have their hair in a bun. If a woman was seen walking with dishevelled hair, she was considered an active poltergeist. A true reflection of women, the hair is kept clean and tidy, using well-known plants, also scientifically recognized as having healing powers. There are also taboos to be respected in order to have nice, thick hair, such as not putting a sieve on your head in order to not end up with sparse hair, as though through the sieve. Apart from the human face, where we saw how many attributes can be described for the individualization of a person, other parts of the body to which vivid beliefs and identifications are related are the stature and the

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Symbolic Representations of the Body in Traditional Mentality

hands. It may be noticed that, along with the face, these are the most visible parts of the body. Regarding stature, unanimous beliefs are that little people are smarter, and the taller the person, the more stupid they are: “high as a tree, fence stupid,” or “small stature, great in counsel.” Although medium size is valued, there is an obvious concern for not stopping the child from growing (do not step over the child because they stop growing), or even for favouring their growing “as the elders say, if the child walks in the rain, they will grow taller.” One can see here a direct similarity of the human body in formation, in its communion with the vegetable world for which watering is essential. These pre-Christian beliefs were amalgamated with new Christian faiths, so that today there is still the belief that “if the child has a slow growth, it was conceived on a holiday.” As visible parts of the body, hands also bear symbols easily decipherable by the community members. Long fingers are the prerogative of clever people, but they also have a pejorative connotation: people with long fingers like to take things.

Conclusions In traditional representations, a person is identified with the body (especially with the visible parts, the forehead, eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, hair, hands and stature). These characteristics of the body are transformed into details of personality. The entire traditional representation of the investigated community has distinguished the living into the paradigm “to be a body,” as opposed to the modern approach that has changed it into “to have a body.” Modernity has introduced the body “in possession” that can be modelled by its owner (by gym, aesthetical surgery, etc.).

References Cassirer, E. (1994). An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Le Breton, D. (1990). Anthropologie du Corps et Modernité [Anthropology of the Body and Modernity]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Lévy-Bruhl, L. (1960). La mentalité primitive. Chapitres 1 à 7 [Primitive Mentality: Chapters 1 to 7]. Paris: PUF.

INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN THE RESEARCH OF HUMAN COMMUNITIES: PREHISTORY AND ANTIQUITY ATALIA ONIğIU AND SIMONA REGEP

Introduction Throughout evolution, human society has benefited from studies by a large number of experts, belonging to a variety of disciplines, operating with their own methodologies and approaches. The study of social aspects involves sociologists, anthropologists and historians, each trying to provide their vision of the studied field. At present, research of the population from prehistory and antiquity is an interdisciplinary approach and the sciences that attempt to recreate the way of life and social relations of that age are numerous.

Social and Human Sciences: Elements of Interdisciplinarity Although, for some people, it may seem entirely practical, archaeology brings a crucial contribution to the study of society in that it attempts to find out who we are, contributing to the formation of identity (Johnson 1999). It seeks to find out where we come from in order to provide a better understanding of the present and future. Based on material elements, the archaeologist has to choose the best and most accurate interpretation of the past to understand its processes, such as social dynamics and cultural activity (Ibid.). Recovering and analyzing the material culture, archaeology seeks to restore, describe and interpret culture and cultural development (Spores 1980). The shape and size of a house allow conclusions about the social status of its occupants, for example. Cemeteries, however, allow us to issue social, ethnic and cultural assertions (rich inventories were owned by well-situated persons, while poor inventories belonged to the poor, although one cannot make generalizations), as well as the ethno-cultural

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Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Research of Human Communities

environment (e.g. Celtic swords or helmets, Avar buckles, or Hunnish boilers). The first steps towards an interdisciplinary study of human communities were made primarily by archaeologists. In the first half of the twentieth century, in prehistoric archaeology, Gordon Childe and others, in order to provide a better understanding of life beyond the mere accumulation of artefacts, introduced the idea that artefacts are an expression of cultural norms. Thus, archaeological cultures emerged, characterized by a number of common features (ceramics or habitat, for example). A normative concept of culture appears, in which a change of any kind is attributed to migration or dispersal (Johnson 1999). Emerging in England and America in the 1970s, “new archaeology” was based on the belief “we must be more scientific and anthropological” (Ibid.). Binford said that archaeology is a subsidiary discipline, only studying material culture, while anthropology, the study of societies, would be the alone able to provide an understanding of life and human behaviour. New Archaeology had intended to focus on cultural evolution, dynamics or the co-existence of communities with different development levels. However, there is a systemic view of past societies, claiming a link between the environment (flora, fauna and climate) and the economy, social organization, material culture and religious life (Ibid.). Moreover, Kottak introduced the concept of archaeological anthropology to name the branch that studies today’s society and patterns to reconstruct past lifestyles through material elements (Kottak 2003). In trying to answer the question of how societies functioned and what the relationships between them were, how they formed social groups and whether social changes were made gradually or by war, archaeology crosses into the realm of sociology and cultural anthropology (Johnson 1999). Cognitive archaeology appeared under the influence of psychology, while, in the 1980s, interpretive (hermeneutic) archaeology was also born. Social archaeology first appeared in 1973 through the work of Colin Renfrew. Social archaeology is the archaeology of societies with concerns about ethnic groups and ethnicity, identity, the place of the individual in society and how they socialized (Meskell 2001), understanding material culture and home homes were built, both in the social sense and as the result of life experiences. Artefacts are dynamic and have a special meaning, the consequence of different processes and trends. House design has its own language, the distribution of the living space reflecting a socioeconomic reality (Funari & Zarankin 2003). Social archaeology reconstructs a social reality from a historical period, which it integrates in the current social reality (Herseni 1977). Thus, it interferes with social

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anthropology, which examines social relations, the interactions of individuals within the group, statuses and roles, structure and social organization (Berndt 1967). Evans-Pritchard (1951) says that social anthropology “concerns itself with human cultures and societies.” Firth (1951) states that “social anthropologists study a society, a community, a culture.” Quantitative aspects are investigated using historical demography, studying human populations in terms of size and volume changes. Demography assumes that any action of the human as a social being has demographic consequences (Rotariu 2009), studying population movements (natural movement, births and deaths, and the territorial issue of emigration and immigration), demographic phenomena (birth and death), and the impact of demographic variables (gender, age, marital status) on the evolution of the population (Ibid.). Demographic study is important for this discussion, involving the correct information gathering, the standard methods of data analysis, and construction of indices that measure the intensity or other manifestations of phenomena. There is also a need for an analysis of either horizontal or/and vertical social mobility (where this is possible) (Ibid.).

Prehistoric Human Communities Palaeoanthropology (Preda 2005) and ethnoarchaeology are particularly useful for understanding prehistoric human communities. Palaeoanthropology focuses on the study of identified skeletons and bone fragments from archaeological investigations. It issues opinions on the age of the dead, life expectancy, health status, cause of death, disease history, food, items related primarily to biology and physiology, sometimes managing to make some correlations with microclimatic conditions of a certain period (given the context in which fossil remains were discovered). At the same time, ethnoarchaeology is the ethnographic study of populations for archaeological reasons, with a prevailing orientation towards material culture (pottery, weapons and tools). It helps the archaeologist recreate the lifestyle of individuals from prehistory and antiquity by studying material and nonmaterial traditions of modern societies. An archaeologist can assume, based on analogy, which ancient societies used the same techniques as the modern one, based on similarities and similar circumstances. It is essential, however, that such an assumption can be proven. Ethnographic analogy is an important part of the archaeological reasoning, allowing assignment of use to objects, spaces and structures. If ethnographic analogy establishes similarities between real cases, past or present, ethnoarchaeology makes generalizations that tend to be rules. The essence

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of ethnoarchaeology is not the comparison between cultures, but the understanding the thoughts, the cultural identity of other individuals (Hernando Gonzalo 1995). Correlating elements of material culture, extremely rare for the Stone Age, for example, the information provided by skeletal remains analysis, by analogy with modern human communities could, for example, lead us to conclude that during the lower Palaeolithic (1,000,000 to 120,000 B.C.) individuals probably lived in groups (bands) of at least twenty families, led by the most well-adapted and skilled hunter-gatherer, somewhat similar to today’s baboons, foraging over a large territory, returning in the evening to rest areas, and always seeking opportunities for mating, At the same time, the females and the young outnumbered the men and the whole group was characterized by bipedal movement and animal behaviour (Leakey 1996). Occupations (hunting, gathering) were distributed in groups according to sex and age. There was a primitive organizational and management structure; the groups were open, having relations with other groups, including kinship. In the Middle Palaeolithic (from 120 to 35,000 BC.) graves undifferentiated by gender show that in life there was no distinction of status between the sexes. The burial of children with parents shows that the family played an important role. It is assumed that Neanderthal man lived in groups of twenty to twenty-five individuals, suggesting the existence of social relations and communication based on developed language (Cârciumaru 1987). Upper Palaeolithic (35 to 10/8000 B.C.) is the stage when it is assumed that the magician, healer and spiritual leader appeared (Horedt 1958). Besides interpretive archaeology, ethnographic analogy and trial provide the most interesting conclusions about the population of the Neolithic or the Bronze Age. The studies rely primarily on the study of material culture, which were far more consistent than during previous periods. In the Neolithic, we can see the first clearly defined stable human settlements, where people practiced agriculture and domestic crafts. In fact, this is the period that inspired the most famous steps of experimental archaeology, also undertaken by Romanian specialists. We are referring here to Built to Burn, a Romanian archaeological experiment aiming to ascertain the manner in which the Cucuteni society understood their homes, since all houses of this culture ended up being burnt, possibly during a religious-magical ritual, with funereal connotations. Another example of experimental archaeology is the Stone Age experiment of German specialists who tried to recreate the lifestyle of the Bronze Age communities using real subjects (two families with thirteen members of different ages, who, during two months, lived in the recreated

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Neolithic conditions in the Alps). Many parallels can be established between the elements of past material culture and traditional Romanian culture from architecture to crafts, offering conclusions based on comparisons worthy of consideration (for many of them, we may speak of technological continuity).

Antiquity In order to find out more about the human communities of the Iron Age, we have the advantage of written information, either as Greek or Latin literature, or as inscriptions on lithic material. Direct evidence about human communities of the time allows for a deeper analysis and to draw more relevant conclusions, since they have a real support. Roman inscriptions remain an invaluable source of information. With their help, it is possible to obtain a distribution and analysis of social groups, sex, and age. In other words, we have the opportunity to make demographic studies, with certain limitations inherent to the sources used for analysis, studying certain inscriptions and cemeteries; limits accepted by researchers who, during their research, turned to the mathematical values of available sources. The results, however, are controversial (Dasen 2001). Inscriptions allow for not only qualitative analysis (e.g. funereal archaeology studies correlate the findings in necropolises, with inventories and items of material culture, inscriptions and images with text represented on lithic material), but also quantitative statistics. Demographic study of the Roman Dacia population, based largely on epigraphic material, encounters difficulties due to the low number of inscriptions, frequent dating impossibility, inscriptions commissioned exclusively by the élite or their unequal distribution across social classes. For instance, the lowest price paid for an epitaph in Rome was 120 sesterces (the income of a labourer for three months), and so the inscriptions report, at least for funerals, a rate of one in sixty-six—i.e. for every man deceased with a funeral epitaph, sixty-five were buried without one (Laes 2007). Other hindrances are the predominance of men in inscriptions, irrelevant information on infant mortality, approximate age displayed (indicated primarily for close relatives, possibly as a way of expressing pain) (Laes 2007), not to mention origin (the birthday does not allow a clear identification of the person, but their tribe or domus). The analysis of the material and spiritual culture permit for the establishment of a connection between Roman colonists and the local population or other populations they came into contact with. During the Geto-Dacian period, we can make a clear distinction between that which is

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specific to the local environment and what belonged to the Celts and the Greeks, for instance. During the province period, when the process of acculturation occurred between the local population and the Romans, with the natives borrowing elements of Roman culture, through Romanization, the autochthonous culture fades away, scarcely detectable among the cultural events of the subsequent Daco-Roman population. Dacian existence is attested, for example, by names, certain Moesian Thracian origin religions, various inventory items identified in the context of funerary inscriptions reminiscent of the Dacians, as well as military units. Along with the Roman element, individuals from other provinces entered Dacia, bringing with them their own cultural forms. These are the Germans, the Dalmatians, or people from the Orient, primarily military and merchants. Their presence is seen in religion especially as they introduced national deities, certain features of art, or monuments. Studies to date on these issues are significant, but the contribution of social sciences allows us to reanalyze and reinterpret all archaeological material, and also to highlight other issues that remain unclear. Such an example would be the studies on the Roman family. Martin (1996) and Saller & Shaw (1984) pointed out that the current difference between extended family and core family, present in current sociological studies, did not exist in the Roman world, the situation being far more complex. In general, the number of family members was quite small, with two sons and a daughter. Martin points out that the inscriptions should be treated carefully because there is a chance that some featured members or children listed on an inscription would not have physically existed when the inscription was commissioned. Saller & Shaw (1984) started from epigraphic evidence and, taking into account the name that appears on an inscription and the relationship between each pair of individuals, concluded that, in the Roman world, the core family was paramount. Martin refutes this method, saying that if in a particular area the nuclear family is more attested and in another there were extended families or just family members, this is not a clear indication of how family was organized, but more of a writing practice. The same author highlights the ambiguity of the term “family” in the Roman world, the very definition (people who by nature or law are under the authority of an individual such as pater familias) is rather vague.

Conclusions Researching human communities of the past is an issue receiving constant attention, particularly due to the considerable contribution of interdisciplinarity

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and social. A good example are the studies undertaken by MihăilescuBârliba, prevailingly quantitative, but also qualitatively based on sociology and demography, with a theme aimed at analyzing social status, social mobility in certain categories of individuals, life expectancy, and social structure (Mihăilescu-Bârliba 2004; Mihăilescu-Bârliba & Bounegru 2006; Mihăilescu-Bârliba, Piftor & Cosma 2007). The relationship between archaeology and social sciences is also bidirectional, meaning that not only the are the social sciences interested in investigating human past communities but that archaeology, for the last thirty years, has also begun to make its contribution to the knowledge of “living” societies. It is worth mentioning the project Garbage organized by the Tucson University from Arizona, studying modern landfills and waste, questioning individuals to see what was used and how, and why it was thrown away. This approach was the basis of a new discipline called “garbology” or garbage pit archaeology. This shows how research of past and present human communities goes beyond a single discipline— interdisciplinarity becomes a prerequisite for relevant conclusions that are closer to historical reality.

References Berndt, R. M. (1967). “Social Anthropology and Australian Aborigines.” Oceania 37 (4): 241–259. Cârciumaru, M. (1987). Mărturii ale artei rupestre preistorice în România [Evidence of Prehistoric Cave Art in Romania]. Bucureúti: SportTurism. Dasen, Véronique (2001). “Antiquité gréco-romaine” [“Greek-Roman Antiquity”]. Annales de démographie historique 102 (2): 6–17. Funari, P. P. A. & Zarankin, P. (2003). “Social Archaeology of Housing from a Latin/American Perspective: A Case Study.” Journal of Social Archaeology 3 (1): 23–45. Hernando Gonzalo, Almudena. (1995). “La etnoarqueologia hoy: una via eficaz de aproximacion al pasado” [“Ethnoarcheology Today: An Efficient Way of Approximating the Past”]. Trabajos de prehistoria 52 (2): 15–30. Herseni, T. (1977). “Forme străvechi de cultură poporană românească” [“Ancient Forms of Romanian Popular Culture”]. Cluj-Napoca: Dacia. Horedt, K. (1958). “Istoria societăĠii primitive. Bazele arheologiei” [“History of Primitive Society: Fundamentals of Archaeology”]. Cluj: Universitatea “Victor Babeú.”

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Johnson, M. (1999). Archaeological Theory: An Introduction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Kottak, C. P. (2003). Cultural Anthropology. New York, NY: McGrawHill. Laes, C. (2007). Inscriptions from Rome and the History of Childhood. In Mary Harlow & R. Laurence (Eds.), Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplementary Series 65. International Roman Archaeology Conference Series. Age and Ageing in the Roman Empire: 25–36. Leakey, R. (1996). The Origin of Humankind. New York, NY: Basic Books. Martin, D. B. (1996). “The Construction of the Ancient Family: Methodological Considerations.” The Journal of Roman Studies 86: 40–60. Meskell, Lynn. (2001). “From Social to Cognitive Archaeology: An Interview with Colin Renfrew.” Journal of Social Archaeology 1 (1): 13–34. Mihăilescu-Bîrliba, L. & Bounegru, I. (Eds.) (2006). “Les origines de la population appartenant aux catégories sociales moyennes et humbles de la Dacie selon les sources épigraphiques” [“Origins of Middle and Lower Social Classes from Dacia According to Epigraphic Sources”]. Studia historiae et religionis daco-romanae. In honorem Silvii Sanie. Bucureúti: Editura Academiei. 297–315. Mihăilescu-Bîrliba, L. (2004). Individu et société en Dacie Romaine. Etudes de démographie historique [Individual and Society in Roman Dacia: Studies of Historical Demography]. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Mihăilescu-Bîrliba, L., Piftor, V. & Cosma, R. (2007). L’espérance de vie, la structure d’âge et la mortalité en Pannonie (Ier–IIIe s. ap. J.C.) [Life Expectancy, Age Structure and Death Rate in Pannonia (1st–3rd c.]. Iaúi: Casa Editorială Demiurg. Preda, Sînziana. (2005). Interdisciplinary Connections: Archaeological Anthropology. Analele UniversităĠii de Vest din Timiúoara, Seria Sociologie, Psihologie, Pedagogie úi AsistenĠă Socială XI: 117–120. Rotariu, T. (2009). Demografie úi sociologia populaĠiei. Structuri úi procese demografice [Demography and Sociology of Population: Demographic Structures and Processes]. Iaúi: Polirom. Saller, R. & Shaw, B. D. (1984). “Tombstones and Roman Family Relations in the Principate: Civilians, Soldiers and Slaves.” Journal of Roman Studies 74: 124–156. Spores, R. (1980). “New World Ethnohistory and Archaeology 1970– 1980.” Annual Review of Anthropology 9: 575–603.

CENTRAL, NATIONAL, POPULAR: IMPLICATIONS OF A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY ON PUBLIC MONUMENTS IN BUCHAREST, ROMANIA RALUCA-MIHAELA PARASCHIV

Introduction Investigations of city inhabitants’ perceptions of urban physical elements reveal the construction of a collective system of meanings. Starting with a sociological study from 2010, this chapter discusses the connotations of such a system of meanings perceived at the level of oral responses to interviews as well as embodied in stone in the public monuments of Bucharest. The fragmented narrative told by the city is both seductive and fascinating and gives rise to different artistic attitudes. The main creative ways of relating with the urban are public monuments built as the result of government commands, projects developed through interaction with the local community, and research and documentation programmes whose purpose goes beyond the present and takes into account future aspects concerning memory and education. The following pages examine the implications of the nationalistic thinking of Bucharest’s inhabitants shown by the aforementioned sociological study in the fields of modern and urban public art. In 2010, the Department of Sociology of the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) conducted a sociological study titled The Social Mapping of Bucharest 2010 (Raport de Cercetare Cartografierea Socială a Bucureútiului 2010). The research for the study was through face-to-face interviews of 1,487 respondents, a number considered representative for the population of Bucharest. Based on this study, Cuciumeanu (2010) performed an analysis of the data which led her to observe that, in Bucharest, “spatial centrality and cultural-symbolic centrality are superimposed in a meaningful way.” The

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respondents’ answers also pointed out that the main symbolic landmarks of the city are positioned in and around its geometric centre. According to the author, the primary criteria used by the population of Bucharest for evaluating urban images are size, monumentality and uniformity which, in turn, lead to an essential feature of the city: “the homogeneity of the symbolic representational universe in relation to the shapes and built frames of the city” (Cuciumeanu 2010). Moreover, another significant aspect for the collective grasp the inhabitants of Bucharest share about their city is the fact that most terms that make up the names of various urban landmarks considered to be most beautiful or representative are strongly connected to the idea of national union. Thus, the most prestigious theatre is Teatrul NaĠional (the National Theatre), the most prestigious cinema hall is Patria (Fatherland), the most representative structure is the Casa Poporului (the People’s House), and the most famous statue is that of Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave, a seventeenth century king promoted by the educational system as a key figure of national union). Furthermore, the message delivered by modern Bucharest is a rural one, leaning towards the past. In her paper “Bucharest: the Rural Message of a European Capital City,” Raluca Popescu (2006) draws this conclusion from several observations. Her argument starts from the perceived preference, revealed in opinion polls conducted by the author, for living in houses in opposition to blocks of apartments. Popescu also considers the abundance of folk decorations used in houses as well as the large number of public fairs and media articles promoting traditions as relevant to her point of view. Moreover, the author bases her opinions on an analysis of the busiest traveller route in Bucharest which is marked by the MioriĠa Fountain, the neo-Romanian architecture of the Villa Minovici, as well as other central buildings, the Museum of the Village and the Peasant’s Museum, the open air gardens with traditional grilled meat (mititei) and beer, and the old neighbourhoods with traditional houses and yards. All of this leads Popescu (2006, 55) to state that, for the inhabitants of Bucharest, “the collective representations and imagery as well as the reality of inhabiting lead to the conclusion that today’s Romanians see the city as a transmissible cultural heritage rather than a living structure, a continuous creation and renewal.” The analysis of the monuments in Bucharest that follows further discusses the importance of national and traditional aspects in the collective imagination, taking into consideration the significance of the People’s House as well as several examples of public monuments and artistic works created in response to such concerns.

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People’s House The Palace of Parliament (the new name of the People’s House) is considered, according to the aforementioned sociological study, the most representative building of Bucharest. This view relies on its symbolic value as a place of grandeur and power, its impressive size and the fact that it was erected using exclusively Romanian materials. The House stands as a strong urban landmark even for the ten percent that perceive it negatively. After the construction, between 1984 and 1989, of the “Civic Centre” urban ensemble, a megalomaniacal project inspired by Nicolae Ceauúescu’s known attraction to North Korean cities, life in Bucharest and the appearance of the city were forever transformed. Thus, “the price for having this building where it is now [was] horrendous” and it has generated an enormous amount of “despair and degradation of a nation and its people” (Boyadjiev 2004, 59). Nowadays, the largest building in Europe houses the Romanian Parliament as well as the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC). The effort to convert a monumental political symbol with strong connotations in the collective imaginary into an art space that is a public national museum has lead to heated debate on the significance of these terms ever since the inaugural exhibition of the MNAC in November 2004. In time, however, the perception of the Palace of Parliament has ceased to be negative and given way to pride and the house has been symbolically re-appropriated by the people.

Anti-1989 Monuments Commissioned by the Authorities The etymology of the word “monument” and its alternative name “memorial” immediately point to its commemorative function to re-enact and relate with events or people from the past (Mihali 2001). Mihali considers this mnemonic function of monuments to be the result of a political strategy designed to transform the dead into models for the living. In his opinion, the less secure government authorities are, the more they will turn to the monument and monumentalisation of certain facts or virtues in order to disguise their “loss of legitimacy” (Mihali 2001, 96). Thus, monuments are “built or reinvested” (Ibid., 103) due to extraneous creative or destructive interests, while the political message is an allegory projected onto the work of art (Leach 1999). According to Mihali (2001, 93), the most significant outcome of monuments is the identification with the people that we commemorate and, therefore, appreciate as “heroes, victims, martyrs, winners or even losers” as well as the self-identification as members of a community with

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whom we share the same values and respect for that which is monumentalised. Another important aspect of monuments is their durability, understood as the symbolic extraction of a historic event as well as their perceived physical resilience and indestructibility. Monuments also have a sensitive dimension due to their sensorial perception and a hugely important narrative character. “In monuments, time is narrated and spatially exhibited” (Ibid., 97) in order to be a catalyst for the identification needs of a community. In her essay “Monuments as Visual Memory,” Schultz (2011) considers memory and history as influencing each other and monuments to be the material outcome of such interdependence. The author is interested in what Riegl (1982) called “intentional” monuments, works of art born from the desire to keep people and events from the past alive in the present. Taking into consideration the way in which history is written and rewritten, and the hidden rationale behind the selection of the subjects, Schultz makes an analysis of monuments erected after 1944, looking at war memorials, as well as monuments portraying individual figures. The first memorials to be built after World War II were meant to establish the dominant position of the Soviet soldier and obedience and respect for the Soviet Union. An obvious example is Constantin Baraschi’s Monument to the Soviet Soldier located in PiaĠa Victoriei (Victory Square) and unveiled in 1946, “the first public monument made according to the requirements of the artistic doctrine of socialist realism” (ùerban 2011, 261). The destiny of this statue is illustrative for the use of monuments by the political authorities as commodities that can be promoted or removed on the basis of their effect on the message to be passed. Thus, the monument erected in 1946 in order to symbolically proclaim Romania’s adherence to the Soviet sphere of influence was moved in 1973 to a nearby street and then transplanted, without its impressive socle, to the Soviet Cemetery in Northern Bucharest, where it was vandalised in 2009. After Stalin’s death in 1953, memorials dedicated to Soviet soldiers became dull, simple obelisks with a red star on the top (Schultz 2011), while “the centre of gravity was to shift towards rehabilitation of national mythology” (ùerban 2011, 262). Romania was flooded with statues dedicated to heroes of the communist and anti-fascist struggle, defendors of the people, ancient warrior kings, historical figures that have been transformed into the perfect vehicle for transmitting propaganda about the ancient Fatherland, united for thousands of years in peace and sovereignity from the founding kings Decebal and Trajan to the present day. Another example that illustrates this point is the 1957 Monument to Heroes of the Homeland by Marius Butunoiu, Zoe Băicoianu, T. N. Ionescu and Ion

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Dămăceanu (Schultz 2011). This statue has been intensely promoted in the personal memory of many families whose children received the red pioneer necktie on this spot. Along with the central figures of soldier heroes, the plinth contains reliefs showing the battle of Tapae in 105 BC or the entry of Mihai Viteazul in Alba Iulia, a symbolic city of national unity, in 1599. During the communist period, the “continuity of noble ideals and the connection of the present to the glorious past” (such was the language of propaganda) is illustrated by the monumentalisation of key historical figures or, even more obviously, by the commissioned paintings representing Nicolae Ceauúescu as the last in a chain of kings, partners in the symbolic possesion of truth and justice. Besides impressive monuments dedicated to Lenin or Stalin, there were also a large number of state commissions for memorials dedicated to several historical figures chosen for their capacity to promote national political ideals, such as Alexandru Ioan Cuza, ùtefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great), Mihai Viteazul, Decebal and Burebista. There were also some historic events that were more often commemorated, such as the revolutionary movements of 1821 and 1848, the workers’ strike at the GriviĠa works in 1933 and the 1907 peasant uprising (Schultz 2011). The emphasis on certain personalities at the level of school education as well as that of public monuments in order to highlight the uniqueness and grandeur of the Romanian people has been remarkably effective at the level of collective imagination. This effect has been particularly noticeable in the election of ùtefan cel Mare as the alltime greatest Romanian personality in a TV survey (TVR 2006) that had 363,846 respondents, or the building in 2011 of another Alexandru Ioan Cuza memorial by sculptor Ioan Bolborea in front of the Homonymous Park in Bucharest.

Public Monuments Built after 1989 Considering public art after 1989, this chapter notices the preservation of a strong nationalist and historicist trend that helped preserve the famous figures that have not been touched by Communism (Alexandru Ioan Cuza or ùtefan cel Mare) or promoted past politicians that have been obscured by communist propaganda, primarily through restorations or copies and reinterpretations of ancient monuments destroyed after 1945. This trend is illustrated by the equestrian statue of King Charles I in PiaĠa RevoluĠiei (Revolution Square), realised by sculptor Florin Codre under the strong influence of the destroyed original work authored by Ivan Me০troviঈ, the relocation of another statue by Ivan Me০troviঈ representing Ion I. C.

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Brătianu, or the restoration of the Lascăr Catargiu monument by Ioan Bolborea, the Romanian sculptor most commissioned by the authorities. The nationalist trend is also exemplified by monuments to the heroes of the 1989 Revolution or the excessive emphasis on classic literary figures such as Mihai Eminescu or Ion Luca Caragiale. The most controversial monument dedicated to the events of December 1989 is the Memorial of Rebirth—Eternal Glory to the Heroes and the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 by Alexandru Ghilduú. Inaugurated in 2005, the statue consists of several elements whose names have been chosen to emphasize the commemorative destination of the ensemble. The alley leading to the monument is Victory Way, and it is paved with local oak wood. The memorial includes the Recollection Square, which has the Pyramid of Victory at its centre. The pyramid is shaped like an obelisk in marble that pierces, in its upper part, through the Crown, an element of the ensemble that is responsible for the large variety of ironical names attributed to the monument. The names of the 1,058 victims of the revolution are inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance. Ioan criticises the excessive use of Christian Orthodox religious symbols and gestures at the sites of Romanian memorials, considering that public space should remain neutral in order to allow for the meeting of “everybody’s values (Pantheon) or none at all” (Ioan 2006, 49). Not only does this religious abuse cloud reflection on the true significance of the commemorated events or people, it is also of an extremely superficial character, borrowing “only random fragments and thus manipulating their meaning and, especially, their consecrated forms” (Ibid., 45). Ioan illustrates his criticism with the example of the aforementioned memorial by Alexandru Ghilduú. Thus, the pyramidal column is meant to evoke the Holy Trinity and a cross has been placed on the ground in order to be stepped upon, a practice not allowed by the church that makes it a “divergence of religious vocabulary in order to give life to a public art object” (Ibid., 44) not only misleading, but also blasphemous. As stated above, another side of the nationalist trend in public monuments is the recourse to figures of literary history. This is the subject of Caragialiana, a work by Ioan Bolborea placed in front of the National Theatre in 2010. One of the largest public monuments in Bucharest, the ensemble dedicated to storyteller, playwright and publicist Ion Luca Caragiale has been received with critical voices by artists and theorists that have criticised the ferocious expressionism, the misunderstanding of Caragiale’s spirit and the extremely large amounts of public money spent on the monument.

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Another historicist and nationalist trend is the propensity for rural urban furniture. This large category includes the numerous wooden pergolas, benches, flowerpots and fences that are meant to evoke idealized images of a grandmother’s house in the countryside. There are many examples, one that has raised a lot of criticism being the annoying enclosure around the Zodiac Fountain that now obliterates this work of art.

Conclusion Boia (2011, 22) considers a nation to be “a community that is complex yet simplified and homogenised in the imaginary, invested with a high degree of coherence and a specific destiny that delimitate and set it apart from similar communities.” Only two centuries old, nationalist ideology is characterised by its “modernity and artificiality” as well as a circular relationship with history and culture since it declares to have surfaced from them while, at the same time, being the one that elaborated them in order to better deliver its message (Boia 2011). The relationship between art and public space manifests itself in different hypostases, the most obvious one being the unidirectional government discourse materialised in public monuments commissioned by the authorities. In Bucharest, the resulting works are illustrations of a history that has been carefully selected to fit nationalistic criteria and the result of a desire of those in power to legitimise their authority through recourse to the past. Having its inception as an instrument to celebrate the Grand National Union, then given strict rules and dictates, both fearful and intimidating during communist times, the public art of Bucharest is eclectic and inconsistent, in debt to classical forms and, inevitably, under the command of governmental authorities, casting their message in stone or metal.

References Boia, L. (2011). Două secole de mitologie naĠională [Two Centuries of National Mythology]. Bucureúti: Humanitas. Boyadjiev, L. (2004). Notes on the Former House of the People, Bucharest. In R. Balaci & R. Velisar (Eds.), The National Museum of Contemporary Art. Bucureúti: MNAC. 58–61. Cuciumeanu, Roxana. (2010). Bucharest. “The Presence of Recent Past: Representational Trajectories and Value Configurations in Urban Culture.” Revista Societatea Reală (2). http://societateareala.com/subpage7.htm.

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Ioan, A. (2006). “Arhitectura memoriei. Despre facerea, des-facerea úi refacerea memoriei colective” [“Architecture of Memory: On the Making, Un-Making and Re-Making of Collective Memory”]. In A. M. Zahariade, A. Oroveanu & I. Panasiu (Eds.), SpaĠiul public úi reinserĠia socială a proiectului artistic úi arhitectural. Bucureúti: Ion Mincu. 44–51. Leach, N. (1999). The Anaesthetics of Architecture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Mihali, C. (2001). “Monumentul între voin‫܊‬a de putere ‫܈‬i opera de artă” [“The Monument between the Will for Power and the Work of Art”]. In C. Mihali (Ed.), Altfel de spaĠii. Bucureúti: Paideia. 91–113. Popescu, I. (2006). “Bucure‫܈‬ti: mesaj rural al unei capitale europene” [“Bucharest: The rural Message of a European Capital City”]. In A. M. Zahariade, A. Oroveanu & I. Panasiu (Eds.), SpaĠiul public úi reinserĠia socială a proiectului artistic úi arhitectural. Bucureúti: Ion Mincu. 52–57. Riegl, A. (1982). “The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Character and Its Origins.” Oppositions (25): 20–51. Schultz, D. (2011). “Monuments as Visual Memory.” In Anca Benera & Alia ùerban (Eds.), Bucureúti. Materie úi istorie [Bucharest. Matter & History]. Bucureúti: Institutul Cultural Român. 235–250. ùcoala NaĠională de Studii Politice úi Administrative. (2010). Raport de Cercetare Cartografierea Socială a Bucureútiului 2010 [The Social Mapping of Bucharest 2010]. http://www.sociologie.master-snspa.ro/Download.html. ùerban, A. (2011). “Case Study: The Monument to the Soviet Soldier, Bucharest.” In Anca Benera & Alia ùerban (Eds.), Bucureúti. Materie úi istorie [Bucharest. Matter & History]. Bucureúti: Institutul Cultural Român. 259–269. TVR, Romanian Public Television (2006). Mari români TV programme. BBC 100 Greatest. Bucharest, Romania: TVR. http://www.mariromani.ro/modvot.php.

CULTURAL MODELS AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY: A CASE STUDY SÎNZIANA PREDA

Introduction The perspective that social sciences offers over the Pentecostal communities of Romania is still relatively narrow, although they have carried out a series of field researches in the last two decades (such as those carried out by L. Fosztó, B. I. Rusu, D. Tarnovschi, S. Pop, D. Kiss, M. H. Beissinger). Most of them focused on Transylvania, and this study looks at the situation of such a community in the Arad County—the commune of Bata. The main objective is to identify the ways chosen to develop one’s own identity and the image of someone of a different confession starting from the premise of the influence that each group’s culture exerts on the individual. The Pentecostals from Bata came from BistriĠa-Năsăud after 1990, looking for a land they could cultivate, given the fact that the villages where they were born are in the mountains, with little land and dense population. At the same time, the distance to more important access routes represented a mobility reason. Based on strong family networks, the migration started when several families first came to the Arad County, later inviting their relatives to follow their example. However, this relocation is under the will of a force superior to humans: “This was God’s will; there was no church here” (V. R. 57, interviewed September 6, 2010). From inside, the formation of the neo-Protestant community from Bata is a mission of seeding (or consolidating) their faith in places where it had not entered. Moreover, the destiny of the believer depends on predestination; even if they are happy with their new life, the interlocutor says they will be there for “as long as God wants me to.” Through their presence in the village, the neo-Protestants (representing approximately ten percent of the population) have generated a series of changes. The school going population increased due to the great number of children from BistriĠa (compared with local children), and they bought a

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series of houses and lands running the risk of falling into disrepair, and a new house of prayer (the village has an Orthodox church and a Baptist house of prayer, the Baptist community being represented only by a few, elderly parishioners). Within a few years, a new community emerged forcing the existing one to rediscover and re-evaluate its identity. Two regional and confessional identities came into contact, resizing both groups’ notions of vicinity, tolerance and generally about the “other.”

Methods and Techniques From a methodological perspective, in order to render the reality of what we have investigated as accurately as possible, we used the techniques of qualitative research. The study of religious identity represents a controversial subject, demanding greater emotional and physical concentration from the researcher. We emphasized indirect participative observation, and carried out a series of semi-structured interviews in order to provide the respondents a greater flexibility in choosing the themes of discussion. Sketching out life stories through in-depth interviews has highlighted the respondents’ religious beliefs and their attitude towards the group they belong to and other groups. Participative observation has offered us information about social interaction as well as the differences or similarities that arise between the discourse (verbal level) and how it materializes (factual level): “What people do is always different from what they say they do and much more important” (Bonte & Izard 2002, 404).

Results and Discussion One of the clichés linked to neo-Protestant cults refers to the moniker that identifies their adherents, be it Pentecostal, Baptist, Adventist, etc. The use of the term pocăiĠi (“repented ones”) is revealing for the almost general attitude of ostensibly labelling a group. We name before we know: “we do not see before defining, we define before seeing” (Lippmann, in Bourhis & Leyens 1999, 130). This nickname covers a variety of preconceived ideas, a dose of myth and imagination, opinions (coming either from the images others have created or from one’s own experience) on how the “sectarian” dresses and acts in the society and the church. We have to point out that, in Romania, we informally refer to someone belonging to a neo-Protestant cult with the general term pocăit, from the verb a pocăi (“to become penitent, to repent one’s sins”). Thus, the “penitent” is seen with suspicion by the members of other cults, as someone with a disadvantage, in a negative state; in the words of I. P.: “It’s embarrassing to turn

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penitent. People are uncomfortable because once you become one (neoProtestant), everybody says: ‘There goes the penitent!’ Nobody calls you this unless you turn to penitence [become neo-Protestant]” (Vlase 2002, 136). Isolated by the Communist regime, neo-Protestants have come out from the shadow, after 1989, but the perception of the others has not changed much since then. Promoted by both groups from Bata, the stereotypes imply the existence of a race for power. This competition for power must be connected with the increasing number of people who came from BistriĠa and who bought houses and land in a village whose (young) inhabitants are migrating in large numbers towards the nearby cities. There is no apparent delimitation of the territory, but its presence can be felt— according to the opinion of the natives, it took shape as they began to feel “surrounded” by people whom they knew nothing about, except for their geographical origin. Socially determined, “space is crucial for any social life form; space is crucial for any type of control exercising” (Foucault, in Harvey 1991, 307). Therefore, as the new inhabitants from BistriĠa arrived, the identity of the village, as a territory, became an issue as the newcomers began to buy land in the area. The old inhabitants of Bata calmly talk about the way the place was populated gradually, but the tone of their voice changes when discussing the “invasion” by those from BistriĠa. Some of the natives feel somewhat disturbed by the changes which took place in the regional composition of the village, especially the elderly, who once knew a different world, with its own rules and cultural models which cannot be replaced by those of newcomers. Founded on the motivational power of tradition (Harvey 1991) (an increasingly diluted tradition, however) local identity is unclear for some of the natives of Bata. Nostalgia alternates with the feeling of losing the “specificity” (of what is peculiar to that place) of the village, of losing the image of the place they once knew and only they shared in their everyday life. The higher the prospect of losing the local identity, the more valuable it becomes: “… local and national feelings have become stronger precisely because of the search for security the local offers in the midst of change …” (Harvey 1991, 309). As a matter of fact, the local “nationalism” of people from Bata, activated by the “problem” of the newcomers from BistriĠa, is nothing but a combination of remembering what used to be and the impossibility of finding solutions in order to prevent the labour force from migrating towards Lipova and Arad. Unlike neo-Protestants from the city, in the rural space, the image of the members of the group is even more obvious. Women are easy to detect due to their clothes (such as long skirt, head kerchief, even the young

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ones), the lack of jewellery or make-up. According to the congregation’s beliefs, women must follow the Biblical pattern: Paul says “I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes” (First Letter to Timothy, 2: 9). A person’s righteous deeds are important, and not the “additions”: They dye their hair, paint their nails, and wear make-up, all of that … These things, they mean nothing to God. We have to keep the way Lord made us! What would have happened if God had created us all painted in different colours? But look how beautiful He made us! And now they paint themselves … they do not like what God has created anymore. They want to change … (They want to be more attractive, so that others would like them …). But on the contrary! They get uglier!” (F. A., 43, interviewed September 9, 2010)

We are dealing here with a form of “body culturalization” (Braga 2007), a body which serves the soul and not the other way around, the way that in the modern world one’s concern for the appearance (for a “look”) surpasses the concern for one’s soul. Of course, the clothing worn by Pentecostal women from Bata is not characteristic only to them. It can be seen in Orthodox women who strictly follow the doctrine. Covering one’s body and refusing to embellish it (especially by wearing accessories) becomes yet another way of praising God, of demonstrating respect. One of the characteristics of the neo-Protestant community—the one that makes the difference between the two congregations—is that of “unity.” The Pentecostals from BistriĠa have tried to keep in touch with each other even after relocating. The first newcomers have steadily attracted their relatives and neighbours, thus building a strong core. Regional and confessional identities have overlapped and created, from the point of view of the newcomers, the image of a group with a strong social capital. One of the usual things people say about neo-Protestants is “pocăiĠii help each other.” “Leaving” the majority and “joining” a minority automatically produces certain solidarity between the members of that group, a solidarity sometimes labelled as “sectarianism”: “In order to keep its particularities and integrality, the sect, a group that is more ‘totalitarian’ than any other, that tends to defend itself as effectively as possible from the outside interventions and influences” (Wach 1944, 142). Associated, especially in the communist era, with the idea of “something else,” the suspicious and marginal, the word “sectarian” came to be used, by the interlocutors, less than the word pocăit. This name was accepted even by the members of the group as an expression of the self-

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identification process. The pejorative meaning has almost disappeared for the believers who think they have a different status: “God made the pocăiĠi a light.” In respect of the criticism from the representatives of other religions, the pocăiĠi counteract it using Bible verse. Assuming the position of being different from others and getting ready to give their own lives for their beliefs, they recall the first Christians. The image of a close-knit community and a Christian church at its beginnings produces different reactions among Orthodox Christians from Bata. Some accept assistance, sometimes, in the gatherings or in the evangelistic actions of the neo-Protestants, where pastors from outside are invited (from Arad or other towns). Others evaluate from a distance the severity peculiar to Pentecostals. Another aspect is linked to baptism, a personal choice in the Protestant movement, whereas in “traditional” religions, it is a family decision. One of the respondents recognizes that there are decent people outside their confession (Pentecostal), but it is essential that they should be baptized with the Holy Spirit when they come of age, similarly to Christ, while being fully aware of and responsible for the choice. Registered in the Bible, the episode of baptism is incontestable; as a result, any Christian, regardless of their denomination, should do the same. After all, the differences in practice are the results of one group or another institutionalizing belief: “There is only one faith, there are many religions” (ùumandea, in Vlase 2002, 133). The way in which Pentecostals express their religiosity draws the suspicion (distrust) of the Orthodox villagers. Compared to the Pentecostals, the Orthodox have proved to be more intrigued by the religious behaviour of the former. Practicing personal devotion, Orthodox Christianity is characterized by contemplation; during the service, the Orthodox is rather passive as opposed to the Pentecostal believer who expresses their feelings aloud, is gesturally involved and more expansive. An adept of common devotion, the Pentecostal confuses the others who see the practicing of faith as an intimate act and not a common, loud manifestation. Moreover, for the Pentecostals from Bata, God continues to be present even outside the Sunday service. Orthodox people give the impression of a group who “for as long as the practicing of devotion lasts” (Wach 1944, 238). In their daily life, religion is not as present, in the eyes of the outsider, as in the case of Pentecostals. For Orthodox natives, everyday life is somewhat influenced by the profane, while neo-Protestants live a life in which the holy surpasses it. The social and cultural life of neo-Protestants from the villages we have analyzed is lived according to the principles promoted in the prayer house. The word of God, the first commandment (rule, order), leads to a

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“sanctification of the behaviour” (Braga 2007, 126), to a certain dignity which those outside the community see as a set of rigid rules. If, for most of the Orthodox natives, there is a difference between the sacred and the profane, the sacred having its own well-defined niche, for the neoProtestants, life, under every aspect, must not deviate from the teachings of the Bible. This doctrine represents one of the main indicators of the difference between the two. For the Pentecostals from Bata, faith has an always concrete, tangible dimension. Miracles happen but, for them to become reality, the individual must always adjust their behaviour, persist in attaining cleanliness of the soul, obey the divine word, and sacrifice for their neighbours. The topics up for discussion when talking to Pentecostals relate to the reasons of their conversion to this religion (for those born into Orthodox families), the behaviour of the Pentecostal (as opposed to that of the Orthodox), as well as commenting on various quotes from the Bible, the end of the world and everyone’s duty in preparing for it. The interlocutors often talk about the “persecution” of the believers who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice (their own death), believing that one’s love for God is much tried (and must be tested in order to prove their strength): We are going to suffer here, on earth, when the persecution comes—we must ask for support from God in order to come out victorious. But after that, after God has taken His people from the earth … Tribulation will come over those who remained on earth because they did not come to God. (F. A. 43, interviewed September 9, 2010).

The idea of predestination becomes apparent through the barrier between “us” and “them,” between the chosen ones and those who did not obey God’s word; for both, the end of the world will bring the final decision. Often considered apocalyptic, Pentecostal eschatology insists on trying to become better regardless of internal or external obstacles one might encounter: Listen, we must be prepared, just like we know God will come tomorrow! We have to be ready. We should not wait anymore … How would God find us if he came tonight? (Are you ready?)—Listen, we are not ready, none of us is good enough on this earth, only God is perfect. But the Bible says that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Meaning, even if we did not do everything that is written there [in the Bible, author’s note] in order to be saved, God helps us, but we must do our best! And we must run to Him and look for Him. (F. A. 43, interviewed September 9, 2010)

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Alas, for those who do wrongful things in front of God there is Hell, and there is a heaven. Condemning various forms of Evil (smoking, alcohol, fornication, disbelief, etc.), the discourse of Pentecostal interlocutors makes us think of what Vulcănescu calls a “societal God” (GavriluĠă 1998, 57), a notion which covers various substitutes of God in a secular, disoriented world for which personal redemption is either a difficult task or a fiction. For those outside the community, the will and conduct constantly oriented towards continuous improvement (by obeying the Ten Commandments) seems to be a curious thing and an exaggerated, bigoted attitude, a kind of “secular asceticism” for the more intransigent (GavriluĠă 1998, 20): “It seems difficult, to obey everything that the Bible says. It is easy with the Lord. It is difficult to reach Him. It is not that hard on earth either, not with God. As I said: if it were not for God, we would not know what to do … Do you think it is that hard?” (F. A. 43, interviewed September 9, 2010).

Conclusions and Recommendations Both congregations have quite a strict attitude, decidedly less permeable towards the “other,” their culture, behaviour, or beliefs. For some of the Orthodox respondents, “they” come across as inflexible, because they refuse to walk in front of the church or leave before the priest arrives, during certain family ceremonies, such as baptisms, weddings, or funerals. Whereas for the Pentecostals, “they” live in sin, as long as they “drink and gamble,” curse, smoke, do not support their fellows, etc. Seen from outside, the neo-Protestants from Bata are a closed community, extremely restrictive in some of their manifestations. We believe that such an analysis shows how difficult it is for outsiders to understand the deeply emotional approach, extroverted to the sacred, in the Pentecostals practice. Religious models can be accepted or not, and the fact that they come from a particularly strong family tradition keeps them from changing as time goes by. In a society which passes through a process of continuous secularization, the community we have analyzed represents the exception. The trust that the divine governs over the tiniest aspect of life, the continuous reference to the Bible, the ritualized behaviour, the unity of the members—all these function as armour for the group protecting it from those of a different faith and who place the sacred on another dimension. The community from Bata has that air of communitas Kottak (2010, 331) is talking about: “Intense community spirit, a sense of wide social solidarity, equality and togetherness characteristic of people experiencing liminality together.”

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References Bonte, P. & Izard, M. (Eds.). (1992). Dictionnaire d’ethnologie et anthropologie [A Dictionary of Ethnology and Anthropology]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Bourhis, R. Y. & Leyens, J.-P. (Eds.). (1999). Stéréotypes, discrimination et relations intergroupes [Stereotypes, Discrimination, and Intergroup Relations]. Bruxelles: Mardaga. Braga, C. (2007). Concepte úi metode în cercetarea imaginarului. Dezbaterile Phantasma [Concepts and Methods in the Research of Imaginary: The Phantasma Debates]. Iaúi: Polirom. GavriluĠă, N. (1998). MentalităĠi úi ritualuri magico-religioase: Studii úi eseuri de sociologie a sacrului [Magic-Religious Mentalities and Rituals: Studies and Essays on the Sociology of the Sacred]. Iaúi: Polirom. Harvey, D. (1991). The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Kottak, C. P. (2010). Cultural Anthropology: Appreciating Cultural Diversity. Columbus: McGraw Hill. Vlase, Monica. (2002). ViaĠa úi practica religioasă a comunităĠii creútin penticostale din Cluj-Napoca în perioada dictaturii comuniste [Life and Religious Practice of the Christian Pentecostal Community of ClujNapoca during the Communist Dictatorship]. Anuarul Institutului de Istorie Orală III: 133-156. Wach, J. (1944). Sociology of Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE GERMANS FROM THE BANAT HIGHLANDS: SOCIOLOGICAL AND JOURNALISTIC PERSPECTIVES CRISTIAN RUDOLF

Introduction From a chronological point of view, works dealing with the social life of the Germans from the Banat Highlands can be divided into three broad categories. Verifying the historiography of the social life concerning the minority dwellers of the mountain area of Banat, we observe that all too often, in the description of aspects of everyday life, there is a strong insertion of politic discourse which has stamped a certain nuance into the narration, often not conforming to the unbiased report that is all too necessary for historic positivist development. For this reason, it is necessary to analyze critically and appreciate sine ira et studio a series of works. This fact proves that, as in the period from the 1930s to the 1950s, a series of books tangential to the ideas of the social-democrat, nationalist, and national-socialist political parties were published. The interwar period saw collections of studies on the Banat Germans, published under the auspices of the government in Berlin. One of them was coordinated by Karl Bell titles Das Deutschtum im Ausland. The writings included in the paper are prefaced by a speech belonging to the Reich’s Interior Minister, Dr. Külz. Such a tone is loaded with rich, nationalist Pan-Germanism and emphasises the integration of the German ethnic minorities in the Banat folk community with an enlarged flow towards the motherland. The general term Swabians includes the Germans from the Banat Mountains, which is a common error of that time (Bell 1926). The collection of studies edited by Bell starts with two interventions of Karl von Möller regarding the historical evolution of the German community in Banat. After a detailed geographic, demographic, economic and social description of the region, the former senator and

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retired colonel continues the narration presenting the stages of colonization of that population. He distinguishes the community in the plains and mountains on the basis of economic and social considerations. However, the qualitative analysis regarding the differences of the settlers stops there, and the author wrongly assimilates the Germans from the mountains of Austrian origin with the Swabians of the lowlands. The volume of articles, interpellations, and speeches that appeared under the title Deutsches Volkswerden im Banat, Reden und Aufsätze Dr. Kaspar Muths is very interesting. The editor Joseph Rieß painstakingly gathered and classified the contributions signed by the man of justice and police named above. The economic and social situations of the Germans in the Banat Mountains, of Austrian origin, defined separately from the Swabians by Dr. Muth are analyzed in some materials. Most of the articles contained in the book were meant to highlight the unique linguistic, cultural and especially confessional characteristics of the Germans of Banat, both in the plains and the mountains, their rights as a socially cohesive community, worthy to be represented in the local government, in education and justice at the regional level (Rieß 1935). The social-democratic works were inaugurated by the book of the union leader Josef Gabriel, Fünfzigjährige Gerschichte der Banater Arbeiterbewegung, 1870–1920. It aimed at explaining the movement of half a century of trade union workers locally and regionally. He also mentioned that light industry was concentrated in the urban centres of the plains (Arad, Timiúoara, Lugoj), while heavy industry was concentrated in the mountain towns (OĠelu Roúu, Anina, ReúiĠa, Moldova Nouă). The Swabians, the Alsatians and the Lorenes worked mostly in light industry, while the Austrians, the Czechs, and the Germanized Slovaks worked in the heavy industry. The work included a representative view of the industrial workers and miners, their interests and highlighted the achievements of the socio-professional categories (Gabriel 1928).

Body The historiography of the post-war period was marked by the tendency of rational analysis of the consequences of the conflict but also by trying to understand the collective tragedy suffered by the Germans in Romania and, implicitly, in the Banat Highlands, who try to recreate the image of their former homeland that were forcibly abandoned. Books such as these narrated the presence of the German community in the plain and highland areas trying, at the same time, to maintain the image of the native places,

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euphemistically characterized by the phrase: Heide und Hecke (“grove and turf”) (Petri 1992). Nikolaus Engelmann’s book, Banat. Ein Buch der Errinerung in Bild und Wort, stresses emotions, habits and activities described in the social framework. The author states the true geographical origin of German colonists settled in Banat, noting that in the lowlands were settled those from Swabia, Lorraine, Alsace and Württemberg, known generically as the Swabians, tangential to the Prussian and French culture. Instead, the mountain area was colonized primarily by those of Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, Bohemia Slovakia, Zyps, and Germanized Italians who, from the nineteenth century, claimed to belong to Austrian culture. At the end of the narrative, one can still identify some confusion, with Engelmann assimilating Austrians from the mountains with Swabians from the Banat plain (Engelmann 1959). We may include in the same category the contribution from Otto Greffner, PopulaĠia úvăbească (germană) din Banat. Cine sunt, când au venit úi de unde? It consists of a chronological description of the evolution of the German community in Banat. The onset refers to the geographical and historical framework, which are specific to this province. Wellproportioned compared to other historical periods, the interwar period is treated accurately. Since the global conflict ended in 1918, continuing with the Banat Swabians joining the union in Alba Iulia and ending with the German general assembly in Timiúoara, from March 13, 1921, the 1930s are well captured in the events important for the minority community area. Relevant in terms of social life (occupations practiced by local Germans), the work is augmented by useful statistical data fully reporting the economic gap between the mountain and the plain dwellers. The first were employed at a rate of 56% in manufacturing and mining enterprises, and others, at a percentage of 84%, in agriculture and other services. The boom years of 1921 to 1928 are presented in contrast with the 1929 to 1933 economic crisis years, allowing comparative analyses, as historical and social effects occurred (Greffner 1994). The Banat Highlands had enjoyed a workers’ tradition since the second half of the eighteenth century. Industrial workers and miners were a professional community as well as being multilingual and multicultural, in which both natives and settlers were reflected. Since the mid-nineteenth century, they formed the first professional associations of the union type. This tradition is detailed in the work of the social-democrat leader Georg Hromadka, Kleine Chronik des Banater Berglands. Through rich information about the Germans in the Banat Highlands, alongside clear chronological exposures and well-balanced analysis of their totalitarian

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doctrines and systems in the inter-war era, the elaboration is a crucial element informing this bibliography. This approach is praiseworthy in that it sets apart the Austrians and Germanized Czechs in the mountain area, and the Swabians and Würtenbergers located in the lowlands, illustrating the cultural and social differences as necessary to clarify the true disparities between the two communities, apparently identical in the linguistic and religious expression (Hromadka 1993). We would not identify complete elective probity if we ignored the series of articles dealing with the social life of the Germans in the Banat Mountains in the 1970s and 1980s. Ludovic Báthory is the author of contributions on topics of the labour movement, labour disputes, union organization, and standard of living of the workers in the Banat Highlands in the interwar years. Written from the perspective of history endorsed by the local labour movement, his studies do not advance theses on ethnic or linguistic differences between the characters involved in the historical analysis. The author mentions only their names, without specifying their ethnicity (Báthory 1973a; 1973b). In terms of information sources used, we observe that Báthory extensively used newspapers and magazines articles printed in Cluj and Bucharest. He also made a comprehensive analysis of documentary funds in central archives, focusing on reports of various trade union congresses. This is one of the merits of its success, but also one of its weaknesses. For example, the author does not include basement key references to archival information from funds held in Timiúoara and Caransebeú, or excerpts from newspaper articles on local union profiles, from ReúiĠa and Timiúoara. Using archival sources of information especially from the central level, the author has somewhat neglected those at the local (Báthory 1973a; 1973b). Among the compendia of studies dedicated to the Germans from Central Europe is the one edited by Krista Zach and Gerhard Grimm, Die Deutschen in Ostmittel- und Südost-Europa. Influenced by nationalist tendencies, practicing Pan-Germanism and then National Socialism, a number of historians survived by claiming the compulsory repatriation of the ethnic community focused on the geographic-historical phenomenon related to the auspices of Heim ins Reich [Home to the Reich], but also their social and civic reintegration. We believe that regional studies remain crucial in understanding the evolution of the German community in a relatively limited geographical area marked by the presence of several ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. The historical analysis of the various authorities involved elaborated by editors had been filtered through the social realities, as well as the geographical, political and economic presence in regional and especially micro-areas (Grimm & Zach

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1995). Whether they were landowners from the Banat plain or skilled industrial workers from the “Piedmont” of this province, we cannot deny the success of their integration into Romanian society and the level of material prosperity and spiritual progress achieved during the interwar period. This is evident in social welfare, considering that in Banat (the micro-mountain area), about 25% of the craft enterprises and trade companies were owned by Germans. Of the country’s industrial workers, 12.5% were Germans, accounting for 37.5% of all manufacturing output. Many of them lived, worked and were integrated into the urban society of the Banat Mountains. Social life is illustrated by the movement of a series of publications in the area, such as the newspaper Temeswarer Zeitung (Timiúoara Newspaper) and the magazine Ostland (Eastland) (Grimm & Zach 1996). Historic works carried out locally, in a realistic manner, describe the social evolution of the German community, providing information about existing local units. Books published after 1989 have the special merit of being free from the doctrinal authority of totalitarian ideology, showing a realistic contribution to the prosperity of German heritage. Such an example is that from Sorina Paula and Ioan Bolovan, Die Deutschen in Rumänien. The work includes important statistics about the population of Banat Germans, both in the plains and the mountains. State law granting citizenship enshrined wars, civil and political rights for all citizens of the country, regardless of nationality, language, or confession. A number of politicians of the time, led by Valeriu Braniúte, contested the Magyarization policy of the Banat Germans during the Austro-Hungarian period, meant to protect its individual character (social, cultural, linguistic and confessional). The action resulted, in 1922, in the appearance in Romania of 71 publications in German; by 1934, there were 176. The inauguration of the studies complex called “Banat, Timiúoara 1927,” the largest education centre of its kind outside of the German state, encouraged the positive social development and cultural life of that community in Banat. Its members, whether from the mountains or from the plains, benefited from the educational opportunities offered by this institution. The land reform of 1921 had a positive effect on the Germans in Banat, and 24,815 families were allotted. Many locals were animal breeders or fruit growers in the mountain area. They received land in perpetual ownership, were allowed to enter the landlord class, and clearly contributed to improving their economic and social status (Bolovan & Bolovan 2002).

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Conclusions Karl Ludwig Lupúiasca wrote two interesting works in 2000 and 2006 in which he narrates the history of his own minority, and we cannot exclude from the list of hermeneutics the contributions made by this prominent local author and member of the German community of the mountain Banat region, deeply rooted in the everyday realities and events that this community underwent in the preceding decades. From the point of view of the existential plans addressed here, we can say that the signatory has allocated equal space to all four dimensions of human life in the mountain Banat Germans. Their life as a social, political, economic and cultural ethnic group is presented chronologically, based on several examples. The basic problem of the two titles highlighted is precisely the data used. The information is taken randomly from the press, or from volumes made up of several local and regional contributors, but also from interviews with ethnic Germans who lived through the age described. This list indicates the lack of data from documentary funds and censuses conducted between 1867 and 1910 and during the interwar period (Lupúiasca 2006). Of course, the history books cited are valuable, but they contain only tangential information on the German minority in the Banat Mountains. Articles in newspapers clearly highlight the main events and episodes of everyday life of the community, but their testimony is often rendered as tangential to social democratic political or National Socialist discourse (Lupúiasca 2000). Undoubtedly, the interviews with ethnic Germans who were children or adolescents during the interwar period quoted and processed in the two volumes give a particular vision of the characters, for specific situations, but they also contain specific prejudices and nostalgia of the respondents. However, in connection with the three sources mentioned, archival information is minimally present in the author’s analysis. For this reason, in order to complete the approach of Lupúiasca, especially in terms of the social life of Germans in the microarea analysed, we believe that one should analyse other existing funds from the National Archives Department of the Bucharest, Caransebeú, and Timiúoara branches, and from abroad, namely Germany (Berlin, Stuttgart, Tübingen and Ulm). The press was and often is referred to as the fourth estate. The statement is at least partially true, if we take into account the role performed by its ability to form opinion on a daily basis. The minority communities in interwar Romania enjoyed the existence of periodic newspapers that addressed the key aspects of their daily social life. Many of the broadcasts from the Banat Highland area referred to the existence

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and activity of local Germans. Numerous problems related to the everyday life of industrial workers, the trade union organization, and participation in social debates have been described in journals such as Banater Handwerker (1923–1924), Banater Arbeiter Presse (1925–1928), and Der gute Kammerad (1932). This last paper had many readers among mine workers, numerous in the Banat Mountains. Issues of their participation in the social and political life of the rural and urban areas, either plain or mountain sites, were identified and discussed in monthly journals such as Banater Bote (1922–1940) and Banater Monatshefte (1933–1938) that enjoyed a significant circulation in the plains, but were also read in the mountain areas (Brăftălean 1998). The work in question is a solid starting point in exploring many interesting aspects of social life covered by the German community of the Banat Highlands. Possible research topics based on the historiographic writings analyzed may include habitat issues of the German population of the micro-area, describing its social elite and the local occupations of the ethnic Germans, the contribution of associations and professional groups illustrating the labour disputes and social problems experienced by the German workers, and unveiling some aspects and components of German daily life in the Banat Mountains, the issues relating to social and political meetings, but also other problems such as the criminality level in this community.

References Báthory, L. (1973a). AcĠiuni revendicative úi greve ale minerilor din Banat între anii 1922–1929 [Work Conflicts and Strikes of the Miners from Banat 1922–1929]. Anuarul Institutului de Istorie Cluj-Napoca XVI: 325–346. —. (1973b). “Lupte revendicative úi miúcarea sindicală a minerilor din Banat între anii 1918–1921” [“Work Conflicts and the Miners’ Union Movement in Banat 1918–1921”]. Acta Musei Napocensis X: 755– 767. Bell, K. (1926). Das Deutschtum im Aussland. Monographiensammlung [The Germans from Abroad. Collection of Monographs]. Dresden: Deutscher Buch und Kunstverlag W. Berger. Bolovan, I. & Bolovan, Sorina Paula. (2002). Die Deutschen in Rumänien [Germans in Romania]. Cluj-Napoca: FundaĠia Culturală Română. Brăftălean, V. (1998). 25 de ani de miúcare muncitorească la ReúiĠa: 1903–1928 [25 Years of Worker Movement in ReúiĠa 1903–1928]. ReúiĠa: InterGraf.

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Engelmann, N. (1959). Banat. Ein Buch der Errinerung in Wort und Bild [Banat: A Book of Remembrance in Words and Images]. Freilassing: Pannonia Verlag. Gabriel, J. (1928). Fünfzigjährige Geschichte der Banater Arbeiterbewegung 1870–1920 [Fifty Years of History of Banat Workers’ Movement 1870–1920]. Timiúoara: Buchdruckerei der Schwäbischen Verlags-Aktiengeselschaft. Greffner, O. (1994). PopulaĠia úvăbească (germană) din Banat. Cine sunt, când au venit úi de unde? [The Swabian (German) Population from Banat: Who Are They, when and where Have They Come from?]. Arad. Hromadka, G. (1993). Kleine Chronik des Banater Berglandes [Small Chronic of Banat Highlands]. München: Verlag des Südostdeutschen Kulturwerks. Lupúiasca, K. L. (2000). Dem Emporbringen und Aufblühen dieser Bergwerke. Eine Geschichte des Banater Berglandes in der Zeitspanne 1855–1920 [Edification and Prosperity of These Mines. A History of Banat Highlands in the Period 1855–1920]. Bucureúti: ADZ- Verlag. —. (2006). Höhepunkt ihrer Geschichte. Eine Geschichte des Banater Berglandes in der Zeitspanne 1920–1948 [Highlight of Their History. History of Banat Highlands in the Period 1920–1948]. ReúiĠa: Banatul Montan. Petri, A. P. (1992). Biographisches Lexikon des Banater Deutschtums [Biographical Lexicon of the Germans from Banat]. Marquartstein: Th. Breit Druck+Verlag GmbH. Rieß, J. (1935). Deutsches Volkswerden im Banat. Reden und Aufsätze Dr. Kaspar Muths [German People in Banat: Discourses and Articles by Dr. Kaspar Muth]. Timiúoara: Graphisches Unternehmen Ideal. Zach, Krista & Grimm, G. (1995). Die Deutschen in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa. Geschichte, Wirtschaft, Recht, Sprache 1. [The Germans from Middle, East and South-East Europe: History, Economy, Law, Language 1]. München: Südostdeutschen Kulturwerk Verlag. —. (1996). Die Deutschen in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa. Geschichte, Wirtschaft. Recht. Sprache 2 [The Germans from Middle, East and South-East Europe: History, Economy, Law, Language 2]. München: Südostdeutschen Kulturwerk Verlag.

EXEMPLARINESS AND MORAL SUBTLETY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND FUNCTIONING OF THE TRADITIONAL ROMANIAN FAMILY DUMITRU STAN

Most studies on the institution of family focus on capturing its states of sub-normality. In approaching the dysfunctions of the family group, two topics tend to reoccur: the first aims to highlight what is reproduced and what is renewed in the domestic environment, while the second aims to delineate certain traditional family behaviours that could serve as anticrisis models for the contemporary family. This chapter analyses such thematic recurrences under the circumstances in which the former is only the argumentative premise of the latter.

Introduction: Stability and Family Change Among the various forms of groups that humanity has developed throughout the ages, family seems to be the one that has been preserved the most. This type of group has been said, without exaggeration, to look the same today as it did 5,000 years ago. In the slightly overstated perception of certain specialists, one can find the idea that, since family entered history and took shape as an institution, “humanity has not invented any other new form of family relations” (Băran-Pescaru 2006). In other words, since the time of the first convincing historical proofs about family up to today, its name has been continuously connected to marital, filial and brotherly relations, one’s position as relative to another, the specific phenomena of the primary socialisation process, the fulfilment of specific functions, and the propagation of typical statutes and cultural capitals. Such a prospect of longitudinal understanding of family stability has, obviously, led to confusion and controversy, justified by the fact that several significant differences can be mentioned, not only between the current and the archaic family, but also between the modern and the traditional family or the modern and the postmodern family. Thus, both technical and general knowledge indicate gradual and structural

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transformations of the state of the family group in terms of union age, procedures of choosing one’s spouse, socialisation contexts of marriage aspirants, nature of spouses’ involvement in domestic work, power relationship between spouses, average number of children born in a family, educational content that must be handed over from parents to children, divorce rate etc. Elements of change, be they desirable or nondesirable, have reoccurred in the structure and functioning of the family. If the number and the non-desirability of family changes are not too high, then this early part of social life can be evaluated as a social structure that has strong self-balancing resources, and as a stable group. Yet, when the impact of changes connected to this group is ample and, especially, shocking, family can be defined as “anomic,” “alienated,” “abnormal,” “wrecking,” “in disarray” and “in crisis” (Roudinesco 2002; Batâr 2004; Turndorf 2000) and, implicitly, as engaged in discovering resources of resolving and restoring effects. The crises of the domestic environment (domestic violence, incest, child abuse, spouse separation, family abandonment, neglect, divorce etc.), apart from being the subject of investigation for such sciences, leave their traces on the social space so deeply that they compel their consideration not only as visible moments in the existence of the family but also as sources that generate social dynamics (Gouti & Kokkinou 2011). Ultimately, just as the society affected by the expansion of fundamental economic, military, political, cultural states, etc., reacts by constructing certain relevant counterstrategies, it also projects and uses solutions to fight off unconventional family phenomena. Otherwise, family crises can develop into crises of society, to the same extent as when social alienation disorganises family. Seen in this context, society’s precautions related to the quality of family life must be equally concretised not only in clear and appropriate cognitive separation of traditional family aspects, or in the speedy rejection of what harms the domestic group, but also in preserving the family’s beneficial elements irrespective of the place and time in which they emerged. Although they seem to have universal validity, the forms to protect the family are most often innovations and applications of certain societies under specific functional circumstances. They also reflect the relevance given by those societies to an impressive number of indicators that are relevant for the family: historical period or cultural period (e.g. archaic, traditional, modern, postmodern), the types of dysfunctions to which an immediate solution must be found, the number and type of persons that make up the family, its members’ tendency to socio-cultural innovation or reproduction, the residence environment, social state, religious belonging, ethnic belonging, the depth of community

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spirit etc. It becomes necessary to “filter” knowledge about family and interventions at the family level through the realist prism of these indicators in order to discover the most appropriate ways to “save” or recover the socio-moral and spiritual health of the domestic group, on the one hand, and to prevent the trap of joining the group of those who spread conventional lies and idyllic visions about family statics and dynamics on the other. At least with respect to this last aspect, we stand greater chances to succeed if we ground explanatory and methodological approaches to the domestic sphere on the following premises: (1) at the individual level, as well as at group level, there are both “conservative” and “speculative” behavioural inclinations (Pareto 2007). Consequently, family as a group has certain parts that tend to become consolidated and parts that tend towards dissolution from one stage to another; (2) In the functioning of the relation between the statics and the dynamics of the institution of family, the following objective path is retraced: from initial stability, by deteriorating the state of equilibrium, to a new level of family stability. The more substantial the moral contents used in the attempt to re-establish stability are, the longer the acquired homeostasis will last; (3) The solutions formulated as immediate reactions to current problems of family life represent proofs of the manifestation of family dynamics; on the other hand, solutions applied in similar forms to recurrent family problems indicate the presence of family statics. The structures of the family group, for instance, since they are quite diverse across ethnic spaces and historical ages, prove the influence of the dynamic side of the family, while the transgenerational reproduction of its functions suggests the existence of family statics (Stan 2001); (4) Society builds anticrisis solutions that are valid for the modern family group, yet many of the variants promoted for this purpose are “recipes” or creations formulated during older stages in the history of family; (5) The more obvious the perspective of the dissolution of modern family (Lipovetsky 1996), the prompter and less censored the recourse to traditional solutions; (6) The cultural offer from the Romanian traditional family to challenge the crises of the modern Romanian family is consistent and effective. It befalls sociology, together with many other social sciences and branches of humanities, to reveal as much as possible from this offer.

Methodological Motivation According to one of the epistemological premises listed above, a given society uses its solid capacities, accumulated over time, depending on the size of the deficit between the current state of an internal social fact and its

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state of normality. In the case of the family, in order to mark the distance between its normal appearance and variants of sub-normality experienced by this group, we have resorted to the investigation instrument called the “normality modulation scale” (NeamĠu & Stan 2005). We have considered its regularity and sub-normality intervals only. By observing the requirements of the former interval, we have obtained the ideal-typical characteristics of the traditional Romanian family and the modern Romanian family, respectively. We have also delimited the aspects that are desired in the life of these two types of families in the future, because until quite recently, they have occurred naturally. After using focus-groups, the latter scalar interval allowed me to rank deviations from family normality by values ranging from (-1) to (-9) by doing the following distribution of material phenomena: accusation (-1), verbal dispute (-2), neglect (-3), separation of spouses (-4), hitting (-5), marital rape (-6), adultery (-7), incest (-8) and divorce (-9). The object of focused analysis of the set of scalar values has been the intact family with at least one child, where spouses’ age is over fifty-five, with average revenues and at least high school education. We have associated the empiric elements of the subnormality interval with the “Richter scale” of the family (Turndorf 2000), and with their help, we have deduced that starting with the values of (-3), (-4), dangers become increasingly menacing for the preservation of this group. Avoiding the disintegration of family supposes the rapid identification of some solutions, before “difficult to recover” and, especially, “irrecoverable” hypostases are reached. To this purpose, one can borrow or transfer solutions that are specific to other cultural spaces, but the ones defined as normal and more easily accepted are indigenous solutions. This is why, in the following methodological act, we resorted to ethnographic description. In semi-structured interviews applied in the ethnographic area of Moldova, within approximately the same area covered by the analyses of eminent specialists such as S. F. Marian, T. Pamfile and A. Gorovei, we have observed the requirements supposed by this kind of description (Laplantine 1996)—to indicate the local position, to reflect a historical step or epoch, to exhibit a general tendency, to allow other sources to complete it and add to it, even though they are not direct sources, and to produce narratives or faithful recordings without falling into the traps of critical approaches. At least the last of these recommendations is extremely difficult to observe, because the researcher faces a genuine “Babel tower” of data; to order and to capitalise on them supposes first to distinguish them, according to their significations. Consequently, we have avoided the critical analysis of data, only to the extent that the comparative method has allowed it. By setting the

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dysfunctions of the current family against what was functional in the traditional Romanian family, we have reached the conclusion that the contemporary rise of sub-normality could be prevented and, possibly, controlled, if the moral dimension of behaviours in the traditional Romanian family were capitalised on.

Results Moral exemplariness in the traditional family. From the analysis of the empiric evidence gathered during four years of investigations in the field of family ethno-sociology, we have selected definitions and characterisations relevant for each of the scalar values of the sub-normality interval. In what follows, we shall provide only two expressions for each of the nine scalar steps, where the former belongs to a man and the latter is formulated by a woman: (a) Accusation: “I blame her so that she would mend her ways and learn to take into account what I ask from her,” “when I do not know what he does, I suspect him of so many things. I accuse him, but as a joke; it is more like an endearment.” (b) Verbal dispute: “we fight over almost anything. I do not like it that she always insists on her arguments, but I am glad when I see that she has been right,” “I say as many things as I can, when I am in a good mood. When I am upset, I avoid contradicting him.” (c) Neglect: “I am not interested in anything that she does, it is in vain that she complains, I will not help her,” “since he has kept on reproaching that I do not keep the house clean, that he does not have clean clothes, that food is no good—I have become more and more indifferent. Let him know that I can punish him as well.” (d) Spouse separation: “I stayed abroad for three years, but I did not feel separated from my wife, because it is not kilometres that separate people,” “I left him, and now I rent a place. I think I will go back to him in a few days, because I cannot live without the children.” (e) Hurting: “it happens, sometimes: your child does not listen to you, your wife does not understand that you are having a rough time, but it is good to refrain. You end up feeling sorry and, for a while, joy disappears from your home,” “it’s my problem. I will patiently accept it, as any other woman does. What else could I do!” (f) Marital rape: “I’ve never heard of such a thing. How could there be rape, if the persons are married!,” “the wife who accuses her man of such an act hates him too much. Even though she might not denounce him, they would still separate.” (g) Adultery: “to take a wrong step and never have peace in your home again,” “’what you do not like, do not do onto another,’ says the proverb. If you have made a mistake, then you should not claim your wife not to make mistakes by you

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either.” (h) Incest: “a moment of craziness that drives you away from people,” “an error for which the performer should not get away without punishment. Anyway, after such a thing, family is no longer family.” (i) Divorce: “no one should get to the point of divorcing. You have married, and you have to bear your cross,” “rather than live miserably, it is better to separate.” These examples confirm the semantics granted to the nine scalar intervals and support the clarity and credibility of explanations related to the pathology of the current family. Yet, what we have found to be much more interesting and useful is the subjects’ descriptions and explanations concerning the structure and functioning of the traditional Romanian family. We will list some of them, especially because of their moral substrate, while preserving a realist stand and avoiding nostalgia towards this type of family. Thus, we will support a conclusion that, in explicit and implicit forms, has been promoted by many Romanian ethno-sociologists: in order for it not to face moments of crisis, the family must not necessarily constitute itself and function at optimal levels, but it cannot avoid nor overcome such moments if in its establishment and functioning, the moral side is mainly eluded. In the case of the traditional Romanian family, the acts corresponding to the scalar values from (-1) to (-3) were approached by reactive moral solutions, while the acts corresponding to the scalar values from (-4) to (-9) were largely avoided, since they are stigmatised and blamed not only morally but also by law. Here are a few of the traditional hypostases taken over from the subjects’ answers in which the described marital behaviours, at both individual and community levels, reflect the benefits of moral and religious constraints. (a) The moment of concluding marriage: “marriage had to come in someone’s life when they could bear it, namely neither too early, nor too late,” “when the boy started shaving, and the girl started getting round shapes” and not when “the man started having a beard and the woman became sterile.” (b) Haste in getting married: “early marriage is as good as waking up early because it forces the individual to become independent of his parents faster,” “such haste was good only for those who knew how many hardships were in store for them” and, because, in the same line of thought and in a metaphoric expression, “if the light hours of a day are long, then one has the time to do a lot, and much of what he does will be good.” (c) Selection criteria in marriage: “everybody knows, since time immemorial, that the beauty of the body is transient, while wisdom, diligence and the family’s good name endure for a life-time but … we forget!,” “you find out if you made a good choice in your youth only when you are old, when you look back, and you see things that you are ashamed of or not, to have done them.” (d) Complementarity between genders

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and homogamy: “when a man gets married, he has to offer a shelter to his family, while the woman he marries brings things to decorate the house,” “from the beginning, the newlyweds had to be, as they are today, almost of equal status, lest they would later be weighed down by differences and the scales would turn their life upside down.” (e) Vulnerability before marriage: “in order to get married, the groom had to have a house, the bride had to have a dowry and, for sure, they would not have been able to have them unless they had been helped by their parents, elder brothers, neighbours, Godparents.” Yet, this type of vulnerability is appreciated as having a low risk because “the community would help them in many ways: it would give them land, it would offer them all sorts of objects as gifts, it would even help them organise the wedding party!” (f) Wedding as a source of prestige: “the essence of a wedding in those times was the religious ceremony, when the bride and the groom would get God’s blessing to marry, whereas nowadays what counts more is food, the guests, music, decorations … lest you should make a fool of yourself”; “walking home from church, dressing up the bride and the groom, calling them princely offspring on the wedding day—these were all acts through which they would receive the approval of the community, its appreciation and the status of married persons.” (g) Placing the house: “the house of the son had to be close to the parents’ house, so that they could help each other in need, and the son could always know what was happening to his old parents;” at the same time, “parents had to stay around the married son so as to advise him, because in a time of misfortune, no one would give him better advice, from the heart.” (h) Care for children: “children were wanted and considered the fruit of the family, yet this fruit is not always good unless you look after it,” “what one learns in the family during childhood is not forgotten until one dies; this is why the parent who does not teach his child how to work, how to behave in the community, how to think healthily, was as sinful as the child who would not know of his own blood.” (i) Family climate: “a family was happy when its members were healthy, when they all did what they had to do and whenever they were away on business, they could hardly wait to get home to spend more time together.”

Conclusion Many other situations full of moral significations in the existence of the traditional family are worth tackling. Many other aspects make up the image of the traditional Romanian family. We have considered them to be sources of social dynamics and moral perfection, challenges to which

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would strengthen the family’s resistance and immunity. At the same time, we have tried to find arguments that would legitimate the study of the traditional family, under the (Romanian) circumstances of modernity and post modernism. Three such arguments stand out clearly, and all three are also conclusions to our study: (a) Romanians know the traditional model of family, describe it properly, and become somewhat nostalgic when they talk about it; (b) Romanians use certain traditional family behaviours, especially in the rural environment and during ritual moments; (c) in situations of functional crisis, including crises at the level of the family, traditional offers can become saving solutions for the social system.

References Batâr, D. (2004). Familia în dinamica societăĠii [Family in the Dynamics of Society]. Sibiu: Editura UniversităĠii “Lucian Blaga.” Băran-Pescaru, Adina. (2006). Familia azi. O perspectivă sociopedagogică [Family Today: A Socio-Pedagogical Perspective]. Bucureúti: Aramis. Gouti, Dimitra & Kokkinou, Maria D. (2011). Criza familiei [Family Crisis]. Bucureúti: Sophia. Laplantine, F. (1996). La description ethnographique [Ethnographical Description]. Paris: Nathan Université. Lipovetsky, G. (1996). Le Crépuscule du devoir [The Twilight of Duty]. Paris: Gallimard. NeamĠu, G. & Stan, D. (Eds.). (2005). AsistenĠa socială. Studii úi aplicaĠii [Social Work: Studies and Applications]. Iaúi: Polirom. Pareto, V. (2007). Tratat de sociologie generală [Treatise of General Sociology]. Craiova: Beladi. Roudinesco, Elisabeth. (2002). La Famille en désordre [Family in Disorder]. Paris: Fayard. Stan, D. (2001). Sociologia ruralului tradiĠional românesc [Sociology of Romanian Traditional Rural]. Iaúi: Editura UniversităĠii “Alexandru Ioan Cuza.” Turndorf, J. (2000). Till Death Do Us Part (Unless I Kill You First): A Step-by-Step Guide for Resolving Marital Conflict. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.

CHAPTER TWO EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

ROMANIAN IMMIGRANTS IN ITALY BETWEEN INTEGRATION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION: REFLECTIONS ON RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN IN THE PROVINCE OF ROME SIMION BELEA

Introduction When we talk about the phenomenon of migration from Romania, a key aspect refers to Romanian immigration in Italy, Romanians being the most significant community of immigrants there. According to the data reported by the Statistic File regarding Immigration edited by Caritas/Migrantes in 2010, the number of Romanian immigrants to Italy was 968,576 (2011), but the unofficial statistics show that more than one million Romanians live there, representing approximately 70% of the entire foreign residents of this country. In this context, it becomes more and more relevant to examine the necessities of Romanian citizens abroad and contribution to their improvement in the host country. The aim of this chapter is to present the two sides of migration in Italy—social exclusion and integration—taking into account the results of research undertaken on Italian people and Romanian immigrants from cities in the province of Rome. Starting with the results obtained, we introduce some proposals regarding Romanian integration.

Study Stages and Methods To investigate the needs of integration of the Romanian immigrants in the province of Rome, we undertook a two-stage study. In the first stage, 202 Romanian immigrants were questioned with the help of a questionnaire made up of twenty-five open/closed questions. We

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chose the subjects, aged eighteen to sixty-five, randomly (Belea 2011a; 2011b). The second stage was random questioning of 218 subjects, aged eighteen to eighty, of Italian nationality from the same cities in the province of Rome. The questionnaire consisted of 17 questions, most of which were multiple choice. Objectives and Hypothesis of the First Stage The main objectives of the study were: -

To find out different aspects related to migration and settlement in Italy To discover the difficulties that Romanian immigrants are facing in the areas in consideration To discover the level of thoroughness of legal aspects related to the perception of some discriminatory attitudes and the individualization of the discriminatory situations met To find out the degree to which their own rights are observed in the host country (Belea 2011a; 2011b).

Romanian immigrant has quite often been seen by the population of the host country as a “threat” toward public safety (more information about how Italian society has been altered by “the enemy syndrome” can be found in research by Demos-Coop [2007]). We believe that the discrimination perceived by the subjects of this study does not have the weight and intensity as it is related by the mass-media or different organizations. In this sense, we believe that less than half of the respondents felt discriminated and experienced discriminatory situations (Belea 2011a; 2011b). Objectives and Hypothesis of the Second Stage The aim of the second stage of the study aimed at identifying the difficulties related to cohabitation in the same socio-economic and cultural space (the opinion of the Italians towards the presence of Romanians in Italy, the quality of relationships with the Romanian immigrants, the adjectives used by the Italians to discuss the Romanian immigrants, possible relationships between the presence of the Romanian immigrants and some aspects regarding the development of the Italian society).

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Taking into account the surveys carried out in this direction, we assume that, in most cases, there is a lack of attention from the Italians towards the Romanian community associated with an obvious sense of hostility and contempt. In the following, we describe the results of this study.

Results of the First Stage The largest part of respondents are from northeast and southeast Romania, areas where there is a low level of socio-economic development. The Romanian immigrants from the area in consideration are participants in long-term migration, with 65.8% living in Italy for more than five years. Most respondents have medium and higher studies: 24.26% graduated from secondary studies, 39.1% from high school, and 25.6% post secondary studies and university. In comparison with the labour situation in Romania, there is a higher level of employment and social inclusion. Thus, about 48% from the questioned immigrants are employed with a legal contract for an undetermined period, 8.4% more than in Romania. Nevertheless, the occasional and temporary contract jobs are still in a good percentage at 33.7%. Finding a job can be hindered by factors like professional training and nationally, with about 30% of respondents considering it more difficult because of professional training, and about 25% citing nationality as a cause (Belea 2011a; 2011b). Level of Discrimination Perceived Concerning the level of discrimination perceived, 42% of the respondents recorded little discrimination, but we should not the discount 34.7% of them who felt rather discriminated. Furthermore, we made a classification of the causes of discrimination described by the respondents. The questionnaire consisted of a series of questions aimed at revealing the discrimination perceived in finding a job (31%), at the workplace (27%), when renting/buying a house (18%), with the local authorities (18%), in hospitals/medical offices (16%), in public places such as bars, cafés, restaurants, clubs (7%), in shops (6%), at the bank (6%), in schools or other educational institutions (4%), in welcoming/social assistance centres (2%).

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Making a comparison between different levels of discrimination perceived toward the services mentioned above, the results show that the level of discrimination perceived is higher when finding a job, at the workplace and in the immigrants’ relationships with authorities (Belea 2011a; 2011b). Discrimination Experiences About 48% of respondents talked about episodes of discrimination related primarily to refusing work, such as turning down a working contract from Italian employers, lack of security at the working place, delayed payment, and income differences between Italian and Romanian co-workers. These results emphasize the Italian government’s inability to control illegal work. In addition, about 31% of the Romanian immigrants described episodes characterized by oral and emotional violence targeting their nationality and the immigrant condition (Belea 2011b). Reporting Discriminatory Experiences Most of those who suffered a discriminatory situation (73.8%) did not report the experiences to an agency or office in charge of such issues believing that it would not change anything, which identifies the lack of confidence in the capacity of these institutions to amend the outer reality, but could also identify their lack of confidence in their own capacities to make changes (Belea, 2011a). Respecting Their Own Rights In the opinion of the subjects, the right to practice one’s own religion is a right respected by about 88% of the respondents, while the right to free access is respected by about 84%. The right to citizenship ranks third, with 63% of respondents considering this right as more respected, while those seldom respected are the right to social security and the right to justice (about 58%). The answers to the questions “Do you think you know your rights as citizens of the European Union?” and “Do you think you know your duties as citizens of the European Union?” point to better knowledge of duties than rights. Hereby, the duties as citizens of the European Union are known by 57.3% of the respondents, while the rights as citizens of the European Union are known by 44.1% of the respondents.

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We need to consider a high level of interest in obtaining some information about individual rights, with 88.6% of the respondents being interested in completing the information in this area (Belea 2011a; 2011b).

Results of the Second Stage The second stage of the study was carried out in the same cities in the province of Rome and, as we said earlier, aimed at knowing the attitudes and perceptions of the Italian population towards Romanian immigrants. Most of the total respondents are married (35.8%), highly educated (29.8%), or have graduated from high school (29.5%). Regarding the current situation of the working place, almost half of the respondents are employed (45.4%), followed by freelancers (16.1%) and the retired (14.2%). In recent years, the presence of Romanians in Italy has not been without critics, stereotyping and acts of discrimination. Unfortunately, the existence of some violent criminal actions with a high profile had a negative impact on public opinion, with catastrophic connotations in interpreting the community, creating a stigma for an entire nationality (Rando & Pittau 2010). The results of this study reflect that a consistent number of Italian citizens (64.2%) relate in an indifferent or suspect way toward Romanian immigrants, which reflects a characteristic present at a national level. One of the key questions of the questionnaire referred to whether Romanian immigrants are causing problems. Most respondents (79.4%) believe Romanians are causing problems, which reflects the general state of fear and discontentment toward the Romanian community (Table 2-1). Table 2-1. Types of problems created by Romanian immigrants in Italy Variants of answers Criminal/illegal activities Working without a legal contract Social problems Taking the jobs of Italians Increasing unemployment and/or decreasing income Practicing prostitution Transmitting diseases Other

Absolute values 92 66 60 58 57

Values (%) 42.2% 30.3% 27.5% 26.6% 26.1%

56 10 2

25.7% 4.6% 1.0%

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It is important to point out that this question was multiple choice and the percentage was calculated from the total respondents (218). The survey also indicated that Italians see Romanian immigrants as a threat to social security, with misconduct and illegal activities being the main problems indicated, followed by illegal work (30.3%). Another central point of this study was to identify the adjectives used to describe Romanian immigrants. The results obtained do not seem overly optimistic. The first two adjectives used are “heavy drinkers” and “cunning,” terms which are part of the routine and which linger in everyday reality in Italian society as a whole. Fortunately, adjectives with a positive connotation are also present, such as “serious” (18.8%), “honest” (18.8%) and “hard-working” (10.1%), even if they are in a smaller number. As to the question of whether there would be a problem in the case of a Romanian immigrant family being their neighbour, most respondents (48.6%) answered they did not see such an obstacle in having Romanian neighbours, which means that there is a good level of appreciation for the neighbouring relationships with Romanians. Though we cannot make generalizations from these figures regarding the integration of Romanian immigrants in the Italian society, 47% of Italians agree that Romanians integrate with difficulty, which highlights, at least at the level of the community where the questionnaire was applied, the necessity of improving integration of Romanian immigrants. At a general level, it is necessary to carefully monitor the relationships between the Romanian community and the host population from different regions of Italy in order to produce generalizations of attitudes toward Romanian immigrants.

Concluding Remarks Regarding Integration Starting from the results of this study on the community taken into account, we recommend better intercultural mediation, with the aim of: -

Favouring deliberate migration: leaving your own country cannot be and does not have to be a “leap into the dark.” It is necessary to coordinate activities of information and training before leaving for immigrants to understand the legislative aspects of the host country and to be aware of the way in which culture, stereotypes, beliefs and attitudes can affect relationships with the members of different cultures.

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Assisting people in the administrative steps and in the integration on labour and social market; immigrants have to achieve behavioural and social competencies for copying with the new social roles in the host country. Informing immigrants about their rights and duties as communitarian citizens in Italy. Informing immigrants about the institutions they can go to when they are victims of discrimination.

On the other hand, it is very important to have an interdisciplinary approach which can improve the image of the Romanian immigrants, promoting measures in schools, agencies and institutions of the host country, using the resources available from Romanian associations, and striving for a closer collaboration with the authorities of the host country. Romanian-Italian collaboration is also required for the development and social, economic and cultural integration of the Romanian communities in Italian society. Furthermore, we have to support the institutions whose activity has a direct impact on the Romanian community and an indirect impact on Italians and other immigrant communities, in order to have a facilitation of Romania abroad and an improvement of the perception of Romanian communities among Italians.

Acknowledgement This paper was supported by the Knowledge-Based Society Project within the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD) financed by the European Social Fund and the Romanian Government under contract number POSDRU/89/1.5/S/56815.

References Belea, S. (2011a). Discrimination and Human Rights. The Point of View of a Romanian Community in Italy. –––. (2011b). “La percezione della discriminazione tra gli immigrati romeni presenti a Roma e provincial” [“Perception of Discrimination of Romanians in Rome and Province”]. Symposion. Revistă de ùtiinĠe Socio-Umane 2 (18): 429–446. CARITAS/MIGRANTES. (2011). Prospettivo riassuntivo dell’immigrazione in Italia (2008–2010) [Estimate of Number of Immigrants in Italy (2008–2010)]. Caritas/Migrantes, Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 21° Rapporto sull’immigrazione, IDOS.

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Demos-Coop. (2007). “It Increases the Fear of the Immigrants.” La Reppubblica 6, Maggio 2007. Devole, R. & Pittau, F. (2010). “Neocomunitarii români în imaginarul italienilor: reflec‫܊‬ii sociologice ‫܈‬i statistice” [“Romanian NeoCommunitarians in Italian Imaginary: Sociologic and Statistic Reflexions”]. Confederaаia Caritas România and Caritas Italiana “I romeni in Italia. Tra rifiuto e accoglienza,” Idos/Sinnos, Roma: 56–57. Superabile. http://www.superabile.it/web/it/Inail_per_l_integrazione_delle_person e_straniere.

CURRENT ASPECTS OF ROMANIAN INTERNAL MIGRATION VLAD-PATRICK CIOCÂRLIE

Introduction Human migration is, and has been throughout history, a phenomenon that has profoundly influenced Romanian society. While being part of a larger survey that is still being carried out regarding the effects of both external and internal migration on the Romanian social space, this chapter only focuses on some of the internal aspects of Romanian migration. The decision to take this road came as a response to the general emphasis on the impact of external migration while the migratory movements that occur in Romania are much less discussed and studied. “Migration is a complex phenomenon that consists in the movement of individuals from one area to another, followed by a change of address and/or employment in a form of activity in the area of arrival” (Rotariu 1998). This definition does not refer to national borders but the typology of migration distinguished, based on these most basic criteria, between internal migration and external (international) migration. In the case of Romania, we believe that the two distinctions outlined above hold just as much importance when talking about the medium- to long-term effects and impact areas. While, in most cases, the tendency is to focus on international-oriented migration flows, and on immigrants and emigrants, it is often overlooked that migration, the territorial movement of a certain population, also takes place within the national borders of a country, opening up the possibility for the emergence of a variety of issues over time. In order to clarify this statement, we can mention a few more common examples such as mass-migration from mining-oriented settlements and facilities that were built in the communist era, industrial establishments, areas deserted due to the closing down of certain centres of exploitation or production, and unemployed people left behind. Moreover, in the absence of planning and understanding such phenomena, the inability to rehabilitate and reintegrate both a specialized labour force and

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areas of exploitation (the depletion of timber from a forest has an impact on the population depending on such resources) can lead to social turmoil in its most extreme forms such as the violent intrusion of miners (“mineriads”) in Bucharest in the years 1990 and 1991. Leaving the political aspects aside, as well as their devastating implications, the point remains valid. The absence or failure of social risk mitigation strategies had left a large share of the population exposed and easy to manipulate. Let us not forget that there is a responsibility not only towards individuals but also towards the environment where they live. Man is both an actor in and an architect of social space; therefore, we can assume that migration carries the potential to transform social space. To quote Castells (1996), “space is the expression of society. Since societies are undergoing structural change, it is a reasonable assumption to suggest that new spatial forms and processes are currently emerging.”

Purpose and Results As pointed out in other articles about Romanian migration, this phenomenon is closely linked to legal and administrative policies as well as historical context. For example, in 1948, the share of the population living in urban areas reached only 23.4% of the total population. While the number of individuals living in the rural areas did not go through dramatic changes over time, the number of people engaged in the process of urbanization has grown significantly. Of course, this is a regular pattern found in most developing countries (and even more after World War II) and, in the case of Romania, the massive and accelerated transfer of population towards urban areas was also a direct cause of the legal and administrative policies implemented during the communist period. This trend is still maintained today because of the diversity of the economic opportunities of the urban areas compared to what rural areas can provide. When comparing the two, we can also correlate the diversity and better chances of finding jobs in the metropolitan area or the fact that cities with academic establishments and a more advanced educational potential or a varied offer represent a strong element of attraction for migration along the rural-urban axis (especially amongst the youth), and also at the regional level. We might find that a certain provision of specialized academic fields are meeting the demands of persons ready to relocate to another region in order to achieve such an educational desire or need. In addition, we are able to observe a somewhat new phenomenon for Romania—that of urban or urbanized fringe areas which, in some cases

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have grown to encompass nearby villages due to population and territorial expansion. Another issue that is quite similar to the lack of opportunities previously discussed the overall transport infrastructure. It is not uncommon in more developed countries to see people travelling a greater distance in order to reach their place of employment or to seek jobs in other towns. In Romania, this is not only something that is undesirable and to be avoided, but is, at the same time, difficult to achieve when longer distances are involved. That is to say, education and place of employment involve, in most cases, the need for territorial movement with either a temporary or a permanent change of residence. While in more developed countries the opposite trend has been noticed (the mass-migration of people from urban areas to rural areas for healthier environments or to evade stressful and noisy city life), in Romania, migration along the rural-urban axis remains engaged on an ascending trend (see Table 2-2 and Figure 2-1 below). The reference is made at a general level because Romania has also known to have increased new residential areas or districts in the fringe areas and environs of the more developed cities. This has been achieved either through private initiative or through national housing programs. At the same time, this constitutes a powerful change of preference regarding positioning within the city. Thus, people give up a central residential area in order to move towards outer suburban or peri-urban areas (a movement from the centre towards the exterior), exchanging life in a block of flats for life in a house but, at the same time, maintaining the urban character of the place of residence. Table 2-2. Romanian population according to the censuses of 1948, 1956, 1966, 1977, 1992, 2002, 2011, and data for the year 2009 Area Urban Rural Total

Population per census years: 1948 1956 1966 3,713,139 12,159,485 15,872,624

1992 Urban Rural Total

12,391,819 10,418,216 22,810,035

5,474,264 12,015,186 17,489,450

2002 11,435,080 10,245,894 21,680,974

7,305,714 11,797,449 19,103,163

2009 11,823,516 9,646,443 21,469,959

1977 9,395,729 12,164,181 21,559,910

2011 10,054,000 8,989,000 19,043,000

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Current Aspects of Romanian Internal Migration

Figure 2-1. Evolution of population by area from 1948 to 2011

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1948

1956

1966

1977

Urban

1992

2002

2009

2011

Rural

The more urban economic and social opportunities increase, the larger the gap between the two areas becomes, sometimes leading to an excess of labour force that turns into unemployment as well as other issues emerging and developing in both areas. As an example, we can mention the fact that rural life and the rural area have, as a whole, had a leading role in maintaining and transmitting real Romanian traditions throughout history, from generation to generation. It is also of paramount importance to accept such differences and truly understand how momentous and unique this is, and how unity can be obtained while maintaining diversity and stand true in all aspects to this idea. Thus, rather than looking at internal migration under its less productive aspect, it should represent a key issue of national importance with a strong emphasis on finding medium- to long-term solutions to raise the competitiveness level of less productive counties, rural areas and, accordingly, to restore the balance between the two. At present, the private sector seems to lead and model the face of Romania almost entirely from every point of view (economy, society, culture, environment, etc.) and, in most cases, it is clear that the private sector has one primary interest: profit. Thus, it is clear that this sector does not have, and essentially cannot and should not have, a higher role than self-interest. While not trying in any way to deny the fact that it represents a significant source of

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improvement in different areas and overall quality of life through creating jobs, economic competitiveness (for local and national firms), or service development, the private sector cannot change the state and its duties towards itself and its people. Therefore, it is necessary to develop sustainable programs with clear objectives that can muster up and guide the resources needed in order to achieve these goals. This must be done without forgetting the environment or the people who decided to settle in the place they call home. It is of paramount importance to start in our own yard, and be happy with what we see before attempting to look abroad and compete there. At the same time, overcrowding a physical, geographical area has the most diverse results over time. It is enough to look at such examples around the world in order to illustrate some of the possible effects. In order to have a better idea of the condition of Romania’s population until today and to back up some of the previous statements, we resorted to using several specific demographic indicators and relevant statistic data already available. As a general trend, we can see the main regions that lost or gained people because of internal migration in the first decade of this century (see Figure 2-2 below). Figure 2-2. Internal migration determined by change of residence by region (2004, 2005, 2006) 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 -2000 -4000 -6000 -8000

2004 North-East South-West Oltenia Center

2005 South-East West Bucharest-Ilfov

2006 South-Muntenia North-West

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Current Aspects of Romanian Internal Migration

Regarding the Romanian national context up to 2012, by comparing the results of the 2002 census with the most recent data provided by the provisional report of the 2011 National Census for Population and Housing, we can see the counties that have registered a loss of population during this period because of a probable wide range of demographic factors. On the ranking system used by the Romanian National Institute for Statistics, starting from a minimum of 300,000 citizens in a county and gaining a rank (level) with every 100,000 individuals, this resulted in only the capital Bucharest having over 800,000 citizens while many other counties have seen a drop in the 100,000 individuals category ranking. With the current data (2002 and the 2011 interim census figures), out of the forty-one counties in Romania, seventeen registered negative values (which, for some reason, have seen a reduction of the total population) while the ranks of the other twenty-four counties remained unchanged (stable). Grouped after the number of stable population, twenty-two counties have registered below 400,000 citizens adding up to 35.6% of the total population of the country, seventeen counties had a population between the 400,000 and 700,000 gap, up to 47.9%, and only two counties exceeded 700,000 individuals, representing 7.7% of the total population. From the total nineteen million people residing in Romania, 8.8% live in Bucharest.

Conclusion Despite the somewhat early stage that the larger research is currently at, after analyzing most of the data relevant to this article, even at such a small scale, the issues brought into question by this phenomenon seem to gain relevance with every year that passes. Lack of action and concern for some of these aspects can have the most unpleasant and varied consequences in time. The issues discussed in this chapter and the global information brought forward can also provide a valid starting point for further studies concerning Romanian migratory flows. At present, there is much work to be done in order to counter the effects of internal migration on both natural and social environments. Romania is at a great loss because of the slow fade out of some regions mainly by giving up or by losing its resources (human, material, environmental, etc.). As pointed out in this chapter, Romania is, historically speaking, a remarkable if not unique example of diversity, and this has also contributed to the complexity of its social spaces, reinforced by the different national contexts it had to put up with over time and by its

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territorial and geographical particularities. These areas and social spaces are at serious risk today since population, as an actor and creator of social space, would rather migrate because of the lack of opportunity, diversity, economic needs, and opportunities for improvement to either urban or higher potential regions or even choose other European or global destinations for primarily economic reasons. Despite the data included in this chapter (and the wider research it is part of), that shows that some regions, counties, or entire rural areas see significant demographic losses, there are spaces in the country that seem to have an attraction for several reasons (some of which we discussed in the previous section). At the same time, external migration acts upon some of these spaces through remittances, thus contributing as an independent resource to maintaining at least some of the population in the areas most affected by shortages. Though this refers to external, international migration, its effects are most evident in these areas contributing to regional and local development short of internal resources. In addition, many urban inhabitants become more and more tempted to make investments in these regions in order to benefit from the resources and few traditions are left in such environments. The exchanges operated through these processes clearly act upon the social space of Romania.

Acknowledgment This work was partially supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/ CPP107/DMI1.5/S/78421, Project ID 78421 (2010), co-financed by the European Social Fund – Investing in People, within the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013.

References Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society (The Information Age 1). Malden, MA: Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers. European Union. (2011). Migrants in Europe: A Statistical Portrait of the First and Second Generation. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Institutul NaĠional de Statistică [National Institute for Statistics of Romania]. http://www.insse.ro/cms/rw/contact/callContactPage.ro.do. International Migration Outlook 2011. www.oecd.org/migration/imo International Migration Outlook: Annual Report 2007 edition.

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http://www.oecd.org/els/internationalmigrationpoliciesanddata/internat ionalmigrationoutlook2007.htm. The World Bank. Online: http://www.worldbank.org/. Zamfir, C. & Vlăsceanu, L. (Eds.). (1998). DicĠionar de sociologie [Dictionary of Sociology]. Bucureúti: Babel.

FEMINIZATION OF ROMANIAN EMIGRATION: A PRIORITY FOR SOCIAL STUDIES MARIA-ANA GEORGESCU AND DOINA-EMILIA HERMAN

Introduction: A Conceptual Approach The present chapter presents a partial image of a particular reality on gender issues in Romanian society, as regards migration. It underlines the feminisation of migration analyzing its main consequences in the socioeconomic field. On the European continent, since the 1990s, at the same time as the fall of the closed totalitarian regimes, a distinct population movement from East to West was registered. It is only recently that the migration towards Western Europe has acquired such a significant extension, being a demographic phenomenon in which the people of Romania are highly implicated. Starting from the assumption that people represent the most valuable asset of a nation, we analyze the demographic phenomenon that has taken place in Romania with significant force since 1990, referring to the number of migrants, people changing their residence to or from a given area (usually a country) during a given period, usually within a year. The magnitude and complexity of international migration means it is a powerful force in development and a high-priority issue for both developing and developed countries. As Rotariu (2009) explains, the one and the same movement of people in a territory will be simultaneous for different territorial-administrative areas, which will be subject to both immigration and emigration. By migratory movement, we mean the movement of people in the territory through which the number and composition by age and gender of a population are modified. The specifications are relevant from the point of view of the different consequences of these demographic phenomena on population and economic and cultural situation in a specific country. The International Organization of Migration, an intergovernmental organization established in 1951, is committed to the idea that migration is a necessary and inevitable part of the economic and social life of every state, and that

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systematic and properly managed migration can be useful for both individuals and societies. New patterns of migration have arisen in recent decades. One interesting aspect for this subject is that more women are involved in this process than ever before, and many are migrating today on their own or as heads of households (World Migration Report 2010). As for Eastern and Central European states reintegrated into the market economy after the downfall of the communist regime in the 1990s, they are part of the main migration flows worldwide as origin countries for emigrants.

Evolution of Romanian Emigration Of the two components of migration, internal or external, the present chapter approaches the international migration of Romania’s population only. It proposes a brief analysis of the available statistical data concerning legal emigration from Romania. As methods, we have used the theoretical approach and secondary analysis of reliable data, namely a comparison between some Romanian socio-economic aspects and from other EU states. Romania represents a distinct centre of departure towards the West, being a supplier of emigrants since the political changes from 1989. Although the European and internal changes in the legislative system allow the free movement of people (Directive 2004/38/CE of the European Parliament and the Council from April 29, 2004), since Romania’s accession to the European Union (January 2007), the international migratory movement has not witnessed a dramatic increase. Through observation of the data taken from the Annual Yearbook Series of National Institute of Statistics, referring only to official recorded migration, we describe the situation of the long term external flow from Romania (see Table 2-3 below). A huge amount of emigrants were recorded in the first year after December 1989. Unexpectedly, the calculation of the emigration rates reveals that it was larger before 1989 than the period 1993 to 2009. Also, we have to take into consideration the definition of the emigrants as “Romanian citizens who settled their residence abroad” (Institutul NaĠional de Statistică 2010). Considering official residence, a lot of people could not be taken into account as emigrants, declaring themselves to be tourists. Despite the fact that the emigration rates were not as high during the post-revolution years (except for 1990, 1991 and 1992) when compared to before this period, the fluctuations were due to the restrictive emigration policies of the Western

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countries. The phenomenon was unofficially very important, and is a topic for public debate.

1393 1333 6 1521 4 1848 4 2097 9 5059 4 2294 9 1506 7 9695

Total population**

Difference

Female

49% 51% 22728.4 2% 22823.5 50% 50% 1% 22940.4 48% 52% 4% 23053.6 50% 50% -1% 23151.6 49% 51% 1% 23206.7 48% 52% 4% 23185.1 48% 52% 4% 22810.0 52% 48% -3% 47% 53% 22755.3 5% 9260 46% 54% 22730.6 8% 22681.0 1419 45% 55% 11% 7 22607.6 1144 47% 53% 6% 71052 22545.9 47% 53% 6% 2 9076 48% 52% 22502.8 4% 6736 47% 53% 22458.0 7% 7955 46% 54% 22435.2 8% 4910 51% 49% 22408.4 -1% 4454 45% 55% 21681.0 9% 6260 41% 59% 21733.6 17% 8148 38% 62% 21673.3 25% 6828 38% 62% 21623.8 25% 8856 38% 62% 21584.4 25% 5742 35% 65% 21537.6 30% 5670 35% 65% 21504.4 30% 6443 37% 63% 21470.0 26% 4989 36.9 63.1 21431.3 26.2 % Romanian % % Source: Our processing based on data provided by Statistical Yearbook. 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

1331 1317 31395 41881 42038 44633 52121 11608 5 8751 7886 1147 81007 99423 8460 5858 6798 5011 3700 4413 4934 4110 5341 3088 3069 3768 2917

Male

1.2 1.2 1.3 1.6 1.8 4.2 1.9 1.4 0.8 0.8 1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.6 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.5 1.2

Female

Emigration rates*

27249 26509 29168 37298 41363 96929 44160 31152 18446 17146 25675 21526 19945 17536 12594 14753 9921 8154 10673 13082 10938 14197 8830 8739 10211 7906

Structure by gender of the Romanian emigration

Male

Total emigrant

Year

Table 2-3. Evolution of Romanian emigration and total population (1985–2010)

Time Series 1990–2009 *per 1,000 of inhabitants; ** thousand persons.

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Feminisation of Romanian Emigration

That which has not been sufficiently discussed, from our point of view, is something which is a peculiar process for Romania and a peculiar concept in itself, i.e. the feminisation of emigration. This aspect has been confirmed by the fact that, in the structure by gender, the number of female emigrants proves to be higher (see Table 2-4 below). The highest feminisation of emigration was recorded in 2007 and 2008 (the difference of percentage of women who left the country for good compared to men was +30). Therefore, in the structure by gender of emigrants, the biggest percentage of women was of 65% in 2008 and 2007; 63% in 2009; 62% in 2006, 2005 and 2004 (see Figure 2-3 below). Figure 2-3. The structure by gender of the Romanian emigration

With two exceptions, in 1992 (48%) and 2001 (49%), the percentage of emigrant woman was much higher than that of men along the analysed period, and also higher than the international share of female emigration. Official data is available until 2010. A cause of the emigration of women could be explained by analysing the average income of households, grouped according to the gender of the head of the household. We can see that the highest level for the total income is specific to the male-led households (2558.5 Lei per month in 2009 and 2534.7 Lei per month in 2010), which is 1.1 higher than the average of all household types, and 1.5 higher than the female-lead households (see Table 2-4 below). The income of the female-lead households is 65.8% (63.5% in 2009) of the income level of the male-led households and under the average level of the total households by 27.6% (29.8% in 2009).

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Table 2-4. Total income by gender of the head of the household Years Total income (RON) Monthly average 2009 per households 2010 Monthly average 2009 per person 2010 In % Monthly average 2009 per households 2010 Monthly average 2009 per person 2010

Total households

Gender of the head of the household Male Female

2316 2304.3 797.3 795.3

2558.5 2534.7 809.7 801.6

1625.4 1668.3 745.9 770.1

100 100 100 100

110.5 110 101.6 100.8

70.2 72.4 93.6 96.8

Source: NIS (2011)

Consequences of the Large-Scale Emigration of Women We focus here on the consequences of the feminization of Romanian emigration, rather than the overall aspects of migration. The outflow of women has effects on a familial and individual level as well on a national one. Positive Consequences Migratory workers, including women, become “agents of change” because with periodical arrival in the country they introduce new mentalities, elements of civilisation, work discipline, and new knowledge and skills in order to have access to advanced technology. The feminization of migration determines an interesting aspect of analysis on the labour market, that being a lower unemployment rate for women than for men, a phenomenon that has been recorded for some years (see Figure 2-4 below). If, in the first seven years of the period, women represented the most numerous part of unemployed people and the female unemployment rate surpassed the general one, since 1998 the percentage of unemployed women has been reduced and be implication so has the women unemployment rate. Romania’s position regarding the unemployment rate is unique in Europe. According to the data provided by Eurostat, both the Romanian unemployment rate as a whole and that of women specifically are under the average level of EU-27 unemployment rate.

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Figure 2-4. Evolution of the national unemployment rate

Source: Our processing based on data provided by http://www.anofm.ro/statistica

Migration also influences the relations between sexes, because women working abroad are used to a considerable income, and they are now more independent from an economic point of view. The work experience gained abroad gives these women more security and control of their decisions. A positive “material balance” is extremely tempting for families and governors, and the remittances sent by the emigrants were significant, so it could be said that the Romanian migrants became potential agents of development. Despite the fact that money was oriented towards consumer goods, restitutions of credits or purchase/construction of a house, features that do not constitute proper investment behaviour in economic growth, the amounts sent contributed to the wellbeing of households. Negative Consequences The demographic decline in Romania in the last two decades has as a main cause the reduction in birth rates and emigration. From 1990 to 1991, the decrease was determined exclusively by the level of external migration. Between the two extremes of 1990 (with the largest number of people) and 2010 (with the smallest number of people), the difference is about 1,775,400 inhabitants (see Table 2-4 above). These trends, highlighted by Rotariu (2009), would reduce Romania’s population to less than fifteen million, or half of its inhabitants. At the international level, from a demographic point of view, IOM estimates that if the current demographic

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trends continue, thirty-two countries, including Romania, will have smaller populations in 2050 than in 2000. This will be the first time in human history that so many countries experience depopulation at the same time. The total EU population is expected to drop to 431 million by 2050 from 452 million in 2000. Female migration also has serious consequences on families, with the marriage and birth rate decreasing while the divorce rate increases. Considering the fact that those who leave are young, the reproductive capacity decreases, this being one of the reasons for which the birth rate in Romania is one of the lowest on the continent. The large number of children left to be looked after by relatives or neighbours has demonstrated a real social problem concerning their care and supervision. Statistics show that over 83.000 children have at least one parent abroad for work (Mediafax). The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection indicates that 22,679 of children are under the care of relatives or in 1,020 social care units. Among the children of migrants, those with mothers abroad have the highest risk of school underachievement, poor emotional well-being, and deviant behaviour. Romanian institutions dealing with these cases are not properly trained and engaged in solving such problems (Chipea & BăltăĠescu 2010). If we approach education, declared a national priority, from the point of view of the children brought up by their grandparents, the situation is still good compared to that of children looked after by neighbours or an elder sibling; the responsibility and care of the grandparents compensate to a certain extent the lower authority and lessstrict control of them. It is difficult to provide a decent education for a knowledge-based market economy, since from the beginning it is oldaged, which does not generate updated mentalities.

Conclusions A consideration of the positive and negative consequences of migration for the source country indicates that negative ones weigh more in the balance. At the same time, one can observe that positive effects are short term and can become negative at any moment; negative effects are long term and are difficult to change. Female unemployment rate is lower than the male rate, as a peculiar feature in Romania, not as a result of special policies to promote women in the world of work, but due to economic circumstances. The feminisation of emigration generates what we would call the family crisis as a social institution, and its negative impact is felt especially on the children who feel abandoned, have substantial frustrations and with many skipping school classes.

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The questions raised show that we are actually confronted with structural problems. The first is related to whether we should have a labour force strategy. What conditions could we create so that women and girls stop emigrating? Special policies would be needed addressed to the female labour force. The second problem is whether we consider the family an institution and a key word for the society. It suffers from the departure of its members, especially the wives and mothers. What special regulations are we creating for the children who are not motherless, but who grow up without their mothers who are abroad, working for a better future? Except for Government Order No. 219 from June 16, 2006 concerning children in care, another motion was made on April 25, 2012 when applying for an agreement to work abroad for the protection of children whose parents are temporarily abroad, but this has not been approved yet. Special regulations which ensure the raising of children by their mothers at home would be required.

References Chipea, Floare & BăltăĠescu, S. (2010). “Copii lăsaĠi acasă de emigranĠi. Studiu în JudeĠul Bihor” [“Children Left Home by Emigrants: A Study in the Bihor County”]. Sociologie românească 8 (4): 104–126. Directiva 2004/38/CE a Parlamentului European ‫܈‬i a Consiliului din 29 aprilie 2004 [Directive 2004/38/CE of the European Parliament and the Council from Aprilie 29, 2004]. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/ LexUriServ.do?uri=DD:05:07:32004L0038:RO:PDF. European Commission. Eurostat. (2012). Unemployment Statistics. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unempl oyment_statistics. Institutul NaĠional de Statistică. (2010). Anuarul Statistic al României. Serii de timp 1990–2009 [Romanian Statistical Yearbook. Time Series 1990–2009]. —. (2011). Coordonate ale nivelului de trai în România. Veniturile úi consumul populaĠiei în anul 2010 [Coordinates of the Living Standard in Romania. Population Incomes and Consumption in 2010]. Rotariu, T. (2009). Demografie úi sociologia populaĠiei. Structuri úi procese demografice [Demography and Population Sociology. Demographic Structures and Processes]. Iaúi: Polirom. World Migration Report 2010. The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change. (2010). Geneva: IOM.

WHO LEAVES AND WHO STAYS? A CASE STUDY OF ROMANIAN EMIGRANT FAMILIES MARIUS-LUP‫܇‬A MATICHESCU

Introduction The collapse of Communism and the expansion of the European Union through the accession of Eastern Bloc countries are two historical events that have entailed powerful socio-economic repercussions for all countries involved. In this context, migration is a phenomenon of unprecedented growth encountered in all the Eastern Bloc countries. Scientists covering such fields as Sociology, Economics, Political Science or Geography have tried to explain migration and the definitions they have provided for migration, specifically for emigration, covering the macro-, micro- and even meso-level of analysis (Todaro 1980; Piore 1980; Faist 1997; Massey et al. 2005). A focused research approach and micro-level theories on migration and emigration stress the importance of socio-economic factors. On the one hand, authors such as Todaro (1980), Stark & Bloom (1985), Stark & Taylor (1989), Stark (1993), Mincer (1978), Manski (2000), Epstein & Gang (2004) stress the economic factor to explain the migratory phenomenon. Based on the same idea, researchers as Faist (2000) and Massey et al. (2005) have analysed non-economic factors. Regarding the individual feature vs. the family feature of migration, scientific theories consider migration to be a family affair and no longer an individual one (Mincer 1978; Manski 2000; Stark 1993). A recent theory, more focused on migration than others, is the New Economics of Labour Migration. This theory by Stark (1993) has the rational choice principle in common with the micro-level theory. It does not focus on the individual as an actor whose mind is set on improving their well-being but on the family and its members. For Stark, emigration is not necessarily income-based as it is motivated by income diversification and risk reduction, like the nonavailability of working positions or loss of income.

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Starting from this perspective, the present chapter aims to explore the main causes behind the decision for one or several family members migrating. Below, we analyse the selection of the first family member to migrate.

Methods and Techniques The method used by this study was the semi-structured interview, and the study unit of measurement was each emigrant’s family. We established the interviewed person based on relevance and expertise regarding the migration issue, with respect to the emigrant and their partner, parents, children and other family members. The study consists of fifty-seven interviews, a point at which we considered the saturation principle and the maximum variation of sampling to be completed. Interviews took place in August 2008. We chose August for the field research because most emigrants travel to Romania during their summer holidays. Following Seidman’s advice that the maximum variation strategy equally concerns the individual and their reality, as well as the field site and its realities (Seidman 2006), we carried out the interview in six types of location: county seat/big town (BT), medium size town (MT), small town (ST), outskirts village (OV), village within a 25 km range (-25 V) and village farther than 25 km (+25 V) (Table 2-5). Table 2-5. Interview Location by Size and Name BT Re‫܈‬i‫܊‬a

MT Anina & Caransebe‫܈‬

ST Reca‫܈‬

OV Giarmata & Vii

-25 V BelinĠ & Chizătău

+25 V Foeni & Luncavi‫܊‬a

Given that the target group consisted of emigrant families not registered by local authorities, we used the “snowball” method to identify the emigrant families inside a given location.

Research Results In the case of Romanian migration analysis, the literature includes several studies and researches whose contribution is essential to the comprehension of migration as a phenomenon. These include those by Boswell & Ciobanu (2009), Horváth (2008) and researchers associated to Romanian institutions such as Bleahu (2003) and Sandu (2006).

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As previous studies have shown, the economic background is the main cause for migration. For fifty-two out of fifty-seven subjects, the main reason to emigrate is economic. When discussing the reasons behind her son’s departure, Mrs. R. said: “He left because of money. He and his wife have two children and they were living in town, and they were having a rough time of it. Money was not enough … the salary was small … after rent and bills it was already gone…and you have two children that you take out in town but have no money in your pocket … I did my best to help them. I gave them my carrots, potatoes, chicken, everything I had except for money. That I never offered because I don’t have it for myself.” A deeper inquiry takes into account the migratory family member type. The order is father, mother, son and daughter. The research shows that it is more likely that parents emigrate than children. In most situations, it is the father. Other frequent migration cases include the departure of the mother or both parents (see Figure 2-5 below). Figure 2-5. Family members to migrate

Speaking of parents having left for Germany, A. from Anina told us: “After the mine closed we had little money so my mother decided to go to Germany; that was last August. In August my mother left for the first time. After three months, she came back but then she left again in January … During her second stay there she found a job for my father who left this February and will come back in September.”

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The fact that migration is a family affair is proved by the selection of the person to migrate but also by the migrant’s actions once away. The indicator that we have used is improvement in families’ financial situations, as in most cases family finances improve with migration. Fifty out of fifty-three people answered that their economic situation is improving. Speaking of the economic improvement after migration, one of the respondents said: “Our financial situation has clearly improved. After his departure we managed to do some repairs in our apartment. We remodelled the bathroom and bought appliances … there are still things to do but it’s ok for a beginning. In addition, we are doing much better with the money.” This improvement is a direct effect of the money sent home by emigrants. Forty-eight out of fifty-six people declared that they send money back home. These first results reveal some important aspects. One is that the migrant is a parent, so migration is a family affair. In contradiction to the general idea, migrants are not young single men but men and women aiming for well-being of their families.

Migration’s Peculiarity Reported to the Work Place and Sources of Income As shown in Figure 2-6 below, only one person declared having a wellpaid, stable job before departure. For the rest, work was unstable and precarious, or even absent for those collecting unemployment. It means that people tending to migrate are persons dissatisfied with their job. The background of this dissatisfaction is the future migrant’s nonintegration on the labour market since they are not able to find a well-paid, stable job with good working conditions. Missing only one condition— although in most cases several are missing—represents an important decision-maker in favour of migration. Because work uncertainty is one of the main causes mentioned by the target group, we have decided to focus on this factor. Data show that most migrants have changed jobs before going abroad, and most of them did it twice. Thirty-four of thirty-nine people with working experience declared having changed their job before, and most of those who changed job did it more than twice. In other words, these results prove that an unstable workplace is a strong basis for migration.

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Figure 2-6. Migrant’s situation before departure

The testimony of subject 1 from Recaú, whose parents are abroad, demonstrates that uncertainty is a cause: “My mother has never changed jobs before going away. She had always been a teacher here in Recaú. On the other hand, my father had been switching jobs at least once a year.” This general context characterized by job instability, linked to precarious working conditions and modest salary, is an important factor leading to migration. Figure 2-7 below compares migrant finances before leaving to those of the other family members. In forty-two of fifty-two cases, the prospective migrant is not among the family members with the highest income. In fact, this proves that there is a strong connection between the income level and the choice to migrate. A first result of the micro-level analysis was that parents are those who go abroad. A secondary result is that the choice of which parent should migrate is made considering the lowest wages and the most unstable job. This proves the theory that migration’s goal is the diversification of income and that migrant’s profile is relevant when trying to identify the reasons for migration. Miss C., subject 1 from Re‫܈‬i‫܊‬a, told us that her mother left because she could not find a well-paid, stable job: “She worked in several places: as a salesperson, as a maid for some Italians and just before leaving in a textile factory for a miserable salary. Given that my dad had a stable job, my mother is the one that went abroad.”

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Figure 2-7. Migrant’s finances at family level

To diversify and assure a steady family income, a choice needs to be made, and who goes abroad is not a random decision. Inside a family, it will be the person with the lowest income and the most unstable job. The conclusion confirms Stark’s theory on income diversification (Stark & Bloom 1985). Stark thinks that migration is a rational choice. Speaking of this study, we see it as a rational choice to engage in the economy of the family and to replace a small, unsteady income with a considerable and steady one.

Conclusions Analysing data from interviewed migrant families is very useful in the study of migration, either in itself or family-related. According to data gathered from Romanian migrant families, migration became a family affair. This is a reality supported by the fact that parents go abroad and send money back home, thus improving their family’s quality of life. Moreover, given its connection to economic well-being, migration proves to be a rational choice whose final aim is to increase family welfare while replacing uncertain, unstable sources of income. The future migrant is identified inside the family through a selection mechanism as the person whose job is the most unstable and whose income is the smallest. Therefore, in terms of family selection, the study reveals that parents are more likely to emigrate than children and that, regardless of gender or

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other criteria, it is going to be the family member producing the lowest and most unstable income. Family-level analysis of the selection process and analysis of postmigration behaviour provide considerable leverage in the study of general and family migration. Analyzing the nature of migration in relation to its individual feature vs. its family feature, as well as the abovementioned selection mechanism, the present study provides an insight into the phenomenon and a starting point for new hypotheses on family-level migration.

References Bleahu, Ana. (2003). Romanian Migration to Spain. Motivation, Networks and Strategies. Bucureúti: Institutul pentru Calitatea VieĠii. Boswell, Christina & Ciobanu, Oana. (2009). “Culture, Utility or Social Systems? Explaining the Cross-National Ties of Emigrants from Borúa, Romania.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32 (8): 1346–1364. Epstein, G. & Gang, I. (2004). The Influence of Others on Migration Plans. Bonn: IZA. Faist, T. (1997). “The Crucial Meso-Level.” In T. Hammar, G. Brochmann, K. Tamas & T. Faist (Eds.), International Migration Immobility and Development: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Oxford: Berg Publishers. 59–90. —. (2000). The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Horváth, I. (2008). “The Culture of Migration of Rural Romanian Youth.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34 (5): 771–786. Manski, C. F. (2000). “Economic Analysis of Social Interactions.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (3): 115–136. Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, Adela & Taylor, J. E. (2005). Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mincer, J. (1978). “Family Migration Decisions.” Journal of Political Economy 86 (5): 749–773. Piore, M. J. (1980). Birds of Passage: Migrant Labour in Industrial Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sandu, D. (Ed.). (2006). Locuirea temporară în străinătate: MigraĠia economică a românilor 1990–2006 [Temporary Stay Abroad: Economic Migration of Romanians 1990-2006]. Bucureúti: FundaĠia pentru o societate deschisă.

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Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Stark, O. & Bloom, D. (1985). “The New Economics of Labor Migration.” The American Economic Review 75 (2): 173–178. Stark, O. & Taylor, J. E. (1989). “Relative Deprivation and International Migration.” Demography 26 (1): 1–14. Stark, O. (1993). The Migration of Labor. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Todaro, M. P. (1980). “Internal Migration in Developing Countries: A Survey.” In R. A. Easterlin (Ed.), Population and Economic Change in Developing Countries. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 361– 402.

REMEMBERING THE PAST: DISCOURSES ON THE MEMORY OF MIGRATION IN VICTORIA, ROMANIA DANIELA SPÎNU

Introduction The processes of collectivization and industrialization have given rise to new “spaces of socialism” (Stenning 2005, 3), with new districts and towns being built around the workplace. By accelerating the destruction of agriculture and rural communities, socialism created more jobs in the industries of the urban areas than the local people could handle (Szelenyi 1996, 294). At this stage the role of migration from village to town comes into play, be it voluntary or forced, leading to the creation of a particular kind of people: “a vague social class, neither peasants nor city-folk, a sort of lumpenproletariat deprived of any social perspective” (The Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship, Final Report 2006, 163). The residents of these new spaces would, according to Kotkin (1997), Stenning (2005) or Kideckel (2006), end up drafting their social lives based on their relations of production and the status bestowed by their workplace. Stemming from the paradigm developed by Creet & Kitzmann (2011, 9), according to which “movement is what produces memory … and memory, as a concept, reflects the time and space from which it emerges,” the present chapter focuses on the way in which the memory of the internal migration in Victoria, Romania, undergone in the communist period, is discursively (re)constructed after 1989.

Memory as Recovery of the Past: Conceptual Framework If, for Maurice Halbwachs or Paul Ricoeur, the concept of memory is apprehended as a projector of the past into the present, for Henri Bergson (1965) the analysis of memory entails “breaking away from the present so

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as to first find ourselves in the past in general, then in a particular area of the past: a work of trial and error similar to the calibration of a photographic camera.” According to Halbwachs’s paradigm, the individual constructs their memories, remembering, recognizing and localizing them within the framework of society. From this standpoint, certain events may be remembered and reconstructed with the help of others (Halbwachs 1992). Memory does not entail an act of “conservation of the image, but one of reconstruction of the image” (Chelcea 1998, 6). The past is rethought under the pressure of society, as the community participates in the recomposition of the image. Actions such as moving, mobility and orientation give coherence to memory, acting as factors of reactivation of the past. Conceptualized in the phrase “places of memory,” they become a mental map of past events. The places of memory work as “reminders, clues of remembrance, successively offering support to memory weakened in its battle against oblivion and even acting as a silent surrogate of dead memory” (Ricoeur 2000). It is precisely these material representations, these ars memoriae, that set memory apart from the volatility and perishable nature of orally transmitted recollections.

Methodology In order to monitor and analyze how the memory of internal migration from the communist period is discursively (re)constructed today, we have chosen as a case study the city of Victoria, located in the southern part of Transylvania, about 100 km from the city of Braúov. The construction of the I. V. Stalin chemical plant in Victoria led to the transition from wooden shacks (wherein fifty to sixty people were usually housed, sleeping in bunk beds) to collective apartment buildings. If, to begin with, the labourers lived inside the chemical plant, as in an enclave, the construction of the new soviet-design apartment buildings allowed the socialist government to attract (through different ideological and financial means) people from every corner of Romania to settle and work in Victoria. The birth of the town was in 1954, when it became “The first new town erected on the map of the Popular Republic of Romania” (Scânteia, 1965, April 27). With a young population (the age average was thirty-eight), the town rose from 2,762 inhabitants in 1956 to over 7,300 in the 1970s (Monograph of the City of Victoria, Victoria City Hall), encompassing refugees from Bassarabia, labourers from Moldova, Banat, Oltenia and Dobrogea, internal migrants who currently make up the demographic core of Victoria.

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Attempting to “develop” the image of first-hand experience of migration that the first generation of Victoria migrants recall, we have opted for fifteen semi-structured interviews, as well as using discourse analysis, an essential tool in the study of social change, all the more because “texts as elements of social events have causal effects—they bring about changes: changes in our knowledge, our beliefs, attitudes, values, etc.” (Fairclough 2003, 8).

Results and Discussion “Good morning beautiful flowers, good morning my darling, good morning beloved town/Today is a day of celebration … my life is the town of Victoria. From these hands it was born … they have started from scratch. We have given birth to it.” (interview with B.) This excerpt, belonging to one of the first migrants to Victoria who took part in the construction of the plant and, implicitly, of the town, marks one of the key elements in the discourses regarding the memory of the migration of the communist period—total identification with the newly created community. This trajectory of identity should be understood insofar as “the town as the urban core does not exist. The integration factor is still in the process of being created, of being formed” (Cristea 1974, 153), which entails that integration into the urban environment is taking place following the example imposed by the pace of urbanization. In this context, referring to the alleged “soviet century,” Mosche Lewin (2003, 400) cautioned that: “mobility is not just a matter of change of residence or workplace, or of moving across the same territory.” The construction of identity does not happen in association with the communities of origin, which very rarely come up at the discursive level (“we were too young when we left” [interview with I.S.]; “home is Victoria. When I left home, I was fifteen years old. What I knew to connect me strongly to Târgoviúte was the Tower of Chindia which I climbed every day. But I’m not that connected to. Ever since I was 15 I’ve been a wanderer” [interview with F.C.]), but with the new town. This leads to the fact that newcomers, perceived as “integration elements,” become, at the same time, “integrating environment”—“there are no urban traditions. They were created by the individuals whom have become city dwellers.” (Cristea 1974, 153). Phrases such as “a handful of people, we built the town … the construction of the town was our success, not that of socialism.” (interview with B.), and; “we, those who have worked and have started all sections of the plant, we’ve carried on our shoulder thick cables, this big” (interview with F.C.), together with the dominant use of present perfect tense “we have

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done, we have needed, we have started, we have levelled,” translate a whole process of redefinition of identity, within which the concept of “migrant” is all the more difficult to integrate. Mobility, in the eyes of the first generation of labourers from internal migration, is not perceived as migration, but as a de facto belonging legitimized by the contribution to “the birth of the town,” to which is added “the national necessity for the creation of specialists” (interview with C.E.). “I mean, this is where I saw sticks of butter for the first time. There were batches this big. I hadn’t seen such a thing in Bucharest …” The process of urbanization of the communist period, which would accompany the policies of industrialization and cooperative transformation of agriculture, was regarded as one of the instruments capable of generating “the advancement of the standard of material and cultural life of the people” (Constantinescu et al. 1974, 11). Internal migration becomes, in this sense, an instrument of social change, the individuals being enticed to be mobile out of the desire to maximize their income, to obtain “better conditions of labour, of spiritual accomplishment the urban environment offers” (Drăgan 1974, 60). The policies of schooling and repartition to a workplace constituted two key landmarks in the detachment from the communities of origin. The flexibility which preceded communist urbanization, namely between the community of origin and the one where the educational process took place, be it at high-school or university level, played a key role in the mitigation of the “shock” of settling in the urban environment. The coming to Victoria, a town which was still developing, did not trigger a culture shock, seeing as how most of the migrants originating from a rural environment had come into contact with towns during their schooling years. This pattern brings about a series of discourses which evoke that experience: “compared to Brăila I found it different. But I got used to it. There weren’t many houses, no shops, there was nothing,” “So it wasn’t a shock. I went from the country to high school and then five years of college in a major city and from there I came to a smaller town,” “it wasn’t a shock because I had come in contact with the city, I had stayed for 3 years at an uncle’s in Orăútie.” As for the principle of “elevating the living standard,” despite the early stage of development of the new town, the memory of the first generation of migrants evokes better living conditions than those of the communities whence they had migrated: “We would go to the canteen to eat and they would feed us dried mushrooms one day and cabbage the next. And we had ramshackle lodgings in Bucharest. They had given me a room there together with two co-workers, and that’s where we all lived. I was paying good money, as well. Anyway, I’ve told you

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that it made all the difference, the situation here set against Bucharest. There was no comparing the two. I mean, this is where I saw sticks of butter for the first time. There were batches this big. I hadn’t seen such a thing in Bucharest …” (interview with C.E.) “Since I was in the man’s debt, please believe me that he was like a mentor to me, he was a saint, I doted upon his every word ….” Migration as a chance for the future. Initiation and redefinition, the abandonment of traditional rural communities, contact with “the world of construction sites and cities” (Stahl 1973, 29) and with varied individuals all impose the rethinking of one’s’ own identity: the ideas that circulate through the new means of communication subject the population to a flood of information, giving rise to new conceptions on the existence and on the new personal needs … the newcomer finds himself exposed, to his bewilderment, to a great variety of beliefs, personalities, styles of dress, information, values, which constantly influence social, familial and traditional spaces. (Lewin 2003, 400)

Such an approach of the concept of mobility goes beyond the limited sense of the term, as “spatial and geographical movement of the population,” emphasizing the “profound modification of living patterns, of civic behaviour, of social life, of relationships, of attitudes” (Bogdan 1970, 370). The memory of migration seen in this sense relates an experience of initiation, a chance for the future, involving the (re)construction of one’s own identity in relation to the new workplace (“Of course I was a new man compared to what I had been when I left my native village. It’s natural. Any child, any person who goes somewhere, I had entered a new social scale, I was an intermediary between old man Gheorghe or I don’t know who … and, on the other hand, I had to be able to speak to an engineer, a director, to a minister. You realize that your whole world changes …” (interview with G.P.); “I felt that my identity had changed, because I came as an engineer. I left Făgăraú a labourer, chemical operator, after three years I had been working at the plant, and in Victoria I was an engineer” (interview with N.P.). Logically, the transformation of identity becomes a consequence of the change in status: “When people change, employers’ role clearly changes dramatically, since place of work, type of work and outside life are all likely to alter” (West, Nicholson & Arnold 1987, 292). I came to this town on January 14, 1949. I was so young that I had, how should I put it? First of all, like any youngster, after you’ve graduated from

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Mobility towards the newly created town did not just amount to the challenge of fitting into a new community; it also meant a process of coming of age, of facing up to responsibility, all within an area in which the trust given would lead to the growth of individual prestige. For many of the migrants, fresh from school, this initiation journey, which was meant to last a few days, months at most, turned into a lifelong experience. Arrived in the town for a period of practical training, or by means of professional repartition or to take part in the actual construction of the town, most married in Victoria and never left. Without a doubt, the stories piece together, fragment by fragment, a lifelong experience which speaks, in almost mythic terms about “the rise of new people,” about the willingness of asserting oneself and the success of integration, about the burden of facing up to stereotypes and of (re)defining ones’ identity.

Conclusions and Recommendations The present study attempts to capture, in a retrospective manner and stemming from the concept of memory, the exact way in which the first generation of migrants to Victoria (re)constructs its discourses with regards to the experience of internal migration in the communist period. The chapter draws into focus three key discourses regarding the memory

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of the migratory experience: the total identification with the newly created town, the identification of a higher standard of living, even in the context of a town still in development, and most significantly the remembrance of internal mobility as an opportunity for the future, and the initiation and redefinition of identity. These discourses, which give vent to a successful experience entailing a series of transformations at the level of identity, may be an attractive starting point in the interpretation of the rapid Romanian emigration after 1989. Could the internal mobility promoted by processes such as collectivization and industrialization be viewed as the “antechamber” of today’s migration, owing to the transformations operated in the framework of social relations and social and group identities? Did these social dynamics affect the willingness of the second generation to emigrate precisely because this “post memory” (Hirsch 1997) of migration existed? The fact that emigration from Victoria materializes from the very beginning of the 1990s, through migration towards “exotic” destinations such as Costa Rica, Canada or Australia, while, in other communities, emigration remains an almost unknown process up to 1995 to 1996, speaks volumes about a possible historical continuity of mobility, through the accentuation of a “culture of migration,” and even more so as “migration is not only felt at the level of lived embodiment, migration is also a matter of generational acts of storytelling about prior histories of movement and dislocation” (Ahmed 1999, 15).

References Ahmed, Sara. (1999). “Home and away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 2 (3): 329– 347. Bergson. H. (1965). Matière et mémoire. Essai sur la relation du corps à l’esprit [Matter and Memory: Essay on the Relationship between Body and Spirit]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Bogdan, T. (1970). Procesul de urbanizare în România: zona Braúov [The Urbanization Process in Romania: Braúov Area]. Bucureúti: Editura Politică. Chelcea, S. (1998). Memorie socială úi identitate naĠională [Social Memory and National Identity]. Bucureúti: INI. Comisia PrezidenĠială pentru Analiza Dictaturii Comuniste din România. (2006). Raport final [Final Report]. http://www.presidency.ro/static/ordine/RAPORT_FINAL_CPADCR.p df.

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Constantinescu, M., Stahl, H., Drăgan, I., Cristea, P. & Grigorescu P. (1974). Le processus d’urbanisation en Roumanie [The Urbanization Process in Romania]. Bucureúti: Meridiane. Creet, Julia & Kitzmann, A. (2011). Memory and Migration: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Memory Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge. Halbwachs, M. (1992). On Collective Memory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Hirsch, Marianne. (1997). Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Interviuri [Interviews] (B, C.E., F.C., G.P., I.S., N.P.). Kideckel, D. A. (2006). Colectivism úi singurătate Рn satele româneúti. ğara Oltului Рn perioada comunistă úi Рn primii ani după RevoluĠie [The Solitude of Collectivism in Romanian Villages: ğara Oltului during the Communism and the First Years after the Revolution]. Iaúi: Polirom. Kotkin, S. (1997). Magnetic Mountain. Stalinism as a Civilization. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Lewin, M. (2003). Le siècle soviétique [The Soviet Century]. Paris: Fayard. Monografia Oraúului Victoria [The Monograph of Victoria City]. Primăria Oraúului Victoria. Ricoeur, P. (2000). La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli [Memory, History, Forget]. Paris: Seuil. Scânteia, 27 aprilie 1975. Stenning, Alison. (2005). “Where is the post-socialist working class? Working class lives in the space of (Post-) Socialism.” Sociology 39 (5): 983–999. Szelenyi, I. (1996). “Cities under Socialism and after.” In G. Andrusz, M. Harloe & I. Szelenyi (Eds.), Cities after Socialism: Urban and Regional Change and Conflict in Post-Socialist Societies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. 286–317. West, M., Nicholson N. & Arnold. J. (1987). “Identity Changes as Outcomes of Work-Role Transitions.” In Terry Honess & Krysia Yardley (Eds.), Self and Identity: Perspectives across the Lifespan. London–New York: Routledge. 152–161.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATION OF ROMANIAN DOCTORS’ MIGRATION ELENA TOADER

Introduction The aim of this chapter is to investigate the migration of Romanian doctors, focusing on the interconnection between the social and cultural significations of the phenomenon. The chapter is divided into two sections: the first presents the theoretical background for the analysis of migration and the second centres on the exploration of the perceptions of patients and medical students regarding social and cultural significations relevant for the migration of Romanian doctors. The objectives of this chapter are to build a theoretical framework for the explicit analysis of the phenomenon through presenting the main international theories of migration and introducing the distinctions relevant for the social and cultural context in the Romanian environment. The second objective is to determine and exploit the social and cultural significations relevant for the research, aiming to identify the variables which define the perceptions of the Romanian doctors for patients and medical students regarding migration. The third objective is to identify the similarity or difference between the perceptions of the patients and those of the students. Through the synthesis of the approach from a double perspective—the social and cultural aspects of the phenomenon of doctor migration—we aimed at obtaining data for the discovery of a “connecting bridge” between the two parties. Starting from the argument that doctor migration in the current situation imposes research directions for a wider social context, the main question to be asked is: “How is migration perceived socially and culturally by specific categories of subjects with experience in the field, patients and medical students?” We also intend to identify the variables that affect the perceptions of the patient and the student on doctor migration.

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Theoretical Background for the Analysis of Doctor Migration The significations that modern societies attach to migration are numerous, some conflicting, some changing (according to the evolution of the economic context) to the juridical regulations specific for the domain and to the social and cultural aspects. Regarding historical landmarks, the first scientific contribution to the building of the concept of migration was that of Ravenstein (1985) and Haas (2007), who formulated the laws of migration, essentially connected with a set of deterministic rules on the basis of which theoretical frameworks were built for international migration. Later developments evolved through the theories of neoclassic economy, with the refinement of the formulations on migration, concentrated on the difference of income between two geographic locations (Jennissen 2007). This theoretical model takes into consideration the social actors as migrants with freedom of choice according to the information and opportunities available. Using price equalization as a central theme, the neoclassic theory attempts an externalization in the social space through placement of the social theory within the functional paradigm, taking responsibility for the critique on the explanations convenient for the actual migration models in a neoclassic context (Portes 1998). Theoretic endeavours focus on the interaction between the analyses of economics and those of a sociological nature leading to the development of the background for the investigation of migration. From this point of view, the purpose is to combine economic analyses offered by the system of push/pull factors with sociological analyses and concepts. For migration in the field of healthcare, these factors were extensively described by Buchan (2008). For Romania, the belief is that “migration is a spatial expression of social mobility” (Lupu, in Miftode 1984, 154), which means a complex change with social effects. On the other hand, some approaches regard migration as “a perspective of the durable relationship between adopted purposes and means ….” These are rational structures for action, relatively durable for the agent that adopts them (Lupu, in Sandu 1999, 6; Sandu 2010) or as a form of opposition “against changes and abandonment of a country where they do not find the position they would care for” (Lupu, in Voicu 2004, 2). The theory of social resources (Lin 2002) advances a series of developments with regard to the current discussions on the concept of social assets, and the origin of human assets through the possibility of their conversion to any form of asset (e.g. educational) (Coleman 1988). In the opinions specific for the Romanian context, these aspects have the

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significance of “brain drain,” which, in most cases, means the migration of the educated and qualified labour force from the poor countries towards richer ones with the aim of higher professional recognition and reward, seen as more achievable in the developed countries (Stănică 2007). The theory of the global network of migration tries to explain, from a macro-social perspective, the dynamics between business globalization and interaction among different societies as an important factor in the change of the social aspect (Wallerstein 1974; Martínez-Vela 2001). This theoretical presentation of the analysis framework for the phenomenon of doctor migration, with special distinctions for the Romanian context, will allow for the classification of empirical results of the study performed with the intention of selection and exploitation of the social and cultural significations relevant for the research.

Social and Cultural Significations of Romanian Doctor Migration The second dimension of the research focuses on the analysis of specific data referring to the perceptions of the cultural and social significations of doctor migration obtained after the use of nine-point questionnaires for two groups of respondents of ninety patients and sixty students during February to April 2012. The questionnaires were focussed on personal situations and doctor migration, gathering information from the social and cultural context associated with the phenomenon of migration, i.e. reasons to migrate, adaptation in the destination country, healthcare systems in the EU, healthcare system in Romania, benefits and costs of migration. Taking into account the role doctor migration may play in the personal context of the respondents, it required the use of the information obtained from the patients, due to their experience with the healthcare system, and from the medical students, as future doctors. From a methodological point of view, we introduced the position of the specialist in the medical field with the adjustment of the instruments specific to sociology, specifically for the efficient valorisation of the perceptions of the two characters at the interface between sociology and healthcare system. The results reveal that, from the point of view of 87% of the patients and 86% of the students, the phenomenon of the Romanian doctors represents an issue. It is worth mentioning that, for 67% of respondents, the information on doctor migration comes from a particular situation (family, friends, acquaintances) and 24% specify other sources of information (mainly media). The 87% of respondents that regard migration as a solution support the statement for economic reasons (92% patients)

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and material and professional ones (83% students). With respect to the healthcare system, doctor migration is perceived by 85% of patients as having a strong influence on access and mostly on the quality of medical services, while 89% of medical students believe that the technical base, bureaucracy and difficulties in professional achievement are the key aspects. The convictions on the modality of professional and cultural adaptation of the doctors in their destination country in the EU area are obvious for students who, in 76% of the cases, think about a career abroad. In the group of patients, although the majority do not have information on this aspect (79%), it is remarkable that none of them signal that they know of Romanian doctors creating problems in the EU countries. A suboptimal response (21%) registered at the evaluation performed for the level of knowledge and confidence in the healthcare systems from the EU, their performance being acknowledged by both patients and medical students, but without any background information on their functioning modalities. Patients and Students on Migrating Doctors: Social and Cultural Significations Connected to the migration phenomenon, the patients (through their experience with the healthcare system) and the medical students as future doctors show an increased interest in it and confer authority to the information on doctor migration. Data confirms that the perceptions of the patients regarding doctor migration originate in the value associated with health, while the medical students focus on professional achievement. For the patients, doctor migration is perceived from the point of view of the access barrier to medical services and the improvement of the quality of medical care, while students, through contact with a series of difficult situations during their professional development, acquire an anticipative socialization of a negative relationship with the public healthcare system where they are to exercise their profession as doctors. Migration, as a solution to higher income, represents the perception of the patients regarding the doctors’ reasons to work abroad, with the signification of “supra-solicitation” by the economic component of the relationship between the status that the doctor has in society and the Romanian outer-medical culture, and the satisfaction of their work (Parson 1951). Students perceive doctor migration as a way to use the educational asset in a social and cultural environment in the destination country which will allow a precise evolution of the professional status acquired in the native country (Sandefur & Laumann 1998). There is no social and cultural signification of the efforts as “costs” for the educational asset

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acquired through studies paid by the state in the native countries, in the context where education is an important factor in the determination of ascending mobility in the emphasis placed on salary and professional achievement in the formulation (individually or collectively) of the motivations of the doctors to relocate, both for the patient and the student (Massey et al. 2005). How Is Doctor Migration Perceived by Patients and Future Doctors? In the designation of the variables that define the perceptions of the respondents, we must emphasize the role of the social and cultural context as mechanisms of conditioning and the way it filters information, having a significant contribution to the representations of doctor migration. The variables that affect the perception of the patients referring to the difficult access to medical services and improvement in the quality of medical care as consequences of doctor migration were statistically retained only as a percentage formulation. For relevant statistics, we believe it necessary to extend the analysis of migration effects (multivariate analysis). Thus, as applicable for the aspects with social signification, we regard the frequency of the occurrence in conversation of the aspects related to doctor migration while, for the cultural signification, we deem determining the importance granted to doctor migration by the number of autobiographic details evoked, as linked to this phenomenon. In the case of the students, the variable by which they show their interest in exerting their profession abroad is deductible and supported by the modality of aggregation of the answers related to migration, as well as the perception of the benefits and the easy adaptation in the social and cultural area of the destination country. The question to be asked is “To what extent will the prospect of the students to migrate become a reality?” Prospective studies are required to answer this, which can or cannot accept the truth of this option asserted by medical students. In these two variables of the perceptions of the social actors, although distinctively formulated from the perspective of solutions, we note the main attitude towards decisional factors. Doctor Migration: Similarities and Differences In the demographic structure of the studied cases (of patients), we can see differences of perception depending on environment (urban or rural) and level of education. Most patients from the rural environment and with primary educational level do not make a distinction between social and

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cultural values associated with doctor migration. Although the patients and the students admit that doctor migration is an issue, there is a differentiated perception in the opinion of the two parties on sources that generate and maintain the mechanisms of the development of the phenomenon. The patients believe that the financial incentive is crucial in the decision to migrate, while students have a different approach from a perspective of professional, material, social and cultural cumulated causality (Massey et al. 2005). For them, the ideal society is one that manages to provide “proper dosages” from all the great cultural and social values associated with the political and economic (Fukuyama 1999). If, in the perception of the student, the emphasis is placed on the benefits (material, social and cultural values), the patient perceives migration in its negative dimensions if we refer to transfer from the theoretical space in the applied sociology of the signification of the costs for health “as a social right.” “Cost value” is perceived by the massive departure of the doctors which can lead to the dissolution of the communities, especially in the rural environment, while the migrants may gain access to a higher social and natural environment (Doboú 2006). Limits of the Study As limits for the accuracy of the information, we can consider the subjectivity, the medical education level of the patient, and the information degree of the student and patient on the healthcare systems in the EU states. Another limitation is doctor migration rate, which inside the development perimeter (EU space) has permanent informational dynamics, with frequent transfers and transformations.

Conclusions The social and cultural significance of doctor migration places emphasis on the aspects related to the social objectives of the healthcare system with respect to the beneficiaries (patients) and to the human resource, regarding the professional achievement and social status of doctors, from the perspective of medical students. The variables on which the perceptions of patients and students rely underline the cumulative causality centred on economic dominants (patient) and professional career (students). It is worth mentioning that the perception referring to the social and cultural significations of doctor migration in the formulations of the two parties raise a series of issues and ask questions related to decisional factors. Knowledge of social and cultural significations of Romanian doctor

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migration from the level of the patients and medical students can clarify the understanding of this complex phenomenon and fundamentally affect the implementation of various reforms, in this case of healthcare policies.

Acknowledgment This chapter is supported by the European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007– 2013 (SOP HRD), under the project “Postdoctoral Studies in the Field of Health Policy Ethics,” implemented by the “Gr. T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iaúi, Romania, contract no. POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61879.

References Buchan, J. (2008). How Can the Migration of Health Service Professionals Be Managed so as to Reduce Any Negative Effects on Supply? World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. Coleman, J. S. (1988). “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.” The American Journal of Sociology 94: S95–S120. Doboú, Cristina. (2006). “Difficulties of Access to Public Health Services in Romania.” Calitatea vieĠii 17 (1–2): 1–19. Fukuyama, F. (1999). The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order. New York, NY: Free Press. Haas, H. (2007). Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective. International Migration Institute. James Martin 21st Century School. University of Oxford. Jennissen, R. (2007). “Causality Chains in the International Migration Systems Approach.” Population Research and Policy Review 26 (4): 411–436. Lin, N. (2002). Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Martínez-Vela, C. A. (2001). “World Systems Theory.” Engineering System Division 83: 1–5. Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, Adela & Taylor, J. E. (2005). Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Miftode, V. (1984). Elemente de sociologie rurală [Basics of Rural Sociology]. Bucureúti: Editura ùtiinĠifică úi Enciclopedică.

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Portes, A. (1998). “Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 1–24. Sandefur, Rebecca L. & Laumann, E. O. (1998). “A Paradigm for Social Capital.” Rationality and Society 10 (4): 481–501. Sandu, D. (1999). SpaĠiul social al tranziĠiei [Social Space of Transition]. Iaúi: Polirom, —. (2010). “Home Orientation in Transnational Spaces of Romanian Migration.” Studia Sociologia 2: 15–36. Stănică, S. I. (2007). “Abordări, modele, teorii privind fenomenul brain drain” [“Approaches, Models, Theories on the Phenomenon of Brain Drain”]. Revista de cercetare úi intervenĠie socială 19: 61–98. Voicu, B. (2004). Resurse, valori, strategii de viaĠă: SpaĠii sociale preferate în tranziĠie [Resources, Values, Life Strategies: Social Spaces of Choice in Transition]. Teză de doctorat. Bucureúti.

CHAPTER THREE SCHOOL ORGANISATION AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

IMPACT OF PARENTS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS ON EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS MARIA-CRISTINA AVRIGEANU

Introduction The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the parents’ educational capital and the educational aspirations of their children, as well as the relationship between the parents’ occupational status and the educational aspirations of their children. The concept of aspiration is extensively discussed in literature. Brookover et al. (1967) refer to aspirations as desires, and to educational aspirations as desires of the students to attain higher levels of schooling. Quaglia & Cobb (1996) define aspiration as the ability to identify and set goals for the future, while being inspired in the present to work towards achieving those goals. Aspirations begin to form in early childhood and are modified during their development by environment and experience. As children grow older, their number of aspirations tends to decrease in response to developing a mechanism for understanding how the world works, and the constraints imposed by the choices that they’ve made and by their achievements (Gutman & Akerman 2008). Educational aspirations are one of the strongest predictors of educational attainment, and the family’s socioeconomic status has been extensively examined as a predictor of low aspirations (Berzin 2010). One of the most important models used by researchers to understand aspirations and educational attainment is the status attainment model. This model suggests that socioeconomic status has a major impact on aspirations and social attainment. Through mechanisms related to parental income, parental education, parental workplace, high educational aspirations and provision of academic experiences, young people are influenced towards certain aspirations (Mau 1995). The status attainment process refers to the set of events by which a person occupies their position in the social hierarchy of wealth, power and prestige. One of the models used to investigate status

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attainment is the Wisconsin model. This model argues that the effect the family’s socio-economic status has on the education and occupational attainment of a person is due to the impact of personal influences related to attainment which the person experiences in adolescence. According to the Wisconsin model, parental influence has a significant effect on the development of aspirations (Haller & Portes 1973). A study by Sewell and Shaw argues that encouragement from parents regarding school is a powerful variable which mediates between the socio-economic environment from which the child comes, their intelligence and educational aspirations (Sewell & Shah 1968). Another study supports these assertions, showing that educational aspirations are strongly influenced by the family environment—children from environments in which parents have higher education, high educational aspirations for their children and are involved in their children’s school program will most likely have high educational aspirations (Wilson & Wilson 1992). Marjoribanks (2005) conducted a study on a sample of 6,911 young people from Australia allowing the author to conclude that family social status, ethnicity and educational aspirations of adolescents combine to provide high associations with the educational attainment of young people. In an article that examined the influence of socio-economic status, Valadez investigated, in a sample consisting of 24,559 students from primary and secondary schools, the role of variables such as personal opinion, peer group and parents in the decision to attend college. The author concluded that students with low socio-economic statuses do not have access to important resources and are not as good at capitalizing on the available resources as the students from higher socio-economic backgrounds (Valadez 1998). In the present study, the parents’ socio-economic status is operationalized as having two levels: occupational status and educational capital. Considering the information presented above, the theoretical hypothesis of this study is that the socioeconomic status of parents determines the level of educational aspirations of students. The empirical hypotheses of the study are: (a) the increased education capital of the mother will lead to a high level of educational aspirations; (b) the increased educational capital of the father will lead to a high level of educational aspirations; (c) a high occupational status of the mother will lead to a high level of educational aspiration, and; (d) a high occupational status of the father will lead to a high level of educational aspirations. The objectives of this study are to investigate whether there is a relationship between the level of education of the father/mother and the level of children’ aspirations, and whether there is a relationship between the occupational status of the father/mother and the level of children’s aspirations. A very low level of educational aspirations of students refers

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to the choice to abandon school; a low level of educational aspirations of students refers to the choice to finish compulsory education only; an average level of educational aspirations refers to passing the high school graduation exam or attending a college; a high level of educational aspirations refers to attending a university college and achieving an MA; a very high level of educational aspirations refers to obtaining a Ph.D. Regarding the educational capital of the parents: a very low level means that they did not attend school; a low level points to the completion of eight years of study; an average level refers to the graduation from high school or a vocational school; an increased level refers to passing the high school graduation exam or graduating from a post-high school, or technical college; a very high level refers to attending graduate and postgraduate studies.

Methodology In the present study, we used data collected in the Fall of 2011 through an education and vocational guidance questionnaire applied to all 8th graders in Bihor County (Romania). The questionnaire investigated, among other aspects, the aspirations of students, the occupational status of parents and the educational capital of the parents. The sample used in this study consisted of 4,451 middle-school students aged fourteen to sixteen. The questionnaire used in the study was meant for 5,550 middle-school students, representing all the 8th graders in the Bihor County. Because of school absenteeism, refusal to complete or incorrect completion, from the number of 5,550 students only the answers of 4,451 where included in the study (about 80% of the 8th graders in the Bihor County). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the sample. Subsequently, using the Chisquare test, we analyzed all four hypotheses, for which the significance test was 0.00. We therefore reject the null hypothesis in all four cases and argue that there is a strong relationship between the high levels of educational aspirations of middle school students and increased parental educational capital and occupational status.

Results Of the 4,451 subjects enrolled in the study, 51.3% were male and 48.7% female, while 57% studied in urban areas and 43% studied in rural areas. Following the completion of the Chi-square test for the first two hypotheses of the study, according to which both the father’s and mother’s increased educational capital will lead to an increased level of educational

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aspirations, we can see that there are significant positive deviations of over 2.0 between high and very high levels of educational aspirations and high and very high levels of parental educational capital (see Table 3-1). .

Table 3-1. Students’ educational aspirations depending on the father’s and the mother’s level of educational capital

Count Adjusted Residual Count Adjusted Residual Low level Count Adjusted Residual Medium level Count Adjusted Residual High level Count Adjusted Residual Very high level Count Adjusted Residual Lack of answer Count Level of Adjusted father’s Residual educational Very low level Count capital Adjusted Residual Low level Count Adjusted Residual Medium level Count Adjusted Residual High level Count Adjusted Residual Very high level Count Adjusted Residual

0 -1.4

7 -.4

16 -1.8

2 -1.2

9 -.7

18 7.7

63 28.1

18 6.7

17 -.5

9 -8.0

1 -3.1

14 -2.7

4 -1.7

76 74 10.1 10.2

199 153 9.2 -13.6

10 -7.8

177 1.7

82 4.5

12 -7.4

52 -.2

277 4.2

610 -1.8

75 -5.9

368 4.0

131 3.2

8 -7.0

10 -6.3

148 -4.4

688 9.6

112 .5

276 .5

59 -4.0

2 -5.0

1 -5.1

23 -9.2

386 170 8.8 17.3

79 -6.3

13 -5.5

13 4.3

4 -.1

13 -1.3

43 -1.3

3 -2.3

22 -.6

21 4.7

37 20.0

11 4.9

11 -.5

7 -6.2

1 -2.4

6 -3.1

10 1.9

87 61 15.7 10.0

158 95 9.0 -13.1

4 -7.1

107 -1.3

61 3.8

18 -8.3

67 .1

326 3.3

768 -1.8

100 -6.4

471 5.7

155 2.8

6 -7.0

11 -5.9

151 675 -3.4 10.6

109 .7

239 -1.5

49 -4.8

2 -4.3

1 -4.4

12 -8.8

274 153 4.9 18.2

78 -3.7

11 -4.7

I have not decided I do not know

2 .0

Very level

Medium level High level

Lack of answer Level of mother’s educational Very low level capital

Very low level LOW level

The level of educational aspirations

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After testing the third hypothesis, according to which a high occupational status of the mother will lead to a high level of educational aspirations, we could see that there are significant deviations between being a technician, foreman, clerk, higher education staff, owner, entrepreneur or freelancer, and a high and very high level of educational aspirations. The last hypothesis tested in this study argues that the father’s high occupational status will lead to a high level of educational aspirations. We could see that there are significant deviations between being a technician, foremen, clerk, higher education worker, owner, entrepreneur or freelancer, and a high and very high level of educational aspirations.

Discussion This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the education level of the father or mother and the educational aspirations of their children, and the occupational status of the father or mother and the educational aspirations of their children. According to the literature, the socio-economic status of the parents plays an important role in the development and persistence of educational aspirations (Sewel et al. 1969; Haller & Portes 1973; Wilson & Wilson 1992; Valadez 1998). Therefore, we cannot conduct any study involving the investigation of educational aspirations without taking into consideration the socio-economic status of the family. The results presented above are congruent with those in the literature, however, the contribution that these data brings is that these theories are valid even for the Romanian population, which has a different culture and a whole different educational policy from the countries in which similar studies have been conducted. As shown in Table 3-1, there are significant positive deviations between a very low level of the parents’ educational capital and a very low and low level of educational aspirations. The same goes for the low level of educational capital of both parents and a very low, low and medium level of the educational aspirations. This means that we cannot expect students whose parents have not attended school or have graduated only eight classes to have high or very high levels of educational aspirations. In contrast, we have a significant positive deviation between high levels of parents’ educational capital and a high level of educational aspirations, meaning that children whose parents graduated from a vocational school, technical school, post high school or college will most likely have aspirations to attend a university and an MA. Finally, there is a significant positive deviation between a very high level of the parents’ educational

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capital and a high and very high level of educational aspirations, which suggests that parents who have graduated from a university and also have postgraduate studies will most likely have children who wish to attend a university, an MA or a PhD course. Educational capital is not the only variable that plays an important role in the level of educational aspirations of eighth grade students; the occupational status is also an important variable. Results show that being a housewife, which is seen as having a very low level of occupational status, has significant positive deviations with a very low, low and medium level of educational aspirations, while the status of resident, which is also seen as being part of a very low level of occupational status, has significant positive deviations with a very low and low level of educational aspirations. The difference between the two may be due to the fact that, in the cases where the housewives’ children have a medium level of educational aspirations, there most likely is a father who has medium or high level occupational status. Farmers with individual households and worker occupations present a significant positive deviation with a medium level of educational aspirations. Although these occupations can be seen as being part of a low occupational status, they do not necessarily favour a low educational aspiration. In these cases, there are likely other factors that influence to a greater extent the level of educational aspirations. The same factors probably influence the relationship between working in trade, tourism and other services, which can be seen as being part of a medium level of occupational status, and the level of educational aspirations, where there is a significant positive deviation between these occupations and a high level of educational aspirations. The occupational category “other” includes occupations like nursing, personal assistant, foster parent, social worker, teacher, educator, curator, nurse, therapist and caregiver. In this case, we see that there is a significant positive deviation between this category and a high and very high level of educational aspirations in the mother’s case, and a high level of educational aspirations in the father’s case. Finally, we can see that there are significant positive deviations between being a technician, foreman or clerk, occupations that may be seen as part of a high level of occupational status, and a high and very high level of educational aspirations, the largest deviation being, however, with the high level of educational aspirations. The occupations of higher education worker, employer, entrepreneur and freelancer are part of a very high level of occupational status. There is a significant positive deviation between these occupations and high and very high levels of educational aspirations.

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Conclusion In conclusion, the hypothesis according to which the socio-economic status of parents, operationalized here as educational capital and occupational status, determines the educational aspirations of students has been confirmed. It was demonstrated that both high levels of parents’ educational capital and high levels of parents’ occupational status determines high levels of educational aspirations. A limit of this study is that parents’ occupational status has not been investigated enough. In the case of the occupational statuses of retired and unemployed, it would have been better to investigate what the occupational status that the parents had been prior to this. If the parent had an occupation that was part of a high or very high level of occupational status, then we can expect the children of these people to have a high or very high level of educational aspirations. The main purpose of this article is to build a path to better understanding how educational aspirations are formed and how they interact with other factors to achieve educational attainment in the Romanian middle school student population. This study supports future actions to investigate all the factors involved in the development of educational aspirations.

References Berzin, S. P. (2010). “Educational Aspirations among Low-Income Youth: Examining Multiple Conceptual Models.” Children and School 12 (2): 112–127. Brookover, W. B, Erickson, E. L. & Joiner, L. M. (1967). “Educational Aspirations and Educational Plans in Relation to Academic Achievement and Socio-economic Status.” The School Review 75 (4): 392–400. Gutman, M. L. & Akerman, R. (2008). Determinants of Aspirations. London: Institute of Education. Haller, A. O. & Portes, A. (1973). “Status Attainment Processes.” Sociology of Education 46: 51–91. Marjoribanks, K. (2005). “Family Background, Adolescents Educational Aspirations and Australian Young Adults Educational Attainment.” International Education Journal 6 (1): 104–112. Mau, W. C. (1995). “Educational Planning and Academic Achievement of Middle School Students: A Racial and Cultural Comparison.” Journal of Counselling and Development 73: 518–526. Quaglia, R. J. & Cobb, C. D. (1996). “Toward a Theory of Student Aspirations.” Journal of Research in Rural Education 12 (3): 127–132.

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Sewell, W. H. & Shah, V. P. (1968). “Social Class, Parental Encouragement and Educational Aspirations.” American Journal of Sociology 73 (5): 559–578. Valadez, J. R. (1998). “Applying to College: Race, Class and Gender Differences.” Professional School Counselling 1 (5): 14–20. Wilson, P. M. & Wilson, J. R. (1992). “Environmental Influences on Adolescent Educational Aspirations: A Logistic Transform Model.” Youth & Society 24 (1): 52–70.

PERCEPTIONS OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS DIANA DIDILICĂ

Introduction The main purpose of this chapter is to investigate the perceptions of children’s rights in early childhood education institutions for children aged nought to three to see how children’s rights are enacted in these institutions, and to contribute to the extension of the discourse of child’s rights in early childhood. Given the fact that the concept of early childhood education is new in Romania, this chapter is among the first to investigate the perceptions of children’s rights in their early years and their implementation in early childhood institutions. Recent changes in the Romanian family (the restructuring of the family and changing family patterns wherein child rearing is no longer a women’s concern alone, the number of divorces is increasing, and women are rejoining the work force immediately after birth), society (the impact of the economic crisis on the poverty level and unemployment), and regulations (Convention on the Rights of the Child, Law no. 1 from January 5, 2011, EducaĠia timpurie în România 2004) call for improvements in the early childhood education sector. In Romania, early childhood public institutions for children aged nought to three (such as crèches and nurseries) have been part of the Health System since the early 1970s (EducaĠia timpurie în România 2004). In 2001, they were redirected to the local councils, being regulated and financed by them ever since. In the last ten years, minor changes have been noticed and some crèches have hired psychologists and educators (working part time because of the lack of financing), but most employees in these institutions have been inherited from the sanitary system, most of them with more than fifteen years seniority in the field and some with no educational background or related training. Because of these facts, education in early childhood is still a challenge in these facilities. There is

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a requirement to shift mentality and overcome the prejudice that children only need “to be fed, cleaned and kept warm” in their first years of life. This chapter is part of our PhD thesis “Child’s rights to love, education and care in early childhood,” and presents the preliminary results of ongoing research. The thesis highlights how different conceptual theoretical ideas intersect with different sociological constructs, and that early childhood education is an important issue of human development, human rights and human resources and must be approached holistically. After World War I, one of the major supporters of children’s rights, Janusz Korczack, a Polish philosopher and doctor, suggests that the child can no longer be seen as a project, or a human being in process: they need to be offered a decent life “here and now.” The image of the child has fluctuated from disadvantaged and dependent (Woodhead 1997; 2004; 2005) to independent as a result of the new sociology of childhood and the growing interest for the construction of childhood and their role in society. This way, the status of the child is still unclear, making the understanding of the child’s rights more difficult and challenging (Freeman 2000; 2007). Recent studies in the field of child’s rights are concerned with the right to participation (Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child) and present the child as a social actor, capable and independent (Mac Naughton, Hugues & Smith 2007), a significant part of the social order that implies, for all members, equally consideration (Mayall 2000). This focus was primarily due to the publication of the General Comment No. 7. Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood (2005) that draws particular attention to a right-based approach in the early years. Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) is considered to be a mild document that only makes children visible and relies on moral pressure rather than hard disciplinary mechanisms (Freeman 2007), the General Comment No. 7. Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood (2005) points out more specific guidelines for the implementation of child rights and observation of the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the early years. Though all the principles of the CRC have implications for rights in the early years, this chapter focuses on Article 6 that states the right to life, survival and development and the right to education.

Exploring Children’s Rights in Crèches This study focuses on activities with children in crèches. We have opted for a quality research in order to reveal a particular reality and develop interpretative outcomes. The research design relies on the Action Research

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Method as a participatory approach. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, we need to constantly reflect and rethink the instruments, continuously reconstructing and adding questions for a better understanding of the environment studied. The researcher not only observes and investigates the settings but also actively takes part in most of the activities. For instance, for six months, the researcher interviewed, observed and participated in all activities in five of the eleven nurseries. That is why the instruments elaborated for research are interview guides with the staff and parents and observation guides for children and activities in crèches. Currently, we have observed five of these crèches (including weekly nurseries) daily and interviewed ten staff members from the public nurseries and two from the private one. The main obstacle in this research is the low level of staff working with children in public crèches, which generates difficulty in conducting interviews with the focus groups as originally planned. The staff’s concerns are related to their job security, and most of the rejections of participating in the study were justified by the fact that, since their participation is voluntary (according to the consent form developed for the interviews), they would prefer not to be involved. This represented a significant stagnation of the research and we had to re-evaluate the methods and instruments in order to meet the ethical problems regarding data collection. Given the fact that these institutions have not been exposed to research in recent years, their reluctance is understandable, but burdened the process of research. Collaboration with the staff in the private crèche is so far successful, and they are open to finding better ways to enact children’s rights in their organization and to develop a set of new activities in order to improve the quality of their services.

Preliminary Results Starting in 1990, the number of crèches in Romania decreased drastically from 840 to 287 (EducaĠia timpurie în România 2004). Most of these institutions are in urban area. In Ia‫܈‬i (situated in Eastern Romania, close to the border with Republic of Moldova), there are twelve early childhood institutions (eleven nurseries in the public sphere and a private one open since September 2011). Eleven of these crèches are day nurseries, (functioning from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and one is a weekly nursery (from Monday 6 a.m. to Friday 9 p.m.).

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The adult/child ratio is one to twelve at present, and the majority of staff are female (there is only one male employee who takes care of the maintenance, but he is simultaneously in charge of two or three nurseries). There is only one teacher working in all the public crèches, who covers only five of the total of eleven crèches. Her activity is limited to one to one and a half hours once a week (between breakfast and lunch) with the children, and most of the time she has to develop and get herself the materials used for the activities. Although initially there were two educators, one of them left on maternity leave and regulations on the matter only allows for the hiring of one person when seven positions are vacant. The same thing is happening with the psychologist position, and although there are two of them in the organisation chart, only one is left, and the position cannot yet be filled. Although the number of children is increasing, the staff number is decreasing. This is also as a result of the scant resources allocated for early childhood education. Some of these nurseries manage to auto-administrate themselves and keep the fees extremely low for the parents. At the weekly nursery, most parents using it have two or three jobs, and are therefore unable to take the child home during the week. We have noticed several cases of neglect: children who stay with their parents for a week or two and return to the crèches are malnourished and less cared for than those who come regularly; twelve children have attention disorder and hyperactivity and need particular attention (which is extremely difficult when two nurses have to take care of twenty-six to thirty children at once); five children are autistic but the parents cannot afford to care for them at home or ABA therapy and they are integrated with the other children, creating frustration for children, parents and nurses. A totally opposed situation is seen at the private crèche where there are three mind developers taking care of ten children. The staff has academic training and at least five years of experience with young children. Given the fact that it has opened recently (September 2011), the number of children attending the private crèche is still low at ten, although the capacity is for thirty and the equipment corresponds to the early childhood standards stated in the Strategy for Early Childhood issued by the Ministry of Education, as well as international guidelines for early childhood development.

Conclusion Taking child rights seriously in the early years means understanding that there is no negotiation between a need-based approach and a right-based

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one, but the latter must be perceived as a means to achieve optimal development for the child. A rights-based approach is more appropriate for child development in the early years especially since it has more potential to ensure quality. According to Stainton Rogers (2004), it highlights the strengths unlike the needs approach, which relies on gap filling. There is a lack of perception in the early childhood institutions in the public sphere according to the preliminary results of this study, which can be explained by limited resources, low salaries and a lack of specific training and evaluation of the staff. Personal motivation for improvement is also unusually low, since the respondents argued that they do not have time to attend training courses and do not see the point of it: “for more than twenty years, we have cared for children in this institution and they turned out fine and healthy,” “it is too early to talk about the child’s rights at their age: they do not know what is right for them, sometimes even their parents do not.” The workers in institutions with children aged nought to three have a moral duty and a responsibility to respect and advantage child’s rights, ensure that the CRC is fully understood and that the services they provide correspond to the international standards of early childhood education and development. They must also be the first promoters for policy and curricula change. In conclusion, there is a need to extend the research in kindergartens with children aged two (a “baby class” or “pampers”) in order to get a third view on the implementation and understanding of children’s rights in the early years and compare the three approaches. In addition, further research will focus on developing a set of indicators for excellence in early childhood education and constructing a guide for child’s rights implementation in the early years based on the experience of early childhood education systems from other countries.

Acknowledgement This work was supported by the European Social Fund in Romania under the responsibility of the Managing Authority for the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007–2013 (grant POSDRU/107/1.5/S/78342).

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References EducaĠia timpurie în România [Early Education in Romania]. (2004). Bucureúti: Vanemonde. Freeman, M. (2000). “The Future of Children’s Rights.” Children and Society 14 (4): 277–293. —. (2007). “Why It Remains Important to Take Children’s Rights Seriously.” The International Journal of Children’s Rights 15 (1): 5– 23. Legea nr. 1 din 5 ianuarie 2011, Legea educaĠiei [Law no. 1 from January 5, 2011, Law of Education]. Mac Naughton, Glensa, Hughes, P. & Smith, Kylie. (2007). “Early Childhood Professionals and Children’s Rights: Tensions and Possibilities around the United Nations General Comment no. 7 on Children’s Rights.” International Journal of Early Years Education 15 (2): 161–170. Mayall, B. (2000). “The Sociology of Childhood in Relation to Children’s Rights.” The International Journal of Children’s Rights 8 (3): 243– 259. Stainton Rogers, Wendy. (2004). “Promoting Better Childhoods: Constructions of Child’s Concern.” In Mary Jane Kehily (Ed.), An Introduction to Childhood Studies. Maidenhead: Open University Press. 125–144. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2005). General Comment No. 7. Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/AdvanceVersions/Gene ralComment7Rev1.pdf. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm. Woodhead, M. (1998). “’Quality’ in Early Childhood Programmes: A Contextually Appropriate Approach.” International Journal of Early Years Education 6 (1): 5–17. —. (2004). “Foreword.” In Mary Jane Kehily (Ed.), An Introduction to Childhood Studies. Maidenhead: Open University Press. xi–xii. —. (2005). “Early Childhood Development: A Question of Rights.” International Journal of Early Childhood 37 (3): 79–98.

EFFECTS OF SCHOOL SUCCESS ON ADULTHOOD PROJECTS OF YOUNGSTERS BY THE END OF SCHOOLING MARIA ROTH, MIHAI-BOGDAN IOVU, ÁGNES KACSÓ-DÁVID, PAUL-TEODOR HĂRĂGUù, ANNA VINCZE, CSABA DÉGI, CORINA VOICU AND CRISTINA FALUDI

Introduction The study of adolescence as a preparation for adulthood has been a constant focus of social sciences from the beginning of the twentieth century. Theorists of adolescence such as Stanley Hall, Margaret Mead and Erik Erikson have looked at the developmental tasks of adolescents from a social perspective, trying to integrate the psychological and social aspects of this developmental stage. Following this and looking for complexity, there have been recently appeals to integrate individual and social variables. As recommended by the interactional-ecological life-span perspective, we explore how constellations of family-related, schoolrelated and mental health factors contribute to a successful transition from adolescence to young adulthood.

Theoretical Background Adolescence is viewed by Furstenberg (2002) as a life stage that, in our societies, is defined by full-time education as a primary activity of young people. It is a stage when youngsters prepare themselves for passing to the next, more autonomous stage. Traditionally, transitioning to adulthood is best described by graduation from school and preparing for a career and autonomous family life (Chisholm & Kovacheva 2002), but the narrowing opportunities due to economic depression, uncertainties of the job market

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and value conflicts in Romanian society affect adolescents’ chances and increase pressures on them. In their endeavour to find an integrative framework to study the transition to adulthood, Schoon et al. (2010) enumerate four main approaches: -

transactional theory, which takes into consideration a wide range of contextual-interactional influences upon human development Elder’s life course theory (1998), which introduces the notion of control cycles as links between macro-level events and changes at individual level Baltes’ theories (1997) on developmental regulation Eccles’ theory (2009) of fit of stage and environment.

For this study, we intend to adopt the transactional theory to look at the interrelations of school success, school adaptation, avoidance of trouble, family support and cohesion, as well as future orientation and optimism in final grade high-school students, surveyed at a critical moment of their schooling—a couple of weeks before their final high school exam. For our research, the theory of fit also seems relevant, as Eccles (2009) describes the importance of fitting into the environment by formulating ambitions, expectations and planning for the future based on individual factors as the capacity of recognizing and exercising their own competencies, interests, and values. The formulation of ambitions, aspirations, or life plans helps to direct and guide the transition from present to the future (Eccles 2009) The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between school success and expectations of graduating students regarding the traditional markers of adulthood: -

successful graduation from school engagement in long-term intimate relationship orientation towards a career.

Method In order to collect the opinion of young people stepping into adulthood, we addressed a survey to 940 students in their last grade of high-school, eighteen to twenty years of age (legally mature). Geographically, we surveyed youngsters from high schools in Bucharest and six of the fortyone counties of Romania, from different regions. Students were informed about free consent and we received 878 responses (covering 93.4% of the

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initial sample). From this pool, 52.7% were girls and 47.3% boys. The questionnaire we used is comprised of scales of the School Success Profile (SSP), a powerful and comprehensive assessment tool for middle- and high-school students, providing school, class and individual profiles of social and individual factors that influence school performance (Bowen, Rose & Bowen 2005; Hărăguú, Roth & Damean 2010). It comprises the scales for physical health, self-esteem, hope in the future, social support use, school adjustment, and grades). We also included the Illusory Optimism Scale (authored by Weinstein and adapted in Romania by A. Vincze in her doctoral thesis in 2011) for high-school students. Selfesteem was measured by SSP based on items of the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. The questionnaire also included the scale of Arnett, to study emerging adulthood. Our research instrument is anchored in the theoretical background of the interactional-ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci 1994) adapted for applied social sciences due to its value for child and adolescent research. The eco-interactional perspective considers well-adapted people to use their resources in order to cover their needs, and to function successfully (Bowen, Rose & Bowen 2005). Adaptation difficulties appear when there are discrepancies between the individuals’ resources and their needs, which often takes place in less predictable circumstances, like the proximity of transition out of school.

Results and Discussion Looking for indications that plans depend on the perceptions of final graders regarding the quality and problems faced during schooling, we considered the level of individual school adaptation as an independent variable and future expectations as dependent variable. The independent variables considered are trouble avoidance at school (measured by items which refer to appropriate behaviour at school) and value attributed to the school and the GPA (grade point average) in the last semester. Future expectations were measured in this study by four items from the illusory optimism scale (F16), measuring the chances the adolescents consider they have, when compared to others, of: -

not passing their final exam going to college finding a stable partner finding a very good job.

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Comparing the means for trouble avoidance and for valuing school, we did not find significant differences in the means of the same scales for the groups of students who do not want to continue their studies and those who are undecided (do not yet know). The values students attribute to school differs significantly between those who want to continue school and those who do not (p