Marius Neacsu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Marius Neacsu

This study is a qualitative analysis of the tourism phenomenon, with respect to the circumstances... more This study is a qualitative analysis of the tourism phenomenon, with respect to the circumstances the geopolitical factor brings forth to it. Tourism is not only an economic activity, generally regarded as a services industry, but also an expression of individual freedom. What is the borderline where tourism, as a social phenomenon (a ?tourist tide? of over a billion people moves on the planet annually), and the power game that is confining the freedom of movement meet? Implosion of communism, expanding Euro-Atlantic structures, as a guarantee of the freedom of movement, the unique currency, elimination of visa for crossing the boards, were equally adjoined by geopolitically restrictive events: international terrorism enhancement (longer time spent into the security filter at airports), ?warning wars?, revolutions, kind like ?Arab Spring? (generating world touristic heritage damage and restrictions of freedom of movement) etc. Paradoxically, both factors - the global tourism as a ph...

The AMFITEATRU …, 2010

The purpose of this study is to initially identify, at an exploratory level, an immigration model... more The purpose of this study is to initially identify, at an exploratory level, an immigration model in Romania, with a special focus on economic immigration. It is well known that Romania, although source country, on our continent (Spain, Italy, Belgium, France etc.), as well as on the American (Canada, U.S.A) or the Australian one, with a negative migratory balance rate, after joining the European Union, it will become in the near future a destination country, especially for "economic immigrants". The natural population deficit with which Romania is currently confronted, the labour market imbalances (the low level of participation of the current population in the productive process and the high number of Romanians working abroad) and the experience of older European Union members support the idea. As such, the analysis of social and economical risks that rising immigration will bring on the Romanian society is rather interesting and the applicative uses reside in identifying risk management solutions, in the context of formulating specific policies for immigration management.

The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, 2016

This study represents an exploratory analysis of the evolution of the place branding concept, wit... more This study represents an exploratory analysis of the evolution of the place branding concept, with an important focus on the geographical perspective. How has this notion, a newcomer into the geographers' analysis, changed over time and what role does it have in the decision making process of intervening into the way a certain place is organised or as an instrument of economic revival and territorial development? At least from the perspective of Romanian geographical literature, the originality and novelty of this study is obvious. An element of the originality of this research is the attempt of redefining the concept of place branding so that it is more meaningful from the perspective of spatial analyses. The reason for which Waterloo was chosen as a case study is multi-dimensional: the case studies so far have mainly focused on large cities (urban branding instead of place branding) and this site has all the theoretical elements to create a stand-alone brand.

This study represents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Romanian tourism phenomenon ... more This study represents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Romanian tourism phenomenon that focuses on the current challenges to which it has to adapt in order to become competitive on the European market and to overcome its current stage of subsistence tourism. One of the selected criteria for highlighting the main dysfunctions of the Romanian tourism and that also represents the goal of this research is one of the indicators that quantify the annual flow of international tourists that come to Romania. In Romania`s post-communist economic development (a negative evolution, of course), tourism remains a real lever for national and regional economic development that can bring Romania numerous competitive advantages on the European Union market.

Advances in Spatial Planning, 2012

One of the fundamental realities that have marked mankind's existence on Earth is the urban reali... more One of the fundamental realities that have marked mankind's existence on Earth is the urban reality. Throughout the ages, in all geographic regions, the fascination of the city has set in motion people, resources, ideas, generating forces of unforeseen intensity that have continuously modelled the planet's surface. Invoked in lyrics, pinned in eternity-"I know: the city will be" (Russian poet Vladimir Maiakovski, 1893-1930)-, interrogated by sciences, object, subject and support of various professions, the city continuously challenged human knowledge. Virtually, there is no science that has not attempted to unravel its mysteries, either sequentially or wholly, without leaving behind concepts which later evolved into professions or academic disciplines. Over time, a strange blend of academic disciplines and professions accompanied the evolution of knowledge regarding the city and as the study's complexity increased these professions and disciplines also prospered. Theories and concepts have succeeded, gathered, refined, but some issues remained constant throughout generations of residents or various specialists: the urban space is much too complex, too vaguely defined, too hybridised, with a stunning mix of functionalities, polysemantic, with a much too confused image in its own residents' minds, with an many interests that must be mediated and problems to be managed. Dilemmas remain in this complexity of elements: quantitative or qualitative approach? System or phenomenon? Reality or image? Are residents prisoners of the urban habitat or beneficiaries that actively take part in the urban planning and re-planning? How can we fully and sufficiently address such a complex set of issues? In the end, all these should serve one philosophy: the city must be a good place to live and work in. But how can we measure the impact the intervention in the city's quantitative dimension (elements, flows, shapes) is going to have on the residents' spatial behaviour and attitude?; how can we use the residents' perception-"the mental city"-in planning the future ways of urban space organisation? This study aims to: 1. Emphasize geography's role as a science in the integrated approach of spatial manifestation phenomenon and processes-geography is, first of all, the science of places (with all that a place's spatial reality means; the city is a place!) and 2. Identify and test the role that www.intechopen.com Advances in Spatial Planning 248 city image can play in the process or urban space organisation and in a broader scope, in the integrated process of urban planning. It is the intrinsic need of today: the integrated approach of the concepts that operate in the urban space, concepts which although make the object of study for various social sciences or their branches in areas such as economy (e.g. urban marketing and branding), town-planning (urban design), sociology (urban segregation) or urban psychology (urban behaviourism), target, above all else, processes with a spatial/territorial manifestation. In this spirit, geography's participative-constructive role becomes obvious for at least two reasons: 1. most of the processes and phenomenon that are part of the approach to city issues have a spatial character and space is one of the essential variables in socio-human systems (from economic activities to matters of sociology and psychology); 2.this science has specialised, over the course of the last decades, in microscale spatial analyses (neighbourhood, city etc.). It is thus felt the dire need of identifying an operational instrument to mediate all these urban space approaches and that would provide a link between the residents, the urban planners, the urban subspaces "producers" (economic entities etc.), specialists, theoreticians, in other words an instrument that would connect all interests... Over the course of time, the city "belonged", more or less discretionary, to one category, but never to all categories at the same time. But which would be the instrument that could provide the link between spatial reality and human will, between urban actors and their interests, between the city-system and the city-phenomenon, between function and meaning...? One possible answer: city image. And there is another thing: globalisation. Globalisation catalysed to an unprecedented intensity both the processes and their phenomenology. Today's cities are being restructured according to new rules and forces, overcoming national borders. The city of the present competes both for attracting new residents and for retaining its old ones with cities all across the planet, aiming to increase the standard of life it offers, imprinting a way of life that would distinguish it from the other cities, a way of life that is essentialised and synthesised in an image that would impress in the residents' minds. It is that city's brand, its "signature", a guarantee of quality and added value to the offered conditions of life. It is the image being sold and that can currently determine its place in the global hierarchy. It is a set of symbols in which the residents can identify themselves. We currently live a genuine image myth. Nothing sells better than image and it has some unsuspected resorts in stimulating decision... All our pieces of information are included in images, as our emotions and feelings likewise, we sell and we buy images, we are worshipers of the image cult. The aim of this study, as stated above, also substantiates the topicality of the research, even the scientific freshness, analysing the city image and integrating it into a specific conceptual context (its relation with other operational concepts from the urban sphere such as urban planning and urban design, with urban marketing and branding) individualising a complex approach from multiple perspectives-urban-sociologic-economic-, while using a geographic (integrating) thought process. From the science of places (the science of [geographic] space) to the science of planning and creating the place (space). www.intechopen.com City Image-Operational Instrument in Urban Space Management-A Romanian Sample 249 2. Urban space-Elementary operational entity in analysing regional planning Space, geographic space, urban space. Concepts, semantics, approach Starting from one of the questions of this research-what role could geography, as a science, play in organising urban space and which could be the practical valences with which a geographer could take part in a mixed team of specialists that would plan a model of organising urban space?-, we immediately have the opportunity to identify some viable answers. And these could be synthesised as such: understanding space (metabolism, phenomenology) and using an integrated approach for it. Above all else the city represents "an objective form of existence of a human community on Earth" (Neacşu, 2010a), a highly anthropic "piece" of space resulted and modelled in time by the action of all the geospheres (with a clear dominance of the anthropic or socio-sphere component). The city occupies a concrete space, precisely located, visible through its morphology and componentsurban landscape-, is the result of the corroboration and interaction of several geographic conditionsurban environment-, it acts and functions as an optimally open thermodynamic and informational system, with a dissipative structure (Ianoş, 2000)urban system-, it represents such a specific way of life that it influences attitudes, behaviours, ideas and value systems becoming a true phenomenonthe urban phenomenon-, generating through its dynamic countless new urban subspaces. Even though there are some answers, the city still remains sufficiently complex and complicated, with a larger number of unknowns than known (sort of a "grey box"), which trouble urban spaces specialists and managers, still being too difficult to answer questions such as: but, still, what is the city? How can we control it? A true methodological and semantic thicket has accompanied, over time, analytic studies of urban space, so defined and yet without definition, so clarified to the smallest of details and yet obscure from an analytic point of view, the city is in every époque, for every generation of specialists, always surprising and seeming to increasingly sediment the idea that a city is more auto-organising itself than it can be organised, managed.

www.amfiteatrueconomic.ro, Nov 1, 2018

This study captures the new context of contemporary tourism activity developing within the emerge... more This study captures the new context of contemporary tourism activity developing within the emergence of geopolitical risks. Tourism, an expression of freedom, has become more and more conditioned by geopolitics, thus by power manifestation in the sense of freedom being limited. Therefore, this study is an exploratory analysis meant to identify the impact of geopolitical risks on tourism activities.

This study is a qualitative analysis of the tourism phenomenon, with respect to the circumstances... more This study is a qualitative analysis of the tourism phenomenon, with respect to the circumstances the geopolitical factor brings forth to it. Tourism is not only an economic activity, generally regarded as a services industry, but also an expression of individual freedom. What is the borderline where tourism, as a social phenomenon (a ?tourist tide? of over a billion people moves on the planet annually), and the power game that is confining the freedom of movement meet? Implosion of communism, expanding Euro-Atlantic structures, as a guarantee of the freedom of movement, the unique currency, elimination of visa for crossing the boards, were equally adjoined by geopolitically restrictive events: international terrorism enhancement (longer time spent into the security filter at airports), ?warning wars?, revolutions, kind like ?Arab Spring? (generating world touristic heritage damage and restrictions of freedom of movement) etc. Paradoxically, both factors - the global tourism as a ph...

The AMFITEATRU …, 2010

The purpose of this study is to initially identify, at an exploratory level, an immigration model... more The purpose of this study is to initially identify, at an exploratory level, an immigration model in Romania, with a special focus on economic immigration. It is well known that Romania, although source country, on our continent (Spain, Italy, Belgium, France etc.), as well as on the American (Canada, U.S.A) or the Australian one, with a negative migratory balance rate, after joining the European Union, it will become in the near future a destination country, especially for "economic immigrants". The natural population deficit with which Romania is currently confronted, the labour market imbalances (the low level of participation of the current population in the productive process and the high number of Romanians working abroad) and the experience of older European Union members support the idea. As such, the analysis of social and economical risks that rising immigration will bring on the Romanian society is rather interesting and the applicative uses reside in identifying risk management solutions, in the context of formulating specific policies for immigration management.

The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, 2016

This study represents an exploratory analysis of the evolution of the place branding concept, wit... more This study represents an exploratory analysis of the evolution of the place branding concept, with an important focus on the geographical perspective. How has this notion, a newcomer into the geographers' analysis, changed over time and what role does it have in the decision making process of intervening into the way a certain place is organised or as an instrument of economic revival and territorial development? At least from the perspective of Romanian geographical literature, the originality and novelty of this study is obvious. An element of the originality of this research is the attempt of redefining the concept of place branding so that it is more meaningful from the perspective of spatial analyses. The reason for which Waterloo was chosen as a case study is multi-dimensional: the case studies so far have mainly focused on large cities (urban branding instead of place branding) and this site has all the theoretical elements to create a stand-alone brand.

This study represents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Romanian tourism phenomenon ... more This study represents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Romanian tourism phenomenon that focuses on the current challenges to which it has to adapt in order to become competitive on the European market and to overcome its current stage of subsistence tourism. One of the selected criteria for highlighting the main dysfunctions of the Romanian tourism and that also represents the goal of this research is one of the indicators that quantify the annual flow of international tourists that come to Romania. In Romania`s post-communist economic development (a negative evolution, of course), tourism remains a real lever for national and regional economic development that can bring Romania numerous competitive advantages on the European Union market.

Advances in Spatial Planning, 2012

One of the fundamental realities that have marked mankind's existence on Earth is the urban reali... more One of the fundamental realities that have marked mankind's existence on Earth is the urban reality. Throughout the ages, in all geographic regions, the fascination of the city has set in motion people, resources, ideas, generating forces of unforeseen intensity that have continuously modelled the planet's surface. Invoked in lyrics, pinned in eternity-"I know: the city will be" (Russian poet Vladimir Maiakovski, 1893-1930)-, interrogated by sciences, object, subject and support of various professions, the city continuously challenged human knowledge. Virtually, there is no science that has not attempted to unravel its mysteries, either sequentially or wholly, without leaving behind concepts which later evolved into professions or academic disciplines. Over time, a strange blend of academic disciplines and professions accompanied the evolution of knowledge regarding the city and as the study's complexity increased these professions and disciplines also prospered. Theories and concepts have succeeded, gathered, refined, but some issues remained constant throughout generations of residents or various specialists: the urban space is much too complex, too vaguely defined, too hybridised, with a stunning mix of functionalities, polysemantic, with a much too confused image in its own residents' minds, with an many interests that must be mediated and problems to be managed. Dilemmas remain in this complexity of elements: quantitative or qualitative approach? System or phenomenon? Reality or image? Are residents prisoners of the urban habitat or beneficiaries that actively take part in the urban planning and re-planning? How can we fully and sufficiently address such a complex set of issues? In the end, all these should serve one philosophy: the city must be a good place to live and work in. But how can we measure the impact the intervention in the city's quantitative dimension (elements, flows, shapes) is going to have on the residents' spatial behaviour and attitude?; how can we use the residents' perception-"the mental city"-in planning the future ways of urban space organisation? This study aims to: 1. Emphasize geography's role as a science in the integrated approach of spatial manifestation phenomenon and processes-geography is, first of all, the science of places (with all that a place's spatial reality means; the city is a place!) and 2. Identify and test the role that www.intechopen.com Advances in Spatial Planning 248 city image can play in the process or urban space organisation and in a broader scope, in the integrated process of urban planning. It is the intrinsic need of today: the integrated approach of the concepts that operate in the urban space, concepts which although make the object of study for various social sciences or their branches in areas such as economy (e.g. urban marketing and branding), town-planning (urban design), sociology (urban segregation) or urban psychology (urban behaviourism), target, above all else, processes with a spatial/territorial manifestation. In this spirit, geography's participative-constructive role becomes obvious for at least two reasons: 1. most of the processes and phenomenon that are part of the approach to city issues have a spatial character and space is one of the essential variables in socio-human systems (from economic activities to matters of sociology and psychology); 2.this science has specialised, over the course of the last decades, in microscale spatial analyses (neighbourhood, city etc.). It is thus felt the dire need of identifying an operational instrument to mediate all these urban space approaches and that would provide a link between the residents, the urban planners, the urban subspaces "producers" (economic entities etc.), specialists, theoreticians, in other words an instrument that would connect all interests... Over the course of time, the city "belonged", more or less discretionary, to one category, but never to all categories at the same time. But which would be the instrument that could provide the link between spatial reality and human will, between urban actors and their interests, between the city-system and the city-phenomenon, between function and meaning...? One possible answer: city image. And there is another thing: globalisation. Globalisation catalysed to an unprecedented intensity both the processes and their phenomenology. Today's cities are being restructured according to new rules and forces, overcoming national borders. The city of the present competes both for attracting new residents and for retaining its old ones with cities all across the planet, aiming to increase the standard of life it offers, imprinting a way of life that would distinguish it from the other cities, a way of life that is essentialised and synthesised in an image that would impress in the residents' minds. It is that city's brand, its "signature", a guarantee of quality and added value to the offered conditions of life. It is the image being sold and that can currently determine its place in the global hierarchy. It is a set of symbols in which the residents can identify themselves. We currently live a genuine image myth. Nothing sells better than image and it has some unsuspected resorts in stimulating decision... All our pieces of information are included in images, as our emotions and feelings likewise, we sell and we buy images, we are worshipers of the image cult. The aim of this study, as stated above, also substantiates the topicality of the research, even the scientific freshness, analysing the city image and integrating it into a specific conceptual context (its relation with other operational concepts from the urban sphere such as urban planning and urban design, with urban marketing and branding) individualising a complex approach from multiple perspectives-urban-sociologic-economic-, while using a geographic (integrating) thought process. From the science of places (the science of [geographic] space) to the science of planning and creating the place (space). www.intechopen.com City Image-Operational Instrument in Urban Space Management-A Romanian Sample 249 2. Urban space-Elementary operational entity in analysing regional planning Space, geographic space, urban space. Concepts, semantics, approach Starting from one of the questions of this research-what role could geography, as a science, play in organising urban space and which could be the practical valences with which a geographer could take part in a mixed team of specialists that would plan a model of organising urban space?-, we immediately have the opportunity to identify some viable answers. And these could be synthesised as such: understanding space (metabolism, phenomenology) and using an integrated approach for it. Above all else the city represents "an objective form of existence of a human community on Earth" (Neacşu, 2010a), a highly anthropic "piece" of space resulted and modelled in time by the action of all the geospheres (with a clear dominance of the anthropic or socio-sphere component). The city occupies a concrete space, precisely located, visible through its morphology and componentsurban landscape-, is the result of the corroboration and interaction of several geographic conditionsurban environment-, it acts and functions as an optimally open thermodynamic and informational system, with a dissipative structure (Ianoş, 2000)urban system-, it represents such a specific way of life that it influences attitudes, behaviours, ideas and value systems becoming a true phenomenonthe urban phenomenon-, generating through its dynamic countless new urban subspaces. Even though there are some answers, the city still remains sufficiently complex and complicated, with a larger number of unknowns than known (sort of a "grey box"), which trouble urban spaces specialists and managers, still being too difficult to answer questions such as: but, still, what is the city? How can we control it? A true methodological and semantic thicket has accompanied, over time, analytic studies of urban space, so defined and yet without definition, so clarified to the smallest of details and yet obscure from an analytic point of view, the city is in every époque, for every generation of specialists, always surprising and seeming to increasingly sediment the idea that a city is more auto-organising itself than it can be organised, managed.

www.amfiteatrueconomic.ro, Nov 1, 2018

This study captures the new context of contemporary tourism activity developing within the emerge... more This study captures the new context of contemporary tourism activity developing within the emergence of geopolitical risks. Tourism, an expression of freedom, has become more and more conditioned by geopolitics, thus by power manifestation in the sense of freedom being limited. Therefore, this study is an exploratory analysis meant to identify the impact of geopolitical risks on tourism activities.