George Andrei | Indiana University (original) (raw)

Papers by George Andrei

Journal of Romanian Studies, 2023

In the interwar period, forestry emerged as a powerful tool through which state institutions atte... more In the interwar period, forestry emerged as a powerful tool through which state institutions attempted to shape social and natural environments in rural Romania. This article evaluates how criminality, poverty, surveillance, exploitation, and labor intersected in Romania’s forests through the figure of the forest ranger, responsible for a range of tasks from managing forest ecology to serving as the state’s representative in the woodlands. Using a microhistorical approach, the article recounts the story of a Zlatna ranger investigated for theft in the late 1920s. His story and the individuals involved offer important insight into the asymmetrical power relations and local social factors that negotiated the forests’ legibility. Rangers served as part crucial asset, part embarrassing liability, existing in a liminal space between the state and local society. Through local forestry agents, their informal networks, and the “involuntary monitors” these invariably created, state forestry officials had valuable points of contact with rural society. This article demonstrates the value of rural perspectives in historical studies, challenging prevailing notions that conceptualize rural people as simple, irrelevant, or singlemindedly opposed to the encroachment of the modern state.

Balkanologie, 2021

This article examines the role of land reform and the implementation of forest regulation in rura... more This article examines the role of land reform and the implementation of forest regulation in rural alpine environments in interwar Romania. It contends that dissonance between bureaucracies led to a social and administrative environment of distrust that made forest use and ownership a topic of heated debate. Locals’ expectations of the 1921 land reforms were shaped by intra-bureaucratic strife and legal inconsistencies that banned them from traditional uses of their environments, especially pasturing livestock. The argument draws attention to the role of conflict within the state apparatus as a key factor in the application of policy.

Varia by George Andrei

Journal of Romanian Studies, 2023

In the interwar period, forestry emerged as a powerful tool through which state institutions atte... more In the interwar period, forestry emerged as a powerful tool through which state institutions attempted to shape social and natural environments in rural Romania. This article evaluates how criminality, poverty, surveillance, exploitation, and labor intersected in Romania’s forests through the figure of the forest ranger, responsible for a range of tasks from managing forest ecology to serving as the state’s representative in the woodlands. Using a microhistorical approach, the article recounts the story of a Zlatna ranger investigated for theft in the late 1920s. His story and the individuals involved offer important insight into the asymmetrical power relations and local social factors that negotiated the forests’ legibility. Rangers served as part crucial asset, part embarrassing liability, existing in a liminal space between the state and local society. Through local forestry agents, their informal networks, and the “involuntary monitors” these invariably created, state forestry officials had valuable points of contact with rural society. This article demonstrates the value of rural perspectives in historical studies, challenging prevailing notions that conceptualize rural people as simple, irrelevant, or singlemindedly opposed to the encroachment of the modern state.

Balkanologie, 2021

This article examines the role of land reform and the implementation of forest regulation in rura... more This article examines the role of land reform and the implementation of forest regulation in rural alpine environments in interwar Romania. It contends that dissonance between bureaucracies led to a social and administrative environment of distrust that made forest use and ownership a topic of heated debate. Locals’ expectations of the 1921 land reforms were shaped by intra-bureaucratic strife and legal inconsistencies that banned them from traditional uses of their environments, especially pasturing livestock. The argument draws attention to the role of conflict within the state apparatus as a key factor in the application of policy.