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Papers by Remus Creţan

Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2022

Geographers have studied memory for decades, but there is currently a renewed interest in places ... more Geographers have studied memory for decades, but there is currently a renewed interest in places of postmemory: sites to which memories of a past are connected, that engage those who have no living memory of the past in question. By combining a process-tracing approach to several post-communist surveys with in-depth interviews with members of the younger generation about their postmemories of the communist past, this paper explores places associated with postmemories of communism amongst young people in contemporary Romania, focusing on two types of place: (1) mega-constructions, prisons and deportation sites; and (2) sites connected to everyday life (home, shops, hospitals). The findings suggest that “postmemories in places” are reproduced and co-produced by younger people in a nuanced and complex way. Spatial postmemories of communism are not simply formed by parental or grandparental experiences of communism itself, but are also shaped by experiences of the initial post-communist period. Younger people’s complex range of “postmemories in places” towards the communist past are politically multivalent: postmemory of specific sites related to the cultural welfare of the communist past did not necessarily indicate a political commitment to its restoration amongst interviewees; and postmemories of political violence associated with particular sites did not preclude unilateral pride in national achievements prior to 1989. Furthermore, “postmemory in place” is not a passive process, but one that is shaped by both a critical attitude to the responses of older generations towards particular places, and the challenges of the capitalist present.

Geographica Pannonica, 2021

Many Central and Eastern European countries elected nationalist parties after the collapse of com... more Many Central and Eastern European countries elected nationalist parties after the collapse of communism: a phenomenon often attributed to a combination of socioeconomic crisis and political instability. In 2010s, after the decay of other nationalist parties, Romania was seen as an exception to this rule, but the Covid-19 pandemic times have witnessed the rapid rise of a new nationalist party: the AUR (the Alliance for the Union of Romanians). Parliamentary elections in December 2020 saw this new political force gain 9.1% of the vote. Whereas previous nationalist parties in post-Communist Romania tended to appeal to more senior/elderly voters, there is evidence that the AUR vote is strong amongst men under the age of 35 who are educated to an elementary or high school level. This paper uses national electoral data, media analysis, and in-depth interviews with young, educated people to explore the spatial distribution of AUR support, the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has assisted the party's rise to prominence, and attitudes amongst university students to both the style and content of their politics. The paper concludes that the AUR offer a potent mix of old nationalism, religious faith, traditional family values and new ideological elements, such as environmentalism, anti-globalization, and anti-government critique to create a self-consciously 'alternative' political rhetoric. This is presented via new channels (especially social media) in a deliberately opportunistic, controversial, and spectacular manner. However, our investigation suggests that neither the content nor the style of this politics has widespread appeal among the more educated younger participants to the interview.

Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power , 2021

The issue of otherness in the social construction of ethnicities and ruralm... more The issue of otherness in the social construction of ethnicities and ruralmulticulturalism has long attracted the attention of scholars. By following a postcolonialbackground, this paper investigates the social construction of Roma as ‘other’ in a multiculturallandscape (the Romania-Serbia border) using interviews with participants of different ethnicgroups. This paper addresses the following questions: (i) Is the Roma population in this areacompletely spatially segregated (or are settlement patterns more complex than this, with a greaterdegree of social mixing)? (ii) How do different kinds of prejudice against Roma operate withinthis multicultural context? (iii) How does discrimination against the Roma interface with powerrelations, in particular political power in the area? The findings indicate that, alongside ethno-nationalist racism, Roma face prejudice from apparently more ‘progressive’ groups, who acceptmulticulturalism, yet blame the Roma for their own disadvantaged social and economic positionon the grounds of a failure to integrate that is pictured as ‘backward’. We therefore conclude bycalling for an enhanced and radical pluralism to combat the vilification of rural Roma

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2022

Roma discrimination and stigmatization in Europe are well-documented with urban scholars emphasiz... more Roma discrimination and stigmatization in Europe are well-documented with urban scholars emphasizing pervasive prejudices and stereotypes alongside negative policy outcomes. However, the focus on Roma marginality has tended to centre on punitive state and urban governance to the neglect of everyday urban relations. This article focuses on the micro manifestations of stigmatization – racialized urban encounters – and their neglected longer-term affects for Roma in Czechia and Romania. Ethnographic research and in-depth qualitative interviews with Roma expose a complex, dynamic and multi-layered response to stigmatization that challenges the simplistic binary of resistance versus the internalization of stigma. The concept of fragmented habitus is deployed in capturing this dynamic process and nuancing the urban inhabitation of a long-term stigmatized and racialized position, beyond generic “Otherness”. We argue for more attention to the specificities and complexities of everyday relations and their affects in capturing the interdependence between urban encounters, the longer-term construction of Roma inferiority, and the heterogeneous, dynamic and ambivalent ways in which Roma inhabit their racialized urban position.

Eurasian Geography and Economics, 2018

Many states in post-communist East-Central Europe have established memorial museums which aim to ... more Many states in post-communist East-Central Europe have established memorial museums which aim to tell the story of suffering under the communist regime. They also seek to encourage visitors to develop empathy for the victims of communist repression. This paper explores the responses of a group of young people to a memorial museum in Romania (Sighet Memorial Museum), focusing on how these visitors experienced empathy for the victims of communist-era violence. Data were collected using focus groups. Most participants showed a degree of empathy for the victims of suffering but this was usually shallow in nature. However some visitors displayed more “active” empathy (characterized by deeper imaginative and cognitive engagement). The paper explores how both the design and environment of the museum and the background experiences of visitors influenced the development of empathy. It argues that empathy is not an automatic response to suffering and instead can be considered as an interaction between the design of the museum and the background knowledge of visitors. The paper argues that empathy is an important means for young people to participate in remembering the communist period, and is a means to make “prosthetic” memories of an authoritarian past which they have not experienced first-hand.

AREA - preprint version, 2018

Post-socialist memories recalling the communist past in Central and Eastern Europe have risen to ... more Post-socialist memories recalling the communist past in Central and
Eastern Europe have risen to importance in recent decades, but there is
still a scarcity of literature dealing with the post-socialist ‘post-memory’. By adapting a social-spatial narrative methodology to memory studies and by promoting the current theories on the spatial politics of (intergenerational) memory in general and more specifically on the post-socialist memory formation, this paper aims to highlight the nature of memory, how intergenerational shaping of memory happens and the implications of these memories for understanding post-socialist memory creation through an understanding of how people’s personal connections (attachment) to place serve as the basis of intergenerational memory transmission. To set the scene, between 1966 and 1972, in alignment with the Stalinist principles of Soviet electrification, Romania and Yugoslavia completed the construction
of one of the largest hydroelectric plants in Europe—the Iron Gates—on the Danube. Although the flooding of the settlements that were in the way of this project involved the destruction of property representing local cultural heritage, the dominant place-based memories are those related to trauma and personal attachment to (materially gone) places. The shaping of memories for the post-socialist generation is the foundation of people’s difficulty in adapting to a market economy and the capitalist state. However, while the home becomes a locus for memory transmission between generations, post-memories are 'summarised' through certain key traumatic events. The implications of the creation of these memories are significant for understanding post-socialist memory formation because post-socialist remembrance of communism is bottom-up, rooted in local events and grounded in place. Finally, in the context of claiming retroactive justice in contemporary Romanian politics, tensions between those manifesting counter-memories (i.e. memories that challenge state-led actions) and those with memories that reveal people’s pride for the engineering achievements bring out the complex nature of these memories.

Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft, 2009

Air transport has been one of the most dynamic branches of the Romanian economy in recent years. ... more Air transport has been one of the most dynamic branches of the Romanian economy in recent years. After slow progress in the 1990s when there were many years of negative economic growth, the years of relative prosperity in the run-up to EU accession in 2007 have boosted passenger numbers, along with the availability of economy fares linked with the rise of low-cost airlines. The paper provides first an introduction to Romanian aviation and proceeds with a review of developments for both airlines and airports. Romania has been scoring notable successes with the rise of successful private companies (e.g. Blue Air and Carpatair), while the leading regional airports are fully matching the dynamism of Bucharest in terms of passenger numbers and improved facilities. However, the performance of the regional airports is uneven due to the intensity of competition within ‘multi-airport regions’ which seems likely to intensify in future as new airports come on stream. The paper examines the situation in the Romanian West Region and demonstrates that competition must be seen in a cross-border context there; taking note of facilities in both Hungary and Serbia, where the respective capitals are much closer to the West Region than the Romanian capital Bucharest.
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From Carasovan to Croat: The 'ethnic enigma' of a (re)invented identity in Romania

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Aug 20, 2014

"This article discusses a unique case in recent Romanian history of an identity shift from Caras... more "This article discusses a unique case in recent Romanian history of an identity shift from Carasovans to Croats and the complex socio-political context which made it possible. Given their debated ethnic origins, the identity of Carasovans is considered an “ethnic enigma”. The aim of our research is to offer a critical interpretation of the dynamics of ethnic identification of the Carasovans. In particular, we discuss the processes of national and ethnic identification in order to reveal how the Carasovan community was recently reinvented along the lines of the Croat identity. In close connection to these processes, the paper examines the political, economic and cultural elements involved in the dynamics of Carasovan’s self-identification.

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Book Reviews by Remus Creţan