Irina Velicu
Biographic Data
| ID | 281398 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Irina Velicu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Irina |
| FAMILY NAME | Velicu |
| SIGNATURE | VELICU I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Coimbra |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5942-4156 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 192 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Roma, the Convenient Scapegoat. Intersectional Perspectives on Environmental Justice in Romania
Roma communities in Romania are systematically exposed to environmental hazards due to extractive and industrial practices that deepen structural violence and historical racial inequalities. The resulting territorial stigmatization deeply affects Roma’s relation with the environment, community, culture and identity. Although recent debates in the environmental justice (EJ) literature have emphasized the need for a deeper intersectional approach t…
Insidious Whiteness in Eastern Europe: Environmental Injustice and Dehumanisation in a Roma Community
Even in Eastern Europe, whiteness organises space, race, class and environmental justice research. Inspired by whiteness theory, we draw on a case of environmental injustice affecting the Roma community of Dăroaia—a segregated neighbourhood in Roșia Montană—in the context of the mining conflict over the eponymous gold mine. We analyse how whiteness as ‘gadjoness’ dehumanises Roma communities through institutionalised mundane practices of spatial …
Between academic dependency and epistemic marginalization: A systematic literature review of environmental justice in post-socialist Eastern Europe
This paper explores the academic conceptualization of environmental justice (EJ) in post-socialist Eastern Europe (EE) through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 106 peer-reviewed articles from the early 1990s to 2024. The study focuses on two main directions. First, we examined knowledge production and found that EJ scholarship in EE only gained significant attention after the EU accession of countries in the region. Additionally, research …
Violence hidden in plain sight: Pin-prick land grabbing in Romania
The post-socialist transition in Romania has materialised in myriad factors that slowly eroded the capacity for social reproduction of rural populations. Using the concept of pin-prick land grabbing, this article draws attention to how, against the backdrop of loss of rural social fabric, unequal power dynamics among different stakeholders have led to small-scale land disputes and normalisation of extractive violence, which eventually facilitated…
The insidious toxicity of investor-state arbitration Gabriel Resources vs Romania
Looking at the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) case ‘Gabriel Resources vs Romania’, this paper documents the intangible losses, the chronic stress, and the damaged dignity of communities having to defend their livelihoods in the long-term ongoing conflicts over mineral resources. We expand the concept of environmental injustice as an ‘insidious’ form of toxicity ‘poisoning’ bodies even before chemical contamination, where the threat of I…
It's a Gender Issue’: Women Farmers in Community‐Supported Agriculture
This paper delves into the experiences of new‐entrant women farmers in creating leadership roles in community‐supported agriculture (CSA) and how these experiences relate to the transformative potential of this agri‐food model. It contributes to the literature on gender relations in CSA and agri‐food transformation more broadly by offering new insights into disidentification from the traditional ‘woman farmer’ identity prescribed by capitalist ag…
Rural Eco-Grief: Insights from Portugal and Romania
We grow earth: Performing eco-agrarian citizenship at the semi-periphery of Europe
Peasant studies have long demonstrated the historical contribution of peasants to the stewardship of earth’s commons. We enter the debate on ecological citizenship through a concern for environmental and food justice/sovereignty, two scholarly fields that have rarely been connected despite their theoretical complementarity. We argue that peasants have historically acted as eco-citizens, even if they still have to reclaim their political status as…
We are the limitś performing climate justice commoning in the Czech Klimakemp
Quiet no more: The emergence of food justice and sovereignty in Romania
Splitting Urban Waters: The Politicisation of Water in Barcelona between Populism and Anti‐Populism
The current literature on remunicipalisation is focused either on theoretical concepts (e.g. right to the city, commons, return of the political) or on the “insurgent” actors involved in this process, overlooking the counter‐politicisation of the economic agents and the resulting struggles for power and legitimation. This paper examines, by means of an interpretative qualitative methodology and by critically engaging with Ernesto Laclau’s approac…
Prospective environmental injustice: Insights from anti-mining struggles in Romania and Bulgaria
The concept of prospective environmental (in)justice (PEJ) is proposed to make sense of situations in which development proposals and the actions of state and market actors create injustices even before the development projects become a material reality. Through this concept and its application to two cases of opencast gold-mining, a broader conceptualization of socio-environmental (in)justice is invited that considers multiple forms of injustice…
De-growing environmental justice: Reflections from anti-mining movements in Eastern Europe
Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
In this paper we propose an 'undisciplinary' meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler's theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom's 'bounded rationality' to Butler's concepts of 'bounded selves' and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded - as opposed to autonomous being - implies being an (ambi…
Capital Accumulation, Hegemony and Socio-ecological Struggles: Insights from the Entitle Project
This special issue presents findings and reflections of scholars who participated in the European Network of Political Ecology (ENTITLE). By mobilising conceptual frameworks from several strands of Marxist and post-structuralist theory—and empirically engaging with a range of historico-geographical processes—the articles in this issue contribute to debates in political ecology in two main ways. First, they critically analyse the political economy…
Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico
Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enac…
Demonizing the Sensible and the ‘Revolution of Our Generation’ in Rosia Montana
‘Save Rosia Montana’ is an emblematic socio-ecological movement in post-communist Romania. It started in 2000 as a local reaction against what was projected to be the largest open-cast gold mine in Europe; it has gradually grown into a national movement with global networking. Activists have been consistently accused of acting under the impulse of an emotional luggage which could function as an impediment to understanding the ‘real’ issue, that o…
Undoing environmental justice: Re-imagining equality in the Rosia Montana anti-mining movement
Moral versus Commercial Economies: Transylvanian Stories
Historically, the production of a market society has depended on the commodification of valuables such as land and labour, which has also meant the disembedding of capital from elements of the “primordial,” such as kinship, spiritual relations, and identities. Today we are still witnessing the invocation of such elements of moral economies as a basis for people’s collective mobilization against market pressures. The case study in this article ref…
The Aesthetic Post-Communist Subject and the Differend of Rosia Montana
By challenging the state and corporate prerogatives to distinguish between “good” and “bad” development, social movements by and in support of inhabitants of Rosia Montana (Transylvania) are subverting prevailing perceptions about Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)’s liberal path of development illustrating its injustice in several ways that will be detailed in this article under the heading “inhibitions of political economy” or Balkanism. The sign…
To Sell or Not to Sell: Landscapes of Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization in Transylvania
What can resistance to corporate globalization mean for post-socialist citizens? This article examines the case of Rosia Montana in Transylvania to answer this question. One of the mining places in Transylvania that sits on gold and other metals, Rosia is a semi-urban village and the oldest documented community in Romania. After 1989, its resources made it appealing to a mining corporation interested in developing the largest open-cast cyanide le…
Undoing environmental justice: Re-imagining equality in the Rosia Montana anti-mining movement
Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
In this paper we propose an 'undisciplinary' meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler's theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom's 'bounded rationality' to Butler's concepts of 'bounded selves' and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded - as opposed to autonomous being - implies being an (ambi…
Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico
Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enac…
Demonizing the Sensible and the ‘Revolution of Our Generation’ in Rosia Montana
‘Save Rosia Montana’ is an emblematic socio-ecological movement in post-communist Romania. It started in 2000 as a local reaction against what was projected to be the largest open-cast gold mine in Europe; it has gradually grown into a national movement with global networking. Activists have been consistently accused of acting under the impulse of an emotional luggage which could function as an impediment to understanding the ‘real’ issue, that o…
We are the limitś performing climate justice commoning in the Czech Klimakemp
Moral versus Commercial Economies: Transylvanian Stories
Historically, the production of a market society has depended on the commodification of valuables such as land and labour, which has also meant the disembedding of capital from elements of the “primordial,” such as kinship, spiritual relations, and identities. Today we are still witnessing the invocation of such elements of moral economies as a basis for people’s collective mobilization against market pressures. The case study in this article ref…
Splitting Urban Waters: The Politicisation of Water in Barcelona between Populism and Anti‐Populism
The current literature on remunicipalisation is focused either on theoretical concepts (e.g. right to the city, commons, return of the political) or on the “insurgent” actors involved in this process, overlooking the counter‐politicisation of the economic agents and the resulting struggles for power and legitimation. This paper examines, by means of an interpretative qualitative methodology and by critically engaging with Ernesto Laclau’s approac…
To Sell or Not to Sell: Landscapes of Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization in Transylvania
What can resistance to corporate globalization mean for post-socialist citizens? This article examines the case of Rosia Montana in Transylvania to answer this question. One of the mining places in Transylvania that sits on gold and other metals, Rosia is a semi-urban village and the oldest documented community in Romania. After 1989, its resources made it appealing to a mining corporation interested in developing the largest open-cast cyanide le…
Quiet no more: The emergence of food justice and sovereignty in Romania
Prospective environmental injustice: Insights from anti-mining struggles in Romania and Bulgaria
The concept of prospective environmental (in)justice (PEJ) is proposed to make sense of situations in which development proposals and the actions of state and market actors create injustices even before the development projects become a material reality. Through this concept and its application to two cases of opencast gold-mining, a broader conceptualization of socio-environmental (in)justice is invited that considers multiple forms of injustice…
Capital Accumulation, Hegemony and Socio-ecological Struggles: Insights from the Entitle Project
This special issue presents findings and reflections of scholars who participated in the European Network of Political Ecology (ENTITLE). By mobilising conceptual frameworks from several strands of Marxist and post-structuralist theory—and empirically engaging with a range of historico-geographical processes—the articles in this issue contribute to debates in political ecology in two main ways. First, they critically analyse the political economy…
The Aesthetic Post-Communist Subject and the Differend of Rosia Montana
By challenging the state and corporate prerogatives to distinguish between “good” and “bad” development, social movements by and in support of inhabitants of Rosia Montana (Transylvania) are subverting prevailing perceptions about Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)’s liberal path of development illustrating its injustice in several ways that will be detailed in this article under the heading “inhibitions of political economy” or Balkanism. The sign…
We grow earth: Performing eco-agrarian citizenship at the semi-periphery of Europe
Peasant studies have long demonstrated the historical contribution of peasants to the stewardship of earth’s commons. We enter the debate on ecological citizenship through a concern for environmental and food justice/sovereignty, two scholarly fields that have rarely been connected despite their theoretical complementarity. We argue that peasants have historically acted as eco-citizens, even if they still have to reclaim their political status as…
The Aesthetic Post-Communist Subject and the Differend of Rosia Montana
By challenging the state and corporate prerogatives to distinguish between “good” and “bad” development, social movements by and in support of inhabitants of Rosia Montana (Transylvania) are subverting prevailing perceptions about Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)’s liberal path of development illustrating its injustice in several ways that will be detailed in this article under the heading “inhibitions of political economy” or Balkanism. The sign…
To Sell or Not to Sell: Landscapes of Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization in Transylvania
What can resistance to corporate globalization mean for post-socialist citizens? This article examines the case of Rosia Montana in Transylvania to answer this question. One of the mining places in Transylvania that sits on gold and other metals, Rosia is a semi-urban village and the oldest documented community in Romania. After 1989, its resources made it appealing to a mining corporation interested in developing the largest open-cast cyanide le…
Moral versus Commercial Economies: Transylvanian Stories
Historically, the production of a market society has depended on the commodification of valuables such as land and labour, which has also meant the disembedding of capital from elements of the “primordial,” such as kinship, spiritual relations, and identities. Today we are still witnessing the invocation of such elements of moral economies as a basis for people’s collective mobilization against market pressures. The case study in this article ref…
Demonizing the Sensible and the ‘Revolution of Our Generation’ in Rosia Montana
‘Save Rosia Montana’ is an emblematic socio-ecological movement in post-communist Romania. It started in 2000 as a local reaction against what was projected to be the largest open-cast gold mine in Europe; it has gradually grown into a national movement with global networking. Activists have been consistently accused of acting under the impulse of an emotional luggage which could function as an impediment to understanding the ‘real’ issue, that o…
Undoing environmental justice: Re-imagining equality in the Rosia Montana anti-mining movement
Capital Accumulation, Hegemony and Socio-ecological Struggles: Insights from the Entitle Project
This special issue presents findings and reflections of scholars who participated in the European Network of Political Ecology (ENTITLE). By mobilising conceptual frameworks from several strands of Marxist and post-structuralist theory—and empirically engaging with a range of historico-geographical processes—the articles in this issue contribute to debates in political ecology in two main ways. First, they critically analyse the political economy…
Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico
Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enac…
Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
In this paper we propose an 'undisciplinary' meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler's theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom's 'bounded rationality' to Butler's concepts of 'bounded selves' and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded - as opposed to autonomous being - implies being an (ambi…
De-growing environmental justice: Reflections from anti-mining movements in Eastern Europe
Splitting Urban Waters: The Politicisation of Water in Barcelona between Populism and Anti‐Populism
The current literature on remunicipalisation is focused either on theoretical concepts (e.g. right to the city, commons, return of the political) or on the “insurgent” actors involved in this process, overlooking the counter‐politicisation of the economic agents and the resulting struggles for power and legitimation. This paper examines, by means of an interpretative qualitative methodology and by critically engaging with Ernesto Laclau’s approac…
Prospective environmental injustice: Insights from anti-mining struggles in Romania and Bulgaria
The concept of prospective environmental (in)justice (PEJ) is proposed to make sense of situations in which development proposals and the actions of state and market actors create injustices even before the development projects become a material reality. Through this concept and its application to two cases of opencast gold-mining, a broader conceptualization of socio-environmental (in)justice is invited that considers multiple forms of injustice…
Quiet no more: The emergence of food justice and sovereignty in Romania
We are the limitś performing climate justice commoning in the Czech Klimakemp
We grow earth: Performing eco-agrarian citizenship at the semi-periphery of Europe
Peasant studies have long demonstrated the historical contribution of peasants to the stewardship of earth’s commons. We enter the debate on ecological citizenship through a concern for environmental and food justice/sovereignty, two scholarly fields that have rarely been connected despite their theoretical complementarity. We argue that peasants have historically acted as eco-citizens, even if they still have to reclaim their political status as…
Roma, the Convenient Scapegoat. Intersectional Perspectives on Environmental Justice in Romania
Roma communities in Romania are systematically exposed to environmental hazards due to extractive and industrial practices that deepen structural violence and historical racial inequalities. The resulting territorial stigmatization deeply affects Roma’s relation with the environment, community, culture and identity. Although recent debates in the environmental justice (EJ) literature have emphasized the need for a deeper intersectional approach t…
Insidious Whiteness in Eastern Europe: Environmental Injustice and Dehumanisation in a Roma Community
Even in Eastern Europe, whiteness organises space, race, class and environmental justice research. Inspired by whiteness theory, we draw on a case of environmental injustice affecting the Roma community of Dăroaia—a segregated neighbourhood in Roșia Montană—in the context of the mining conflict over the eponymous gold mine. We analyse how whiteness as ‘gadjoness’ dehumanises Roma communities through institutionalised mundane practices of spatial …
Between academic dependency and epistemic marginalization: A systematic literature review of environmental justice in post-socialist Eastern Europe
This paper explores the academic conceptualization of environmental justice (EJ) in post-socialist Eastern Europe (EE) through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 106 peer-reviewed articles from the early 1990s to 2024. The study focuses on two main directions. First, we examined knowledge production and found that EJ scholarship in EE only gained significant attention after the EU accession of countries in the region. Additionally, research …
Violence hidden in plain sight: Pin-prick land grabbing in Romania
The post-socialist transition in Romania has materialised in myriad factors that slowly eroded the capacity for social reproduction of rural populations. Using the concept of pin-prick land grabbing, this article draws attention to how, against the backdrop of loss of rural social fabric, unequal power dynamics among different stakeholders have led to small-scale land disputes and normalisation of extractive violence, which eventually facilitated…
The insidious toxicity of investor-state arbitration Gabriel Resources vs Romania
Looking at the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) case ‘Gabriel Resources vs Romania’, this paper documents the intangible losses, the chronic stress, and the damaged dignity of communities having to defend their livelihoods in the long-term ongoing conflicts over mineral resources. We expand the concept of environmental injustice as an ‘insidious’ form of toxicity ‘poisoning’ bodies even before chemical contamination, where the threat of I…
It's a Gender Issue’: Women Farmers in Community‐Supported Agriculture
This paper delves into the experiences of new‐entrant women farmers in creating leadership roles in community‐supported agriculture (CSA) and how these experiences relate to the transformative potential of this agri‐food model. It contributes to the literature on gender relations in CSA and agri‐food transformation more broadly by offering new insights into disidentification from the traditional ‘woman farmer’ identity prescribed by capitalist ag…
Rural Eco-Grief: Insights from Portugal and Romania
Law (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · Politics (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Commons (6 works) · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities (6 works) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (5 works) · Capitalism (5 works)