Monica Vasile
Biographic Data
| ID | 3584444 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Monica Vasile |
| GIVEN NAMES | Monica |
| FAMILY NAME | Vasile |
| SIGNATURE | VASILE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Maastricht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2034-3126 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Beyond Homecoming
Metaphors in wildlife conservation can inspire and mobilize support for projects with uncertain and often contentious outcomes, yet they can just as easily distort conservation work itself-framing interventions in ways that misrepresent and even actively shape the realities they seek to describe. "Homecoming," a term frequently invoked in wildlife conservation reintroductions, carries emotional weight, evoking notions of national pride and ecolog…
Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History
Eseh Notepad
From Reintroduction to Rewilding: Autonomy, Agency and the Messy Liberation of the European Bison
In the age of the sixth extinction, human interventions to save endangered species have become bigger, bolder and costlier than ever. Yet, policies of species conservation have also favoured non-intervention, furthering the idea that humans have tampered too much with wildness and wilderness. This article examines a reintroduction of European Bison ( Bison bonasus , also known as wisent) into the South-Western Carpathians of Romania in the 2010s.…
Forests of Fear: Illegal Logging, Criminalization, and Violence in the Carpathian Mountains
In this article we explore the twisted consequences of the worldwide turn toward prohibitive policies and criminalization in conservation. We argue that tackling environmental challenges with legal repertoires that are coercive and punitive in nature increases criminalization and produces insidious and overt forms of violence. Tough-on-crime measures aimed at curbing illegal logging advance social vulnerabilities, further marginalizing already di…
From Reintroduction to Rewilding: Autonomy, Agency and the Messy Liberation of the European Bison
In the age of the sixth extinction, human interventions to save endangered species have become bigger, bolder and costlier than ever. Yet, policies of species conservation have also favoured non-intervention, furthering the idea that humans have tampered too much with wildness and wilderness. This article examines a reintroduction of European Bison ( Bison bonasus , also known as wisent) into the South-Western Carpathians of Romania in the 2010s.…
Forest crisis narratives: Illegal logging, datafication and the conservation frontier in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains
Environmental crisis narratives escalate around the world. Their production and consequences demand scholarly attention. Drawing on the analytical tools of political ecology and highlighting long-term historical developments, this article examines the shift to a new narrative of conservation in forestry, which displaces older structures of state forest management. In particular, we explore the emergence and unfolding of a crisis narrative of ille…
Grabbing the commons: Forest rights, capital and legal struggle in the Carpathian Mountains
The other frontier: Forest rush and small-scale timbermen of postsocialist Transylvania
This article examines the postsocialist timber rush of the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, from the perspective of the frontier. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork, it follows life-trajectories of timbermen and politicians to reveal the grassroots dynamics of timber production, trade relationships and political control of resources emerged in the last three decades. The paper unpicks the conjuncture of an area in the Apuseni Mou…
The Rise and Fall of a Timber Baron: Political Forests and Unruly Coalitions in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania
Concerns over deforestation are growing along with the climate crisis. This is particularly unsettling in relation to the rise of populist authoritarian regimes. In this article I reveal the connections between forests, neoliberalism, authoritarianism, and cronyism, through an in-depth ethnographic study of the Romanian Carpathian forests after the fall of socialism in 1989. The study examines the intricate entanglements between forest extraction…
Fiefdom forests: Authoritarianism, labor vulnerability and the limits of resistance in the Carpathian Mountains
The Vulnerable Bison: Practices and Meanings of Rewilding in the Romanian Carpathians
This paper discusses new conservation practices in the Romanian Carpathians, focusing on the recent reintroduction of bison in the framework of larger rewilding initiatives. It reveals the complexities of rewilding on the ground, through an empirical study that captures different local narratives, reflecting on how they emerge relationally, articulated within larger social dynamics and structures of feeling. I draw on empirical data, surveys and …
Formalizing commons, registering rights: The making of the forest and pasture commons in the Romanian Carpathians from the 19th century to post-socialism
Formalization of property rights is usually understood as process that empowers communities and right holders, but does formalization really reach intended results? The recognition of rights to the commons that occurred in the Carpathian Mountains since the 19 th century has proved to be vital to their restitution and continued existence. However, in the course of history, the processes of formalization produced negative consequences, shrunk the …
The Gift of the Godfather: Money and Reciprocity in Spiritual Kinship Relations in Transylvania
Based on a large array of sources, from ethnographic fieldwork to Internet discussion forums and archive surveys, this article traces complex gift-giving practices between godparents and godchildren, as they developed and thrived in the region of Transylvania, Romania, from the 1950s onward. I examine, in particular, the monetization of gifts in connection to recent turning points in economic history. Through various case studies, I show how godp…
Contemporary Godparenthood in Central and Eastern Europe: Introduction
This introduction to the collection opens up the conversation between historians and anthropologists about the practical significance and social meaning of spiritual kinship. By discussing the key findings of five anthropological studies—in Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova—we point to resemblances and differences. We examine common structural elements of the spiritual kinship system and the religious and material meanings involved. …
From modern production to imagined primitive. The social world of coffee from Papua New Guinea , by West, Paige: Reviews
Peasants into European farmers? EU integration in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania by Fox, Katy
Formalizing commons, registering rights: The making of the forest and pasture commons in the Romanian Carpathians from the 19th century to post-socialism
Formalization of property rights is usually understood as process that empowers communities and right holders, but does formalization really reach intended results? The recognition of rights to the commons that occurred in the Carpathian Mountains since the 19 th century has proved to be vital to their restitution and continued existence. However, in the course of history, the processes of formalization produced negative consequences, shrunk the …
Forest crisis narratives: Illegal logging, datafication and the conservation frontier in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains
Environmental crisis narratives escalate around the world. Their production and consequences demand scholarly attention. Drawing on the analytical tools of political ecology and highlighting long-term historical developments, this article examines the shift to a new narrative of conservation in forestry, which displaces older structures of state forest management. In particular, we explore the emergence and unfolding of a crisis narrative of ille…
Fiefdom forests: Authoritarianism, labor vulnerability and the limits of resistance in the Carpathian Mountains
Grabbing the commons: Forest rights, capital and legal struggle in the Carpathian Mountains
Forests of Fear: Illegal Logging, Criminalization, and Violence in the Carpathian Mountains
In this article we explore the twisted consequences of the worldwide turn toward prohibitive policies and criminalization in conservation. We argue that tackling environmental challenges with legal repertoires that are coercive and punitive in nature increases criminalization and produces insidious and overt forms of violence. Tough-on-crime measures aimed at curbing illegal logging advance social vulnerabilities, further marginalizing already di…
From Reintroduction to Rewilding: Autonomy, Agency and the Messy Liberation of the European Bison
In the age of the sixth extinction, human interventions to save endangered species have become bigger, bolder and costlier than ever. Yet, policies of species conservation have also favoured non-intervention, furthering the idea that humans have tampered too much with wildness and wilderness. This article examines a reintroduction of European Bison ( Bison bonasus , also known as wisent) into the South-Western Carpathians of Romania in the 2010s.…
The Rise and Fall of a Timber Baron: Political Forests and Unruly Coalitions in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania
Concerns over deforestation are growing along with the climate crisis. This is particularly unsettling in relation to the rise of populist authoritarian regimes. In this article I reveal the connections between forests, neoliberalism, authoritarianism, and cronyism, through an in-depth ethnographic study of the Romanian Carpathian forests after the fall of socialism in 1989. The study examines the intricate entanglements between forest extraction…
Contemporary Godparenthood in Central and Eastern Europe: Introduction
This introduction to the collection opens up the conversation between historians and anthropologists about the practical significance and social meaning of spiritual kinship. By discussing the key findings of five anthropological studies—in Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova—we point to resemblances and differences. We examine common structural elements of the spiritual kinship system and the religious and material meanings involved. …
From Reintroduction to Rewilding: Autonomy, Agency and the Messy Liberation of the European Bison
In the age of the sixth extinction, human interventions to save endangered species have become bigger, bolder and costlier than ever. Yet, policies of species conservation have also favoured non-intervention, furthering the idea that humans have tampered too much with wildness and wilderness. This article examines a reintroduction of European Bison ( Bison bonasus , also known as wisent) into the South-Western Carpathians of Romania in the 2010s.…
The other frontier: Forest rush and small-scale timbermen of postsocialist Transylvania
This article examines the postsocialist timber rush of the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, from the perspective of the frontier. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork, it follows life-trajectories of timbermen and politicians to reveal the grassroots dynamics of timber production, trade relationships and political control of resources emerged in the last three decades. The paper unpicks the conjuncture of an area in the Apuseni Mou…
From modern production to imagined primitive. The social world of coffee from Papua New Guinea , by West, Paige: Reviews
Peasants into European farmers? EU integration in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania by Fox, Katy
Contemporary Godparenthood in Central and Eastern Europe: Introduction
This introduction to the collection opens up the conversation between historians and anthropologists about the practical significance and social meaning of spiritual kinship. By discussing the key findings of five anthropological studies—in Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova—we point to resemblances and differences. We examine common structural elements of the spiritual kinship system and the religious and material meanings involved. …
The Vulnerable Bison: Practices and Meanings of Rewilding in the Romanian Carpathians
This paper discusses new conservation practices in the Romanian Carpathians, focusing on the recent reintroduction of bison in the framework of larger rewilding initiatives. It reveals the complexities of rewilding on the ground, through an empirical study that captures different local narratives, reflecting on how they emerge relationally, articulated within larger social dynamics and structures of feeling. I draw on empirical data, surveys and …
Formalizing commons, registering rights: The making of the forest and pasture commons in the Romanian Carpathians from the 19th century to post-socialism
Formalization of property rights is usually understood as process that empowers communities and right holders, but does formalization really reach intended results? The recognition of rights to the commons that occurred in the Carpathian Mountains since the 19 th century has proved to be vital to their restitution and continued existence. However, in the course of history, the processes of formalization produced negative consequences, shrunk the …
The Gift of the Godfather: Money and Reciprocity in Spiritual Kinship Relations in Transylvania
Based on a large array of sources, from ethnographic fieldwork to Internet discussion forums and archive surveys, this article traces complex gift-giving practices between godparents and godchildren, as they developed and thrived in the region of Transylvania, Romania, from the 1950s onward. I examine, in particular, the monetization of gifts in connection to recent turning points in economic history. Through various case studies, I show how godp…
Fiefdom forests: Authoritarianism, labor vulnerability and the limits of resistance in the Carpathian Mountains
The Rise and Fall of a Timber Baron: Political Forests and Unruly Coalitions in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania
Concerns over deforestation are growing along with the climate crisis. This is particularly unsettling in relation to the rise of populist authoritarian regimes. In this article I reveal the connections between forests, neoliberalism, authoritarianism, and cronyism, through an in-depth ethnographic study of the Romanian Carpathian forests after the fall of socialism in 1989. The study examines the intricate entanglements between forest extraction…
From Reintroduction to Rewilding: Autonomy, Agency and the Messy Liberation of the European Bison
In the age of the sixth extinction, human interventions to save endangered species have become bigger, bolder and costlier than ever. Yet, policies of species conservation have also favoured non-intervention, furthering the idea that humans have tampered too much with wildness and wilderness. This article examines a reintroduction of European Bison ( Bison bonasus , also known as wisent) into the South-Western Carpathians of Romania in the 2010s.…
Forest crisis narratives: Illegal logging, datafication and the conservation frontier in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains
Environmental crisis narratives escalate around the world. Their production and consequences demand scholarly attention. Drawing on the analytical tools of political ecology and highlighting long-term historical developments, this article examines the shift to a new narrative of conservation in forestry, which displaces older structures of state forest management. In particular, we explore the emergence and unfolding of a crisis narrative of ille…
Grabbing the commons: Forest rights, capital and legal struggle in the Carpathian Mountains
The other frontier: Forest rush and small-scale timbermen of postsocialist Transylvania
This article examines the postsocialist timber rush of the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, from the perspective of the frontier. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork, it follows life-trajectories of timbermen and politicians to reveal the grassroots dynamics of timber production, trade relationships and political control of resources emerged in the last three decades. The paper unpicks the conjuncture of an area in the Apuseni Mou…
From Reintroduction to Rewilding: Autonomy, Agency and the Messy Liberation of the European Bison
In the age of the sixth extinction, human interventions to save endangered species have become bigger, bolder and costlier than ever. Yet, policies of species conservation have also favoured non-intervention, furthering the idea that humans have tampered too much with wildness and wilderness. This article examines a reintroduction of European Bison ( Bison bonasus , also known as wisent) into the South-Western Carpathians of Romania in the 2010s.…
Forests of Fear: Illegal Logging, Criminalization, and Violence in the Carpathian Mountains
In this article we explore the twisted consequences of the worldwide turn toward prohibitive policies and criminalization in conservation. We argue that tackling environmental challenges with legal repertoires that are coercive and punitive in nature increases criminalization and produces insidious and overt forms of violence. Tough-on-crime measures aimed at curbing illegal logging advance social vulnerabilities, further marginalizing already di…
Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History
Eseh Notepad
Beyond Homecoming
Metaphors in wildlife conservation can inspire and mobilize support for projects with uncertain and often contentious outcomes, yet they can just as easily distort conservation work itself-framing interventions in ways that misrepresent and even actively shape the realities they seek to describe. "Homecoming," a term frequently invoked in wildlife conservation reintroductions, carries emotional weight, evoking notions of national pride and ecolog…
Political science (13 works) · Geography (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works)