Social Movement and Civil Society in Post-communist Romania

Local Evolution, Global Comparison

Bibliographic Data

ID6012620
AuthorsAntoine Heemeryck (Center for Social Studies on African, American and Asian Worlds, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume8
Issue1
Publication date2018-05-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Researches and Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2360-3445 • E-ISSN: 2360-3445
PublisherAnthropological Researches and Studies (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.26758/8.1.25
OpenAlexW2804268438
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited6

This article highlights the disjunction between, on the one hand, the Romanian civic and environmental local movements and the transnational NGOs actively working to implement “democracy” and “civil society” programs in Romania. The 2012-2013 environmental and social mobilizations against the whole Romanian political class brought to the surface this compartmentalization, hitherto latent. These social realities cannot be understood without a discussion of the history of NGOs in post-communist Romania. I argue that the big NGO democratization programs have been oriented towards an imagined normalization of Romania, based on an anti-communist and neoliberal ideology. This explains why they cannot be representative of a larger social spectrum. Next, I discuss the new social movements that emerged in 2012, built around gold-mining issues in the Roșia Montană region. An analysis of the mobilizations and debate around the gold-mines reveals a gap between two civil societies with divergent interests: one favoring the reproduction of capitalism, the other representing local aspirations. In conclusion, this article proposes a more general view on this topic comparing this situation with those of Georgia and Cambodia

Civil society · Communism · Democracy · Movement (music · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Romanian · Social movement · Sociology · Law · Social Science and Policy Research

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