Abstracts - Year IV, no.1-2 / 2002

ROMANIA'S FLUCTUATING POSITION ON EUROPE'S POLITICAL MAP

Valeria ALEXANDRESCU

University of Bucharest, The Department of Human and Economic Geography 1, N. Bălcescu Ave., Bucharest, Romania Petre DEICĂ Romanian Academy Institute of Geography, 12 Dimitrie Racoviţă St., Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: geoins @ fr.ro Romania – a fluctuating geopolitical position on Europe's political map. Romania's geopolitical position alternated between its location in the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe. During the post-war period, Romania along with other communist countries were included into the Soviet hegemonic space. After 1989 a new geopolitical situation emerged. The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary identified themselves as part of Central Europe and thus the Visegrad Group is created. The prestigious scientific publications deem that Romania's position is very different, thing that creates a confusing situation.

Keywords : Romania, Central Europe, Balkans, geopolitical position

Cuvinte cheie : România, Europa Centrală, Balcani, poziţie geopolitică

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ROMÂNIA – ŢARĂ CENTRAL-EUROPEANĂ

Radu SĂGEATĂ

Institutul de Geografie, Str. Dimitrie Racovită, Nr. 12, 70307 sect. II Bucuresti, Romania, e-mail: geoinst @fx.ro

Romania - a Central-European Country. The mathematical coordinates of Romania's geographical position, the distances separating it from the extreme points of the continent and the big natural domains individualising it, place this country in the south-eastern part of Central Europe. This reality is confirmed by the geographical works published during the inter-war period. An argument in favour of Romania's Central European localisation is also the contact and interference between its territory and the Continent's large natural, cultural and political areas. It was political criteria that for some 40 years, assigned this country to an Eastern or South-Eastern (Balkan) Europe, of indefinite bounds, viewed in opposition to that Europe which extended west of the Iron Curtain, and was assimilated to the free world. The fall of the ideological barriers has entailed Romania into the European circuit of values, this creating the premises for having its geographical and geopolitical position redefined, a position which for centuries has placed it in the Centre of the Old Continent.

Keywords: geographical position, geopolitical position, Central Europe, Romania Cuvinte cheie: poziţie geografică, poziţie geopolitică, Europa Centrală, România.

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ALBANIA. REPRESENTATIONS OF A COUNTRY IN PROGRESS

Alma BIANCHETTI

Department of Economics, Society and Territory at the University of Studies in Udine, Italy,

Daniela LOMBARDI

Department of Economics, Society and Territory at the University of Studies in Udine, Italy,

e-mail: daniela.lombardi @ dest.uniud.it

L'Albanie. Les represéntations d'un pays en progrès . Le but de cet étude est de comprendre les traits significatifs d'un pays en plaine transition radicale après avoir démis le regime pluridécennal –l'Albanie après Hoxa. Aussi a-t-on concentré notre attention sur les signes de renouvellement et innovation, sur les retards, les impasses et les processus liés aux zones en ruines et abandonnés. La chute du communisme a eu des conséquences très importantes meme du point de vue du térritoire qui surgissent, à notre égard de la nouveauté dans un ainsi dire contexte vierge – comme dans le cas du tourisme et l'urbanisation – ou d'autres crises comme la désuétude et la défaillance générale des structures d'un pays.

Mots-clé: les répresentations , Tirana, le contraste, la précarité, le tourisme

Keywords: representations, Tirana, contrast, precariousnes, tourism

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND DECENTRALISATION IN EASTERN EUROPE. CASE STUDY ON ROMANIA

Marius SUCIU

Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento Sant'Anna di Pisa, Piazza Martiri della Liberta, 33, 56 127 Pisa, Italia , e-mail: suciu@sssup.it

Les nouvelles logiques térritoriales au niveau local et r é gional dans les pays de l'Europe médiane, études de cas sur la Roumanie . Au-delà des changements politiques et macro-économiques concernant l'instauration de la démocratie et d'une économie de marché dans les pays de l'Europe Centrale et Orientale, cette période de transition qui marque l'espace est-européen depuis puls d'une décennie a determine également des mutations profundes au niveau du functionnement des térritories. Après plus de 40 années de planification térritoriale de type soviétique qui avait comme but l'édification des térritories nationaux entièrement étatisés, on assiste dans les dernières années à un processus inverse de désétatisation térritoriale dans le cadre d'une politique de décentralisation politico-administrative inspiré de l'expérience des pays de l'Union Européenne. Cette politique suppose un ample transfert de competences et de pouvoirs de l'Etat vers les collectivités locales et régionales dans le domain de la gestion térritoriale. Dans ce contexte, l'objectif de cet article est d'analyser dans une approche comparative l'évolution des réformes administratives en Roumanie par rapport aux autres pays de l'Europe Centrale et Orientale candidates à l'intégration européenne et aussi de mettre en évidence les conséquences de ces reformes sur le functionnement de différentes catégories de térritories.

Mots-cl é: l'Europe Centrale et de l 'Est, Roumanie, décentralisation, autonomie locale, administration locale, autorités locales, Etat, budgets locaux

Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe, Romania, decentralization, local autonomy, local administration, local authorities, State, local budgets

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POLAND – THE COUNTRY OF GREAT TOURIST INTERESTS OF ITS NEIGHBOURS

Aleksander SZWICHTENBERG

Technical University of Koszalin, Tourism Department, Economy and Management Faculty, Koszalin, Poland Jacek BORZYSZKOWSKI Technical University of Koszalin, Tourism Department, Economy and Management Faculty, Koszalin, Poland

La Pologne-Un pays des grands intérets de ses voisins . Le but de ce travail est de montrer qu'il y a des liaisons culturelles et sociales très étroites entre la Pologne et les autres pays contigus qui se traduissent par des déplacements touristiques très vivants. A. Szwichtenberg (2001) a prouvé dans un autre travail que dans les derniers 50 ans le tourisme a été le plus important cercle qui stimule le processus de la paix à l'echelle planétaire. Nous sommes d'accord avec la thèse que les déplacements constants intenses aux frontières pendant les 50 ans ont élliminé les préjugés différents entre la Pologne et ses voisins.

Mots-clé: Pologne, tourisme, revenus, legislation, marché étranger

Keywords: Poland, tourism, incomes, legislation, common market

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ÎNTRE DOUĂ MOLDOVE

George ŢURCANAŞU

Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iaşi, Facultatea de Geografie, B-dul. Carol I Nr. 20 A, Iaşi, România, e-mail: geoturcanas @yahoo.com

Between two Moldavias. Why “Between two Moldavias”? Because Moldavia is a territory which conserves many fractures (political fractures, administrative and economical fractures). Because we assist now at the depersonalisation of (West) Moldavia, the name of “Moldavian” or Moldavia are being firstly for Basarabians, respectivly for the Eastern segment of the province (Basarabia). Because the Republic of Moldavia considers that it continues of the old Moldavian state, although the state nucleus is on the territory of (West) Moldavia. A debate on this theme became a neccesity in the general confusion caused by the communist authorities from Chisinau fully sustained by Moskow and by the discrete opinion of the Romanian authorities. The events from Chisinau fuelled my desire to bring into discussion a region much too rural and much too poor, which was often spoken of with arogance by those who have never been “in Moldavia”. This is in fact a territory whose architecture was induced by decision centres from the outside for centuries.

Keywords : fractures, recomposition, depersonalization, unequality, inferiority

Cuvinte cheie: rupturi, recompunere, depersonalizare, inegalitate, inferioritate

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ARMENIA FROM SOVIET RIGOURS TO POST SOVIET CHAOS: “READING” THE CHANGE THROUGH “HODOIPORÍC” WORKS

Luca ZARRILLI

University of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara, Italy, e-mail: lucazarilli@iol.it

L ' Arménie des rigueurs sovietique au chaos post-sovietique “Lisant” le changement par les travaux de “Hodoiporic”. Pendant le XXème siècle l'Arménie a subi des étapes importantes concernant les changements sociaux, économiques et culturels. Les temoins de ce passage ont été les écrivains russes Osip Mandel'štam et Vasilij Grossman, l'anglo-americain Michael J. Arlen, l'italian Pietro Kuciukian. Par leur rapports de voyage il nous ont partagé l'expérience d'un contexte qui raisonne à une synthèse parfaite de l'est et de l'ouest. Par l'intérmédiaire des pareils expériences – qui sont tantot géographiques que littéraires- c'est possible de contourer les aspects historiques, géographiques et politiques de la pays trans-caucasienne et c'est possible de les comparer avec la situation embarassante actuelle.

Mots-clé: l'Arménie, les rapports de voyage, changement social, transition

Keywords: Armenia, travel reports, social change, transition

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The spatial structure of Foreign Direct Investments in Ukraine

Cezary MĄDRY

Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, 10 Fredry St., Poznań, Poland, e-mail: cezary @ amu.edu.pl

Structura spa ţială a investiţiilor străine directe în Ucraina. Acestea sunt foarte mult dorite mai ales datorită rezultatelor lor pozitive. Ele sunt aşteptate în deosebi în acele ţări cu o economie în tranziţie şi care înregistrează o lipsă de capital intern. În această lucrare am evidenţiat influenţa IDS asupra creşterii competivităţii economiei per ansamblu precum şi filialele economiei şi regiunile unde sunt localizate investiţiile. În acest studiu sunt descrise următoarele aspecte ale investiţiilor directe străine din Ucraina: (1) mărimea şi dinamica afluxului de investiţii directe străine între anii 1994-2000, (2) structura IDS pe filiale (3) structura IDS în funcţie de ţara de provenienţă a capitalului. Cercetarea se face pe baza analizei structurale dar şi în paralel cu gradul de atractivitate al investiţiilor din regiunile analizate. De asemenea va fi analizată relaţia dintre importuri şi exporturi din fiecare regiune a firmelor cu capital străin cu referire specială asupra direcţiilor afluxului de capital şi direcţiilor de import şi export din regiunile date. Analiza va fi elaborată în funcţie de diferiţi factori, incluzând măsuri precum: (1) suma totală a IDS calculată în milioane de dolari SUA (2) numărul firmelor cu capital străin (3) numărul personalului angajat la firmele cu capital străin. O astfel de diferenţiere între factori îşi propune să prezinte o analiză mai corectă şi mai credibilă pe această temă.

Cuvinte cheie: investitori, Ucraina, structuri spaţiale

Keywords: investors, the Ukraine, spatial structures