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Abstracts - Year XI, no.2 / 2009
DEVOLUTION AND THE REBORDERING OF THE UK STATE: REIMAGINING THE ANGLO-SCOTTISH BORDER
Ronan PADDISON
Abstract: In an increasingly globalised world, borders have become the focus of renewed attention. Much of this debate has centred on the influence of globalization on debordering. Yet, globalization is being accompanied by the rescaling of political institutions, the effect of which is also leading to rebordering. This paper explores the implications of political rebordering arising from the rescaling of the UK state. Specifically, through the example of devolution in the post-1997 UK state, the paper discusses the implications arising from the reinscription of the border dividing England and Scotland. As an example of a process of regionalization that has been emergent elsewhere in Europe, the process of devolution is raising the salience of the border in everyday life. Borders, it is argued, have everyday meaning in two main ways – materially, and in popular imagination as delineating difference. Through specific examples it shown that in both senses, materially and in popular imagination, the border (between England and Scotland) is linked to a sense of increasing national difference and the decentring of the UK (British) state and its national identity. ( pdf.)
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTRAURBAN STRUCTURES OF THE ROMANIAN CITIES FOR CRISIS AND EMERGENCY SITUATIONS MANAGEMENT
Ioan IANOŞ, Andreea-Loreta CEPOIU
Abstract: The basic hypothesis of the study is that intra-urban structures have an important role not only in the occurrence of emergency and crisis situations, but especially in their management. Given the growing complexity of internal structure of cities through processes of permanent complication, the need for conjugating the modernization, rehabilitation and regeneration plans with contingency plans for emergency situations appears. Romanian cities' experiences show that chaotic interventions in urban structures make the management of extreme situations difficult. Therefore, the decision makers must work together with specialists from different fields when implementing local urban development policies. In such a context, the main steps in emergency and crisis situations management as well as the feedback's importance for the future are individualized. For nearing the site of the rapid intervention forces should not be omitted the outskirts or the suburban areas, sometimes more convenient in terms of accessibility for vulnerable urban areas. ( pdf.)
JERUSALEM: FIGHTING FOR THE CITY OF PEACE THE ANCIENT CORNERSTONE IN REBUILDING THE MODERN ISRAEL
Ciprian-Beniamin BENEA, Daniel TANC
Abstract: From geographical, historical and theological point of views, Jerusalem is on of the most fight for capitals of the world. It has a strategic settlement, not only for Israel, but for the world. Its history begins with King David and continues with Solomon and all other kings and rulers. It had a restless history. Jerusalem’s significance lies not only in its geographical and historical aspects, but also has theological roots. In fact, theology permeates the geography and the history of the city, its past and its future. The reconstruction of the city equates with its struggle. The geopolitical and religious aspects shape the international debate. The rebirth of Jewish interest in the Holy Land is also motivated by the Zionist movement. The very term “Zion” stresses the importance of Jerusalem in this reconstruction. Jerusalem is the cornerstone of present and future reconstruction of the country. It gives motivation, inspiration, hope and identity for Israel. ( pdf.)
GEOGRAPHICAL LANDSCAPES AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN VICTOR JINGA AND GHEORGHE MOROIANU (1931-1940)
Mihai D. DRECIN
Abstract: Victor Jinga (1909-1990), originating from Satulung-Săcelele Braşovului, son of a shepherd, graduate of the Romanian Superior School of Commerce in Braşov and of the Superior Institute of Economical Sciences in Venice, PhD in Economical Sciences of the Venetian Institute, starting with 1929 he becomes a PhD reader with the Academy of High Education in Commerce and Industry in Cluj. In 1926 he becomes a member of the Peasants' National Party, climbing step by step the hierarchy of the party. In 1939 he becomes a State Secretary for Cooperation in governments of the Carolist regime. In his mail exchange with professor Gheorghe Moroianu, former Rector of the Academy of Commerce in Cluj, village co-dweller and groomsman, of which only 24 sent letters remained, written between October 17th 1931 - August 5th 1940, then a series of descriptions of geographic landscapes from Victor Jinga's travels around the country and abroad. An extremely gifted story teller, he describes roads and makes observations on: Bucureşti, Brăila, the water way up the Danube to the Black Sea, Piteşti, Lugoj and Timişoara, the Măcin Mountains, the settlements alongside the Cluj-Câmpina railroad, and landscapes from Hungary ("a poor country, without head or legs"), Austria and Switzerland. There is only one step from the descriptions of landforms to subtle observations on political geography. He is also interested in the mentality of the inhabitants of Central Europe, a real third Europe, buffer zone between West and East, multiethnical, multireligious, multicultural. Victor Jinga's writings reveal an educated intelectual, with an excellent general knowledge and sharp sense of observation, a Romanian with strong national feelings and a European by calling. ( pdf.)
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ORADEA AND THE ROMANIAN PRESS (THE WESTERN GAZETTE) - IN THE YEARS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS 1929-1933
Gabriel MOISA
Abstract: The theme related to Jews, as it is found in the Western Gazette, aims mainly aspects of the Jewish community life of Oradea and the inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relationships between the three main communities of Oradea city: Hungarians, Jews and Romanians. The Western Gazette offered to the inhabitants of Oradea, among others, ample images on the existing divergences from the Hungarian and Jewish communities in Oradea and other cities in Transylvania, although the Jews from here were mostly of Hungarian culture. It can be observed a gradual spacing between the two communities under the conditions their interests began to be little by little others. ( pdf.)
ROMANIAN-MOLDAVIAN GEOPOLITICAL RELATIONS – FROM THE “BRIDGE OF FLOWERS” TO THE “ATTEMPTED COUP”
Silviu COSTACHIE
Abstract: The Republic of Moldova, Romanian land, part of the ethnic and the Romanian people’s ethno-genesis space, has known a very interesting post-decembrist evolution, tenting and complicated in the same time, proving foresight, hesitance, but also stubbornness and infantilism during a period of 20 years of free geopolitics, as an independent and sovereign state. The present article presents a short history, concise and concentrated, of the evolution of geopolitical relations between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, which have been influenced by a series of vectors, particularly active on this side of the continent. At the same time, we chose to present the “privileged” relationship between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, in light of the primary grievance of the relation between the two states, that of the return of Romanian territories to their Motherland. In the final part of the article, we have considered the presentation of a few possible ways of bringing the two states closer useful and we took the liberty of drawing forecasts, possible but not necessary certain, on the prospective evolution of these relations. ( pdf.)
THE IMPACT OF THE HABSBURG GEOPOLITICS ON THE GEO-DEMOGRAPHIC EVOLUTION IN THE NĂSĂUDER BORDER DISTRICT
Mircea MUREŞIANU
Abstract: The establishment of the Năsăud 2nd Border District (or Năsăud Border District, as titled by the local intellectuals) caused a significant change in the demography of this particular spatial-geographic entity. The Habsburg geopolitics, imposed through strict military rules in an ethnic-cultural and –linguistic Romanian space, led many of the regions inhabitants to migrate to Moldavia – Bukovina or other regions with more endurable living conditions. The political exodus reached its climax in the military border’s first three years, in order to decrease gradually, simultaneously with the increase of living conditions in the Năsăud Border District. The material and cultural emancipation of the indigenous Romanians effected an ascending tendency in the geo-demographical graph of the last decades of the Năsăud military border. ( pdf.)
THE NORTHERN ADRIATIC IN THE VORTEX OF GLOBAL AND LOCAL ENERGY INTERESTS
Luka JURI
Abstract: The area of the Northern Adriatic is central to a number of geoeconomic interests, chiefly the need for reliable, fast and especially economically competitive transport connections, both for classic cargo and for energy. In the surrounding area there are three Pan-European Corridors in the making (the 5th, 6th and 10th) with which the Northern-Adriatic harbours of Trieste, Koper and Rijeka are hoping to connect. The fate of these three ports in the forthcoming decade is going to be linked with the quest for alternative energy sources with which to balance the excessive dependence of Central Europe on Russian natural gas. On one hand, there is clear interest in LNG terminals, on the other hand there is also interest in the construction of the trans-Balkanic "South Stream" pipeline, which should connect The Black Sea and Central Europe. How is the region of Northern Adriatic going to react to such strong and varied geoeconomical interests and can we spot the appearance of a Mediterranean "Persian Gulf"? ( pdf.)
TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL SPACE IN BORDERLANDS: PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTED SUPPLY CHAINS IN CHELMSKO-ZAMOJSKI REGION
Wojciech JANICKI, Jerzy BAŃSKI
Abstract: Development of peripheral regions is of crucial importance for successful development of the whole European Union. Chelmsko-zamojski region, located in the borderland of Poland and Ukraine, is one of the most underdeveloped regions in the EU. The main branch of its economy is still agriculture. Since political and economic transformation of Poland, that began over 20 years ago, agrarian structure of the region has undergone considerable changes. However, analysing agriculture without examining other elements of socioeconomic structure of the region would not enable painting the complete image of changes. The hereby paper analyses possible future changes of three selected supply chains: milk supply chain, rapeseed supply chain and beer supply chain, on the basis of their former transformations. Main sources of information are opinions of representatives of particular stages of selected supply chains. They were confronted with one another, and also with available literature, to avoid shortcomings, and prospects for development of the chains were outlined. ( pdf.)
POLYCENTRIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY – AN EFFICIENT INSTRUMENT IN ADMINISTRATIVE DECENTRALIZATION
Daniel PEPTENATU, Radu PINTILII, Loreta CEPOIU, Cristian DRAGHICI
Abstract: The elaboration of Romania polycentric development model was accomplished by the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Researches on Territorial Dynamics, of the University of Bucharest and National Institute for Development and Researches “Urbanproiect” SA. Polycentric development is an important objective at European level, which has the purpose of creating competitive economic spaces, distributed balanced across the EU, without differences between the center and the periphery, which will ensure the territorial cohesion throughout the areas of economic integration. Polycentric development strategy is based on the ranking of poles of development in terms of capacity of polarization and identification of structural axes that will be specialized in the same time with the increasing of polarization capacity. Polycentric development strategy can provide the spatial decentralization projection ranked a network composed of decision-making levels, at which will develop strategies for the realization of territorial specificities. ( pdf.)
THE ANALYSIS OF THE URBAN STRUCTURE COMPONENTS: A CASE STUDY FOCUSED ON THE ROLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES IN THE SPATIAL RESTRUCTURING IN LUGOJ ON THE POST-SOCIALIST PERIOD
Ioan Sebastian JUCU
Abstract: With a remarkable inheritance on the industrial field, the municipality of Lugoj has supported in time many changes regarding this economic sector. The contemporary physiognomy of its landscape, directly or indirectly illustrates the influences, imprints or certain particularities of many economic systems from the old guilds of handicrafts to the capitalist one, as well as, to the communist one and, finally, up to the system of transition and to the market economy system, representative for the Post-socialist period from Romania. All these ones have contributed to the structuring and restructuring process of the urban space from functional, dynamic and physiognomic perspective. This paper, an integrant part of a larger scientific report, wants to present in a synthetic mode but also objective, the role which the industrial activities had on the urban restructuring process in order to readjust to the new economic mechanisms of the Post-socialist period. At the same time, equally, on the paper are presented peculiar aspects of the industrial sector once with the adherence of Romania to European Union, the functional specific of it and the spatial planning of the urban space from Lugoj in the contemporary period. ( pdf.)
THE SOCIAL IDENTITY OF CERTAIN ETHNICALLY IMPRINTED URBAN AREAS, IN THE CASE OF TÂRGU JIU, HIGHLIGHTED THROUGH CONTENT ANALYSIS ON THE PRESS IN THE TRANSITION PERIOD
Simona MĂLĂESCU
Abstract: The present paper arguments in favour of (and justifies) using a combined methodological arsenal (qualitative-quantitative in trying to complete the geographical field research based on observation) for a more precise reading of the urban (social) space. The present study gives an account of the results of one of the components we have monitored in the local press analysis from 1990 to 2007, in our attempt to continue analysing the local inter-ethnical residential socio-spatial relations observed for the time span of almost two centuries, during the transition period, in the case of the Olt and Jiu bordered sub-carpathic urban space. The most interesting and complex results for this aspect have been obtained in the case of Târgu Jiu. For the analysis we have used the thematic and the relational analysis for the titles of the articles in Gorjeanul paper which referred to the monitored aspects, using emerging coding analysis in eight stages. The results have indicated: the intensity of the press representation of the different urban spaces which are strongly ethnically imprinted; the gradual modification of the perception and of the way these spaces are reflected; the social issue of these minority urban communities which are spatially concentrated; the way certain spaces and minority communities relate with predilection to political or administrative concepts from the local or national spheres, or to ethnical or official structures of organisation. ( pdf.)
BORDER AND CYBERSPACE: SOME REFLECTIONS OF POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Daniele MEZZAPELLE, Luca ZARRILLI
Abstract: The essence of the border, as separation from the “otherness”, has not changed in the course of history. On the contrary, the interpretation given by the men, according to territorial and historical contexts, has undergone radical transformations. Nowadays, it’s difficult to find an univocal feature for the border, especially if we take into consideration the new reality of worldwide digital connections. Telematics and virtual reality have altered the relational sphere, and it’s necessary to find new criteria to analyze and interpret interactions among people and territories. The question we want to deal with here is: does the idea of border still make sense in the apparently borderless contexts of virtual reality and cyberspace? The aim of this paper is therefore to reflect upon the historical legacy and the functional evolution of the border and to wonder weather this “archetype” of the human action can still play a role in the cyberspace, where places, people and interactions are dematerialized. ( pdf.)
RELIGION AND DENOMINATION IN LAPUS LAND – STRUCTURAL-EVOLUTIONARY CHARACTERISTICS AND SPECIFIC REGIONAL MANIFESTATIONS WITHIN THE HISTORIC-POLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE LAST 150 YEARS
Ştefan DEZSI
Abstract: The detailed analysis of the denominational aspects specific to Lapus Land points out a denominational structure much more varied than the national one and which is submitted during certain periods to some inherent variations of the rates related to each cultural group and sometimes submitted to some conflicting mutations. These determined, in an initial period (coinciding with the XVIIth century and especially with the XVIIIth and the XIXth centuries), the gradual increasing of the denominational disparity degree and of the parameter of religious differentiation, consequence of the unchanging actions in attracting the Romanians to the religious conversion to the Uniat religion after 1701 and in colonizing some inconstant population groups living in the kingdom area, which turned into an empire afterwards, undertaken by the Hungarian Crown and by the Wien Court. Yet, the purpose of all these actions was insignificantly reached without succeeding in taking into pieces the religions specific to the Romanian population, widely dominant at the Lapus area’s scale during all this period. In return, after the absorption of the Uniat Church by the traditional Orthodox Church – produced after the juridical act in 1948 with the political contest of the ruling communist polity – we were witnesses to an adverse evolution, marked by an obvious tendency of homogenizing the denominational structures and reducing adequately the parameter of religious differentiation. In order to wonder the main tendencies which have configured the religious phenomenon’s evolution in Lapus Land (marked by numerous variations in different historical periods), we expanded the analysis of the denominational aspects during 150 years (1850-2002). Practically all the registrations performed during this period, which have included the religious membership’s problems too, have pointed out the relative denominational equilibrium of the Lapus Land’s population conferred by the “end to end” evolutions of the main religions’ rates specific to the Romanian population – Orthodox and Uniat – which represented more than 83% of the worshippers within the Lapus area even during the prime period of the Austro-Hungarian dualism. This relative equilibrium maintained until the starting of the denominational homogenization process generated by the juridical integration of the Uniat Church into the Orthodox one. Unlike the pronounced positive evolutions registered by the denominations specific to the Hungarian ethnic groups within the Transylvanian area, regarding the Lăpuş Land the rate values registered by the denominations specific to the Hungarian ethnic groups had particular evolutions, much more different related to those consigned in the entire Transylvanian area. In other situations, the evolutions have been even contrary, due to some particular social-economic conjunctures that marked the Lăpuşului Land in the course of some analyzed intervals. Thus, the study had in view to spotlight the specific evolution of the confessional profile of the population during the last century and a half. On the whole and at the phase level, the main evolutional specific traits have been highlighted, the territorial distribution, the specific regional manifestations and, not in the last turn, the impact and the implications induced by the historical-political and social-economic context which have marked the Transylvania and the Lăpuşului Land in the analyzed period. ( pdf.)
PĂDUREA NEAGRĂ: GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS WITH A BEARING ON DEVELOPMENT
Rodica PETREA, Emil Paul OLĂU, Lucian BLAGA, Valentin NEMES
Abstract: The town of Alesd is an urban centre whose economic evolution is determining for the area it polarizes whilst playing the part of coordinator of local development. The administrative surface of the town is quite large (7,195 ha) as rural places such as Tinaud, Pestis and Padurea Neagra, the latter of these being situated at a 20 km distance from Alesd were added. Pădurea Neagră, appertaining to the town of Alesd, holds a privileged position within the administrative territory, as it lies in an attractive mountain relief, more specifically in the Plopis Mountains. The settlement is first linked to the setting-up of the Glass Manufacturing Factory in the early 19th century, but which has ceased its activity at present. The economic revival, which was triggered by the development of the ‘lohn’-type industry that started in 1999, as a result of the inclusion of Alesd in an underprivileged area scheme, is not however apparent in Pădurea Neagră as well. So far, only the existence of some rural Bed&Breakfast pensions is to be noted. A random development, in the absence of strategies for durable development, could trigger the thwarting of drive and determination, indeed of incentive, the decrease of the offer and demand of the area, and eventually the undermining of perspectives for development in the long term. The current expansion of the town is of a rather spontaneous nature and it is being accomplished at present pre-eminently by the increase of its touristic function. The anticipation and control of this phenomenon with a view to durable development can only be achieved by planned extension that should take into account the existent potential and dysfunction. Under these circumstances, the evaluation of the inhabitable potential of the area proves crucial to the activity of territorial planning. Given that the mineral resources, as well as the human task force (i.e. the highly qualified work force) have dwindled considerably, the special touristic potential – along with the infrastructure potential – represents the main basis for future development. ( pdf.)
GEOGRAPHICAL MANAGEMENT OF A BORDERLESS AREA AT THE INTERNAL / EXTERNAL BORDER OF NATO AND EU–ROMANIAN CASE (I)
ILIEŞ Alexandru, GRAMA Vasile, WENDT Jan, BODOCAN Voicu
Abstract: The evolution of the political European area, and especially that of the EU and NATO, have given birth in his turn to a variety of bordering territorial subsystems whose cross border functioning is conditioned by the category of the integrated interstate border field. The extension of NATO in 2004 and that of EU in 2007 has situated Romania in the “periphery” of these military-territorial and political-territorial super-state structures and at the same time it has changed the position of the border state’s role and functions. So, at the beginning it was a Romanian-Hungarian area of 444.7 kilometres included in the external border of EU (until 2007) and that of NATO (until 2004), then it has increased reaching 2170.9 kilometres of NATO and EU external border overlapped to the Romanian border state, with no less than 5 inter-state fields. Along this study we propose a concept of cross border geographical management with the purpose of identifying the elements and the mechanisms which may generate cross border systems of a high functioning degree through a coherent geographical management on the level of the integrated inferiors systems and subsystems. This pattern, through its theoretical component, but also through the useful applicability, could become a current practice in solving some similar situations. The cyclical opening/closing of the passing points of the border generated by natural or political causes, the lack of some efficient communication systems, the restriction of the people’s circulation freedom, the illicit goods and people traffic, the deficient administration of the hydrographical systems and so on and in the last but not the least the functional rethink and reposition of the restrictive military areas within the cross border area of NATO type, through the transfer to new owners and duty, are just some of those situations which generate and are generated by the lack of an efficient cross border management. ( pdf.)
GAS WAR
Silviu NEGUŢ, Marius Cristian NEACŞU
Abstract: The last years have brought on Eurasia’s geopolitical scene a new concept of “hard energy”. It does not represent a new form of energy, but a new way to conduct foreign policy: natural gas against political concessions. On the one hand there is Russia, almost the sole supplier of natural gas, that has managed a spectacular transformation from a military superpower that threatened with tanks, in an energy superpower that threatens with closing the “tap”, and on the other hand there is Europe which is in the delicate situation of being dependent on Russian gas. This study aims to accomplish an introspective, exploratory and interpretative analysis of the way natural gas has become a first-hand geopolitical factor in shaping the architecture of the geopolitical relations in Eurasia, relations determined by the gas and pipeline wars. From geoeconomy, back to geopolitics. ( pdf.)
International Geographical Union Commission on Political Geography www.cas.sc.edu/geog/cpg NEWSLETTER 11 (Summer 2009)
Edited by Anton Gosar