Romanian Village Research Articles

The Romanian Villages in Criş County between Survival and Hope

The Romanian Villages in Criş County between Survival and Hope

Hepatitis C Virus Prevalence and Risk Factors in a Village in Northeastern Romania-A Population-Based Screening-The First Step to Viral Micro-Elimination.

(1) Background: The World Health Organization adopted a strategy for the Global Health Sector on Viral Hepatitis in 2016, with the main objective of eliminating hepatitis C virus (HCV) by 2030. In this work, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of HCV infection and risk factors in a Romanian village using population-based screening as part of the global C virus eradication program. (2) Methods: We conducted a prospective study from March 2019 to February 2020, based on a strategy as part of a project designed to educate, screen, treat and eliminate HCV infection in all adults in a village located in Northeastern Romania. (3) Results: In total, 3507 subjects were invited to be screened by rapid diagnostic orientation tests (RDOT). Overall, 2945 (84%) subjects were tested, out of whom 78 (2.64%) were found to have positive HCV antibodies and were scheduled for further evaluation in a tertiary center of gastroenterology/hepatology in order to be linked to care. In total, 66 (85%) subjects presented for evaluation and 55 (83%) had detectable HCV RNA. Of these, 54 (98%) completed antiviral treatment and 53 (99%) obtained a sustained virological response. (4) Conclusions: The elimination of hepatitis C worldwide has a higher chance of success if micro-elimination strategies based on mass screening are adopted.

European money in the Romanian village. Case study

The money from European funds opened new horizons for the inhabitants of Romanian villages. They began to look at the future with other eyes, got acquainted with modern technologies and made their work easier. The communal roads were paved, the houses became more beautiful, the living conditions of the villagers improved with the help of modern utilities – sewerage, natural gas, almost all agricultural plots are worked, the number of social workers decreased. The internet and the media have brought new information, many of which are useful and open to ideas. The number of advantages of accessing European funds far exceeds the number of disadvantages, including in Romanian village.

Greening the Brownfields of Thermal Power Plants in Rural Areas, an Example from Romania, Set in the Context of Developments in the Industrialized Country of Germany

This paper describes the greening of ash dumps from two thermal power plants located in Romania, in the villages of Mintia and Doicești, two rural areas neighboring middle-sized cities, both with architectural, archaeological and landscape heritage. Currently, the two Romanian villages have different fates in the context of shrinking cities, and solutions from the industrialized country of Germany that are more advanced in closing polluting thermal power plants are examples of this. Thus, the greening of industrial waste is one of the current challenges of the energy shift towards renewable energy. Nature-based solutions such as the proposed use of the biodegradable geo-textile in the greening is one of the current trends. The development of the biodegradable geo-textile was contemporary with the creation of the International Building Exhibition (Internationale Bauaaustellung—IBA) Emscher Park in the ancient industrial coal mining Ruhr area, in Germany; later research, around 10 years ago, explored soil pollution at these two Romanian thermal power plants. A recent research study investigated the conversion of the industrial buildings of the thermal power plant in Doicești, however, these buildings were demolished at the end of last year. Mintia thermal power plant continues to function. This paper explores the current challenges of industrial brownfields, energy shift, ecology, the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris and “Laudato si”, spanning 30 years of history and the legacy of the research over this time.

Musicians from Brașov: Constantin Catrina – An integrated approach to musical folklore

Constantin Catrina (1933-2013), a musician whose destiny was linked to the city of Brașov, carried out a diverse and consistent activity, materialized in numerous volumes, studies and articles. C. Catrina manifested himself in multiple fields: as a historian, chronicler of musical life, lexicographer, Byzantinist musicologist, composer, folklorist, pedagogue and cultural manager. While in the last two decades of his life he dedicated himself mainly to Byzantine musicology, the thousands of pages comprising his research work have remained, to this day, outstanding landmarks in the Romanian ethnomusicological literature. Apart from sketching a portrait of the musician, this paper summarizes his contributions to the field of musical folklore, emphasizing the way in which, throughout his career, he contributed to the collection, promotion and conservation of the folklore from the curvature area of the Carpathians. Through his research work and entire career, C. Catrina has remained a model researcher dedicated to highlighting the cultural values of the Romanian village.

Henri H. Stahl (1901–1991): some features of intellectual biography and an outline of historical sociology

ABSTRACT The article seeks to clarify some aspects of works, ideas and professional activities of the prominent Romanian sociologist Henri H. Stahl. The article consists of four sections: a biographical profile, an outline of Stahl’s historical sociology, international discourses, critique and flaws. Although Stahl was a prolific author and his texts covered a wide spectrum of topics, the main field of his interest and expertise during his long professional career remained peasant studies. Stahl’s historical sociology is indistinguishable from the Marxist historical sociology. He was imbued by Marxist ideas from his youth and as a mature scholar he have been involved in various important Marxist debates which took place in Western academia during the 1960s–1970s. The most original part of Stahl’s historical sociology was his theory of tributarism which he had elaborated in the context of pre-modern Romanian social history. From the liberalization of the Romanian communist regime in the mid-1960s Stahl ceased to be isolated and entered into interaction with Western colleagues (despite the reluctance of the regime). Stahl’s output of academic texts in foreign languages and published abroad was significant, and his summarizing book about traditional Romanian village communities became a kind of academic bestseller.

Mihail Sadoveanu – Narrator of the Romanian Village

Mihail Sadoveanu – Narrator of the Romanian Village

Local Action Group - a pillar of the development of the Romanian village

The Local Action Groups have the capacity to act in a complex way, so as to cover the entire economic and social issues of the regions where they act. The actions carried out by the LAGs have direct consequences on rural development by encouraging those projects that develop alternative solutions in obtaining revenues; diversification of the market for products and services; ensuring sustainable development, by protecting the environment and ensuring the security and well-being of life. This article makes an analysis of the impact of European funding in supporting the development of the rural environment of the area of influence of a Local Action Group in Olt County. It describes the situation of European funding at LAG level and the proposal of development directions that need to be considered in the future: increasing competitiveness in agricultural activities, sustainable use of resources and balanced development of economic activities and local communities in rural areas.

The vicinities of Drăguș Past and present

Social life, in every form of manifestation, takes place within social units. In their sphere of inclusion, predominant of families and households, then kinsfolk (relatives), vicinities and many more, each of these is invested with a major or minor role, in the daily life of Romanian villages. The vicinities are worth being brought out of the great destiny of the rural settlements. Present in ancient times only in the coexistence of German Transylvanian village settlements, the vicinities gradually also made their way to the orderliness of the Romanian villages. Such a vicinity association was mentioned in the research monograph of the Romanian Sociological School of Bucharest in the pre-war times of the past century, in Drăguș village (near Făgăraș). Drăguș has been appreciating this model of vicinity organisation, by keeping some of the meanings and their initial attributes to obtain new ones.

Institutions, sanctioning processes and the management of commons. A field-based analysis of the monitoring, controlling and sanctioning instruments in the communal villages’ Obște

The aim of this paper is to present an Institutional overview of the Romanian communal village form of property known as Obste and of the difference between “the old” and “the new” Obște. The Obste is the entity which manages the commons held by the villagers in a communal form of property. Usually, the commons managed by the Obste consist of forests, pastures and common infrastructure (markets, schools, ballrooms or even the public lighting system in some cases). The type of commons over which the Obste has a major impact is the forest, because the incentives to exploit it in order to increase the total revenue are much more pressing. The analysis will be based on the institutional analysis and development framework. The analysis will be cross-temporal in the sense that all the communal villages will be analyzed over three time periods: the old Obste (the period until 1948) –, the communist period (1948-1989, when all the communal properties were transferred to state’s property) and the new Obste (1990 – present; a significant moment in this third period was the enforcement of a new law in 2000, which opened the opportunity to re-establish the communal village’s Obste). The focus of the paper will be on the effects of the monitoring and sanctioning instruments in the three periods mentioned above and on how their changes affected the CPRs institutions' robustness levels.

The establishment of a micro-scale heat market using a biomass-fired district heating system

BackgroundLocal biomass potential in Southeastern European countries is relatively high. Nevertheless, biomass residues such as wood leftovers, straw and energy crops are often not properly managed or inefficiently utilised for energy purposes in individual house heating or domestic hot water preparation. This is more relevant in rural areas, where the utilisation of biomass resources is mainly based upon traditional technologies, has low efficiency or is carried out by using individual bases without local energy supply management. Usage of biomass residues in combination with other renewable energy sources is in agreement with the targets of the EU’s Energy and Climate Goals and promotes rural development and a circular economy.MethodsFor this purpose, local heating and domestic hot water preparation demands, as well as the available biomass potentials, were analysed and mapped by using a geographic information system (GIS). A model for analysing the optimal operation of the district heating boiler with a relatively high share of solar energy, which is backed up by either a short- or long-term heat storage, was developed. The model takes the supply and the return temperatures from the DH network into account and decides whether the excess of solar heat produced by the prosumers can be delivered into the network. This reduces heat overproduction and enables a smooth and uninterrupted operation of the system. Such configuration would benefit both the DH Company and the prosumers. The DH Company would have the opportunity to buy cheaper excess heat from the prosumers rather than to start its own and relatively slow biomass boiler.ResultsIn this paper, several scenarios are proposed for the Romanian village Ghelinta. The target village is characterised by a small-scale biomass district heating boiler with thermal storage and prosumers with either solar thermal collectors or locally installed heat pumps. Integration of seasonal thermal storage and local prosumers can smooth out the biomass district heating boiler operation and bring additional socio-economic benefits for the bioenergy village communities. This could be the first step towards the establishment of a micro-scale thermal energy market.ConclusionsAnalysis has proven that the proposed system configuration is socio-technically feasible, even for micro-scale systems, as apparent in the Romanian target village Ghelinta. The main objective of this research is to analyse the implementation of a small-scale biomass and renewable energy-based district heating system and to prove the concept of bioenergy villages from a technical and economical perspective. Furthermore, the role of residential household prosumers has been analysed. Based on outcomes, the transferability of the results is also discussed, while several suggestions for stakeholders who implement such projects were formulated for future research as well.

Inițiative spirituale, culturale și sociale prezente în satul românesc interbelic

The interwar period was an active period, in which the fundamental institutions the Church, the School and the Family sought to follow the path of spiritual, cultural and social perfection. They wanted to transform the Romanian village and align it with modern society, which was emerging in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century. Sociological research in the interwar period was intended to be a way for the country to be better known, in other words, to be better known Romanian realities, especially through monographic research initiated by sociologist D. Gusti, these being considered the birth certificate of the Romanian Sociological School. The study presents some aspects related to the activity of the Church and Cultural Homes in rural areas, along with the presence of Royal Student Teams and the obligation of Social Service in villages.

Spiritual Care for the Elderly

To speak of the Romanian village today is to consider a reality of life populated more and more by elderly people and children whose parents work outside the home, in town, or even abroad. The quality of life of the elderly remaining in the village is, in this context, a major concern for the political authorities and religious leaders. Indeed, many studies have shown that taking into account the religious and spiritual dimension contributes to the well-being of seniors. Recent research in Switzerland has highlighted the fact that many elderly people who live in senior care facilities are interested in talking about death with someone they trust. This trusted person is not necessarily the priest or chaplain. For many residents, this role is given to someone within the elderly person™s network of family and friends (spouse, daughter, niece, close friend, etc.),. What happens when this network is empty and the elderly person is more isolated? We propose to think about how these observations can be transposed into a practice of spiritual care adapted to the context of the Romanian village. Keywords: spiritual care, elderly, death, Romanian villages

Revitalizing Rural Tourism through Creative Tourism: the Role and Importance of the Local Community

Abstract Creative tourism is a current topic, yet most of the research is focused on the urban context, with few articles focusing on how creativity can be used and developed in the setting of rural tourism. Furthermore, the theoretical elements identified in this article can become checkpoints through which better strategies for sustainable rural tourism can be developed in the future. Although rich in culture, Romanian villages have not developed their rural tourism offer to its full potential, partly because of the lack of involvement of the local community in long-term tourism planning and development, but also due to the changes in what tourists want from their tourism experience. In response to shifting patterns in consumer behavior, creative tourism has emerged as a better form of cultural tourism, but mostly in urban areas, which has led to a proliferation of creative industries and people within that specific context. The study proposes that most Romanian rural communities in areas pertaining to tourism already have local individuals with some of the characteristics of the creative people necessary for the development of creative tourism. By involving the entire local community in tourism planning, and not just the local actors with direct ties to it, Romanian rural tourism can be revitalized.

From ‘no dogs here!’ to ‘beware of the dog!’: restricting dog signs as a reflection of social norms

Signs in public space reflect ‘normalcy’ in a community. The authors ask what restricting signs tell us about a society? In order to explore the system and variation in the ways dog signs manifest different norms and control, they compare two different data sets: dog signs in a Northern European town, Jyväskylä in Finland, and two Eastern European villages in Romania. They apply a qualitative methodology based on visual communication, geosemiotics and linguistic landscape studies. The focus of the article is on the resources of addressing and the visual semiotics of the image. The investigated communities seem to create a complementary distribution of what they regulate that is also displayed through their semiotics: the Jyväskylä examples are prohibitions for dogs ‘being’ while the Romanian cases consist of warnings or threats. Both prohibitions and warnings implicate the norms and normalities in the communities, showing where they stand in terms of a continuum between a ‘dog as a pet’ and a ‘dog as a (co-)worker’. As images, the urban signs in Jyväskylä can be characterized as icons of a small collared pet, placed as a part of top-down communication in ‘tight’ public spaces. In contrast, the photographs of big dogs in the open and private Romanian village spaces refer to some specific guard dog, through which their owners communicate a benevolent warning or an intimidating threat.

Enacting Culture in a Romanian Village

“Local culture” has been the focus of anthropological endeavour since the discipline’s beginnings, and the concept has a long history of re-defining and re-framing on all levels (spatial, political, and so on). One particularly useful definition of “culture” put forward by Bourdieu is that which is “taken for granted”—what people do without necessarily being aware of it. Culture is, therefore, similar to ideology, and not unlike Foucault’s notion of discourse, in that its workings are not explicit and visible to those who form part of that culture. Yet, is it really possible to distinguish the notion of “local culture” as practice from discourses around that particular “culture”? Houses of culture—institutions built in eastern Europe and the USSR during the socialist period used to host, represent, and change “local culture”—can raise questions around the practice and performance of culture more generally.

The effect of biostimulant seed treatment on breeding of Aster novi-belgii

Aster novi-belgii is a perennial hemicriptophytes species, commonly grown in the gardens of Romanian villages. It is a plant valued for its hardiness and vigor, especially for colour and abundance of flowering that occurs in early autumn. This paper aims to analyse the influence of different treatments on seed germination regarding the growth and development of Aster novi-belgii seedlings. The experiment was conducted in two stages, depending on the state in which the treatments were applied (seeds, respectively seedlings). The first set of experiments (seed germination) was made in four variants in which a control variant (V1) with non-treated seed and three variants which had immersed seeds in different solutions: distilled water (V2); BlackJak solution 5 mL L(‑1) (V3), Sprintene solution 1 mL L(‑1) (V4). Treatments carried out favoured germination and plant emergence and positively influenced the germination percentage (V1 and V4 - 32%, V2 - 28%, V3 -H 48%), duration and speed of emergence. The best results were obtained by seed soaking in BlackJak 5 mL L(‑1) solution for 1.5 h. In the second stage of the experiment the obtained seedlings were used, which were picked out after approximately 45 days from sowing, and treatments were applied with the same products used to seeds (BlackJak and Sprintene), resulting in three variants: untreated seedlings (V5) seedlings treated with BlackJak 5 mL L(‑1) (V6) and seedlings treated with Sprintene 1 mL L(‑1) (V7). At this stage observations were made on stem height, number of leaves and number of internodes, the best results being recorded for Sprintene treated seedlings.

Satul românesc din Bărăganul Brăilei, între tradiție și modernism

The Romanian village preserved, throughout the ages, the practices, traditions, magical rituals and superstitions inherited from the Dacian-Roman ancestors. Gathered in part and often linked to the great Christian celebrations and liturgical practices of the church, they became, together with the authentic Christian traditions, a constituent part of Romanians’ identity. Under the pressure of modernism, the development of large cities at the expense of the rural environment, the process started after World War II and aggravated by the destruction of many villages in the last period of the communist regime, some of these traditions began to fade. The opening of Romania to the West after the fall of the communist regime, from 1989, brought with it a rapid change in the attitudes of Romanians to the traditions and habits preserved and transmitted from ancient times in the Romanian villages, which began to appear compared to some of the events encountered in the sunset, which they borrowed without any discernment, accelerating the process further. Aware that the loss of these traditional values of the Romanian village can become irreparable with the passage of time, the Orthodox Romanian Church, in turn retaining an important cultural and spiritualtreasure created by the Romanian people in Around Christian values, he ordained that the year 2019 be the “Tribute year of the Romanian village”, a suitable opportunity to bring to the collective memory these lost traditions and customs, or about to be abandoned at the expense of some “imported” from the west, in Vogue Now especially in the great urban agglomerations, where they tend to migrate to rural communities as it is. The present study puts in light, punctually, some traditions that I have known and practiced in the village of Brăila’s Steppe where I lived my childhood, such as those related to the great religious celebrations over the year, by the important events in human life – birth, marriage and death – or those related to domestic life, social-community, etc., A general approach requiring a space that would exceed the frameworks of a study, due to the diversity and particularities. These traditions and customs, differ not only from an ethnographic area of the country to another, but also from one community to another.

Tinerețea patriarhului Nicodim la Dunărea de Jos în contextul anului omagial al satului românesc

“The homage Year of the Romanian village, of the priests, teachers and mayors” and “The commemorative Year of the patriarchs Nicodim Munteanu and Iustin Moisescu”, topics decided by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church to be debated in the Romanian Patriarchate in 2019, they have given numerous scientific and cultural events, symposia or conferences within the Archdiocese of the Lower Danube, which have brought to light personalities of the Romanian village within the eparchy, and have shown how much we owe to our ancestors and how much and how much we have. to learn from them. The close connection between the traditional Romanian village and the intellectual, cultural, church life of the great urban centers of the Country was also highlighted, the village being the source from which the men of state, high hierarchies, great cultural people, intellectuals came out at the right time, especially that have contributed to the unification of all Romanians in a single homeland, to the preservation and affirmation of national identity, to the defense of the right faith and of the Romanian soul. This is also the case of the Nicodim Munteanu, a peasant son from Pipirig village, in the Neamț region, who was the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church between 1939 and 1948. Because an important stage in the becoming of Patriarch Nicodim took place in the Diocese of the Lower Danube, between 1902-1909, the present study sketches the personality and the theological, liturgical, missionary, cultural and administrative activity of Patriarch Nicodim in Galați, as archimandrite of the chair (vicar) and director of the Seminary “Sf. Apostle Andrew” (1908-1909). These issues, briefly presented, will be developed by our young priests, religious teachers, theologians, seminarians and social workers and, no less, by our good young Christians, by all the believers in the Lower Danube Diocese, by far and real useful for the salvation of our souls, for more soul peace, through prayer and the practice of liturgical, cultural and philanthropic life in the real way.

Satul românesc în spațiul și timpul lui Dumnezeu

In the homage cancellation of the Romanian village, they are proposed to look at the perspectives on certain intellectuals on certain aspects. The village, realized ubiquitously in the collective and individual histories of the Romanians, is established in Orthodox churches, conditioned by the Holy Spirit, represents first, webelieve, the hierarchy of values, it relates the endless space to the universe and while it is limited to eternity: the God’s space and time. The Romanian peasant is not in a hurry, he is not pessimistic, he does not lie in despair, because he lives fulfilling God’s Great and “unchanging“ Plan – history. The peasant must create the thought life and glorify God, who takes care of His presence. Thus, during the work, it is marked by Christian holidays of honor to Him, the Mother of God and the Saints. The conclusion is that the issue of space and time in the Romanian village cannot be addressed from the position of God is present, growth is determinant for dimension (length and time), height, depth of depth that characterizes the two concepts. The relativism of today’s world can encompass the Romanian soul.