Font Size: a A A

On the margins of the European Union: A feminist geography of changing livelihood strategies in Romania's Western borderlands, 1999--2005

Posted on:2010-08-10Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:University of California, DavisCandidate:Lelea, Margareta AmyFull Text:PDF
GTID:1447390002482016Subject:Geography
Abstract/Summary:
As a contribution to the post-communist geography of Romania's Western border, the purpose of this research is to analyze relationships between global and local economic and political processes and to trace how each are mutually constitutive in the construction of livelihood strategies in this globalizing, pre-European Union (E.U.), space. Entrepreneurship in both the formal and informal economy, along with subsistence agriculture, factory work and international migration circuits for work in agriculture, domestic service and factories, are framed as a collective of broad, overlapping strategies of livelihood that are needed to survive in a rapidly changing environment.;The literature review includes Romanian, Hungarian, and Anglo-American research which addresses feminist geography, critical geography, development studies (Ch. 2), as well as literature specific to the Hungarian - Romanian border (Ch. 4). Chapter 3 details the research methodology along with a discussion of theoretical issues related to qualitative ethnographic research. Chapter 5 analyzes attitudes and perspectives regarding the geopolitical changes from communism to post-communism to prospective E.U. accession. In Chapter 6 rural development in this border region is considered in the context of counterurbanization, subsistence agriculture, and an agriculture in which fewer and fewer people are able to succeed. Chapter 7 analyzes micro-entrepreneurship and cross-border informal trading networks in this border region in terms of gender, race and class. In conclusion, this research is summarized in the context of emerging inequalities and transformations during the pre-accession era and how it leads into an understanding of some of the processes which have begun after the 2007 E.U. accession.
Keywords/Search Tags:Geography, Border, Livelihood, Strategies
Related items