Communism – postcommunism continuum. The urban Romania in the 21st century

• Main Author: Tudor Pitulac
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Facultatea de Stiinte Politice, SNSPA 2013-02-01
• Series: Sfera Politicii
• Subjects: postcommunism; urban habitat; community
• Online Access: http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/173/art19-Pitulac.php

While trying to understand the deeper meanings of the transition from communism to post communism in Romania, the study analyses the evolution of urban environment. The focus is especially on the evolution of community in the urban area, defined as a social structure with the main function to assure an efficient informal social control and to enable the capacity to react. The communist practices in designing the urban environment were marked by a profound totalitarian perspective, with the undeclared but obvious intention to keep the population in an advanced state of atomization, with an acute incapacity to react against the regime. This policy generated certain inertia at the level of public policy and administrative decisions, perpetuating dysfunction from the previous period. Therefore, as long as we shall live upon the same conditions as in the former period, the problems will not improve. Hence, it is questionable the use of the post prefix for any reference in regard to this period.