FSP - Sociology

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Noul capitalism românesc
(Polirom, 2006) Pasti, Vladimir
In December 1989, for a plurality of reasons and in a special international conjuncture, Romanians overthrew the communist party from power, putting an end not only to an authoritarian political system, but also to the history of a form of social and economic organization, the communist one. Despite the fact that the Romanian revolution of 1989 was broadcast live on international television during the Christmas holidays, and enjoyed special attention from world public opinion, it was chronologically only one of the last such events to mark the end of political and socio-economic communism in Eastern Europe. 1989 can be considered the year of the victory of developed capitalism in Western Europe and North America in the "cold war" that lasted for almost half a century after the end of the Second World War. The confrontation between the Western world and the "socialist camp", which had been seeking an alternative civilization to capitalist civilization, ended with the political, economic and ideological-cultural victory of the West. The most important effect of this victory was the reorientation of the new, former communist societies towards a reconstruction of their own civilization. Recognizing not only their defeat, predominantly non-military, but also their inferiority to Western civilization, societies that had striven to build a communist civilization for over 7 decades in the case of Russia and over four decades in the case of its European satellites, made a huge turning point in their own history, opting politically for a complete social, economic and political reconstruction, that is, for the adoption of Western civilization.
Romania : high rising inequalities over two decades of post-communist transformation
(Oxford University Press, 2014) Precupețu, Iuliana; Precupețu, Marius
In Romania, during the post-communist transition, inequality increased tremendously. While, in 1990, the value of the Gini coefficient placed this country at the level of Sweden, by 2007 Romania had become the most unequal country in Europe according to the same coefficient. Although Romania was an egalitarian country under communism, it was characterized by equality at a very low level of income and the population was generally poor and impoverished. Today, the country displays high levels of inequality while incomes continue to remain very low. The recent history of GDP growth can generally be described as having an up and down pattern. Economic recession started in the mid 1980s, became established and became further aggravated during the first years of transition. The year 1991 registered a record low of a 12 per cent contraction in economic output. The economy slowly started to recover in 1993 and a relative stabilization was noticeable, but only for four years. The output expansion was reversed by renewed economic turmoil in 1997 and 1998. In 2000, a new period of economic growth began, which seemed at the time to be on a more robust and sustainable path: in 2008, GDP registered a record high of 9.6 per cent growth. However, the positive
Science and social knowledge or what we do not know about what we believe we know
(Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, 2023) Pasti, Vladimir
What is knowledge and how can we analyse it from within social sciences as social knowledge? Our socially driven intuition tells us that knowledge is a special relation that humans have with their surrounding world. Its specificity lies primarily in the fact that it implies a direct interaction with the environment. Another important and interesting characteristic of knowledge is its tendency to replace interactions with reality with interactions between pieces of knowledge produced about that specific reality. Connected to this, regarding the issue of truth, paraphrasing both Einstein and Smith, this article argues that ‘an invisible hand’ of the realities of social phenomena makes it so, that the accepted truths of a certain society are those and only those that are functional for the survival and reproduction of that society. And for this to happen it is a must that the elite designated with the production and the legitimation of ‘the truths’ exists and produces those ‘truths’ that support the ‘general interest’ of that respective society. Most importantly is to understand that the consistency of the legitimated truths with the dominant values of the society imbedded in its social order is far more important that their consistency with the empirical observations of the reality.
A citizen-driven alternative to corporate social responsability
(Tritonic, 2016) Palade, Brîndușa
Despite the existence of a small number of companies genuinely committed to investing in sustainable products, the shallowness of the green claims of many others, which has often been revealed in recent years, is a considerable flaw of a classic CSR model that emphasizes the development of a corporate responsibility towards environment and society. This is the main reason why I argue for a shift in business ethics from a corporate- to a citizen-driven moral responsibility to build a sustainable future. Likewise, although governments are major players in any global shift towards a cleaner production, they cannot be taken as primary moral agents, due to electoral considerations that may discourage them from promoting a climate legislation which promises mostly long-term benefits, and makes “sacrifices” in the short- and middle-run. As an alternative, I advance a triadic model, which considers the environmentally minded citizens as the driving force of a green shift. According to this model, citizens would pressure governments to enforce climate regulations and to monitor the green claims of companies and business groups, by sanctioning them electorally if they fail to do so. Governments, in turn, would be mandated to promote new enforceable climate regulations and to provide mandatory guidelines to companies as to how to implement new cleaner technologies. Yet, the technological innovations themselves, and the investment in renewable energy should belong to the private sector, which has both the expertise and the capability to create and implement new designs and technologies for their own products.
Prolegomena to the Romanian sociology and historiography of food
(Polirom, 2017) Bucur, Bogdan
This article examines the dietary habits of the predominantly rural (and also urban) population from Romania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In order to access valid data regarding the diet of the local population, we used the analysis of social documents: journals and memoirs of foreign travelers transiting the Romanian Principalities (Wallachia and Moldavia) throughout the nineteenth century, respectively the monographic research of the Sociological School of Bucharest published mainly in the magazine called Sociologie Românească (1936-1942). At various points in time, we employed comparisons between the diet of the people from urban and rural environments, or between the food regimens of adults and children, correlations between the dietary habits and health status of the population, and between the dietary habits from Romania and those from other European and South American countries. A reading of the current article reveals certain a continuity, for hundreds of years, concerning the deficient dietary regimen of the Romanian peasant, who relied heavily on mămăligă, eaten together with several dairy products. Another conclusion is that, in the rural environment, food scarcity was not economically conditioned: even in the relatively prosperous households that were supplied with all the necessary aliments, women prepared plain, tasteless dishes, because they did not know how to cook. And finally, from a theoretical perspective, in this article we aim to address the rural roots of Romanian historiography and sociology of food (which we shall attempt to examine against similar scientific approaches from Western Europe).
Population health in interwar Romania reflected in the sociological school of Bucharest's research and publications
(McFarland & Co., 2016) Bucur, Bogdan
In this essay, I intend to elaborate on the subject of population health in interwar Romania, as reflected in the Sociological School of Bucharest’s research and publications. Therefore, all the data and information presented in this essay are based on Gustian School analysis and surveys, all rigorously substantiated methodologically, and either published in the prestigious scientific papers of the—so far—first and only Romanian school of sociology, either preserved in various national archives.
A hypothesis on the origin and synchrony of the Romanian and western medical sociology
(Presa Universitara Clujeana, 2016) Bucur, Bogdan
The present article focuses on the eating habits of the population of interwar Romania, as rendered in the monographic research of the Sociological School of Bucharest, founded and led by Professor Dimitrie Gusti. It also investigates the health state of the Romanian citizens, mainly, but not exclusively, of those from rural areas. Our sources of information on the nutrition and public health of interwar Romania consisted in the studies and research carried out in the 1918–1948 period by the Sociological School of Bucharest, published in scientific journals and books edited under the scientific authority of Professor Gusti. In this respect, we have examined, almost in its entirety, the relevant work published by the Monographic School on the subject of nutrition and public health.The present article aims, therefore, to summarize the sociological studies and research carried out in the interwar period, at national level, which we above mentioned. It also aims to bring forward, for further critical scrutiny, a hypothesis regarding the synchrony between the Romanian medical sociology(of Gustian origin) and the similar scientific movements from the Western countries.
The methodology and deontology of sociological research in times of war and dictatorship
(Filodiritto Editore, 2020) Bucur, Bogdan
It is a lesser-known fact that the sociological researches – of political and administrative orientation – carried out by Gusti School, during the interwar Romania, continued during World War II, when Marshal Antonescu established the military dictatorship regime, in September 1940. Moreover, the sociological research carried out in Transnistria, on the left bank of the Dniester River, during Antonescu’s regime, innovated Gusti’s monograph. This appened although the administrative performance of the Government from Bucharest was worse than that of the previous Soviet Government – as the studies of the sociologist Golopentia, made in Transnistria, during World War II, under the temporary Romanian military occupation, reveal. For the first time, the political-administrative dimension was rigorously studied from a scientific standpoint by the Sociological School of Bucharest, in Transnistria, between December 1941-February 1944, at the disposal of Antonescu’s government. At that time, a team from the National Institute of Statistics, led by Anton Golopentia, had been commissioned to identify the Romanians from the East of Bug, to repatriate them from the former Soviet territory of Ukraine occupied by Nazi Germany. In such circumstances, as it is usually the case, monographic research was done. This time the research was carried out in Valea-Hoţului, a locality from Transnistria, Ananiev county, between January and March 1942. In this historical context, in some of the investigated villages, the sociological research report included an informative note regarding the political views of the local population, under the Romanian military occupation regime. Also, the political perception of the Transnistrian Moldovans regarding Antonescu’s government was scientifically studied in comparison with the previous Soviet regime. The research findings were astonishing. The sociological reports submitted to the government systematically contained information intentionally falsified by the monographs. The purpose was not to expose the local population to the risk of potential political persecutions by Antonescu’s government. In this context, it should be noted that the dissatisfaction with the Romanian administration in Transnistria was almost generalized, but perfectly justified by the flawed way in which this former Soviet province was governed. However, all social information was accurately collected from the field, from a methodological point of view.
The interlinkage between sociology and politics in monographic research in interwar Romania
(Centrul de Studii Transilvane, 2020) Bucur, Bogdan
The close relationship that prevailed between the two World Wars between the Romanian intellectuals and the political power, combined with the departure of social scientists from the principle of axiological neutrality, represented, during the reference period, a fact of life at european level and not in the least just accidents for Gustian monographers. During the period under review, the Romanian (and european) intellectuals seemed fascinated with the illusion of power. The political engagement of the Gustian monographers was a widespread phenomenon during the interwar and postwar periods. Being aware of the fact that field sociological research, no matter how scientifically robust, had but a limited spread and an immaterial impact on the population, the Gustian monographers ended up believing that the political activism of university students remained the only solution for the evolution of Romania. In this regard, sociology was perceived and understood as a science of the Romanian nation, and was used for the benefit of the state apparatus.

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