Shrinking Cities in Romania

The Shrinking Cities in Romania project, conceived by architect and curator Ilinca Păun Constantinescu, took shape after a research that has begun more than ten years ago. Written in English and Romanian and internationally distributed, the two 800 pages volumes discuss the shrinkage of Romanian cities, as a widespread phenomenon. The publication follows the structure of the exhibition presented at the MNAC in 2016, a pioneering initiative to raise awareness about an acute and pervasive, yet too little discussed matter, and substantially complements its contents through extensive articles by distinguished researchers. Although mostly perceived as a negative phenomenon, shrinkage can be a vector for modernization and innovation, re-use, alternative resources, artistic creation, and reevaluation of interpersonal relationsh

Vol. 1: Philipp Oswalt,Tim Rieniets, Ilinca Păun Constantinescu, Vintilă Mihăilescu, Irina Tulbure, Vasile Ghețău, Gabriel Pascariu, Șerban Popescu-Criveanu, Augustin Ioan, Dana Vais, Angelica Stan, Toader Popescu, Bianca Mitrică, Bogdan Suditu, Ioan Ianoș, Liviu Ianăși, Vera Marin, Sorin Ioniță, Maria Voichiţa Grecu, Manuela Stănculescu, Ioana Tudora, Ilinca Păun Constantinescu, Tudor Constantinescu, Mihai Sima, Anca Trestian, Raluca Sabău, Stejara Timiș, Andreea Iancu, Ioana Cîrlig, Marin Raica, Irina Tulbure, Andreea Chirică, Celia Ghyka, Alex Călin, Radu Ponta, Oana Iacob, Tudor Giurgiu, Alexandru Belc, Gabriela Alexandrescu, Teodora Ana Mihai

Vol. 2: Cristina Sucală, Ion Barbu, Andrei Dăscălescu, Ilinca Păun Constantinescu, Dragoș Dascălu, Angelica Stan, Irina Pața, Ana-Maria Pălăduș, Emil Octavian Zorilă, Bogdan Jitea, Răzvan Delcea, Luminița Tatarici, Oana Chirilă, Patricia Blidariu, Răzvan Popescu, Silvia Boeriu, Daniela Calciu, Ina Stoian, Alex Axinte, Cristi Borcan, Oana Ţiganea, Simona Zărnescu- Braniște, Gabriela Pașcu, Marina Neagu, Alexandra Stoica, Mark Lorant

This book looks at Romania as a case study nearly thirty years after the collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact. In a very short time, political and economic conditions across Eastern Europe changed drastically, with affected countries being confronted with a globalized capitalist market economy. The current globalization model succeeds in stimulating overall economic growth in most nations, but does so at the cost of social and spatial division. The very substantial and precise study of Ilinca Păun Constantinescu and her team and partners provides a deep understanding of these issues by analyzing the shrinking cities phenomenon. And they even go one important step further, by daring to formulate and initiate constructive ways to address these issues and envisioning perspectives for these marginalized places.

—Philipp Oswalt

The unique achievement of this work is to have brought together research, theory, and action for the first time to deal with the issue of Romanian shrinking cities. The format of the publication is ambivalent, being at the same time an edited volume and an authored book. Built as a repertoire of arguments and authors that talk to each other at the intersection of disciplines, perspectives, and conventional and unconventional intervention tools, it reads like an edited volume. But then the theoretical confidence with which Ilinca Păun Constantinescu leads the dialogue and her significant auctorial presence point to an authored book. Further, this fusion between the rigor of scientific research, the quirkiness of artistic restlessness, and the selflessness of social activism reveals a multi-targeted approach, which makes the book the more difficult to fit into one of the usual disciplinary categories of contemporary Romania.