The protests against recent proposals for exploring and extracting shale gas in Romania are analysed. Examining the specific demands formulated by protesters, we investigate the articulation of a counter-discourse on the social control of natural resources and on the ecological risks involved in the shale gas industry. At the same time, the protests indicate a destabilisation of the post-communist neoliberal consensus by opposing the privatization and deregulation of natural resources. Using a critical political ecology framework, we identify the formation of a specific 'technonatural' environment of shale gas, which includes economic interests, political decisions and ideological representations specific to the neoliberalization of natural resources.

This study examines the issue of environmental risk involved in a proposed gold-mining project at RoşiaMontanȃ , Romania, as it was articulated in the discourses and strategies of the environmentalists protesting against it. We base our paper on the idea that environmental risk has a socially constructed horizon and that counter-discourses on risk represent a fundamental contribution of the environmental protesters to the anti-mining movement. This opposition can be integrated in a broader debate regarding the social and environmental costs of industrial development. The alternative conceptualisation of risk goes beyond narrowly defined ecological issues and applies to the more encompassing perspective of 'communities at risk' . The anti-mining movement's complex repertoire of contention and especially its challenging discourses on risk make it a unique development in post-socialist environmentalism.

This paper proposes a critical discussion of the political economy of hydropower construction in the communist space. We use political economy, economic history and political ecology literature in order to reveal the economic and political relations in which hydropower is embedded in socialist states. The case analysed is the Iron Gates, a joint Romanian‐Yugoslav project which raises specific questions about the techno‐political framework of the new ‘hydraulic landscape’ and its place in socialist economies and societies. The case reveals important transformations in the political and economic relations within the Soviet bloc and provides a description of the complex institutional setting used in the construction of the hydropower system. In parallel, the paper explores the contribution of political power in the construction of the Iron Gates and especially its use in connection with the ideological production of the new communist regime.

This study proposes a critical discussion of a recent gold-mining project at Roşia Montanȃ, Romania and of the alternative development solutions for the area. The aim of the research is to examine the socio-economic consequences of the mining project proposed by the multinational company Roşia Montanȃ Gold Corporation and the struggle of the resistance movement to the mining project for an alternative development, in order to understand the complexity of development processes in rural communities in post-communist Romania. In analysing the socioeconomic risks involved in conventional development, we focus especially on revealing the intrinsic limits of mono-industrialism and on the issue of population displacement by development. In the second part of the paper we discuss the feasibility of alternative development solutions for the area. The paper relies on a theoretical framework that combines the critical literature on conventional development and the recent debates on grassroots development.

By connecting the literature on urban development processes in post-socialist cities with debates from the area of place branding, this paper critically examines recent narratives of city branding in Timișoara, Romania. The aim is to investigate one specific case in the reproduction and adaptation of global urban development policies and to examine its relevance for the context of post-socialist urban politics. Our findings indicate a specific circularity between city branding and urban development, which is used to align the city to the regional inter-urban economic competition and to promote it as a space of rapid development. The outcome is a mélange of different narratives, based on disparate histories and representations of the city, which are assembled in ad-hoc and often contradictory branding discourses.