‘We are not the Wild West’: anti-fracking protests in Romania

Abstract

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.

Belonging to and in the Shale Gas Fields. A Case‐Study of the Noordoostpolder, the Netherlands

“…This resonates with other studies that have showed that land and landscapes are important in mobilising belonging as a way of resisting fracking (Willow et al . ) and that citizens focus on community continuity, political empowerment, and environmental sustainability (Vesalon and Creţan ; Willow ) rather than on the monetary value of resources.…”

“…Opposition is thus not only directed at fracking itself (substantial values), but also at the process surrounding its regulation and development (procedural values) (Bomberg ; Correljé et al . ; Vesalon and Creţan ).…”

Quiet voices in the fracking debate: Ambivalence, nonmobilization, and individual action in two extractive communities (Saskatchewan and Pennsylvania)

“…This literature has focused on the social, environmental, and economic impacts [11,25,40,48], the regulatory environment [12,39,53,57,58], and the mobilization and framing efforts of anti-fracking movements [22,29,35,46,51,52,59]. By now both the positive and negative health, environmental, social, and economic impacts of fracking are well documented, and we know that, in some places, collective campaigns have realized changes to regulations and local bans on fracking.…”

“…In Australia, civil society groups offered alternatives to the neoliberalizing frames used by proponents of fracking [32]. And in Romania, anti-fracking groups were mobilized through frames emphasizing nationalism, political transparency and ecological risk [52].…”

Zombie socialism and the rise of neoliberalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe

“…Only Slovenia, Slovakia, and Lithuania are beneath the EU28 average (57%). Other tangible effects are the evacuation of the social justice agenda from the social democratic parties in the region and the emergence of a neoliberal consensus, punctuated occasionally by ecologist movements, geopolitical disruptions, or nationalist overtones, as is the case in Hungary and recently, Poland (Vesalon and Cretan 2015). Most social democratic parties that were, in theory, supposed to stand for the losers of transition have adopted Tony Blair's "Third Way. "…”