Abstract

The fall of the Soviet Union was a transformative event for the national political economies of Eastern Europe, leading not only to new regimes of ownership and development but to dramatic changes in the natural world itself. This painstakingly researched volume focuses on the emblematic case of postsocialist Romania, in which the transition from collectivization to privatization profoundly reshaped the nation’s forests, farmlands, and rivers. From bureaucrats abetting illegal deforestation to peasants opposing government agricultural policies, it reveals the social and political mechanisms by which neoliberalism was introduced into the Romanian landscape.

Stefan Dorondel is a Senior Researcher at the Francisc Rainer Institute of Anthropology Bucharest. He holds doctorates in History and Ethnology from Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania, and in Agricultural Economics from Humboldt University Berlin. His publications include the co-edited volume At the Margins of History: The Agrarian Question in Southeast Europe (2014).

“This very well-written and thoroughly researched book is an important addition to the collection of not-so-numerous books on the politics of land in Romania, together with valuable comparison analyses of the similar development in other postsocialist countries in Eastern Europe. Dorondel also offers us an impressive list of references, adding a valuable rendition of the selected number of sources in English. Adding even more value to Disrupted Landscapes are the statistical data, maps, and selected illustrations. The volume should be of interest to both general readers and specialists in that it covers a very broad range of issues placed within a large comparative framework.” • EuropeNow

“For those concerned with the transformations of land relations since the fall of socialism and of the mechanisms behind them, this book is essential reading.” • Slavic Review

“This is clearly the best study on the environmental history of Romania published to date. It is a paragon of vivid, illustrative, and intimate local history combined with an international outlook.” • Joachim Radkau, Universität Bielefeld

“Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Disrupted Landscapes takes a broad view of the transformations taking place in rural Romania in the first part of the 2000s. It presents one of the most finely granulated pictures of the workings of power in rural settings.” • Diana Mincyte, New York City College of Technology