The Making of a National Park: Ruins of Nature and History in Northern Dobrudja

After 1990, nature conservation areas multiplied all over Central and Eastern Europe. National parks came into being as part of a dramatically changing society, economy, and culture. Scholarly efforts to understand national parks rely either on arguments about the social construction of nature or on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEast European politics and societies Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 596 - 614
Main Author Cotoi, Călin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications Ltd 01.08.2017
SAGE Publications
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Articulation
Conservation
Conservation areas
Discourses
Environmental and Energy policy
Fieldwork
Human Ecology
Landscape
Modernization
National parks
Nature conservation
Parks & recreation areas
Political Ecology
Political history
Social construction
Traditions
Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Romania
national park
environment
forests
ruinous development
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Summary:After 1990, nature conservation areas multiplied all over Central and Eastern Europe. National parks came into being as part of a dramatically changing society, economy, and culture. Scholarly efforts to understand national parks rely either on arguments about the social construction of nature or on political ecology. In this article, I attempt to point to the analytical potential of the literature on ruins for expanding studies carried out in both theoretical traditions. I draw from fieldwork in nature conservation areas in southeastern Romania to explore how actors gain access to critical discourses and complex ways of narrating and enrolling the landscapes. The mechanisms that counterpoise safeguarding and development are analyzed as parts of a longue durée articulation of ruination and modernization.
ISSN:0888-3254
1533-8371
DOI:10.1177/0888325417703185