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Feminist activism is only at an early stage in Romania, yet feminist activists have been able to mobilise mass street protests over the past few years. By looking at the 2012 mobilisations in Romania, this essay aims to understand how feminist movement participation affected the dynamics of these protest events. It is argued that feminist activists have drawn attention to some of the current difficulties faced by women in bringing to the fore alternative voices and messages and resisting patriarchal modes of mobilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article develops a typology of political strategies of coming to terms with the past as a theoretical frame of reference against which it assesses the transitional politics of memory pursued in Romanian post-communist society. It argues that after an initial ‘elusive’ strategy based on a politics of amnesia gave way to a confrontationist stance promoting a politics of anamnesis, the communist past was both politically criminalised and symbolically demonised. The article concludes by arguing that the failure of the ‘mastering the past’ paradigm epitomised by the 2006 Tismăneanu Report needs to give way to a ‘normalising’ paradigm of remembering Romanian communism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the educational attainment, employment and living conditions of young Roma adults in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania with the aid of national generations and gender surveys and other sources of information. It shows that in spite of a small improvement in the educational attainment of young Roma in comparison to the generation of their parents, the educational achievement and employment gaps have increased considerably during the post-communist period. The article also compares living conditions of the Roma with other population groups. It concludes with a discussion of policy challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The impact of ageing on community well-being has been part of the policy discourse in the West, but it is a relatively new problem for the post-socialist countries in Eastern Europe. This study focuses on the patterns of ageing in rural Romania and Bulgaria, offering a holistic view of vulnerabilities, including persistent rural disadvantages, ageing in the countryside and the post-socialist transformation. Aggregate statistics and community case studies reveal the links between demographic processes and community development. This paper contributes to the country-specific analysis of the ageing European periphery in the context of social cohesion as a fundamental European goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on transitional violence in Romania in 1990. According to the author, this violence was caused by competition over resources and responsibility between state security institutions and the favor of elites associated with the National Salvation Front. It is suggested that the revolution of December 1989 had created the conditions necessary for this competition. Topics discussed include demonstrations, Romanian president Ion Iliescu and regime ambiguity.