Academic literature on the topic 'Post-communism – Social aspects – Romania'

THE TRANSITION FROM COMMUNIST TOTALITARIANISM TO a democratic socio-political organization and to a market economy system depends on several economic factors (capital, technology, skilled labour force, competent management) and also on political and cultural elements. The political speeches, whether delivered by government or opposition in Romania, underline almost exclusively the financial, technological or political aspects, neglecting quite completely the psycho-sociological dimension of this transitory period. The fact that the economic reforms somehow failed is only partly due to the lack of economic resources or to organizational setbacks. These are, of course, significant and undeniable reasons, but there is one more explanation rather forgotten, and that is the attitude of the Romanian population itself towards economic, social and political changes.

Imagine all history written as if all people, even women, mattered. Until a couple of decades ago, that was at most an aspiration for those of us working on East European history. Since then, however, and especially with the fall of Communism, feminist scholars have made significant inroads toward achieving this goal. This review essay reflects on the contributions made by five such studies that focus on different aspects of women's lives under state socialism in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Poland, and Romania. In one way or another, each author asks similar questions about the relationship between the Communist ideological emphasis on gender equality as a core moral value, on the one hand, and the policies and actions of these regimes with regard to women, on the other hand. Moreover, all studies focus on how women themselves participated in articulating, reacting to, and in some cases successfully challenging these policies. In short, they present us with excellent examples of how pertinent gender analysis is for understanding the most essential aspects of the history of Communism in Eastern Europe: how this authoritarian regime transformed individual identity and social relations.

This paper examines some aspects of the institutional history of post-war Romanian philosophy, with a special focus on the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of People’s Republic of Romania. The aim of this article is to shed more light on the main aspects of philosophical research during cultural Stalinism, and to underline the inflexion points within Romanian “philosophical” writings between 1948 and 1965. I examined the lack of human resources and its impact on the emergence of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, as well as the main research topics studied at the Philosophy Section of the Institute of History and Philosophy and Institute of Philosophy especially in the 1950s. I focused also on the context of unmasking and purging of the “philosophical” front mainly in late 1950s, underlining the Agitprop fight against Revisionism and “bourgeois” influence in social sciences. The avatars of the philosophical field are analysed through the lens of professor’s Constantin Ionescu Gulian’s destiny as an important manager of the institutions producing philosophy during the aforementioned period.

The article analyzes the phenomenon of paradiplomacy as a factor of fragmentation in a globalized world, which reflects the complex processes of reducing the role of the state as an actor and a foreign policy instrument in the post-Westphalian era. Different and real processes of regionalization and transregional interaction are investigated, using paradigm diplomacy in the Chernivtsi region. The author explores the factor of increasing the role of regional elites in order to increase their own legitimacy in the context of transregional interaction in the Upper Region Euroregion. Complexities and contradictions of transregional cooperation are considered. It’s concluded that the narrowing of this Euroregion should be avoided for ineffective communication between the managers and representatives of the bureaucracy of the three countries. The article noted that the granting of dual citizenship to representatives of the Romanian and Moldovan communities of Chernivtsi region is a certain critical milestone holding back highquality economic and social cooperation within the Upper Prut Euroregion. The author’s proposal is to launch a joint international educational and cultural project of Ukraine and Romania «History of Bukovina of the Twentieth сentury: without stereotypes and layers». The implementation of such project will help to overcome the old stereotypes in contemporary Ukrainian-Romanian relations, being a reliable tool for a more effective cultural paradigm over the next decade. We are facing the construction of European tradition in Ukraine, as well as in Romania and Moldova, which should be worthy of puzzle. Only then will the citizens of our three countries residing in the Upper Prut Euroregion become truly status citizens of United Europe, feeling the positive effects of the development of regional paradiplomacy.

Abstract Borders are particular (in-between) spaces: they have this side and the other side, which involve several real and imaginary spaces at the same time. For minorities, “beyond the borders” is also a specific space of language use. This paper discusses the correlations between minority bilingualism and social structure characteristics based on sociological surveys, taking as approach the sociology of space and John Ogbu’s ecological cultural model of schooling. It aims to offer an overview of my research carried out on this topic and tries to provide some references for rethinking the sociological implications of minority education considering the experiences of three decades since the fall of communism in Romania. The main results of this research – in concordance with other findings of similar inquiries – show that a mother-tongue education for ethnic Hungarian children in Romania is a necessary but not sufficient condition for reducing the structural gap that Hungarians in Transylvania have inherited from the 20th century. This study is centred on the aspects of interrelation between the language of education and labour market, more specifically on those linked to the attitudes and patterns of behaviour towards the official language, with particular focus on the role that languages play in the society and, in a narrower sense, in self-positioning on the labour market.

This article focuses on how the Other is represented and understood in films produced in Romania during periods of radical political, social and economic change. Specifically it addresses films produced during the years of communism and the planned economy, during the transition to democracy and to capitalism, as well as films produced during the period of democracy, capitalism and membership in the European Union. The research acknowledges two main aspects: the changing face of the Other over time (the socialist state, the foreign investors, the West, etc.) and the consistency of the fantasy structure. More specifically, the relationship between self and the Other generally follows a strict masochist fantasy script in which the Other has the power to constrain freedom, to inflict pain, and to function as an essential element through which pleasure is understood and experienced. The research proposes an understanding of this structure of fantasy, reflected in film through the existence of a national psyche written by the main myths and stories embraced by the society in discussion. This structure of fantasy hails and constructs a certain subject that has a basic masochistic psychic structure.

This article focuses on fund financing management of one of the utmost important European Union funds, the European Social Fund (ESF), and its implementation in Romania in its post adherence period (2007-2013). In this respect, the main aspects regarding the management and implementation of this program in Romania, as compared to other European countries, are analyzed taking into consideration the declared objectives at its launching moment. Through a defective management, these objectives have not reached their target, whereas the educational market of continuous adult education has been strongly distorted from the competitive point of view. Moreover, due to inadequate financial management, many of the involved agencies—private companies, schools, constitutive parts of the civil society, have gone bankrupted—the fact that would lead to a serious social imbalance.The research part of this article, being implied in the management of the most important strategic projects of this program (projects in qualifications for the spa tourism, agro-tourism, and food industry), presents a critical point of view on ESF management at a national level and highlights a set of proposals and recommendations, so that, between 2014 and 2020, Romania should be aligned with the European standards regarding the performance in implementing programs with non-reimbursable financing.

Abstract Following the Treaty of Trianon, in Transylvania, which had been detached from historical Hungary and attached to Romania, besides the Romanian majority, there lived a considerable Hungarian- and German-speaking minority. Although in the last two decades of the communist dictatorship – in the 70s and 80s – as a consequence of emigration to Germany, the number of ethnic Germans decreased substantially, the number of Hungarian speakers is over one million even today. Regarding the characteristics of the post-World War II literary discourse and cultural policy, in the second half of the forties, the communist power gained control over all manifestations of community life in Romania. It regulated culture and the arts, banned, abolished, or restructured all forums that had enjoyed some kind of independence, and completely revised the literary and artistic canon. In this era, the discourse emphasizing the aspects of revolutionary transformation and radical policy change decisively builds on the enemy image; the fault-line between past and present and the necessity of continuous political struggle prevail in both poetry and prose. In order to achieve the intended social goals, this kind of communist sacrifice ethics regards the annihilation of resisters, protesters, and even of the internal opposition not only as a possibility but as an assumed necessity. This paper aims to present the ideological/political and aesthetic/poetic tendencies that determined Transylvanian Hungarian literature and cultural policy from the mid-40s until the end of 20th century.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has affected numerous aspects of human functioning. Social contacts, work, education, travel, and sports have drastically changed during the lockdown periods. The pandemic restrictions have severely limited professional athletes’ ability to train and participate in competitions. For many who rely on sports as their main source of income, this represents a source of intense stress. To assess the dynamics of perceived stress as well as coping strategies during different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, we carried out a longitudinal study using the Perception of Stress Questionnaire and the Brief COPE on a sample of 2020 professional athletes in Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The results revealed that in all three countries, the highest intrapsychic stress levels were reported during the fourth wave (all, p < 0.01) and the highest external stress levels were reported before the pandemic (p < 0.05). To analyze the data, analyses of variance were carried out using Tukey’s post hoc test and η2 for effect size. Further, emotional tension was the highest among Polish and Slovak athletes in the fourth wave, while the highest among Romanian athletes was in the pre-pandemic period. The coping strategies used by the athletes in the fourth wave were more dysfunctional than during the first wave (independent t test and Cohen’s d were used). The dynamics of the coping strategies—emotion focused and problem focused—were also discussed among Polish, Romanian, and Slovak athletes. Coaches and sports psychologists can modify the athletes’ perceived stress while simultaneously promoting effective coping strategies.

This study proposes a theoretical approach to the idea of a platform for research and education on the historical substance of regionalization in Romania, with reference to the case of the historical province of Moldova. Furthermore, to identify the consequences, reactions, weaknesses, opportunities afforded by administrative restructuring from a post-regionalization demographic and socioeconomic viewpoint. An inter-disciplinary analysis – historical, demographic, economic – the traits of a Romanian society stemming from Moldova, the historical dynamics that underpin the modern Romanian state, will provide a picture of the current situation, focused mainly on its causes while trying to find explanations rooted in economic and social behaviours and attitudes which came to define and inform the subsequent development strategy of regionalization, allowing Moldova to play a central economic role in relation to other territories, similar to the role it played in the past two centuries, in the context of European integration strategies, in neighbouring parts of the continent (Republic of Moldova, Ukraine). The theoretical approach involves three components, expanding concentrically: 1) component of knowledge / research; 2) digital platform; 3) e-learning component. The research component seeks dynamic historical development of Moldova, from the time after the Union of the Romanian Principalities until today, focusing on specific regional elements. We will try to identify and analyze the specific features of Moldova, links with other areas of historical Moldavia, as the interaction between them and the Romanian public policy. Within the demographic component, we look at the historical population dynamics of Moldova, including various ethnic and religious communities, rural-urban ratios, social and professional structures. Another issue concerns the economic and comparative analysis in space and time, with respect to Moldova historical economic dynamics parameters - resources, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, trade, transport, etc. Both aspects will be analyzed in correlation with the impact of a permanent political factor, pursuing public policies promoted by the political regimes in their chronological sequence.

Il y a un siècle, en 1903, un jeune étudiant roumain présentait à la Faculté de droit de l’Université de Paris une dissertation intitulée « Etude sur la magistrature roumaine ». Son travail s’attachait à montrer « la crise de l’institution judiciaire » ainsi que les nombreux « espoirs de réformes (…) pour constituer une magistrature capable de rendre tous les services nécessaires à la stabilité et au progrès » du pays. Descriptive et normative, cette thèse se terminait par la phrase suivante :« Nous courrons à l’abîme, à l’écroulement de nos institutions et de nos lois (…) et cela justement parce que nous n’avons pas su assurer à notre magistrature l’indépendance nécessaire pour la défense et pour le châtiment ».

La présente dissertation se situe certes dans la prolongation de cette recherche, mais ce n’est pas le désir de la continuer qui justifie notre intérêt pour la réforme de la justice dans le contexte de l’adhésion de la Roumanie à l’Union européenne. Un siècle plus tard, d’autres raisons nous ont poussée à convertir une question médiatisée en problématique de recherche en science politique. Dans les années 2000, le processus de « retour à l’Europe » de la Roumanie a été sérieusement ralenti. La crise de l’institution judiciaire roumaine était d’une actualité évidente. Elle se présentait, d’ailleurs, comme le dernier bastion de résistance aux changements imposés par la transition vers la démocratie et par la nécessité de s’adapter aux exigences formulées par l’Union européenne. Devant une littérature récente qui met l’accent sur l’exceptionnalisme du communisme et du post-communisme roumain, la question qui a stimulé au départ notre réflexion a été de savoir comment et pourquoi ce pays, dont les réformes sont lentes et difficiles, s’adapte aux exigences de l’Union européenne.

A partir de cet encadrement générique, quelques précisions méthodologiques s’imposent. Construire un objet scientifique consiste d’abord à réaliser une mise en problématique de la réalité que l’on souhaite observer et analyser. Dans le cas qui nous intéresse, ce qu’on appelle « la réforme de la justice » est un champ d’action publique extrêmement vaste, mais ce qui fédère les différentes mesures de réforme est leur finalité :une indépendance plus affirmée de l’institution judiciaire vis-à-vis du pouvoir politique.

Que doit-on expliquer et en quoi doit consister l’explication lorsque l’on veut comprendre et expliquer une réforme dans ce domaine ?Pour nous, l’exercice de reconstruction de l’émergence et du développement de ce processus législatif consiste à mettre en lumière à la fois ses étapes et ses phases, mais aussi les interactions entre des facteurs qui accélèrent ou freinent le mouvement de réforme. Cette dissertation traite de la façon dont la consolidation des garanties d’indépendance de la justice a été envisagée comme problème public dans la Roumanie post-communiste, des significations ainsi que des réponses politiques et institutionnelles qui ont été données à travers le temps à ce problème. La dissertation se propose de voir comment et dans quelles conditions on passe, lors de l’adhésion à l’UE, d’une justice « aveugle » et asservie au pouvoir politique vers ce qu’un magistrat qualifiait récemment de « paradis de la démocratie de la magistrature ».

Cette première opération de problématisation s’est poursuivie par la formulation d’une série d’hypothèses. Comme toute étude sur le policy change se focalise sur un ou plusieurs facteurs explicatifs, au départ, nous avons envisagé d’analyser cette décision politique dans une double perspective :comme l’effet de la conditionnalité de l’Union européenne et comme le résultat de la compétition partisane. Au fur et à mesure que la vérification de ces deux hypothèses avançait, nous en avons testé une 3ème à partir de laquelle nous avons analysé la consolidation des garanties d’indépendance de la justice comme le résultat de la compétition des acteurs nationaux dans la définition politique et sociale du secteur à réformer. Nous avons opérationnalisé ces 3 hypothèses en utilisant des concepts propres à trois littératures distinctes :le néo-institutionnalisme historique, la littérature sur l’européanisation et l’approche cognitive des politiques publiques.

Précisons d’abord que cette recherche a été commencée dans le contexte d’un apparent « renouveau » conceptuel dans l’étude des transformations post-communistes. Vers la fin des années 1990, la littérature sur l’européanisation lançait de nouvelles pistes de recherche et offrait de nouveaux outils d’analyse et hypothèses de recherche. C’est dans cette perspective que nous avons inscrit notre réflexion en postulant que dans l’étude de la consolidation des garanties d’indépendance de la justice en Roumanie, l’Union européenne met la question de l’indépendance de la justice à l’agenda du pays et qu’elle impulse le changement par un large éventail de mécanismes d’européanisation.

Ensuite, une deuxième hypothèse a été formulée - centrée sur le rôle des élites politiques nationales - pour expliquer la résistance au changement. Si par le rôle de l’UE on se proposait d’expliquer le changement, la lenteur de la réforme de l’institution judiciaire résultait à nos yeux de l’absence au niveau national d’une matrice cognitive et normative qui conduise à un renouveau de l’institution judiciaire.

Mais, le test de ces deux hypothèses a révélé un certain nombre de surprises. La première survalorisait le rôle de l’UE, la portée de sa conditionnalité et des mécanismes d’européanisation tandis que la deuxième minimalisait le rôle du législateur roumain et la modernité de sa réflexion sur une indépendance plus affirmée de l’institution judiciaire. Qui plus est, en formulant ces deux hypothèses, la recherche se focalisait uniquement sur la période post-communiste. La longue durée était écartée et le processus de réforme était analysé comme une réponse des élites politiques de Bucarest à un paquet de normes prédéfinies à Bruxelles. Nous avons observé que, d’une part, il fallait « faire de l’histoire » pour comprendre le changement, car la méconnaissance du passé de l’organisation judiciaire roumaine nous empêchait d’avancer dans la compréhension du présent et que, d’autre part, les deux axes d’analyse - la conditionnalité de l’UE et les réponses données par les élites politiques de Bucarest – s’avéraient insuffisantes pour comprendre l’émergence et le développement de cette politique publique.

En testant ces deux hypothèses, combinées avec la prise en considération de la longue durée, nous sommes arrivée à un ensemble de conclusions dont les plus importantes sont les suivantes :

Premièrement, le chapitre consacré à l’histoire moderne de l’institution judiciaire roumaine permet d’observer que les dysfonctionnements actuels de la justice sont similaires à ceux signalés par les élites politiques et judiciaires roumaines à la fin du 19ème siècle, et pointés justement par ce docteur de 1903. La réforme de la justice, dans le sens qu’on lui donne en 2004, est exigée depuis 1859. En dépit de la reprise de modèles d’organisation politique occidentaux, la création de la Roumanie moderne est la période de la formation et de la reproduction d’un pattern institutionnel qui ne sort pas l’institution judiciaire de son archaïsme et de son retard. Dans une perspective néo-institutionnaliste, nous pouvons dire que l’institution judiciaire roumaine connaît deux points de bifurcation :l’instauration du communisme et sa chute en 1989. L’institution judiciaire a fait l’objet d’une longue série de réformes, plus ou moins ambitieuses, mais qui n’ont jamais été à la hauteur des attentes sociales ou politiques.

La deuxième série de conclusions se rapporte au rôle des élites politiques post-communistes, les principaux acteurs qui participent à la redéfinition du cadre institutionnel roumain. Après 1989, leur vision normative sur le rôle et le fonctionnement de l’institution judiciaire s’impose. En 1992, une large majorité politique soutient la reprise du modèle d’organisation judiciaire instauré lors de la création de la Roumanie moderne, modèle largement critiqué à l’époque pour l’étendue des prérogatives du pouvoir exécutif en matière d’administration de la justice. Malgré le fait que l’indépendance de la justice s’impose comme un thème central des répertoires critiques de la politique, malgré les recommandations formulées par les organisations internationales qui exigent une indépendance plus affirmée des juges, les partis politiques post-communistes procèdent tous à une consolidation des pouvoirs de l’exécutif sur l’institution judiciaire.

C’est à ce stade de la recherche que l’hypothèse relative au rôle de l’Union européenne est avancée et décortiquée. C’est ainsi qu’on découvre les points forts et les faiblesses de la conditionnalité européenne et des mécanismes d’européanisation. On observe que la conditionnalité ne peut pas être utilisée comme variable uniforme, que l’UE n’impose pas un modèle d’organisation de la justice et que la principale caractéristique de la conditionnalité en la matière est la fluidité. Son inconsistance s’explique par la diversité des modèles de justice existants dans les pays européens. Tous les systèmes manient les mêmes principes :efficacité, indépendance et responsabilité de la justice et tous les systèmes les abordent dans des termes similaires. Mais quand il s’agit de les interpréter et de les mettre en œuvre à travers des institutions et des pratiques concrètes, chaque pays produit un modèle différent. C’est ainsi que nous sommes arrivée à la conclusion que la conditionnalité informelle de l’UE est un construit politique et social.

Pour toutes ces raisons, une fois ces deux premières hypothèses testées, au lieu de terminer le travail, nous l’avons continué en rajoutant une nouvelle séquence analytique. Dans le processus étudié, à savoir l’élaboration des lois sur l’indépendance de la justice, le véritable législateur, « n’est pas le rédacteur de la loi », ni la Commission européenne, mais un ensemble d’acteurs « qui, dans des champs différents, élaborent des aspirations, les font accéder à l’état de problèmes sociaux, organisent les expressions et les pressions pour faire avancer » des normes et des valeurs par des algorithmes et des images. Des lors, une troisième hypothèse a été rajoutée pour étudier ce processus de décision politique comme le résultat d’une compétition entre des acteurs politiques et sociaux nationaux dans le processus de définition politique et sociale de la réalité sur laquelle le législateur roumain a dû intervenir.

Ce troisième niveau d’analyse nous amène aux résultats suivants. Dans les années 2000, la consolidation des garanties d’indépendance de la justice a suscité des passions politiques et médiatiques incontrôlables. Ce processus de décision politique a eu lieu dans une situation de crise. Et les récits (une série d’histoires causales) ont été le principal vecteur par lequel ils ont été diffusés. Un récit de délégitimation des institutions politiques et judiciaires a été forgé par les médias, par un nombre réduit de professionnels de droit et par des représentants de la société civile. Ces récits synthétisent « le paradigme de la dégradation », le « déficit de modernité » de la démocratie roumaine et les aspects défectueux de son fonctionnement. Les conditions de la démocratie roumaine sont difficiles mais leur interprétation et narration leur donne un élan décisif sur la critique radicale du système. Ces récits visent tant les institutions politiques que les institutions judiciaires. La classe politique roumaine est discréditée. Mais ces critiques n’ont en rien empêché ceux à qui elles étaient adressées de maintenir leurs positions dans les dispositifs du pouvoir. C’est dans ces conditions qu’on exige de doter la magistrature d’une capacité d’intervention dans l’espace politique pour sanctionner les illégalismes des classes dirigeantes et pour pouvoir « participer à la distribution des titres d’opprobre ou de légitimité sur le marché politique ». Mais la justice roumaine et les professionnels du droit ne bénéficient pas d’une attitude plus clémente. Selon les récits, tant les uns que les autres sont corrompus et ont fait partie des anciennes administrations coercitives du régime communiste. Quelle indépendance peut-on donner à ces juges dont on dit qu’ils ne sont « pas des anges », mais des anciens cadres de la Securitate ou des anciens tortionnaires ?

Dans ce contexte, l’indépendance de la justice est mise en avant comme la solution miracle pour résoudre un large éventail de problèmes de la société post-communiste, des problèmes du passé toujours présents ou des problèmes du présent provoqués par la transition vers la démocratie. La mission qu’on souhaite que l’institution judiciaire roumaine accomplisse est avant tout axiologique. Tant au milieu du 19ème siècle qu’après la chute du communisme, la justice est appelée à contribuer à la reconnaissance des valeurs sociales et à la séparation du « bon grain » de « l’ivraie ». En dépit de ses faiblesses et de ses propres difficultés, l’institution judiciaire est appelée à apaiser les tensions sociales et à restaurer au sein de la vie politique la moralité et la transparence. C’est dans ce contexte que des membres de ce corps professionnel parviennent à blanchir leur image en se représentant comme des victimes du pouvoir politique et de la hiérarchie interne de la magistrature.

Des communautés de politique publique se constituent qui dialoguent avec les représentants des institutions internationales, discutent des problèmes et réfléchissent à des solutions. A partir du moment où le gouvernement de Bucarest n’est plus crédible, les médias et les membres de ces communautés de politique publique deviennent de véritables interlocuteurs des organisations internationales. La crédibilité deviendra l’atout des magistrats, des journalistes et de tous ceux qui se sont autoproclamés les représentants de la société civile. Ces récits, qui parlent de la déroute d’un régime qualifié de démocratique et par lesquels on exige la moralisation de la vie publique, ont influencé la perception des élites politiques européennes lors de l’adhésion de la Roumanie à l’UE. Les acteurs politiques et sociaux roumains procèdent tous à la construction de la « vérité du moment » sur le fonctionnement de l’institution judiciaire, sur ses problèmes et ses besoins de réforme. Ils mobilisent des normes et des valeurs, des images et des causes qui jouent fort dans la définition d’un modèle institutionnel de consolidation des garanties d’indépendance de la justice. C’est par la multiplication de ces récits diffusés par des magistrats, des journalistes et des représentants de la société civile qu’on parvient à passer d’un système où la justice est soumise au pouvoir politique à une institution judiciaire qui, d’un point de vue institutionnel, vit dans « le paradis de la démocratie ».

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The introduction of civic education to Serbian primary and secondary schools in 2001 marked a beginning of an all-encompassing education reform that followed the country's 2000 'democratic revolution'. In the context of a socio-political shift from various authoritarian regimes, including the 1945-1990 state socialism and 1990-2000 nationalist authoritarianism, the policy set the tone for future changes that were designed to support democratisation of Serbia, and assist its return to Europe (Birzea, 1994). A part of the broader programme for democratisation of education and education for democracy in Serbia, the policy enabled various discursive elements constitutive of the desired post-2000 ideology to enter the national educational discourse. This thesis explored its formation. I approached the policy as a way to explore the beginning of Serbia's first proper post-communist reform, and analyse the actors and ideologies that had shaped it. I used Ball's notion of policy-as-discourse and conceptualised civic education policy as a part of a discursive project of creating a 'new Serbia'. Using elite interviews and documentary analysis, I explored its formation and development, its place in the wider reform, and its relation to religious education, (re)introduced at the same time. Combining the elements of Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, and elements of Bourdieu's social theory, I looked into the meaning and function of civic education as a part of the ideological construction of the future Serbia, as well as capital used to position Serbia favourably in the global field in the early days of its educational transition. Within the wider transition literature, I attempted to establish a comparison between Serbia's 'belated' post-communist transition, and educational changes happening across formerly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe in early-to-mid 1990s. I also explored the applicability and usefulness of the recent theoretical developments in the transition literature that go against the conceptualisation of post-communist transitions as modernising projects, and argue instead for a focus on unique transformations that happen as a result of a meeting between globally dominant and desirable discursive elements and local contexts. I conclude that the discursive elements of the Serbian civic education policy were used as capital by Serbian policy actors to ensure their better positioning not only in the global, but also in the national field, as suggested by differences in the ideological construction of the policy discourse in different fields. This prompts a concern with the concept of various 'policyspeaks', as recently explored by Halász (2012) and Steiner-Khamsi (2014). I argue that as a part of a discursive project intended to construct post-2000 Serbia, civic education policy worked more towards eradicating the undesirable ideology of violent nationalist authoritarianism, than towards eradicating the ideology of communist authoritarianism. In this sense, the specificity of the context proved important for the shape and meaning of a post-communist reform and ideologies that it was designed to propagate. However, instead of rejecting modernist concepts of transition and democratisation, I advise a future focus on careful unpacking of their context-dependent ideological-discursive constructions.

Le but de cette recherche est de rendre compte de quelques dominantes de l’espace intellectuel roumain lors du passage du socialisme d’État à la démocratie représentative et des effets dans différentes sphères d’activité intellectuelle dus aux changements dans l’ordre social tenant de l’installation des du marché et de la disparition progressive d’une économie régie par l’État. Le terrain de la recherche est constitué par un groupement d'intellectuels mis en place les derniers jours de décembre 1989, au moment même des transformations politiques déclenchées par la chute du régime communiste en Roumaine. Le Groupe pour le Dialogue Social (GDS) fut le premier et resta le plus influent et stable groupement de la période postcommuniste ayant dans sa composition des auteurs ayant acquis leur reconnaissance sous le communisme, ainsi que de jeunes scientifiques formés également avant 1989. L’une des raisons de cette réussite consiste dans l’autorité culturelle accumulée par sa publication, l’hebdomadaire 22, qui se distingua parmi les publications intellectuelles et contribua de façon paradigmatique à la redéfinition de cet espace marqué après 1989 par l’intérêt accru pour des questions politiques et le monde politique. La nouveauté et la singularité du Groupe consistèrent en la durabilité du cumul des notoriétés : prestige obtenu par la majorité des membres comme auteurs de la période communiste, notoriété acquise par d'autres en tant que dissidents, mais aussi reconnaissance gagnée par certains autres à partir de 1990. Ces types de notoriété mis ensemble se sont manifestés par des engagements, collectifs et individuels, dont les formes furent multiples et diverses, consécutives et simultanées : textes publiés dans l'hebdomadaire du Groupe, interventions à l’occasion des rencontres avec des politiques, lettres ouvertes, expertise fournie aux organisations civiques ou à des structures politiques, articles publiés dans la presse spécialisée, essais et études politiques, participation à des associations civiques, enrôlement dans des partis politiques. La notoriété obtenue par bon nombre d’intellectuels du GDS, la durabilité du Groupe, sa tribune, 22, des investissements successifs dans la politique, du Groupe mais aussi individuellement, donnent du pouvoir à ses (re)présentations lorsque l’espace politique se structure autour du refus du communisme, l’« anticommunisme », et des anciens « communistes », membres de la nomenklatura surtout. Le GDS inclut des représentants des professions littéraires qui ont acquis leur reconnaissance et sont même devenus des figures notoires avant 1989, mais le GDS n’hésitera pas à intégrer aussi bien des journalistes que des juristes qui n’ont pas acquis leur reconnaissance comme auteurs, ne sont ni artistes ni scientifiques. L’hétérogénéité qui le caractérise, à travers une analyse de leurs trajectoires sociales et professionnelles et de leurs liens avec d’autres intellectuels et des politiques, permet d’esquisser des idées sur la situation et la place des intellectuels dans l’espace social pendant la période communiste mais surtout après 1989, et non seulement de ceux qui sont des membres de ce groupement. Ce travail traite des pratiques proprement intellectuelles, mais surtout discursives, dans une analyse des textes à visée scientifiques et des textes journalistiques, regardant du côté des modes et des moyens d’occuper l’espace public formé par ces discours et ceux qu’ils suscitaient. Empruntant une approche socio-historique et s’inscrivant dans une approche relationnelle, ce travail porte sur les diverses formes que prend la politisation au sein des champs spécifiques – militantisme, entrée en politique, mobilisation politique et démobilisation des intellectuels – et sur les professions intellectuelles à l’aube et à l’épreuve de la démocratie et au service du processus de démocratisation
The purpose of this research is to account for some of the dominant features of the Romanian intellectual space in connection with the regime change that followed the collapse of state socialism. Transition to pluralism and representative democracy effected in different on the spheres of intellectual life, which echoed the transfiguration of the social order from a centralized and planned economy to new economic relations governed by the market. This research is focused on a group of intellectuals set up during the last days of December 1989 at the time of the political transformations triggered by the fall of the communist regime in Romania, and which avowed goal was to make sense of this dramatic change.The Group for Social Dialogue (GDS) has been the first such association to be established and remains the most influential and stable group of its kind. The group typically includes authors that acquired public recognition under the communist regime as well as young scientists that completed their academic and intellectual training in the last decade of state socialism. One of the reasons for their success was the cultural authority capitalized by the group’s weekly publication, 22, widely regarded as the most prominent intellectual outlets of post-communism. The regular contributors to the journal were instrumental in redefining a public space marked after 1989 by an increased interest for the political issues and politics. The distinctiveness and the sustainability of this venture were the cumulative result of the personal prestige abs cultural authority enjoyed by most of the members of the group either as well published and widely read authors of the communist period, or as former dissidents. This prestige and authority was gradually on other members, whose public career started after 1990. These types of notoriety, joined together, took many different forms of engagement, collective and individual, consecutive and simultaneous: texts published in the journal of the Group, public statements during various meetings with politicians, open letters, expertise provided to civic organizations or political structures, papers published in the specialised press, political essays and studies, participation in civic associations, political party enrolment. The personal notoriety gained by a considerable number of intellectuals of the GDS, the resilience of the Group, the circulation of its journal 22, sequential investments in politics, of the Group itself but also individually, conferred a significant amount of clout to its (re)presentations of politics at a time when the political realm was structured around the rejection of communism (the post-communist “anti-communism”), as opposed to the electoral and social influence exercised by former “communists”, especially by those members of the nomenklatura who succeeded to set the tone of post-communist politics. The Group included representatives of literary professions who achieved the recognition and have even become famous before 1989, but the GDS does not hesitate to integrate also journalists and lawyers who did not reach recognition as authors, artists or scientists. The research was by and large devoted to isolate and examine intellectual practices, especially discursive practices, in the analysis of scientific and journalistic texts, looking at ways and means deployed by intellectuals in order to occupy the public space. In a socio-historical approach and in a vision inspired nu the sociology of relations, this research was concerned with various forms taken by the politicisation within specific fields – militancy, entrance into politics, political mobilisation and demobilisation of the intellectuals –, and intellectual professions at the dawn of the democratic regime

Defence date: 12 May 2004
Examining Board: Prof. Peter Wagner (European University Institute)(Supervisor) ; Prof. Arfon Rees (European University Institute) ; Prof. Otto Holman (University of Amsterdam) ; Prof. Ken Jowitt (Stanford University/University of California)
First made available online 24 January 2017.
This study has a dual objective. On the one hand, it seeks to contribute to a more complex of understanding of modernisation and social change. In this respect, my casestudy of the Romanian experience with modernity might be of interest to scholars working in other fields, as the particularities of the Romanian case could have relevance for other Tater modernising countries’, i.e. those countries that did not take part in the emergence of Western modernity. On the other hand, the study attempts to contribute to a fuller understanding of the Romanian history of modernisation, in that it seeks to provide theoretically informed interpretations of its pattern of modernisation. It is claimed that particular experiences that are usually understood as non-modem should be interpreted as contributing to the overall modem experience in Romania. It should be noted that only in a more advanced stage of my research I was able to consult sources in the Romanian language, as I started out without any knowledge of Romanian. This also means that in some instances I have relied on translated sources.

Who supports social policy in the developing world? Most of what we know about micro-level preferences for social policy comes from well-developed, wealthy countries of the OECD, where governments can credibly commit to policy enforcement and implementation. This dissertation explores preferences for social policy in post-communist countries, where weak constraints on the state challenge the welfare state. In doing so, it provides novel insights both into social policy debates in these countries and the coalitions which support (or oppose) social policy. I argue that support for social policy depends on how institutions shape the expectations of actors about the costs they pay into social policy programs versus future benefits. I draw on existing theories of political economy to propose four mechanisms -- misappropriation, contract enforcement, free-riding, and macro-economic risk -- that alter the distribution of winners and losers from social policy. Misappropriation stems from officials' ability to divert funding away from intended uses. While for most this imposes dead-weight costs on social policy, where institutions are poor. the politically well-connected can benefit from diverted funds to decrease social policy costs. The contract enforcement mechanism emerges due to the inability of weakly constrained states to enforce contracts. Predictions are similar to misappropriation, but actors also cannot trust other private actors with control of social policy. Free-riding emerges when bureaucrats are unwilling to expend effort to ensure tax compliance. Again, this imposes dead-weight costs on most, but garners support from tax evaders, who can free-ride. Finally, the macro-economic risk mechanism suggests that macro-economic volatility is heightened in settings with weak institutions, which increases both individual risk and support for social policy. The empirical portion of the dissertation tests the observable implications of each of these mechanisms. Chapter 2 provides a first-cut, cross-national test of part of the argument using micro-level data from a cross-national survey of 28 post-communist countries. I draw on work on informality in the post-communist world to identify individual characteristics associated with tax evasion to test the free-rider mechanism. Consistent with it, I show that those associated with evasion support social policy more where institutions are weaker. Chapter 3 posits that if the mechanisms I propose matter, actors will appeal to the logic of my theory during concrete reform debates. I test this using evidence from the 2001 pension reforms in Russia. I combine analysis of the legislative debates surrounding reform with in-depth content analysis of the Russian media, which draws on an original dataset of all mentions of reform in 352 Russian newspapers, journals, and trade magazines. I show that all four mechanisms were indeed major concerns. Chapter 4 tests the theory at the firm level, using a survey of 666 Russian firms to look at preferences where institutional quality is weak. I test whether firms that I predict support the welfare state in such settings -- those with political connections and a comparative advantage in hiding from the authorities -- actually do so. In addition to providing some support for the misappropriation and free-riding mechanisms, this chapter is a contribution in its own right: it is among the first to use surveys to study firms' preferences for social policy. Finally, chapter 5 uses a survey experiment conducted on 1600 respondents to attempt to understand the ceteris paribus effect of institutions on the average individual. Using a simple framing experiment, I provide three different treatment groups with information about bribery, tax evasion, and the extent to which private pension funds commit fraud to test the misappropriation, free-riding, and contract enforcement mechanisms, respectively. The chapter offers mixed evidence. The dissertation makes contributions to both the study of the welfare state and the political economy of institutions and investment. First, the dissertation explores preferences for social policy in the developing world and introduces institutional quality concerns to this literature. My work particularly focuses attention on the ways certain groups can abuse social policy to pass costs onto others, adding nuance to existing understandings of who benefits from social policy. Second, it advances our understanding of how institutional quality shapes economic decision making and provides evidence as to how different pathologies of poor institutions shape economic decisions.

Defence date: 27 February 2014
Examining Board: Professor Fabrizio Bernardi, European University Institute (Co-Supervisor) Professor Martin Kohli, European University Institute/Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (Supervisor) Professor Ellu Saar, Tallinn University Professor Martin K. Whyte, Harvard University.
This dissertation studies the trends, covariates and consequences of intergenerational social mobility in post-socialist societies. The existing literature does not provide an answer if crossnational differences in social mobility levels are determined by socialist legacies or by the divergent paths these countries followed in their transition from socialist to capitalist system. In addition to the industrialisation thesis and the role of income inequality, I study the implications of political democracy and economic liberalisation for intergenerational status reproduction. Individual-level consequences of mobility are explored using the socialpsychological concept of the self-serving bias in causal attribution, which implies that people are more likely to explain individual success as resulting from their own abilities and efforts. Market-based democratic systems, almost by definition, emphasise the importance of selfdetermination in shaping an individual's life chances. Thus, upwardly mobile groups are expected to show greater support of unequal reward distribution. The hypotheses are tested using multivariate and multilevel statistical methods based on data from the European Values Studies and Life in Transition Survey. Although I find evidence of the decisive role of social origin in predicting educational and occupational attainment, particularly during postsocialism, cross-country variation in intergenerational social mobility can largely be explained by the institutions that were in place immediately after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The findings suggest that while strong, positive links exist between social mobility and democracy levels in Western Europe, the economic liberalisation that took place in the early 1990s is the strongest predictor of why some post-socialist states have higher social mobility rates than others; subjective perceptions of mobility have stronger implications on attitudes than the objective mobility experience; upwardly mobile individuals do in fact demonstrate more support for inequality, democracy and market economy, but the strength of these links is mediated by macro-contextual variables.

Defence date: 23 March 2007
Examining board: Prof. John Hemery (Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies, Oxford) ; Prof. Jacek Wasilewski (Warsaw School of Social Psychology) ; Prof. Jaap Dronkers (European University Institute)(Supervisor)
The aim of this study is to explore the process of diplomatic elite transformation in the post-communist countries within the context of political elite transformation and to analyse whether the process of circulation or reproduction prevailed among the diplomatic elites during the first decade and a half after the change of the political regime (1989-2004). I focus upon the entry-level diplomats to a greater degree than in the older works on political elite and diplomacy. The key to capturing the process of circulation/ reproduction among diplomatic elites is through analysis of the general characteristics of diplomats as well as the system of personnel selection. I argue that a better understanding of the transformation processes could be achieved by looking at people at the entry level into political elite, i.e., by looking at newcomers. The thesis is further set out to show how the historical, political and cultural legacy of the past and geographical realities shaped the emerging diplomatic elites. The analysis presented in the thesis is based on a survey that I conducted. Several conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of diplomats in 27 countries. The composition of the emerging diplomatic elite across countries shows some striking similarities and some striking differences. The areas of important similarities are education, social origins and channels of recruitment. The differences mainly occur in age, gender, recruitment channels, previous professional experience, type of residence and additional jobs performed. Particularly illuminating in this respect is the division of respondents by geographical criterion into the CEE/FSU countries. A more meticulous analysis shows that the revolutionary political transformations were not followed by a revolutionary transformation of elites, or of diplomatic elites in particular. There was a modest degree of circulation from the lower classes into the elite role (in particular, into the diplomatic elite), but it did not transcend the socially desirable and socially stabilising moderate level. It was certainly not a revolutionary degree of circulation into the diplomatic elite. Nor was there a full-scale reproduction of elites.

Defence date: 16 April 2016
Examining Board: Professor Dr. rer. Pol. Dr. h.c. Hans-Peter Blossfeld, European University Institute; Professor Dr. Dmitry Kurakin, Higher School of Economics; Professor Dr. David Bills, University of Iowa, Professor Dr. Klarita Gërxhani, European University Institute.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent rapid shifts in economic, political, and social institutional arrangements – labeled here as a regime change – offer a unique opportunity to explore how patterns of social inequality vary across broader institutional contexts and over time. How the stratification order between different social groups has changed in the aftermath of the regime change in Russia is a central question I raise in this thesis. In contrast to prior research, I draw on a life-course perspective and address several rather untouched aspects of social inequalities in Soviet and post-Soviet societies and investigate them in terms of school-to-work and work-to-school transitions in the earlier and later life courses. Empirically, I employ powerful longitudinal data from the Education and Employment Survey for Russia (EES) linked to the Russian Gender and Generation Survey (GGS), which cover life trajectories in a time-frame between 1965 and 2005. Compared with previous studies, that data enable me to utilize a much larger observation window to scrutinize long-term consequence of the regime change in Russia. First, I tackle social inequality in terms of horizontal gender differences and vertical gender inequalities upon labor market entry. My findings reveal that despite proclaimed equality principles, the school-to-work transition was by no means gender-neutral in Soviet Russia, with women facing a net vertical disadvantage in job authority. This inequality has increased even more since the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly due to worsening chances for female entrants. Second, I explore inequality of adult-educational opportunity due to initial educational level and occupational position. My results suggest that selective participation in adult education might lessen or exacerbate inequality of adult-educational opportunity depending on type of adult education and analyzed group of participants. Nonetheless, the collapse of the Soviet Union has contributed to inequality of adult-educational opportunity, thereby strengthening the exacerbation effects of adult education on social inequalities. Third, I investigate whether participation in adult education may improve career opportunities, thereby mitigating social inequalities that emerged in the earlier life course. My findings show that adult education either benefits all participants or those who are already advantaged. Overall, the results point to a mechanism of persistence or reinforcement of social inequalities. Furthermore, returns to adult education have decreased or been not offset since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Finally, throughout my thesis I put a particular focus on gender. Altogether, my findings unravel noteworthy gender inequalities arising in the initial career stages. These initial (dis-)advantages cumulate over men's and women's life courses, thereby contributing to overall social inequality in Russia, and specifically during the post- Soviet period. I conclude that the regime change was accompanied by a widening of preexisting social distances and an effective amplification of the Russian society's stratification order.

The present study compares the electoral systems of the eight countries analysed in this volume based on the specifics of Central Eastern Europe. As a starting point, the study examines the expectations of the electoral system, e.g. the purpose of displaying the will of the electorate as accurately as possible, ensuring stable governance, and aspects such as the size of the country, its traditions or other political considerations. The study undertakes a comparative analysis of the electoral systems of each country primarily on the following issues: how do the electoral system and the political system of a given country interact? How are active and passive voters defined? What are the social reasons for the parliamentary representation of minorities? What impact have these rules had on electoral systems? What common features and differences can be discovered in each national electoral system? How can a given electoral system be evaluated among proportional-majority systems? The chapter concludes that the regulation of electoral systems is always country-specific and in line with social and historical traditions. It is therefore not possible to mechanically take over the electoral system of other countries in any country as some of its elements will not necessarily be compatible with the specificities of the others. The history of the eight countries analysed (the legacy of communism, the ‘problem’ of nationality) shows several points of connection, even though their electoral systems are not uniform. Although most countries – in line with European trends – have proportional electoral systems, these have many different regulations. By comparison, in Hungary (or even in Romania), legislators took a completely different approach in defining the electoral systems after the change of regime. It can thus be stated that the definition of the electoral system is one of the most national issues, where standards can and should be set, but these standards only provide a basis for comparability rather than accountability.

This chapter questions the claim that in Romania the post-1990 period was one of radically greater freedom in religious matters, as well as greater religiosity on the part of the population. Instead, it suggests that continuity better encapsulates the development of religious beliefs and their embodiment in specific practices among Orthodox Christians in Romania in the twentieth century. It also makes visible important imbalances, gaps, and faulty assumptions about the importance of institutions in the daily religious practices and beliefs of most Orthodox populations in the historiography on Orthodoxy in Romania. Scholars have failed to see continuities and have embraced analytical frameworks that stress change, especially around the communist takeover period (1945–1949) and the fall of communism (1989–1990). Central to re-evaluating this trajectory are two aspects of Orthodoxy in Romania: (1) most believers live in the countryside; and (2) women have remained central to the development and maintenance of religious practices in ways that cannot be accounted for through any institutional analysis of the Orthodox Church, because of its both implicit and explicit misogyny.

The physical features of objects have a very direct relationship to social practices. Many of the everyday activities of human living require the use of tools and equipment, and this material culture has developed in close relationship with the human behaviour it makes possible. At the simplest level, artefact features can provide information about what objects were used for and what activities were carried out in the past. Yet they can also tell us much more: about the perceived agency of objects, about past users and their social experience, about cultural change and development in social practice, and about the persistence of tradition and social convention. In this book, I draw on a range of perspectives from design and craft theory. These perspectives were mostly developed in the context of studies of modern objects or those of the more recent historical past. They relate to the practical uses of artefacts, for instance as tools and equipment. These approaches encourage us to re-examine a functional approach to archaeological artefacts. They can be useful in prompting us to ask new questions, and to engage with previously neglected categories of material. I will explore design theory in relation to Roman material culture, in particular, investigating the following areas: (1) The relationship between the form of objects and their actual use/s. (2) How the material properties of objects relate to social experience, behaviour, and cultural traditions. (3) Assumptions about intended users evident through object design. (4) How aspects of production affect human relationships with objects. I hope to both reveal important new aspects of Roman social practice, and help us to better understand the relationships between people, objects, and behaviour that existed in, and shaped, Roman and provincial Roman society. The social function of artefacts as possessions and commodities has been extensively studied in both archaeology and anthropology, drawing on artefact appearance and decorative style and its significance. A definitive volume on material culture summarizes theoretical approaches to artefacts, including object biography, post-colonial theory, globalization, and consumption theory. Such approaches have been influential in Roman archaeology.

This chapter shows that Jewish political movements like the Freeland League did not function in isolation from their wider political and geopolitical contexts, even if such movements have often been studied as if they were barely affected by the non-Jewish world in which they existed. By discussing the Territorialists' navigation of geopolitical realities, the chapter helps to shed new light on the development of concepts related to population politics, agriculture and ‘agro-industry’, colonialism and post-colonialism, and the notion of ‘empty space’. These concepts helped forge the Freelanders' ideological direction that was largely decided in the interwar period. The chapter also looks at the year 1945, which often serves as a watershed moment, ushering in a new humanitarian geopolitical era. In reality, as the Territorialism's social engineering project demonstrates, striking continuities in geopolitical trends challenge this romantic interpretation. The chapter lays bare new aspects of such continuities before and directly following the Second World War, thereby defying the notion of 1945 as a ‘year zero’. It investigates how the Territorialists' new home, the United States, had become the almost undisputed global power centre, housing many of the political and scientific architects of the post-1945 world order. The chapter also reveals the manner in which the Freeland League adjusted to these changing global realities.

This chapter examines the threatening aspect of post-Soviet fantasies of adolescence, focusing on fictional and cinematic protagonists who inspire fear, horror, or disgust. It looks at three Russian works: Anna Starobinets's 2005 story “An Awkward Age” (Perekhodnyi vozrast); Marina Liubakova's 2007 film Cruelty (Zhestokost'); and the film The Student (Uchenik) (2016) together with the dramatic production upon which it was based, both directed by Kirill Serebrennikov. While heralding the demise of the Soviet adolescent hero, these works foreground the teenager as the locus of an array of anxieties, ranging from the instability and vulnerability of the human body, to the preeminence of materialistic values and consumer culture, to the disappearance of moral codes. Each reconfigures American education scholar Nancy Lesko's “romance with adolescence” into a distinctive vision of adolescence as nightmare. This unsettling transformation, in turn, casts a decidedly pessimistic light on the hopes for societal renewal awakened by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Abstract. Computerized education is a pedagogical strategy adapted / adaptable to the policy model education in the post-cultural model of society. At the operational level, the process involves the concept of assimilation and exploitation of new information technologies in activities designed to level the educational system in the context of specific activities. This are: computerized and “computerial” literacy; ownership of knowledge in the studied disciplines of profile information, making management education, application of computer assisted instruction, teaching method or as a special educational means integrated into any teaching strategy. Cumulative contributions show that important progress has been achieved in Europe, particularly in the development of ICT in education, while one is notable heterogeneity of practices and policies presented in agreement with different political priorities, ideals and educational funding. In Romania, a characterization in general terms, might read: The educational system will undergo significant changes, as the main orientation and design of a system of permanent education. As routine tasks in any field of activity will be taken over by computers, the individual will have more free time to train. At this training will add competition increasingly harshness, which will require the use of leisure time for qualification. In essence, computerization is not limited to teaching a new method, which would enter into the traditional methods. Through their social role, designated the concept of “computer culture” signifies transforming computerization of education system by education, not only as a form of organization, but also as contents. Finally we should mention that the importance and complexity of the process of computerization of education requires attention to the state level. It is appropriate to develop a concept of implementing information technologies in education that would reflect all aspects of the process, its directions and propose to exploit resources, that Romania has already today in an efficient way.

Practice in Romania universities is regulated by the Education Law, which stipulates the students' obligation to perform it. In the case of students' specialty professional practice at economic agents, the Labor Code has also provisions that apply to them. The Labor Code is completed by the other provisions of labor legislation in Romania, in harmony with EU norms and rules of international labor law. The orders of the Ministry of Education on professional practice stipulates that conducting internship in university programs is developed under the Framework Convention between the organizer of practice (university), practice partner (economic agent) and practitioner (student). The Electronic Sheet of Practice (ESP) requires also three different perspectives for student practitioner, faculty member (practice mentor) and economic agent. Using Electronic Sheet of Practic instrument, faculty members practice mentors can post their programs including students' practice results. The existence of such assessment tools and their use in accordance with the law governing the practice of students ensure professional assessment and uniformity of training, fostering their careers accessibility. Such tools, appropriate to each stage of specialty practice development, could be judiciously organized in the European Union countries. The need for such tools, which represent a support unit for the specialty practical training of students, is felt during this period in Romania, which, as its membership of the European Union, must find solutions to meet both commitments and to resolve social problems they face. The educational activities and products of the project, are evaluated favourably by the students who intend to continue their implementation, including in new projects development of the some aspects of the project developed.

Ontological well-being adopts a holistic perspective on well-being similar to the narrative psychology when analyzing life histories by referring to past, present, and future aspects of one's life. Relatedly, the self-memory view proposes that life events are self-evaluated. Based on the narrative psychology and self-memory approach, affective life events and emotions are processed in the memory and play a role in structuring self-perceptions and psychological well-being. Therefore, turbulent external conditions such as the pandemic, uncertain environments and socio-economic challenges may lead to traumatic experiences for individuals. Being exposed to traumatic events and experiencing post-traumatic stress harms mental health, well-being, and work performance. This study aims to examine the relationship between traumatic life experiences and ontological well-being within the period of COVID 19 pandemic. It is intended to reveal the impact of traumatic experiences on ontological well-being of individuals in work life. A cross-sectional study was utilized throughout an online survey with the participation of 270 employees working in various private organizations. Following the statistical analyses, the findings were evaluated and both conceptual and practical discussions were provided.

Life's changes and maturation will require continued growth, personally and professionally. In the last period of time this objective has became really hard to achieve, not only because of pandemic conditions around the world in terms of health protection and the volatility of work labor lately, but also because the social side of our personalities and the spiritual aspect of human identity have been severely tested. Nowadays, the majority of Romanian universities are coping to these challenges. In these trouble times, we all started looking for ways in which we could be more efficient or "work smarter" in order to maintain the feeling of normality in our lives. The need for counselling is constantly increasing for all participants to education (students and teachers) as well as for the employees, as general. Before any other reframing levels of analysis, the first step in someone's career counselling process begins from analyzing the self-perspective, in terms of personal qualities (strong points and weaknesses), personal needs, aspirations and professional interests. According to these issues, this paper is aimed to present the good experience of implementation a career counselling training program, included in the project "Scholarships for entrepreneurial education of doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers", financed through the European structural funds. The project has been implemented in University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest in partnership to University DUNAREA DE JOS from Galati. Despite the fact that the focus of project's activities has been on entrepreneurial competences' development, as the title of project emphasized, the career counselling activities represented one of the most important and appreciated project's activity. The target group's level of satisfaction regarding this project's activity has been analyzed in the research described in this paper, proving its authentic value in order to highly increase the awareness of participants for continuous need of reflection on their motivation and aspirations about career. The quantitative research-based is aimed to analyze the participants' perceptions and opinions referring to professional counselling program's implementation, in terms of topics approached, effect and impact on developing their key abilities, such as: communication, planning and evaluation, decision making, management of socio-emotional skills, information about labor market etc.