Urban space, political identity and the unwanted legacies of state socialism: Bucharest's problematic Centru Civic in the post-socialist era

This paper explores the relationship between the urban cultural landscape of Bucharest and the making of post-socialist Romanian national identity. As the capital of socialist Romania, central Bucharest was extensively remodelled by Nicolae Ceauşescu into the Centru Civic in order to materialize Romania's socialist identity. After the Romanian "Revolution" of 1989, the national and local state had to deal with a significant "left-over" socialist urban landscape which was highly discordant with the orientation of post-socialist Romania and its search for a new identity. Ceauşescu's vast socialist showpiece left a difficult legacy which challenges the material and representational reshaping of Bucharest and constructions of post-socialist Romanian national identity more broadly. The paper analyzes four attempts to deal with the Centru Civic: developments in the immediate post-1989 period; the international architectural competition Bucureşti 2000; proposals for building a Cathedral of National Salvation; and the Esplanada project. Despite over 20 years of proposals central Bucharest remains largely unchanged. The paper thus deals with a failed attempt to re-shape the built environment in support of national goals. © 2013 Copyright Association for the Study of Nationalities

Toponymy as Commodity: Exploring the Economic Dimensions of Urban Place Names.

In recent years the study of urban toponymy (place names) has been revitalized by the emergence of a ‘critical toponymies’ approach. This focuses on the cultural politics of place naming and the decisions involved in attributing names to the urban landscape. However, in contemporary cities place names have an economic role in addition to their political role. In particular, there have been recent calls for more attention to the commodification of place-naming rights and practices. This article seeks to respond to these calls by addressing the issue of urban place names as commodities. It begins by examining the naming of sports stadia by corporate sponsors. It then considers a range of ways in which private-sector interests are increasingly influencing the naming of the urban landscape, from buildings and neighbourhoods to individual streets. Even the material signage that identifies street names can be appropriated within branding and promotional strategies. Moreover, urban place names are increasingly incorporated into a range of commercially produced spatial datasets collated by private companies. The article ends by proposing a number of directions for future research into the economic role of urban place names and the commodification of toponymy more broadly

Strong contribution to octet baryon mass splittings

We calculate the $m_d-m_u$ contribution to the mass splittings in baryonic isospin multiplets using SU(3) chiral perturbation theory and lattice QCD. Fitting isospin-averaged perturbation theory functions to PACS-CS and QCDSF-UKQCD Collaboration lattice simulations of octet baryon masses, and using the physical light quark mass ratio $m_u/m_d$ as input, allows $M_n-M_p$, $M_{\Sigma^-}-M_{\Sigma^+}$ and $M_{\Xi^-}-M_{\Xi^0}$ to be evaluated from the full SU(3) theory. The resulting values for each mass splitting are consistent with the experimental values after allowing for electromagnetic corrections. In the case of the nucleon, we find $M_n-M_p= 2.9 \pm 0.4 \textrm{MeV}$, with the dominant uncertainty arising from the error in $m_u/m_d$

Exploring women’s employment in tourism under state-socialism: Experiences of tourism work in socialist Romania

Recent academic debate into women’s experiences of tourism employment has emphasised the extremely heterogeneous nature of such work and the need for sensitivity to local political, economic, social and cultural contexts. This paper focuses on one such context which has received little attention – state socialism – and we explore women’s experiences of tourism work in socialist Romania. Such work had characteristics in common with non- socialist contexts, but in other ways took a form which was distinctive to the socialist state. It was characterised by extensive training, good pay, and opportunities for promotion (at least to middle management level). The socialist state also devised unique solutions to the problem of the seasonality of tourism work. However women also faced extensive surveillance by the state’s security services and faced harsh penalties for under-performance

There\u27ll be a Rainbow in the Sky for You

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