Romanian Post-socialist Industrial Restructuring at the Local Scale: Evidence of Simultaneous Processes of De-/Reindustrialization in the Lugoj Municipality of Romania

Abstract:

This paper analyses the case of Lugoj Municipality in Romania to reveal the major characteristics of the post-socialist industrial restructuring. During the last two decades of post-socialism, industry in Romanian cities has undergone an important transformation in terms of industrial restructuring. This is an outcome of the neo-liberal policies that reached the Eastern European countries (EECs) with the collapse of the former state socialism. The paper examines the post-socialist industrial restructuring at the local level based on quantitative and qualitative methods. In-depth empirical analysis unveils the main transformations in the industry of Lugoj Municipality, emphasizing how industrial restructuring works at the local scale, altering the spatial structure of the town and generating new different spatial patterns. Postulating a simultaneous de-/reindustrialization accompanied with tertiarization, the paper provides a critical reflective and generalizable account in the post-socialist transformations of Romanian cities.