Industrial Culture of Former Mining Communities from Romania

SPECIAL ISSUE − Industrial Culture in Urban and Regional Development ORIGINAL PAPER Industrial culture of former mining communities from Romania Bianca Radu 1, 1Department of Public Administration and Management, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania [email protected] Abstract Keywords The paper aims to unfold the intangible elements that form the industrial culture based Mining communities, on the analysis of two former mining communities from Romania. Research conducted Industrial culture, in 2014 in two former mining cities located in the northern part of the country highlights Occupational identity, State dependency, their particular characteristics and the strategies employed by individuals to cope with Romania mine closure. The research found a strong occupational identity among former miners, which affected the way they perceived themselves, the surrounding environment andthe opportunities they had after restructuring. The self-perception of what people could work hindered the economic redevelopment process. We found that after living and working Received: for many years in a state-led regime, people expected the state to take care of them and to 9 April 2018 create new jobs in their communities. Even though many stakeholders acknowledged Received in revised form: the importance of preserving industrial heritage for collective memory, few projects were 10 June 2018 implemented, and no mining museum was built. In both cities, a large number of peo- Accepted: ple migrated abroad or returned to their hometowns to compensate for the job scarcity. 11 June 2018 Miners coming from other regions to work in younger mining communities experienced a lower level of community integration. Highlights for public administration, management and planning: • Mining communities have particular characteristics, such as mono-industrial character, location in remote areas, and overdependence on the mining company, which make them more difficult to redevelop. • Mining communities need to develop projects that strengthen the solidarity among people who originate from different regions to enhance their attachment to the community. • Rehabilitation of the built heritage is important for the preservation of community identity and for advertising the unique character of the area. • Restructuring strategies should be planned well in advance, even during the profitable stage of the mining activity, to minimize the social impact of mine closure and to prevent migration of young people out of the community. 1 Introduction - An overview wanted to reduce the dependency of the coun- of the mining sector in Romania try on imports. Therefore the internal production had to be much diversified to cover internal needs. Diversification of the economy was possi- Mining was a traditional activity in the territories ble only through a systematic process of identify- that form Romania nowadays. Gold resources were ing and capitalizing natural resources. Heavily in- extracted in several locations since the second cen- dustrialized areas of the country developed close tury, and the salt resources were rich and played to raw materials to reduce transportation costs (Du- an important role in the local economy. Also, mitrescu 2008), but some industrial cities were ar- for many centuries coal was extracted in the re- tificially created, and they depended on the im- gion called Jiu Valley. The extraction of mineral re- ports of raw materials from other regions. For ex- sources intensified during the communist regime, ample, iron and steel industry was planted in the as the country went through a process of rapid in- cities of Călărași and Galați because they were lo- dustrialization. Former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu cated on the lower course of Danube, and the raw © Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem 39 Available online at www.degruyter.com GeoScape 12(1) - 2018: 39–51 doi: 10.2478/geosc-2018-0005 materials were shipped by water from other areas to voluntary leave the system by offering them sev- of the country (Săgeată 2013). erance payments ranging from 12 to 20 salaries. By the 1980s Romania’s industry tended to become Miners who were at least 45 years old and who highly inefficient due to the concentration of invest- worked for 20 years in the mine had the right to re- ments in heavy industry, which was energy inten- tire. According to the Romanian National Insti- sive, and by stopping the influx of technology from tute of Statistics, between 1996 and 2016, the num- developed countries. The volume of the produc- ber of people working in the extractive industry de- tion did not take into account the domestic and for- creased from 250 300 to 54 200. The largest down- eign demand; also, it was the policy of communist size was in 1997 when 66,500 workers in extractive party to provide jobs to all people, and therefore industry (26.57%) either retired or voluntarily re- state-owned companies tended to hire more employ- nounced to their jobs. However, the layoff process ees than it was economically profitable. The min- was not smooth throughout the country. Miners ing sector also had developed unprofitable because, from Jiu Valley protested strongly against the gov- in some cases, minerals of low quality were ex- ernment decision. They marched to Bucharest tracted and the technology used was outdated. on several occasions, and they fought with police For example, in the case of coal, it did not mat- forces to defend their privileged positions and ob- ter where and how it was extracted, as long it was tain government assistance (Bruha et al. 2005). extracted. The consequence was that large capi- In the following years, all mining communities suf- tal investments were made for the extraction of low fered a sharp economic and demographic decline, caloric layers of coal, which were difficult to exploit. and deterioration of local infrastructure and social The production costs were larger than the output services (Dani et al. 2006). Population migrated ei- value, and the gap enlarged over time (Rus 2003). ther abroad in the search for jobs or in their home- The low productivity of technology was compen- towns where they owned a house and land. When sated by a larger workforce brought from other re- industrial and mining restructuring began, there gions of the country (Chiribucă 2016). The min- were no government programs to absorb the re- ing sector was a strategic sector for the indus- dundant workforce, stimulate job creation or local try, and people working in this sector were well entrepreneurship (Radu 2016); however, such pro- paid, well organized and influential, even though grams were adopted in the following years, and they mining extraction became unprofitable over time were financed through two loans taken by the Roma- (Dani et al. 2006). nian Government from the World Bank. The govern- Many communities serving mining extractions grew ment expected that the miners would use the sev- in size as they attracted people from rural areas erance payments to overcome the period until find- or other parts of the country (Dumitrescu 2008; ing a new job, for starting a business or for return- Popescu 2014). Some mining settlements were built ing to the hometown (Haney & Shkaratan 2003). with the only purpose to host the workforce of a new This expectation proved inaccurate because many mine (for example, cities of Stei and Nucet in Bi- families spent the money quickly for buying goods hor County were developed for extraction of ura- that they could not afford otherwise, and therefore nium). The number of mono-industrial cities grew continued to represent social problems for the gov- significantly. Another distinctive feature of mining ernment. In this context, many communities suf- cities is that they tended to be part of a larger in- fered major losses of the population; also, the re- dustrial area where units for ore processing were structuring of the industrial and extractive indus- built. According to the Agency for Mining Areas, tries generated further decline of employment in the in 1997 when the restructuring of the mining sec- services sector. tor began, 383 communities throughout the coun- The article aims to distinguish the elements try were considered to be dependent on the min- that compose the industrial culture of the mining ing activity (meaning that a part of the workforce communities in Romania. The analysis is based was employed in mining or related economic ac- on case studies conducted in two mining commu- tivities). The most affected counties from Roma- nities from the northern part of Romania. The re- nia were Hunedoara and Maramureș. Hunedoara search goal was to understand better how the cul- County had 52 out of 69 localities affected by min- tural characteristics of the settlements influenced ing and industrial restructuring, while Maramureș their trajectories in the aftermath of mine clo- County 48 out of 76 settlements (Radu 2016). sure, the individual strategies adopted by indi- Mining sector restructuring in Romania started viduals to deal with the scarcity of jobs, the im- in September 1997 and consisted in a massive layoff pact of restructuring on family relations, and the of workers in a relatively short period. The restruc- strategies employed by residents to preserve com- turing was carried out through stimulating miners munity identity. Section two consists of a liter- 40 © Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem GeoScape 12(1) - 2018: 39–51 doi: 10.2478/geosc-2018-0005 Available online at www.degruyter.com ature review of the industrial culture of mining buildings through artistic events, some organized communities and it highlights those characteristics in connection with European Capital of Culture (as that distinguish them from other types of settle- was the case of Ruhr area in 2012). ments. In the third section, we describe the two However, the meaning of industrial culture is much communities analyzed and the research methodol- broader, and it incorporates symbolic character- ogy.

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