https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8281-0650
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Abstract
The Western Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca is among the few Central and East European non-capital cities in economic recovery following the dismantlement of actually existing socialism. Privatization-led housing politics and capital accumulation-driven real estate development, together with racialization and urban branding, (re)produce uneven development and housing unevenness in the neoliberal city. As the class focused political economy framework is insufficient to comprehend such a complex phenomenon, we explored it at the intersection of class, spatialization and racialization. Employing a whole range of data extracted from interviews, statistics and official documents, the article examines the conditions of possibility for the formation of the two extreme housing arrangements at local level: Cantonului colony, close to the Pata Rât landfill; and the luxurious real estate Maurer Panoramic placed at the heart of the city. Together, they illustrate racialized housing unevenness. Our contribution to urban studies consists in arguing for the central role of housing in the production of spatialized and racialized divisions in the capitalist cities.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Erin McElroy and Cătălina Neculai, as well as to the editorial team for the invaluable suggestions on the format and content of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
ORCID
Enikő Vincze http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8281-0650
George Iulian Zamfir http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4183-9446
Notes
1 The film, seven building blocks plus interactive map, are available here: https://www.desire-ro.eu/?cat=119 (accessed on 28 of December, 2018). The film was made in 2016 by Simona Ciotlăuş, Szilárd Miklós, and Enikő Vincze under the Social housing NOW! campaign of Foundation Desire. It illustrates how post-socialist politics lead to the dispossession of the housing rights of the impoverished people from Cluj-Napoca, including ethnic Roma.
2 Related to this, an English-language business magazine states: ‘with its high standards of living, the management of the labor force through the low unemployment rate, the increase in the number of employees, implicitly the increase in the number of inhabitants and the number of tourists, developing a strategy to stimulate the economy through partnerships with local universities based on innovation, technology, research, IT’ (http://business-review.eu/business/bucharest-vs-cluj-napoca-the-transylvanian-city-tops-the-capital-in-the-main-economic-social-and-demographic-indicators-192966).
3 Quotes from the website of Maurer Panoramic, https://www.maurerpanoramic.ro/, accessed 20.07.2019.
4 According to EUROSTAT data, in 2017 Romania was ranked with the highest scores in the EU in what regards overcrowding rate among the total population (47%, versus the EU28 average, 15.7%), and as well as severe housing deprivation rate (16.5% of the total population suffering from it, versus the 4% EU28 average). In terms of housing affordability, this country knew the second-highest housing cost overburden rate among tenants (60.4%, versus the EU28 average of 26.3%) and among owners with mortgage (17% versus 4.7%), while displaying the third-highest positions, after Greece and Bulgaria, in the case of the total population (12.3%) and of the owners with no mortgage (11.5%). Data accessible here, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Housing_statistics – accessed 11/08/2019.
5 The “Report on forced evictions in Romania between 2008 and 2017” released in 2019 by Block for Housing, a Romanian national coalition of housing activism groups, unveiled through official data that the number of evictions through bailiffs accounted alone for close to 25,000 occurences between 2001 and 2017. By extrapolating the data to cover non-responses, the number reaches 36,000. The complete Romanian version of the report is available here (English version incoming): https://bloculpentrulocuire.ro/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Raport-Cercetare-Evacuari-2008-2017.pdf
6 Presentation on the website of the International Affairs and Foreign Investment Department of Municipality of Cluj-Napoca - http://clujbusiness.ro/business-in-cluj/ (accessed 28 of December 2018).
7 Source for these data: Cluj Metropolitan. Strategia integrată pentru 2014–2020 (Metropolitan Cluj. Integrated strategy for 2014–2020), final version from November 2015, p. 23, accessible here https://storage.primariaclujnapoca.ro/userfiles/files/SIDU%20CLUJ%20FINAL(1).pdf, accessed on 25 of July 2019.
8 Source for these data: Ghidul tranzacţiilor imobiliare Cluj-Napoca (Guide of real estate transactions in Cluj-Napoca), elaborated by the company Veridio since 2014 with the support of the City Hall.
9 Source: Re/Max Group Lux 2008, Piaţa imobiliară din România (‘Real Estate Market in Romania’), accessible here - http://www.clujconstruct.ro/articole-si-noutati/imobiliare/piata-imobiliara-din-romania.html; accessed on the 28 of December 2018.
10 According to the data of the National Statistical Institute for November 2018, http://www.insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/com_presa/com_pdf/cs11r18.pdf
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Enikő Vincze
Enikő Vincze is professor at Babeş-Bolyai University and member of Căşi sociale ACUM!/ Social housing NOW! from Cluj and of the national platform Block for Housing from Romania. Email: [email protected]
George Iulian Zamfir
George Iulian Zamfir is a PhD student at Babeş-Bolyai University and a member of Căşi sociale ACUM!/ Social housing NOW! from Cluj and of the national platform Block for Housing from Romania. Email: [email protected]