Christian Sperneac-Wolfer, Andrei Botorog, Ferdinand Sutterlüty
{"title":"‘Slaves’ Without Coercion? Work-Related Classification Patterns Among Romanian Migrant Workers","authors":"Christian Sperneac-Wolfer, Andrei Botorog, Ferdinand Sutterlüty","doi":"10.33788/sr.21.1.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.21.1.3","url":null,"abstract":"Tens of thousands of Romanian migrants work in the German construction sector. Their work is often characterized by unpaid wages, long workdays and by the withholding of sick or holiday payments. The risky and exploitative nature of the conditions under which Romanian migrants work on German construction sites is reflected in their negative evaluation of their engagements as “slave labor” by Romanian workers. Starting from such a clearly negative evaluation, the paper asks how Romanian construction workers in Germany classify their work and what role such classifications have within the context of labor exploitation. Based on qualitative interviews with and participant observation among Romanian construction site workers in Germany and in Romania, the article reconstructs four work classifications. Work may be interpreted as the fulfillment of obligations or as necessary for economic revenue; hard work itself can be a symbolic contribution to one’s own sense of identity or it can have the meaning of being part of everyday normalcy. Each of the work classifications offers a different reason to make hard work plausible in the eyes of the workers and employers actively turn such interpretations into a mechanism of vulnerability. Without direct physical coercion, these ideas motivate workers to take on work that they themselves criticize as ‘slave labor.’ The paper concludes by arguing that the recognition of such classifications and their social effects are crucial for an understanding of labor exploitation.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136300367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Știu eu pe cineva’ Self-Organized Mobility, Labor Intermediation and the Twofold Exploitability of Romanian Workers in the Austrian Fresh Food Sector","authors":"Paul Sperneac-Wolfer","doi":"10.33788/sr.21.1.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.21.1.4","url":null,"abstract":"The workings of expansive Romanian migration networks across Western Europe as forms of self-organized migration are well-documented. Yet, transnational relations have rarely been examined outside of Romanian migrant networks, namely in their potential source of value extraction in broader accumulation processes. This article thus attempts to look at the self-organization of mobility of Romanian workers - in particular, the practice of labor intermediation - in relation to its exploitation in highly segmented labor markets. In the following, I ethnographically substantiate the view that in my examined field site, the Austrian fresh food sector, it is precisely the self-organization of mobility among Romanian workers that became exploitable by Austrian growers in highly efficient ways. Based on findings from a year-long and ongoing ethnography in an Austrian greenhouse complex, I show how growers capitalize particularly on the practice of labor intermediation to maintain the resilience and profitability of local agricultural businesses in the restructured Austrian agricultural market. The resulting workplace regime constitutes workers in a twofold exploitability: not only is their labor power, but also their interpersonal relations subject to value extraction. This analysis implies the need to move beyond commonplace vocabularies of “social capital” to grasp the persistent exploitation of migrant workers and their reproductive capacities across segmented labor markets in Europe.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136300372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Inequalities and Quality of Life. International Conference organised by the Research Institute for Quality of Life and the Romanian Sociological Association, 15-19 November 2021","authors":"Corina-Maricica Seserman","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.11","url":null,"abstract":"The Social Inequalities and Quality of Life International Conference organised by The Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy took place online, from 15 to 19 November 2021. The conference distributed 13 panels about current global challenges which impact individuals’ daily lives, and two round tables, about the challenges, risks and opportunities that Romanian society is facing. This event gathered 102 presentations from researchers coming from Romania, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Spain, The Czech Republic and The Netherlands. The conference provided an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue to take place about the potential policy strategies aimed to reduce social polarization and social inequalities by overcoming the structural gaps in contemporary society.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79776889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Emoțiile sociale. Despre rușine, vinovăție, regret şi dezamăgire. București, Editura Tritonic, 2020. Septimiu Chelcea","authors":"Ana Maria Nițu","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.16","url":null,"abstract":"The current paper is a review on Septimiu Chelcea’s book Emoții sociale. Despre rușine, vinovăție, regret şi dezamăgire [Social Emotions. About shame, guilt, regret and disappointment], Bucharest, Tritonic Publishing House, 2020. Chelcea’s work captures the plurality of social emotions and their role in sociology and psychosociology as well as social and cultural theory. He explores auto reflexive secondary social emotions such as shame, guilt, regret and disappointment to emphasize the importance of the study of social emotions especially in the sociological field. The review includes an overview on the main introductory theories as well as the theories on each of the social emotions included in the study.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84883765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evoluții în demografia județului Sibiu, 1990-2021","authors":"Georgian-Ionut Gutoiu","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.5","url":null,"abstract":"Romania experienced a strong demographic decline during the three decades since the Revolution of 1989. However, this decline was not by all means geographically and historically invariable. Our paper focuses on a particular territorial subdivision of the country, namely the county of Sibiu, as a case study of a space that underwent rather a smaller decline and even experienced moments of growth. While we focus on the county scale, we also employ comparisons at other geographical scales. The analysis is developed around three main demographic aspects – total number of inhabitants, migration and indicators of natural growth. Our results display a demographic profile of the county which is strongly contingent across geography and history in all three demographic aspects. The demographic decline in Romania was steady and rather consistent throughout the three decades. Indeed, Sibiu county experienced also a decline during the first two decades, but displayed a pattern of growth during the last decade, mostly explained through the economic aspects, as the county is one of the country's most important growth poles. As showed in the paper, these evolutions were sustained by recent patterns of migration and natural population development in Sibiu that were more advantageous for population growth.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"78 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73597529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sociologi în comunism. Începuturile unei profesii fără statut, în anii socialismului târziu. Editura Tritonic, București, 2021. Sorin Mitulescu (coordonator)","authors":"Zoltán Rostás","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.14","url":null,"abstract":"This reviewed book is the first authentic document about sociological education between 1966 and 1989 in Bucharest. The testimonies, interviews and analyzes of Sorin Mitulescu and his colleagues describe the unfair employment of young graduates. This was due to the unprofessional preparation of the establishment of sociological education.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85432478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dezastrul produs în urma inundațiilor. Experiențe din mediul rural [Flood-induced disasters: Experiences from rural areas]. Tritonic, Bucharest, 2019. Anca Mihai","authors":"Filip Alexandrescu","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.17","url":null,"abstract":"The book reviewed here is one of the very rare social scientific analyses of flood-induced disasters in Romania. The monograph is a valuable contribution to the Romanian literature in the social sciences, because the author makes a sustained effort to advance a sociological understanding of the disasters tiggered by floods. In this sense, any given flood is not the disaster but only the trigger of a social disaster. The disaster ensues from the ways in which the flood interacts with pre-existing socio-economic and spatial conditions and inequalities. The book is structured into six chapters and an introductory piece. Its appeal is wide-ranging and it includes all social scientists interested in flood-induced or climate change-induced disasters. Experts and stakeholders involved in the management of floods or similar systemic hazards would also greatly benefit from reading this informative piece.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77985257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vigneta fertilității familiei. Studiu de caz: arborele decizional privind fertilitatea","authors":"Sorana Mocanu","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.6","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to provide an interdisciplinary approach to fertility analysis. The main objective is the use of a psychotherapeutic tool in fertility decision analysis. We used the genogram, a tool frequently utilized in systemic psychotherapy. By borrowing and using the genogram in the context of fertility decision analysis, it facilitates our understanding of the fertility decision in terms of individual and family factors, as well as cultural, economic and social factors. This article aims to study fertility decision as a process resulting from the overlapping of several determinants. Thus fertility decisions appear as the result of a biological process influenced by social factors, conditioned by cultural norms and subject to intra-familial laws that seem to determine both structurally and functionally individual decisions to have children. The assessment of all these factors influencing family fertility decision-making can also be analysed intergenerationally with the help of the genogram. The introduction of the genogram as a tool for analysing the different forces determining fertility and fertility decisions may overcame some of the challenges of measuring the influence of different functional and structural aspects of the family, which may technically hamper the scientific approach, given the changes to which the family as a system has been subjected in recent years.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"129 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77082078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mălina Voicu, A. Deliu, S. Stănescu, Elena Spiridon
{"title":"Repatrierea forței de muncă în contextul pandemiei COVID-19","authors":"Mălina Voicu, A. Deliu, S. Stănescu, Elena Spiridon","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.4","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims at providing information about Romanian emigrants in terms of destinations and integration on the labour market at the destination and, at the same time, at tackling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mobility and eventual return of Romanian emigrants. For these explorations, we use quantitative data from various sources. The Repatriation of the Work Force is a research conducted in 2020, in which the local authorities from 3,181 administrative units in Romania were contacted and asked a series of questions regarding, among other topics, migration from and return migration to their locality. 742 answers were obtained, which were complemented with statistical information from Eurostat – Romanian citizens residing abroad, and the Romanian Border Police – traffic in an out Romanian borders since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to similar periods in 2019. The data provides an image of Romanian migrants abroad that is in line with what previous studies show, in terms of favourite destinations (Italy, Spain, Germany, Great Britain) and occupations at the destination (constructions, agriculture, housekeeping). Data from the Romanian Border Police show that return to Romania had some spikes in 2020, and suggests circularity and complex mobility trajectories.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75910560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introducere în studiul stratificării şi mobilităţii sociale: teorii, măsuri şi modele de analiză. Editura Tritonic, București, 2022. Cătălin Augustin Stoica","authors":"Horia Mihai","doi":"10.33788/sr.20.2.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33788/sr.20.2.13","url":null,"abstract":"Cătălin Augustin Stoica's volume Introduction to the Study of Social Stratification and Mobility: theories, measures and models of analysis can be considered a starting point in developing a theoretical understanding of the concepts mentioned in the title. Although the book is mainly addressed to students in the area of social sciences, we can say that the language is widely accessible to the general public. It should be appreciated that the reader does not need a theoretical background before reading the book, as each concept is defined and analysed in such a manner, that makes the transition from common knowledge to scientific knowledge. Stratification and social mobility could not be dealt with separately, and in order to make intelligible how these concepts are intertwined in the dynamics of social life, the author presents them in a theoretically evolutionary scale. The explanation of the concepts is carried out starting from classics such as Marx and updated to the contemporary era with the help of authors that include Erik Olin Wright. From the conceptual trunk outlined by the theories of the aforementioned authors, sprout the branches of sub-chapters such as 'Power and Privilege' or 'Theories of the Elites', whose purpose is to broaden the reader's understanding of the subject. Through his book, Cătălin Augustin Stoica succeeds in offering a new approach to concepts studied for many decades in the field of sociology.","PeriodicalId":34074,"journal":{"name":"Sociologie Romaneasca","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86701144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}