The Exceptionalism of Housing: Ideology and Politics in Early Communism in Romania (1945-1965)
Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 67(3), 2015
26 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2015 Last revised: 13 Aug 2020
Date Written: March 27, 2015
Abstract
The paper analyzes the exceptionalism of housing during the early communist period in Romania, in particular the extent to which the regime’s ambivalent policies regarding housing undermined the overall political and ideological goal of dismantling private property. Focusing on takings, restitutions, and new constructions in the city of Timişoara and the surrounding region, the paper emphasizes conflicting and inconsistent policies regarding housing and the consequences of these policies. Housing’s double meaning as home and asset further complicated the overall ideological mission of denaturalizing bourgeois private property, and allowed for the continuous relevance of pre-communist legal ideologies and property rights consciousness during this period. The paper is based on document and archival research conducted in the city of Timişoara, Romania, in 2007-2008.
Keywords: Romania, housing, communism
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