Volume II, Issue 2, 2008


Articles

Perspectives on Contemporary Romanian Population

Cornelia Mureşan – Children and Parents Experience in Romania: a Life-Table Description

Abstract

This study presents a life-table description of events related to the experience of children and of parents as they changed during the last two decencies, 1985-2005, in Romania.
We consider the perspectives of men as well as of women and of couples as well as of children. The data we used stems from the Generations and Gender Survey carried out in Romania in 2005. We document for family behavioral changes that have accompanied the political and socio-economic transformation following the fall of the communist regime. We found that parenthood is still experienced very soon after entry into first marriage, and even slightly sooner when the first union starts as a cohabitation. However shotgun marriages, i.e. pregnancy followed by wedding, remain at the same level during the whole period. From children’s perspective the changes are related to a growing number and proportion born to cohabiting couples. Lone motherhood remains relatively rare. In post-socialist Romania fewer children experience parental disruptions than in the period of communist rule, and fewer children born to a lone mother experience a step father.

Keywords

Children’s perspective, parental disruption, step-childhood, out-of-wedlock childbearing, marital childbearing, Generations and Gender Survey, Romania

Romana Emilia Cucuruzan – The Labour Migration – Development Nexus. The Case of Two Rural Communities in Romania

Abstract

The labour migration – development nexus has been analysed from various perspectives, from the conventional one arguing that migration is the consequence of the developmental gaps between sending and receiving countries, to the “3 Rs” perspective promoted mostly by Papademetroiu and Martin (1991).
At European level, we have witnessed a paradigm shift: from migration perceived as a side-effect of poverty and instability to migration acknowledged as a potential vector for socio-economic development.
After 1989, the short – term labour migration has become the main form of migration in Romania, at an accelerating pace. The present paper investigates the impact of labour migration on two rural communities in Romania, by the use of a comparative analysis. The findings of the exploratory study reveal the specificity of the phenomenon in each location as well as the commonalities, revealing “the people behind statistics”.

Keywords

Migration and development nexus, labour migration, financial and non-financial remittances, migrant and non-migrant household

Florica Ştefănescu – Economic and Demographic Evolutions in Romania during the Time Preceding the Integration in the European Union (1990-2004)

Abstract

During the time preceding Romania’s integration in the European Union we witness several economic and demographic evolutions, some of which are slow while some other spectacular, but all of them really interesting for the ones willing to insist upon them in order to understand and even explain them. The relation between the two categories of evolutions as well as phenomena is unquestionable, it is just their specific and clear way of manifestation that requires a special attention. Under this aspect, the case of Romania in the mentioned period is worth being paid attention to, both from the perspective of the analysis and – inclusively – of the strategies which have to be followed according to these evolutions.

Keywords

Economic evolutions, demographic evolutions, manpower, society, social economy, human economy, sustainable development, employment rate, unemployment rate, the natural growth of the population



Perspectives on Romanian Population History

Claudia Septimia Peteanu – Setting the Dowry in the Land of Năsăud in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

In the present study, through analysing unpublished and published materials from three former frontier localities: Nãsãud, Tiha-Bârgãului and Zagra, we illustrate the most important aspects regarding the young couple’s dowry in “Nãsãud country” in the second half of the 19th Century. Because in the three localities, the matrimonial legislation from Transylvania and the inheritance during the functioning of the 2nd Boundary Regiment (1762-1851) was applied differently, the setting of the dowry and the writing of it in an official document varied from one community to another. Although, the fact that the bridegroom’s and the bride’s dowries in the three localities are almost identical, helps us to illustrate the ways of trying to have a new family in Nãsãud in the second half of the 19th Century, in a collectivity which earned its living mainly through the land cultivation and the animal rising.

Keywords

Transylvania, the Land of Nãsãud, dowry contracts, marriage, family.

Daniela Deteşan – Mortality in the Rural Communities of Cluj County (1850-1910)

Abstract

This study aims at describing the evolution of mortality in three villages from Cluj county: Bonþida (the Orthodox and Roman-Catholic parish), Stoiana (the Reformed parish) and Sava (the Greek-Catholic and Reformed parish) between the Revolution of 1848–1849 and the First World War. The historical sources we used were the parish registers and the censuses of the population in Transylvania from 1850, 1857, 1880, 1900 and 1910. The death dynamic was different from one parish to another, as it was influenced on a short term by several epidemics: cholera (1855, 1872–1873), measles (1863) and diphtheria (1877). Several socio-economic factors, combined with the existing geographical conditions, determined on a long term different trends of mortality. Special attention was granted to the distribution of mortality by sexes, to the structure of mortality by age categories, to the seasonal movement of mortality, and to the causes of deaths.

Keywords

Mortality, epidemic, parish, Transylvania.

Discussions

Shah Md. Atiqul Haq – Implications of Demographic Transition Theory: A critical Discussion Regarding the Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper tries to explore the implications of the demographic transition theory and to evaluate critically the postulated factors of the theory in developing countries. The theory can only work in countries where the conditions included in the assumptions of the theory prevail. It was concluded that the DTT could be applied to developing countries if it is conceived in terms of teleological ideology. One of the problems with the theory of demographic transition is that we have never quite agreed on precisely what it is and many theorists classified the transition in the various stages regarding the European context where there had no convergence among them. On the other hand they did not make any clear distinction between theory and practice without providing tautological value judgements.

Keywords

Teleological, demographic–economic paradox, political dimension, population growth, social milieu

Radu Nechita – Quelle est la valeur actualisée nette de l’adhésion au systeme public de retraites?

Abstract

The participation in the first pillar of the Romanian public retirement systems (pay-as-you-go) has a negative present value for the affiliate with an average salary. The introduction of capitalization (second pillar) changes this conclusion only in few cases and, sometimes, under unrealistic assumptions. The high opportunity cost of the public systems is obvious when the alternative of full capitalization is taken in account. This suggests the necessity and the direction of a more radical reform of the retirement system.

Keywords

Pension systems, Pay-as-you-go, Capitalization



Book Reviews

Mihaela Hărăguş, Tranziţia la statutul de părinte în Europa. Evoluţii recente şi posibili determinanţi [Transition to Parenthood in Europe. Recent Evolutions and Possible Determinants](reviewed by Traian Rotariu)

The History of the Family, vol. 13, no.1, 2008 (reviewed by Dana Maria Rus)

Maria Todorova, Balkan family structure and the European pattern. Demographic Developments in Ottoman Bulgaria, (reviewed by Lucian Dorel Turcu)

Şarolta Solcan, Populaţia domeniului Gilău în secolul al XVII-lea [The Population of the Gilau Domain in the 17th Century] (reviewed by Ioan Bolovan)

Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux, Domestic Service and the Formation of European Identity. Understanding the Globalization of Domestic Work, 16th – 21th centuries (reviewed by Daniela Deteşan)

Scientific Events

Call for Papers