POST COMMUNIST FUNCTIONAL CHANGES IN ROMANIA’S SMALL TOWNS. CASE STUDY: BEIUȘ LAND (BIHOR COUNTY)
RODICA PETREA1, C. FILIMON1, LUMINIȚA FILIMON1, V. NEMEȘ1
1University of Oradea, Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning, Territorial Studies and Analyses Centre, Universitătii Street, no. 1, Oradea, Romania, e-mails: petrearodica@yahoo.fr, filimonpunct@yahoo.fr, palelumi@yahoo.com, nemes_vali@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT.- Post Communist Functional Changes in Romania’s Small Towns. Case Study: Beiuș Land (Bihor County). Until the establishment of the communist regime, the predominantly rural Romania had showed a slow evolutionary trend from rural settlements towards an urban status. This trend was disrupted by the communist state policies aimed to industrialize and urbanize Romania. In this context, at the national level, a number of small towns emerged, many of them being mono-industrial. Their support lasted until the fall of communism. The transition to the rigors of the market economy has affected these small towns, triggering forms of urban restructuring and finally an urban decline process with the diminishing of the urban functions. Within Beiuș Land, the most important changes triggered by the communist policies were the birth of the three new towns (two of them being the exponents of the urbanization policy and the accelerated industrialization) besides the traditional urban centre – the town of Beiuș. The present paper looks at the post communist functional changes that occurred into the four small towns in Beiuș Land from economic, socio-cultural and residential point of view. The working method relies on a series of indicators showing the number of enterprises, the professional structure of the population, the share of population occupied in different work sectors, the presence of socio-cultural buildings and the ratio of house building, between 1990 and 2011. The analysis of the mentioned indicators for the given period will highlight the major changes that occurred in the four towns and how they adapted to the market economy and to the changes that the Romanian economical system faced after 1990.
Keywords: small towns, Beiuș Land, post-communism, functional changes.