Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Making of Urban Spaces and the European Vision of Development in Post-Socialist Romania

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University of Michigan doctoral student Lavrentia Karamaniola, supervised by Dr. Alaina Lemon, will undertake socio-ecological research on the growing worldwide phenomenon of urban centers being shared with very large numbers of stray animals. Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities, and the existence of stray animals and the threats that they produce to public safety figure significantly into urban understandings of ecology. Stray animals are viewed simultaneously as both a result of urban development, as well as an impediment to the socioeconomic development in the expanding urban spaces. Understanding how growth changes the ways that people inhabit urban space is of critical importance to solving many social and economic problems. Karamaniola's research will be undertaken in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, currently home to almost 2 million people. She will employ a range of social science methodologies to collect data. The growth of the stray animal population in Bucharest is alleged to be a direct result of twentieth century urban renewal projects. Therefore, the researcher will commence with an investigation of Bucharest's spatial history in a context of a changing political economy. She will collect historical information in three different archives, and she will conduct interviews with architects, urban planners and members of the Municipal Board. To investigate contemporary urban social relations, Karamaniola will carry out ethnographic research among employees and citizen volunteers in a non-governmental organization that works with urban animals and do participant observation in urban neighborhoods. Interviews will also be used to investigate the symbolic tension between an urban ecology full of marginal animals and national aspirations for post-socialist economic and social development. The research is important because it will contribute to new social science theory of cities. Findings will also contribute insights into socialist and post-socialist history, as experienced through the transformations of urban centers. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.