Is ‘ghettoisation’ happening in Bucharest?

Gabriela Nicolescu speaks with Ștefan Ghenciulescu about social housing, privatisation and the impact of the market economy on residents in Bucharest. In this episode, postdoctoral researcher Gabriela Nicolescu talks to Ștefan Ghenciulescu from the University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest and editor of "Zeppelin Magazine". Ghenciulescu is interested in the historical layers of Bucharest, from its 16th century conception when city walls were forbidden to the socialist period when wide boulevards and concrete blocks of flats were constructed to create an ideal vista. He explains how socialist flats were built for ‘everybody’ – the policeman, the doctor, the worker – but how in recent years privatisation together with an obsession with car ownership has led to stealth ‘ghettoisation’. What has been the impact of the privatisation of public properties and services on the health and prospects of local communities?

Om Podcasten

Disobedient Buildings (disobedientbuildings.com) is a multi-sited research project about housing, welfare and wellbeing based at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, part of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (anthro.ox.ac.uk), at the University of Oxford. It is funded for four years by the Art and Humanities Research Council. Launched in January 2020, the project employs a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and visual practitioners to study the impact of neoliberal reforms over the past three decades on the everyday lived experiences of inhabitants of ageing tower blocks in different European welfare states: the UK, Romania and Norway. The Disobedient Buildings podcast is conceived and presented by Inge Daniels, the project's principal investigator, and the project’s two postdoctoral researchers: Gabriela Nicolescu and Anna Ulrikke Andersen. In Season One, the team scrutinises key themes guiding their research such as disobedience, inequality, urban development, welfare and health. The 10 episodes feature interviews with local experts and highlight commonalities and differences experienced by residents in the three field sites of London, Bucharest and Oslo. The podcast asks, what is a disobedient building, why is home ownership promoted, and will the State look after you?