Hannah Bartels

Building Futures: Occupational Choices of Young Adults against the Background of Profound De-Industrialization

Since the end of real socialism in 1989 and throughout the following post-socialist transformation Romania has experienced drastic economical changes. Mono-industrial, formerly ‘over-industrialized’ places are hit especially hard by factory shutdowns and the shrinking of extractive industries. This results in (regionally) high unemployment and migration, most noticeably of younger generations.How do young Romanians come to terms with this situation, how do they plan and shape their (occupational) futures? My dissertation aims to examine the formation, models, and realizations of plans for the future by young Romanians who are directly confronted with acute deindustrialization. I will focus on three main areas: school, peer-groups, and family.I plan to conduct fieldwork in the Jiu-Valley, in the south-west of Romania. The communities here have been faced with the challenges of deindustrialization, and shrinkage for the last twenty years. Coal has been the main source of income for a vast part of the population, but within the last 23 years already ten out of fourteen mines have been closed, with little alternative places of work appearing. The population has experienced a drop of 30%, and the quality of living is on a decrease as well (e.g. health system, infrastructure, educational sector). While an in-situ stay has been impossible due to the pandemic, I have started researching digitally.