Producing urban industrial derelict places: The case of the Solventul petrochemical plant in Timişoara
本文以罗马尼亚蒂米什瓦拉Solventul石化厂为例，揭示后社会主义转型中城市工业废弃地的产生逻辑，分析市场改革、私有化与全球化如何导致工业衰退和空间废弃，对城市政策与规划研究者有参考价值。
This paper unveils the logic behind urban industrial derelict places connected to the petrochemical industry in the cities of Romania and specifically draws from the post-socialist experience of the Solventul petrochemical plant in Timişoara. In the context of transition from state socialism to capitalism and globalization, huge areas of debris stand as proof of a once flourishing socialist industry forced into controversial cases of privatization and re-privatization. The most important petrochemical plants in Romania have been the object of post-socialist economic restructuring. The reasons are due to the loss of the communist market, the cessation of government subsidies, and the growth of international competition, all in the face of aging production facilities. In the process, more than 30,000 workers were forced into intra-urban or urban–rural migration pushed by an emerging privatized housing market. The authorities acted with secrecy with regard to the process of privatization as well as to the ecological hazards posed by these industrial ruins. Created through a process of industrial decline paired with a general legal framework permeated by neoliberal influences, these urban industrial derelict places have caused hot spots of controversy for urban policies and practices for more than 20 years since the fall of communism in Romania.