Advocacy for territorial and people-centered approaches to development in Romania: Place attachment based on industrial heritage

This research focuses on the stories of two small yet unique settlements in Transylvania, Romania: the town of Petrila and the village of Roșia Montană, former mining settlements, currently deemed disadvantaged. Our research inquires about the relevance of their industrial heritage for inhabitants’ place attachment during a long-term process of resistance to neoliberal development and change that caused the partial loss of material and immaterial heritage. We used qualitative discourse analysis to process inhabitants’ accounts in two documentaries: Planeta Petrila and Roșia Montană, a Place on the Brink. Our findings show that place attachment is very strong and painful with many of the locals and is closely connected to industrial heritage and the past. Both industrial heritage and inhabitants’ place attachment based on this heritage are crucial resources for any future strategy that considers territorial and people-centered approaches to development, within a paradigm of sustainability and inclusiveness.