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Trouble in paradise: Competing discourses and complex governance in the Romanian danube delta

Trouble in paradise: Competing discourses and complex governance in the Romanian danube delta

Autor: Petruța Mădălina Teampău

Marine Policy. Volume 112, February 2020

In this paper, the complicated governance of the Danube Delta is discussed on the background of a thorough description of the history and evolution of this place. Sulina is taken as a case in point, as the only town of the Romanian delta and site of an extensive anthropological fieldwork (2006–2017). The paper interrogates the more or less subtle conflicts inside the community and between the local community and other actors, and their consequences for governance; it describes the legacy of the communist past as it has impacted the governance of the delta in terms of path dependence; it delineates the different, sometimes competing discourses that currently shape the fate and governance of the Delta and illustrates the elusiveness of discursive constructions of “nature” and “Delta”; finally, the paper argues for a reassessment of the role of local community and local narratives and needs for a comprehensive governance.