Chapter 8 of the volume analyzes the evolution of urban development aspirations of local actors in a second-tier city from southeast Romania (Craiova) under the influence of inter-urban competition.
In the context of the general post-socialist turn toward urban entrepreneurialism, the author describes the pressure for “catching-up” under circumstances of increasing local administrative autonomy, where local governance seeks to redefine and improve its competitive advantages. Acknowledging that the emergence and advancement of neoliberal urban governance in a post-socialist context reflect global processes of radically changing post-Fordist societies, the chapter describes how local actors mobilize pre-war and socialist development models in the current effort to regain the city’s national significance and competitiveness. As inter-urban competition forces municipalities into short-term approaches, real estate developments on former industrial sites are seen as desirable and healthy for the local economy. The analysis contributes to scholarly debates on state restructuring under the pressure of “catching-up” narratives in the late capitalist period, reflecting processes across global peripheries