Paper short abstract:

My paper aims to offer an answer to some questions related to the relation between intangible heritage and labor migration. It try to offer a window through which we hope to disentangle some of the multiple and complicated aspects of the relation between ICH and labor migration.

Paper long abstract:

The period that followed the collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe was one of big social changes, radical economic transformations and rising inequalities. The Romanian economical system changed from a command economy one to a market economy but the process was "painfully slow" in comparison with some other Postsocialist states. Many factories and state own farms collapsed, leading to a rampant corruption, unemployment, poverty and social discontents. This process of structural violence that affected a large part of the population became visible, like in most of the Eastern European countries after 1989 through a sharp demographic decline and a massive process of labor migration toward Western European countries. These both phenomena had a big economic and social impact. But besides these implications, very visible and easily observable even through statistic data, there was a sharp decline in the practice and promotion of intangible heritage of the rural communities. My case study focused on two rural communities from Eastern Romania and the way global capitalism (with its commodification, marketization and consumerism) affected the dynamic and promotion of their intangible heritage (winter rituals).