D. Roman, Fragmented Identities:Popular  Culture, Sex, and Everyday Life in Postcommunist Romania
(Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) US $ 70 (cloth)
Drawing mainly from the tumult of everyday life experiences, Fragmented Identities discusses some of the discourses, identities, experiences, and practices in postcommunist Romania providing an undulating and vivid picture of what constitutes identity construction and identity politics there, all on a background of a fluid civil society. The book focuses on issues of popular culture--and the way aesthetics, youth identity, and hate speech (anti-Semitism) emerge from it--as well as on gender and sexuality--in the form of women and queer identities and politics. Employing the methodology of Critical Cultural Studies and Feminist Theory, Fragmented Identities explores the politics of everyday life in Romania while also providing a context for understanding other similar Eastern European experiences of identity construction and identity politics, gender, and popular culture as the region enters the twenty-first century.
Denise Roman is a Visiting Scholar with the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and has published articles on Eastern European identity construction and identity politics in various North American, French, and Romanian journals.
Fragmented Identities is available from Lexington Books: www.lexingtonbooks.com (discounted) or www.amazon.com.

Andreea ANDREESCU, Lucian NASTASĂ & Andrea VARGA (eds.) Minorităţi etnoculturale. Mărturii documentare. Maghiarii din România (1945-1955) [Ethnocultural minorities. Documentary testimonies. Hungarians from Romania (1945  1955)], Cluj: CRDE, 2002, 920 p.
http://www.edrc.ro/ro/r5index1.html

Romanian Journal of Political Science
Romanian Journal of Political Science (PolSci), the only Romanian Social science journal indexed by IPSA, calls for reviews to books published in East European national languages which can be of larger interest for scholars on Eastern Europe. The ideal dimenssion of a review is of 2000 words, but review articles can be longer. The purpose of this call for papers is to exchange information in English on social science work carried in national languages in the broader region. PolSci is accessible online at www.sar.org.ro. Authors receive as honorarium a couple of hard-copy issues with their review. Email to office@sar.org.ro

Local Government Assistance Program in Romania has launched a new Training Manual "Citizen Participation in Decision Making"
The purpose of this Training Manual is to provide techniques, examples and case studies on citizen participation training. Therefore this manual can be a useful working instrument for various organizations (Training Institutes, Local Government Associations, NGOs, etc.) or instructors who wish to initiate and develop training courses on this topic. This new Research Triangle Institute /LGAP USAID funded publication incorporates three years of experience in conducting Citizen Participation programs in Romania, enriching the self study guide published in 2001 with multiple exercises, case studies, and reflection moments collected by the authors mostly from Romania, but also for the USA, Canada, Ukraine and Portugal.The manual is posted online.
More information: www.lga.ro 
Daniel Serban, Citizen Participation Program Manager, e-mail: dserban@xnet.ro

Ines Hartwig, Die Europapolitik Rumäniens. Entwicklung institutionalisierter Kooperation [Romania's EU- policy. Development of institutionalized cooperation]
Baden-Baden: Nomos 2001 (Integration Europas und Ordnung der Weltwirtschaft, Bd. 22). 283 pp, 50 EURO, ISBN 3-7890-7086-6 (hardcover).
Reviewed by Anna Köbberling (Chamber of Skilled Crafts, Koblenz), Email: A.koebberling@gmx.de
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This book is based on the doctoral dissertation of Ines Hartwig, which was completed in 2000 with Prof. Dr. Rudolf Hrbek at the department of social sciences at theuniversity of Tübingen. It was published as volume 22 of the series "Integration of Europe and system of world's economy", edited by Rudolf Hrbek, Thomas Opperman and Joachim Starbatty.
The author analyzes the process of reorientation of Romanian EU policy after the revolution of 1989. Thereby she focuses on two multilateral forms of cooperation: On the one hand the process of cooperation between Romania and the EU, on the other hand the cooperation of the Black Sea states. While the cooperation with the EU could suggest that Romania's foreign policy is becoming more western-orientated, the Black-Sea-cooperation might be interpreted as a turn to the East. The comparative analysis of these two processes with their political actors and strategies shall help to define Romania's position with regard to foreign affairs.
Initially the chronological framework had been chosen for the period from 1989 until the elections of 1996, which brought the political turn from the socialist to a conservative government. For the publication, the author added a chapter about the preferences and strategies of the new government that was elected in 2000. Like most political observers, the author could not know that the new cabinet under Ion Iliescu, now self-titled as "social-democratic", would pursue a much more liberal and pro-western foreign policy in its second turn in office. Accordingly, the author's evaluation in the conclusion turned out perhaps a little too pessimistic. However, the reader learns a lot about Romanian policyalso the internal politicsof the last ten years. Therefore reading is quite pleasant because the book combines a good and enjoyable style with a clear structure. Clearly, the book has been well editedwhich is not always certain nowadays.
The author analyzes a very broad basis of sources for her dissertation and evaluates the relevant EU-documents almost completely (i.e. international agreements, documents of the Council, Commission and the European Parliament as well as documents of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Council, documents pertaining to Romanian domestic affairs, speeches, parliamentary protocols, party programs etc.). Furthermore, she used a broad palette of secondary literature, newspaper articles and press statements, complemented by 23 personal interviews with important Romanian politicians, such as members of parliament, chief officers and ambassadors. The examination of all this material is a great achievement. Nevertheless, the reader is not inundated by the abundance of material, but receives a clearly structured overview. At the end of every chapter, one finds a substantiated and well-balanced evaluation. The helpful annex, consisting of an index, a list of abbreviations and an explanation of important Romanian words make the book rounded off in all respects. It will be an important reading for all involved with Romanian politics and may become a classic in this field.
This an earlier book reviews are available at: www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans