The fall of the socialist system in the late 1980s determined major changes in the economy of former socialist countries. These changes affected especially the mono industrial cities. Even after privatisation, the industrial sector remained in restructuring and decline, often leading to the closure of factories. Structural or functional conversion processes have been delayed and on the site of former factories remain many abandoned places, which were neglected by the authorities. These areas influence both the natural and socio-economic environment: from local community to potential investors. Since the brownfield areas were not given much attention, this paper contributes to a correct definition, identification and presentation of such sites and the main barriers that hinder their redevelopment. For the case study, two mono industrial cities from two neighbouring former socialist countries (Romania and Serbia) were analysed. The object of the study was the comparison of the redevelopment solutions applied so far with their impact on socio-economic environment and the plans for future development.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had both financial and activity-related effects on a number of areas of activity, among which those involving the creative industries have proved to be weak in their capacity to survive the halting of all events held in physical spaces. The long-term effects of the current health crisis are bringing about changes in cultural demand and offer and highlighting the need to adapt and to think of new ways of functioning. Taking its cue from this situation, the research underlying our article set out to investigate the ways in which Romania’s independent creative sector is adapting. We achieved this by means of conducting 25 semi-structured interviews and undertaking case studies of two cities that are among the most effervescent from the point of view of cultural and creative industries, Timișoara and Cluj-Napoca. With the strengthening of this sector as the aim in view, the forms of early social resilience we identified are capable in the short term of taking action to ensure the survival of some of the spaces; in the medium term, through activating mechanisms that encourage entrepreneurial spirit, they will be able to adapt to any external shock.

This article analyses the social economy from the perspective of NGOs and voluntary work. The research was conducted on four different territorial levels in the Western Region of Romania and employed both quantitative (questionnaires administered to the general population and within NGOs, bivariate analyses) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews within NGOs) methods of analysis. This method of working has allowed a picture of NGOs and volunteering to be formed that is correlated with territorial realities in the western part of Romania. It has thus been possible to see what underlies the coming into existence of NGOs, their economic scale, and what areas they succeed in addressing. Secondly, a description is provided of the typical Western Region volunteer, focusing mainly on social and motivational aspects.