In the context of deindustrialization and desurbanization, Romanian cities are confronted with issues related to natural demographic decline and out-migration, inducing apparently opposite, but complementary phenomena: slow-burn shrinkage and urban sprawl, which create peripheralisation processes both inside and outside the cities. The current approach acknowledges urban shrinkage within the context of post-communist transformations, but also as a “natural” process in the (adaptive) life cycle of cities. In this context, the study aims to explore the interdependencies between the causes and effects of shrinkage, on the one hand, and the operating feedback mechanisms which might lead to adaptation, on the other. It highlights the changes incurred by the territorial (un)balance combining the spatial analysis of urban shrinkage in relation to the diffused structures imposed by sub-urbanization or metropolisation processes. Using multi-criteria and time series analysis methods, the aim of the assessment is to determine and analyse the significant correlations and trends taking into account relevant demographic, social–economic as well as infrastructural and environmental indicators, in order to describe typologies of urban shrinkage in Romania and their adaptation potential. The results are interpreted in correlation with the need for sustainable strategies and planning, in order to tackle the issue of urban shrinkage in Romania.

Social, economic and environmental factors contribute to the companies’ sustainable development. Social and financial dimensions have an important contribution to sustainable performance, through assurance of transparency in the information communication requested by stakeholders in order to substantiate their decisions. Social transparency is ensured by presenting organization’s actions in the field of social responsibility, and financial transparency takes into account the most accurate, complete and neutral presentation of information, both in the annual financial statements and in the audit reports. The present study aims to assess the influence of financial transparency and gender equality on the sustainable corporate performance, thus contributing to increasing SDGs awareness and achievement required by 2030 Agenda. Through a sample of 1133 observations (Romanian listed companies/years) to the period 2008–2020, the obtained research results emphasis that gender equality and absence/presence of transparency in financial reporting have a significant influence on corporate sustainable performance.

Our paper aims to analyze the tendencies of population dynamics in the area of the Romanian Carpathians, as well as the factors and spatial processes that can explain the disparities, discontinuities and tensions of demographic evolution. Starting from the hypothesis of an existing set of well-known particularities of the three areas of the Romanian Carpathians (Eastern, Southern and Western), in close connection with the specific manner of using natural and human resources of each area, the main objective of our study is to pinpoint the significant aspects of depopulation and population redistribution. The database was established resorting to censuses from 1912 to the present time. Coupled with a typology of population evolution, a regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between population size changes through time and other variables. The results highlight the contrast between the sustained dynamic in the first part of our study period and the subsequent decline, particularly in the case of establishments specialized in industrial extraction activities. Despite all this, clear signs and tendencies of revitalization and dynamism can be observed, especially where urban and rural settlements are well adapted to the natural environment and can benefit from a significant tourism potential.

For the past 25 years, Romania crossed a contradictory evolution between the social–educational and economic aspects. From the inflexible educational system of the totalitarian regime, when all graduates from different levels of education immediately received a job (to avoid unemployment—a phenomenon that the communist authorities did not tolerate), there was a transition to an educational system marked by frequent structural and methodological changes and by an increasing gap between the educational offer and the real necessities of the labor market. In this context, the aim of this paper was to analyzes, in the light of the sociology of education, the difficulties met by the new generations that enter the labor market after following a previously established educational model, often intended to be changed according to European sociological principles, but with deeply rooted mentalities and structure, actually difficult to alter. The ability to adapt to the new socio-economic context and to adjust educational programs to the new labor market requirements, in a strong correlation with the European policies, is constantly taken into account by interpreting the results in the spirit of the sociology of education and sustainable development.

The sustainability of local public finances is of general interest in the context of the socio-economic transformations of recent decades. In former communist countries such as Romania, where there has been no real reform of local government, this interest is heightened by the strong disparities between administrative units that have adapted to the new context and those that, for various reasons, have become dependent on government subsidies to be able to function. Using information derived from the budget execution for 2019–2023 at the level of the administrative units in rural areas, this study analyzes the structure of income and expenditure budgets. The territorial disparities are demonstrated by typological analyses showing strong regionalization, with a well-defined income or expenditure structure profile. In the same sense, multivariate analysis which uses a series of illustrative demographic and socio-economic profiles as explanatory variables shows significant correlations with the structure of local budgets. It is thus possible to distinguish certain regional patterns, depending on the level of development, geographical position, or quality of infrastructure. The study results demonstrate the need for genuine administrative reform to reduce the dependence of local budgets on subsidies and increase their self-sustainability, especially in rural areas.

The study of visitor experiences incorporating user-generated content from accommodation platforms is a distinct trend in the geography of tourism. Our research aims to better understand how this content can be instrumentalized in order to assess the viability of Airbnb accommodation ranks based on specific case studies from Greece, Italy, and Spain. The methodological frame we propose is based on two separate tools. First, the users’ reviews are summarized using sentiment analysis techniques, and the positive component is extracted as a separate indicator (predictor). The second step consists of mobilizing geographically weighted regression (GWR) to identify of the potential statistical association between the Airbnb apartments’ ranks and the quantitative outputs of sentiment analysis. The results obtained for 13 case studies are based on more than 4.6 million reviews. They clearly emphasize a gap between the rank proposed by the platform and the positive scores of sentiment analysis for the accommodation units analyzed (88,053). Despite some limitations linked to the quantity of data needed to be integrated into the investigation, the methodological frame can be transferred to other destinations, providing useful information about the potential distortions of tourism markets by the meta-description of accommodation systems.