The field of tourism includes its own heritage, through which it is possible to valorize those components of the cultural environment and of the cultural heritage that truly have a touristic valence. The urban interventions in Bucharest during the communist period affected many central historical areas. However, a part of the Jewish architectural heritage continues to last, with the attention on it increasing in recent years with the awareness of its value. The aim of this study is to assess the tourist potential of the Jewish cultural heritage by using an index of tourist attractiveness and a set of values established as evaluation criteria; identifying the heritage values as well as the ways of its development and promotion within the cultural tourism in Bucharest, in the context of preservation, conservation and restoration; identifying new ideas, products or services, respectively improving existing ones.

Family is a notion that societies are consistently trying to define and redefine nowadays, according to various interest groups. It also represents a variable functioning within conditions of population aging, especially in developing countries. An analysis of what family means must consider all the factors that influence it both structurally and in terms of size. The main objectives were to identify the perception of fertile-aged women about the notion of family and to measure its possible influence on the target group’s demographic behavior. The inquiry method was part of the research methodology with 499 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews done of a sample size population (women aged 15 to 49) living in Bucharest, Romania and supplemented by an SPSS analysis of the data gathered. The main results show that regardless of their education or income level, the interviewed target group declared that starting a new family or enlarging the current one is mostly correlated with financial aspects, and also that a pregnancy early in a woman’s career is viewed as an obstacle to her future development, even though when asked about the ideal family the financial aspect was rarely mentioned. The authors concluded that respondents’ mental attitude and reproductive behavior are undergoing a transitory phase. As such in Romania there is a need for sustainable demographic measures to tackle fertility issues. Several aspects support this: birth rates in the country have been consistently decreasing; the country’s economy is declining; and the interviewed target group conditioned starting a family or enlarging their current one on having sufficient financial resources.

Geographical studies and environment protection research

Recent studies in the Romanian Western Carpathians have revealed increasing socio-demographic fragility in rural areas and small towns, driven by depopulation, population aging, and declining living standards. These trends stem from the legacy of forced collectivization and industrialization (1950–1990) and the post-1990 transition, which triggered extensive out-migration and the erosion of local socio-economic structures. This study examines the fragility of human communities in the Trascău Mountains in order to evaluate spatial, demographic, and economic recovery dynamics and to assess settlement vulnerability as a major obstacle to sustainable regional development. Fragility was measured using indicators of population density and change, age structure, accessibility, and socio-demographic dynamics, based on comparative data for the interval of 1977–2021. These variables were integrated into a composite development index (Id), derived from twelve indicators covering demography, economy, infrastructure, and living standards, enabling the hierarchical classification of settlements by degree of vulnerability. The methodological framework combines empirical and analytical methods, statistical, cartographic, bibliographic, and field-based analyses within evolutionary, structural–functional, and typological perspectives. The results identify the main drivers of decline, quantify their impacts, and outline development prospects and policy directions for reducing territorial disparities. Overall, fragile settlements emerge as critical pressure points that undermine sustainability, intensify regional instability, and increase risks related to migration and social cohesion.

The present research focuses on buildings’ names and commercial signs analysis as an important component of Bucharest city center semiotics in relation to place identity. Insufficient studies have focused on the direct relationship between commercial signs and place identity, and no scientific approaches in this sense have been identified at Bucharest level. The buildings’ names and commercial signs used as case studies are from the second part of the 19th century until the present. The profound economic and social changes that have taken place in Bucharest during more than 150 years are reflected in the findings. Relying on a complex methodology, a typology framing the case studies identified in the field highlights situations that are not necessarily in accord with the passage of time, but rather with certain city planning decisions and in relation to space use. The novelty of this paper lies in the investigation of some components of Bucharest city center that tend to be forgotten, providing in the end information in relation to their degree of appreciation and therefore preservation, or on the contrary, abandonment and loss. In this complex approach, the role of territorial actors involved in actions such as inventory, framing, and finding preservation solutions is discussed.

This article focuses on graffiti and street art analysis in green areas from Romanian cities. Whether it is about the invasion or anticipated integration of urban artworks in green areas, in recent years, the phenomenon of urban art has become undoubtedly visible and finds its place among other components of artistic interventions. This study aims to diagnose various forms and expressions of urban art in the parks of several case study cities from Romania and to evaluate the urban art rapport with the parks’ organization. The methods used combine field research to identify spots with urban art, typologies based on different criteria, documentation for primary or supplementary explanations about the reality identified in the field, and results mapping using GIS tools. This study’s main findings are in relation to the location and preferred surfaces in the investigated parks for graffiti and street art works; hence, the main types of urban art and the messages transmitted. The results obtained highlight the idea that there are differences and gaps in terms of urban art phenomenon evolution reflected in diverse approaches of urban art and different balances that impact the parks’ image.