Regulating the urban commons : a Romanian case study of improving building facades

Vrabie, Anamaria (author), Ianole-Cǎlin, Rodica (author)

This paper examines the effect of build environment regulations for facades emergency repairs and embellishment, as implemented by the city of Cluj-Napoca, the second largest municipality in Romania. The scope was to identify to what extent the over taxation measure was efficient in generating compliant behaviour and what secondary effects it may have generated in people's attitude towards the local authorities. We conducted structured interviews with 25 homeowners targeted by the policy. The qualitative analysis uncovers structural issues on how the policy was implemented and communicated to the population. It further acknowledges difficulties in managing mixed property and collective actions. We interpret the findings as a first step towards building a more comprehensive research framework focused also on included behavioural insights, as captured by our recommendations. Namely, they illustrate that homeowners were critical about the measure, both in its rationale and its implementation, and were unable to act upon a cost-benefit analysis given the ambiguous available information. The findings further acknowledge difficulties in managing mixed property and collective actions, but they also hint favourably towards the role of peer effects, expressed here as compliant neighbours' behaviour. We interpret the results of this exploratory case study as a first step towards building a more comprehensive approach to serve as a toolkit in examining the development of innovative local policies in post-communist environments, through a combined research framework including also the significant contribution of behavioural insights, next to the traditional rational actor theories. Naturally, the usual limitations of the method also apply to our study, in the sense of non-generalizable conclusions. This fuels up the need for further research on similar regional and urban challenges in an extended multiple-case study scheme.

• Language: English
• Keywords: compliant behaviour, building facades, regulation, policy design, behavioural insights
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FU - Faculty of Administration
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: Str. 183-198
• Numbering: Vol. 18, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-128652
• UDC: 352(498)
• ISSN on article: 2591-2240
• DOI: 10.17573/cepar.2020.2.09
• COBISS.SI-ID: 67527683

Note

Povzetek v slov. na koncu publikacije, str. 203-204.

• Publication date in RUL: 22.07.2021

VRABIE, Anamaria and IANOLE-CǍLIN, Rodica, 2020, Regulating the urban commons : a Romanian case study of improving building facades. Central European public administration review [online]. 2020. Vol. 18, no. 2, p. 183–198. [Accessed 17 April 2025]. DOI 10.17573/cepar.2020.2.09. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=128652

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Central European public administration review
• Shortened title: CEPAR
• Publisher: Fakulteta za upravo
• ISSN: 2591-2240
• COBISS.SI-ID: 293849600

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 18.11.2020

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Urejanje urbanega okolja : romunska študija primera izboljšanja fasad stavb

Abstract

Članek proučuje učinek gradbenih predpisov na sanacije fasad, ki so jih izvedli v mestu Cluj-Napoca, drugi največji romunski občini. Namen je bil ugotoviti, v kolikšni meri je bil ukrep višje obdavčitve učinkovit za dosego skladnega vedenja in katere sekundarne učinke je morda imel na odnos ljudi do lokalnih oblasti. Opravili smo strukturirane intervjuje s 25 lastniki, ki jih je ta ukrep zadeval. Kvalitativna analiza je nakazala na odprta vprašanja glede izvedbe ukrepa in obveščanja prebivalstva. Poleg tega je prepoznala težave pri upravljanju mešanega premoženja in kolektivni obravnavi. Ugotovitve vidimo kot prvi korak k oblikovanju celovitejšega raziskovalnega okvira, osredotočenega tudi na vedenjski vidik, kot ga zajemajo naša priporočila. Kažejo namreč, da so bili lastniki do ukrepa kritični tako glede njegove utemeljitve kot izvedbe, zaradi dvoumnih informacij pa niso mogli izvesti analize stroškov in koristi. Ugotovitve nadalje prepoznavajo težave pri upravljanju mešanega premoženja in kolektivni obravnavi, obenem pa pozitivno nakazujejo na vlogo medsebojnih učinkov, ki so tu izraženi kot skladno sosedsko vedenje. Rezultate raziskovalne študije vidimo kot prvi korak k oblikovanju celovitejšega pristopa, ki bo služil kot orodje za proučevanje razvoja inovativnih lokalnih politik v postkomunističnih okoljih s kombiniranim raziskovalnim okvirjem, ki poleg tradicionalnih teorij racionalnega akterja vključuje tudi vedenjski vidik. Seveda tudi za našo študijo veljajo običajne metodološke omejitve v smislu nezmožnosti posploševanja zaključkov. To pa kliče po nadaljnji raziskavi podobnih regionalnih in urbanih izzivov na podlagi razširjene sheme več primerov.

• Keywords: skladno vedenje, fasade stavb, predpisi, oblikovanje politike, vedenjski vidiki