LAUSR

Abstract Disparate elements of cosmopolitan lifestyle, rustic primitivism, inter-war nostalgia, communist ideological reminiscences, and post-communist transformations make difficult to find a community-based solution to land issues in Romania that is able to cover economic, social, and environmental interests. This paper outlines a scenario on future land governance, emphasizing that the land debate has moved beyond dialectics about the abundance or lack of production to a broader context about what is deemed to be land apart its material ground. Survey data was obtained from 184 structured interviews on citizens from the North-West and Center Development Regions of Romania and the overarching purpose of this research was to fill in the knowledge gaps on beliefs about land and its vulnerabilities mediated by a communication technology: video materials. Two research objectives were set as it follows: (i) to identify current frames related to land and to its selected vulnerabilities − foreign land grabbing, high natural value farmland (HNVF) reduction, and scarcity of farmers − and (ii) to move forward along the line of land frames to determine the influence of information in video format on citizens’ beliefs about studied variables. Thus, the study employs the concept of framing to analyze a collection of beliefs about land and its functions, assuming the basic underlying premise that frames, in general, permit individuals to locate, perceive, identify, and label facts and things. The influence of video information on citizens’ beliefs on land functions and vulnerabilities was discovered and the main findings prove that land frames are context dependent and flexible. The results highlight the role of land in the Romanian collective mind and they may represent a starting point for land governance in Romania that incorporates the real interests of citizens. By heeding concerns about land functions, HNVF reduction, scarcity of young farmers and foreign land grabbing under the conceptual approach of frames, this contribution transforms itself in a call for a “Stop and start over!” time for saving the national rural heritage.