Research team
Our team gathers ethnographers, specialists from the bottled water industry, and marketing scholars who combine ethnographic and quantitative research.
Liviu Chelcea
Liviu Chelcea teaches at the University of Bucharest and is interested in inequalities, housing, and metabolic flows in cities. Holding a PhD in anthropology (2005) from the University of Michigan, he writes about postsocialism, de-industrialisation, housing restitution, and urban infrastructures in Bucharest. Since 2018, he has been studying the multiple ways drinking water is accessed and managed in New York City, including the domestic use of water filters (American Ethnologist) and water hospitality in restaurants (Current Anthropology).
Alin Stancu
Alin Stancu is Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations at the Department of Marketing from The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania. His main areas of research include: customer care, consumer experience, corporate responsibility and public relations. He is the co-founder of The International Conference on Social Responsibility, Ethics and Sustainable Business (www.csrconferences.org) and co-editor of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Governance, Leadership and Responsibility.
Marian Cercel
Marian Cercel is a Sales Director at a private company and an associate lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bucharest. He has written articles on consumer behavior in the private sphere of the family. His research interests include food consumption behaviors — including water consumption — as well as the ways in which marketing and society contribute to shaping these behaviors over time.
Adina Ionescu
Adina Ionescu is a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Marketing within the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, under the supervision of Professor Alin Stancu, PhD. She also obtained a professional diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in London. After completing four specialized study modules, Adina was awarded diplomas in Marketing and Sustainable Marketing by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
Adina’s professional background and the key positions she has held in several companies have given her exposure to various industries, including engineering and IT&C (Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent / Nokia, Thales), electrical and digital infrastructure (Schneider Electric, Legrand), automotive (Groupe Renault / Automobile Dacia), oil and gas (MOL Group), FMCG (Campofrio, Sigma Alimentos / Caroli Foods Group), and international trade (Samsung Corporation). She has also managed relations with central authorities and professional associations.
Furthermore, she has defined corporate social responsibility (CSR) platforms, developed long-term projects dedicated to various communities, actively engaged in volunteer-based initiatives, and strongly believes in supporting civil society.
Adina is passionate about promoting the concept of sustainable marketing, which emphasizes responsible consumption and the adoption of ESG (environmental-social-governance) principles by both companies and consumers over the medium and long term. She actively advocates for the application of sustainability principles at the societal level as a foundation for national well-being.
Oana Mogoș
Oana Mogoș is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, within the Faculty of Marketing. She teaches Public Relations and is actively involved in both academic and applied research. Her areas of interest include marketing, internal marketing, employer branding, and corporate social responsibility—topics that shape both her academic pursuits and practical insights.
Her doctoral research focuses on exploring how employer branding influences employee satisfaction in Romania, contributing to a better understanding of organizational dynamics and human resource strategies in the local context.
Ramona Năstase
Bogdan Iancu
Bogdan Iancu is a university lecturer in anthropology at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest, within the Department of Sociology, where he teaches courses in ethnographic practice, visual anthropology, and material culture. He is also a researcher at the Romanian Peasant Museum. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and Ethnology from the University of Perugia.
His research focuses on post-socialist transformations in both rural and urban contexts — including labor, housing, material culture, traditional ecological knowledge and practices — as well as political ecology and heritage policies. Over the past decade, he has conducted ethnographic research on the Sadova–Corabia irrigation system.
He is the author and editor of several academic volumes, including New Cultures. New Anthropologies, co-edited with Vintilă Mihăilescu and Monica Stroe (Humanitas, 2012); The Material Culture (Re)Turn in Anthropology: Promises and Dead-ends (Humanitas, 2013); Sezonierii: muncă și identități în mișcare [Seasonal Workers: Labor and Moving Identities], co-edited with Iuliana Dumitru (Pro Universitaria, 2024), as well as of articles such as In Search of Eligibility: Common Agricultural Policy and the Reconfiguration of Hay Meadows Management in the Romanian Highlands (with Monica Stroe), published in Martor (2016), and From Peasant Workers to Amenity Migrants. Socialist Heritage and the Future of Mountain Rurality in Romania (with Andrea Membretti), in the Journal of Alpine Research (2017).
His most recent publications include the article Out of one, many: Hydro-economic logics in a World Bank-financed irrigation project in Romania (with Monica Stroe), published in Eurasian Geography and Economics (2025), and the volume Windows of Change: Post-socialist Transformations in a Community of Carpenters in Bucharest (Pro Universitaria, 2025).