Thirty years after the collapse of Communism, and at a time of radically diverse kinds of identity politics, including anti-migrant, anti-Roma, anti-Muslim and anti-establishment movements, this book analyses how Roma identity is expressed in contemporary Europe. From backgrounds ranging from political theory, postcolonial, cultural and gender studies to art history, feminist critique and anthropology, the contributors reflect on the extent to which a politics of identity regarding historically disadvantaged, racialized minorities such as the Roma can still be legitimately articulated. In part, the contributors argue, the answer lies in a movement beyond classic identity politics and any opposition between essentialism and constructivism.

Thirty years after the collapse of Communism, and at a time of increasing anti-migrant and anti-Roma sentiment, this book analyses how Roma identity is expressed in contemporary Europe. From backgrounds ranging from political theory, postcolonial, cultural and gender studies to art history, feminist critique and anthropology, the contributors reflect on the extent to which a politics of identity regarding historically disadvantaged, racialized minorities such as the Roma can still be legitimately articulated.

The longstanding European conception that Roma and non-Roma are separated by unambiguous socio-cultural distinctions has led to the construction of Roma as “non-belonging others.” Challenging this conception, Textures of Belonging explores how Roma negotiate and feel belonging at the everyday level. Inspired by material culture, sensorial anthropology, and human geography approaches, this book uses ethnographic research to examine the role of domestic material forms and their sensorial qualities in nurturing connections with people and places that transcend socio-political boundaries.

The situation of the Roma in Europe, especially in the former communist states, is one of the more important human rights issues on the agenda of the international community, especially in the Euro-Atlantic bodies of integration. Within European states that have Roma populations there is a growing awareness that the matter must be confronted, and that there is a need for a concentrated effort to solve social problems and ease tensions between the Roma and the European nations among which they dwell. This volume is the result of an international conference held at Tel Aviv University in December 2002. The conference, one of the largest held among the academic community in the last decade, served as a unique forum for a multidisciplinary discussion on the past and present of the Roma in which both Roma and non-Roma scholars from various countries engaged.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the emergence, development and implications of the Roma political phenomenon in contemporary Europe. It also challenges the conventional epistemological basis to political claims of distinct Roma people and argues that the contemporary politics of Roma is better understood as the public application of Roma identity. In recent times a new word has entered the political lexicon across Europe and beyond: Roma. Thirty years ago it would have been hard to encounter the public use of the word outside of a small number of academics and activists. In the second decade of the new millennium, Roma has become a dynamic political identity championed by hundreds of organisations, thousands of activists and applied to millions of people across Europe and beyond. Roma has become an agenda item for local and national authorities, as well as being taken up by the European Union and other international organisations. In challenging the conventional epistemology, this book examines the principal interests and processes that are constructing Roma as a public, political identity encompassing highly differentiated groups of people. This book brings together critical race theory and theories of ethnic mobilisation to provide a new critical framework for understanding Roma identity, history and transnational politics. It will be of particular interest to students and academics within the fields of global racialization and ethnicity studies.

One of the greatest challenges during the enlargement process of the European Union towards the east is how the issue of the Roma or Gypsies is tackled. This ethnic minority group represents a much higher share by numbers, too, in some regions going above 20% of the population. This enormous social and political problem cannot be solved without proper historical studies like this book, the most comprehensive history of Gypsies in Romania. It is based on academic research, synthesizing the entire historical Romanian and foreign literature concerning this topic, and using lot of information from the archives. The main focus is laid on the events of the greatest consequence. Special attention is devoted to aspects linked to the long history of the Gypsies, such as slavery, the process of integration and assimilation into the majority population, as well as the marginalization of Gypsies, which has historic roots. The process of emancipation of Gypsies in the mid-19th century receives due treatment. The deportation of Gypsies to Transnistria during the Antonescu regime, between 1942-1944, is reconstructed in a special chapter. The closing chapters elaborate on the policy toward Gypsies in the decades after the Second World War that explain for the latest developments and for the situation of this population in today's Romania.

The lack of recognition of Romani gender politics in the wider Romani movement and the women’s movements is accompanied by a scarcity of academic literature on Romani women’s mobilization in wider social justice struggles and debates. The Romani Women’s Movement highlights the role that Romani women’s politics plays in shaping equality related discourses, policies, and movements in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Presenting the diverse experiences and voices of Romani women activists, this volume reveals how they translate experiences of structural inequalities into political struggles by defining their own spaces of action; participating in formalized or less formal activist practices, and challenging the agendas and mechanisms of the established Romani and women’s movements. Moving discourses on and of Romani women from the periphery of scholarly exchanges to the mainstream, the volume invites scholars and activists from different disciplines and movements to critically reflect on their engagements with particular social justice agendas. It will appeal to students, researchers and practitioners interested in fields such as social movements, gender equality, and social and ethnic justice.