This paper analyzes to what degree and how educational research from a European context explains Roma disadvantage in education by referring to nomadism. Three thematic areas emerged from an analysis of 55 research papers. First, that Roma are closely associated with nomadism in the literature, creating an essentialist discourse. Second, that anti-nomadism contributes to explaining and justifying Roma exclusion. Third, that this impacts how the relationship between Roma and education is uderstood. Nomadism is seen as both incompatible with and in opposition to education, and nomadic learning is seen as a distinct learning style. All in all, the analysis shows that knowledge production on Roma and education has established a discourse where it is legitimate to use nomadism to explain Roma disadvantage ineducation. This understanding builds on an essentialist view of Romani culture, and it elaborates and sustains key tropes of antigypsyist discourses.
{"title":"Nomadism in Research on Roma Education","authors":"S. Lauritzen","doi":"10.29098/CRS.V1I2.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29098/CRS.V1I2.2","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzes to what degree and how educational research from a European context explains Roma disadvantage in education by referring to nomadism. Three thematic areas emerged from an analysis of 55 research papers. First, that Roma are closely associated with nomadism in the literature, creating an essentialist discourse. Second, that anti-nomadism contributes to explaining and justifying Roma exclusion. Third, that this impacts how the relationship between Roma and education is uderstood. Nomadism is seen as both incompatible with and in opposition to education, and nomadic learning is seen as a distinct learning style. All in all, the analysis shows that knowledge production on Roma and education has established a discourse where it is legitimate to use nomadism to explain Roma disadvantage ineducation. This understanding builds on an essentialist view of Romani culture, and it elaborates and sustains key tropes of antigypsyist discourses.","PeriodicalId":32956,"journal":{"name":"Critical Romani Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45088556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite the vast research on Roma in Europe and beyond, little has been written about Roma agency from a perspective that focuses on manifold dynamics of power. Having worked for two years on the Finnish Roma Inclusion Project in a dual role as ethnographer and project worker has inspired me to rethink concepts of power and to create an alternative narrative of the experience of marginalized and discriminated Finnish Kaale Roma. Encouraged by the current paradigm shift in Romani Studies (which increasingly focuses on Roma agency instead of objectifying the population), this paper explores Kaale power dynamics as part of the social order and empirically demonstrates two parallel and antagonist systems of power exercised by Roma: one that stems from the population’s traditional cultural customs and the other from Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity, agrowing trend among the Finnish Kaale. The purpose of this article is to underline Roma agency within the frame of national Roma policy practices in Finland.
{"title":"Power and Hierarchy among Finnish Kaale Roma","authors":"M. Stenroos","doi":"10.29098/CRS.V1I2.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29098/CRS.V1I2.12","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the vast research on Roma in Europe and beyond, little has been written about Roma agency from a perspective that focuses on manifold dynamics of power. Having worked for two years on the Finnish Roma Inclusion Project in a dual role as ethnographer and project worker has inspired me to rethink concepts of power and to create an alternative narrative of the experience of marginalized and discriminated Finnish Kaale Roma. Encouraged by the current paradigm shift in Romani Studies (which increasingly focuses on Roma agency instead of objectifying the population), this paper explores Kaale power dynamics as part of the social order and empirically demonstrates two parallel and antagonist systems of power exercised by Roma: one that stems from the population’s traditional cultural customs and the other from Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity, agrowing trend among the Finnish Kaale. The purpose of this article is to underline Roma agency within the frame of national Roma policy practices in Finland.","PeriodicalId":32956,"journal":{"name":"Critical Romani Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44184532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores neoliberal discourse as a racial discourse in relation to how Roma are conceived by academics and policymakers. I develop the concept of the class-to-race cascade as a way to describe the phenomenon, whereby the marginalization of racialized minorities is attributed entirely to their classposition. The cascade flows as follows: neoliberal policies slash benefits to low-income people, low-income people are disproportionately racially marginalized, thus neoliberal policies affect different racialized minorities, perpetuating racism. I trace the lineage of the class-to-race cascade to the concept of the“underclass” as it was developed in the U.S. particularly through the work of William Julius Wilson after the neoliberal turn. I then critique the work of Iván Szelényi and János Ladányi who adapted the “underclass” thesis to Roma, using the class-to-race cascade. Finally, I apply the concept to urban policy discourse inBudapest’s Eighth District, where a large Roma community has lived for nearly a century. I show in this paper that the class-torace cascade is a prominent discursive feature of both policy and academic concepts of Roma.
{"title":"The Class-to-Race Cascade","authors":"J. McCombs","doi":"10.29098/CRS.V1I2.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29098/CRS.V1I2.6","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores neoliberal discourse as a racial discourse in relation to how Roma are conceived by academics and policymakers. I develop the concept of the class-to-race cascade as a way to describe the phenomenon, whereby the marginalization of racialized minorities is attributed entirely to their classposition. The cascade flows as follows: neoliberal policies slash benefits to low-income people, low-income people are disproportionately racially marginalized, thus neoliberal policies affect different racialized minorities, perpetuating racism. I trace the lineage of the class-to-race cascade to the concept of the“underclass” as it was developed in the U.S. particularly through the work of William Julius Wilson after the neoliberal turn. I then critique the work of Iván Szelényi and János Ladányi who adapted the “underclass” thesis to Roma, using the class-to-race cascade. Finally, I apply the concept to urban policy discourse inBudapest’s Eighth District, where a large Roma community has lived for nearly a century. I show in this paper that the class-torace cascade is a prominent discursive feature of both policy and academic concepts of Roma.","PeriodicalId":32956,"journal":{"name":"Critical Romani Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43469378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}