Urba-Rom Activities

Juin 2011

The conference on the « Roma Issue in Europe today » which took place in Tours in March was a major event of Urba-Rom over the last months. Documents and recordings are online now. A conference related to the Nantes workshop (January, 2011) took place on May 12th and 13th in Perpignan. This event dealt mainly with the schooling of the Gypsies of Perpignan. Another workshop is planned on June 21st, 2011 in Barcelona. It will begin comparing the local policies towards Roma migrants in Spain and in France. Moreover, we are discussing with the Fondation Abbé Pierre the feasibility of organizing a workshop about the processes of integration of Roma migrants in France in October.

Finally, many of us have responded to a funding call from the City of Paris. Our proposal deals with beginning a comparative work on the interactions between the local policies and the activities of Roma migrants in precarious situations in three metropolitan areas: Paris, Milan and Barcelona.

Urba-Rom, a new version

After several months of work with the Crevilles team, the Urba-Rom site has been completely reviewed. This reorganization has improved access to the e-resource centre and to the Urba-Rom publications. It was also a opportunity to clarify the functions of our network, which has now become an observatory of the policies towards the groups referred to as Roma/Gypsies.

Why talk about the groups referred to as Roma/Gypsies? Of course, we don’t aim to cast doubt on individual and collective identities but we have decided to focus on the labelling processes, which are mainly led by mainstream societies and their institutions. Indeed, the ways to categorize, which are often stereotyped, forcibly determine the policies towards the groups in question. Why talk about an observatory? Because it corresponds with the activities Urba-Rom has carried out up to now: gathering of scientific and documentary resources, monitoring the news; critically analyzing the policies towards the groups referred to as Roma/ Gypsies.

As mentioned in the document introducing the Observatory, Urba-Rom has other goals. By examining the situation of groups referred to as Roma/Gypsies, we propose to: participate in the current reflections about European societies today, especially those which deal with the production of inequalities, the policies of poverty regulation and urban governance; and to encourage dialogue between researchers, institutional agents, civil society organizations and people concerned by the policies (users, target groups). 

Urba-Rom now has a charter. It aims to guarantee collegiality as the mode of decision-making within the observatory, and, at the same time, to encourage individual initiatives, if these latter are compatible with the Urba-Rom principles. The charter also aims to guarantee the durability of a space for reflection at the crossroads of the academic, institutional and organizational spheres and with the people concerned by the policies.  A space of reflection which is, moreover, independent (on the financial and institutional levels).  In our opinion, this independence is a key point in order to enable the Observatory to fulfil its missions  of providing information, critical analysis and dialogue.

Lastly, we must say that we have not finished the rebuilding of the site. There are a lot of things to do… especially with the translations into English. Of course, those who wish to participate in this work are welcome to. In its functioning as well as in its principles, Urba-Rom remains a collaborative organization.

La « question rom » : un champ d’expérimentation pour les politiques sociales dans l’Europe mondialisée ?

A la Une du mois de janvier 2011, la Rédaction propose un article de Nicolas Guilhot publié en 2004 dans les Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales : « Une vocation philanthropique. George Soros, les sciences sociales et la régulation du marché mondial » (Le lecteur pourra également se reporter à un article en anglais : « Reforming the World: George Soros, Global Capitalism and the Philanthropic Management of the Social Sciences », in Critical Sociology, 2007).

Read more: La « question rom » : un champ d’expérimentation pour les politiques sociales dans l’Europe mondialisée ?

L'Europe et l'invention de la modernité : appel d'offre

Offre de 4 bourses doctorales dans le cadre du programme doctoral européen en sciences humaines et sociales, en collaboration entre l’Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, l’Ecole pratique des hautes études, la Humboldt Universität (Berlin), l’Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane (Florence) et la Central European University (Budapest).

Voir l’appel d’offre : http://www.sumitalia.it/ITA/bandi/europa-modernita.php

• La date limite de dépôt des candidatures est fixée au 17 janvier 2011.
• L’examen oral d’admission se tiendra à Paris le lundi 21 février et le mardi 22 février 2011.

Pour plus d’informations sur le programme doctoral : http://www.europeandoctoralprogramme.com/curricula/europa-modern.php