Urba-Rom Workshop : The ‘Roma Issue’ at the Local Level : Genesis, Categories and Controversies
Written by Ludovic Lepeltier
16 February 2011
The Urba-Rom workshops provide open forums for discussion and brainstorming. They are initiated by members of Urba-Rom network. They aim at taking stock of precise themes, sharing current research and identifying some paths for future studies. Conclusions, which can subsequently be published, are quickly available on line on the Urba-Rom site for further discussion.
Of course, the “Roma Issue” does not exist a priori; like every public matter, it is constructed in interactive situations, through mobilizations, debates and controversies in society and its institutions. Today, public authorities, NGOs and associations highlight the European dimension of the “Roma Issue”. In fact the enlargement of the EU, the current construction of a European policy for Roma inclusion, the presentation of a transnational minority following Cultural Studies, and the repeated appeals made by local municipalities and States for the EU to solve the “Roma Issue” give the latter a real European dimension.
with the Program « Villes et Territoires – CITIES ARE BACK IN ToWN » de Sciences-Po Paris, the Centre d'études européennes (CEE), laboratories l’UMR CITERES (Tours), l’UMR MIGRINTER (Poitiers) and the LAU (Ivry).
Wednesday 11th February, 14h-18h | Sciences Po Paris
(salle n° 35 “Eugène Eichtal”, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, third floor)
Nevertheless, it is at the local level that the presence of so-called Roma/Gypsies most certainly appears as a problem from the viewpoint of society and institutions. Illustrations of this phenomenon are numerous: acts of violence against Roma/Gypsy people or groups, such as those seen in Hungary and Italy; local mobilizations linked to the precarious life conditions of Roma migrants, mostly Romanian, settled at the peripheries of Western European cities, etc.
This workshop is based on three case studies carried out in Paris, Barcelona and Prague. It aims to identify convergences and divergences in the building process of the “Roma issue”, and the effects this latter has in political arenas at the local level. Analysis and comparisons could focus on the genesis of the “Roma Issue” (which causes or factors?), on the evolution of local controversies and on the functioning of the political arenas linked to the “Roma Issue”. Ultimately, the “Roma Issue” appears as a relevant observatory of the current marginalization process and social and political regulation in local societies in Europe.
Organization :Tommaso Vitale (CEE, Sciences Po, Paris), Olivier Legros (CITERES, Tours)
Contributions :
- Jean-Baptiste Duez (Programme RESPECT): Roma/Gypsies populations in Northern Paris: About the construction of a category from a migration process to its framing: some contradictory issues.
- Oscar Catalan (Université Autonome de Barcelone) :From the political discourses about urban public spaces to the genesis of neighborhood conflicts and its Europeanization: the construction of a “Gitano Rumano” issue in Barcelona (2002-2010)
- Hana Synkova (Institute of Ethnology, Charles University, Prague and Department of Social Sciences, University of Pardubice) : Constructions of the Czech politics “on Roma”: looking at and behind the discourses at the local and the national level.
- Loïc Blondiaux (Université de Paris I)
- Tim Butler (King’s College, London)
- Clément Rivière (OSC, Programme Ville et territoires, Sciences Po Paris)
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