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This thesis contributes to research and theory of racial capitalism by focusing on its operation in the post-socialist context. Drawing on eleven months of ethnographic research among racialised Roma workers in the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic, I present an empirical exploration of a racialised "surplus population". Engaging with recent research on the applicability of Marx's category of the surplus population to society today, I make the case that, though Roma workers are integrated among wage labourers, they are contained in low-paid, stigmatised and precarious jobs, in a racialised condition of 'under-employment'. This way I provide an alternative to the dominant trope in the media and political discourse, supported by some academics, that presents unemployment as a universal fact of Roma lives. Analysing the surplus population empirically, I look both at the operation of capital and also at interventions of the Czech state that facilitate and maintain it. The main method of the thesis is participant observation, which I carried out while living in a racially segregated neighbourhood of Údol, and while working as a street cleaner and as a recycling operative, handpicking items on a conveyor belt, with a majority-Roma workforce. Through this work and daily interactions with my neighbours and colleagues, I collected data that show the interconnected features of racialised lives of working-class Roma, who find themselves contained in low-paid and insecure jobs; in segregated neighbourhoods marked by stigma; and needing to support their monthly budgets by various forms of credit. The thesis analyses the ethnographic data using these three key sociological categories: urban space; waged labour; and household debt. The overarching approach for my analysis is racialisation of class conditions, a process through which capital and state create and reproduce marginality at work, in housing and in access to finances. I situate my analysis in the context of debates about post-socialism, paying particular attention to the changes in class formations. To date, class-based analysis is still largely missing in scholarship on the Eastern European "transition to capitalism", partially as a result of the suppression of the notion of class conflict as something illegitimate in the post-socialist period. As a result, the language of class was replaced with notions of nation, ethnicity, family or church (Ost, 2005). This meant a departure from class-based interpretations of poverty, and also an analytical preference for conceptions of a racialised "culture of poverty" (Lewis, 1966). My thesis refocuses analytical attention on the racialisation of class formations in a context marked by three decades of complex changes that included the privatisation of national industries, which fundamentally reshaped the class structure and hierarchies and solidified the dominance of employers in the labour-capital relationship. Using class as a category of exploitation and dispossession, rather than stratification, I argue that Roma constitute an under-employed, racialised surplus population in the Czech Republic.

This thesis documents my story as a teacher. It begins with an account of the end of my teaching career, narrating the story of my suspension from practice, based on an accusation of falsifying data. This constitutes the start of a fascination with datafication, which continues throughout the thesis. The exploration of datafication begins with the conceptualisation of datafication as a doppelganger or second self. The use of the doppelganger as a thinking-tool enables me to experiment with fighting against datafication in the form of the data-doppelganger. Following on from this critique of the existing system through the conceptualisation of the data-doppelganger, I return to the field in an attempt to resist the dominant discourse of datafication. An ethnographic participatory action research project provides me with an opportunity to move to a more active phase of the research, where I attempt to work with others to develop new ways of assessing children in early years. As my thinking develops following the research project, I produce myself not as a coherent subject but as a divided self, a new subjectivity which to me, makes sense of the conflicted world in which I find myself. This acceptance of the divided subject constitutes a resolution to the conflict I encounter within myself and enables me to engage in active resistance to datafication. My final paper, which provides an analysis of a Roma child's development from a Roma perspective, embodies this resistance. In it, I link thought and action in praxis to produce an alternative child subject, a subject not seen through the lens of datafication, but viewed through a Romani lens. In this way, the thesis tells the story of my experience of datafication, a journey from encounters with the doppelganger to a final act of praxis.

Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and its reversal, via Mesenchymal to Epithelial Transition (MET), describes the highly coordinated cycle of epithelial plasticity by which normal tissues are remodelled and repositioned during development. Previous studies have characterised the role of EMT regulators in epithelial plasticity observed during branching morphogenesis in the mammary gland. For example, a microarray analysis of gene expression in terminal end buds identified elevated levels of EMT regulators, Snail and Twist, in the mammary gland. Additionally, a transgenic mouse model overexpressing a regulator of EMT, Mta3, resulted in hypo-proliferation in the mammary gland, showing a link between EMT regulators and mammary gland development. In a similar pattern to Mta3, mice deficient in Roma (Zfp157), a newly characterised Krüppel-associated box zinc finger protein, exhibited hyperproliferation in mammary epithelial cells (MECs) during early pregnancy. Roma/Zfp157 (Regulator Of Mammary Alveologenesis), has been shown by the Watson laboratory to be a critical regulator of alveolar lineage commitment in the mammary gland, with its depletion also resulting in accelerated alveologenesis during pregnancy coupled with DNA damage and cell cycle dysregulation. Whilst these developmental phenotypes have been described, a complete molecular characterisation of Roma and its interacting partners is yet to be achieved. This body of work aimed to expand our current understanding of Roma's role in the mammary gland by elucidating its interactome. To this end, Roma's binding partners were investigated by Rapid Immunoprecipitation of Endogenous proteins by mass spectrometry (RIME), a novel approach for identifying proteins in transcription factor complexes. Further in silico analysis of RIME data, coupled with co-immunoprecipitation experiments, helped refine several putative binding partners of Roma, identifying Roma's binding to Mta3, a regulator of the cell cycle with a role in EMT. This thesis also shows that Roma overexpression led to the downregulation of key EMT regulators, Snail and Twist, in EpH4s MECs, which is interesting given previous studies have shown Mta3 represses Snail expression in transgenic-overexpression mouse models. Moreover, a Roma-knockout mouse model was probed to investigate the loss of Roma on EMT factors in the mammary gland, which concurrently showed elevated levels of Snail and Twist, and the downregulation of Slug and Zeb1 during early pregnancy. Additionally, a novel optical-clearing and confocal imaging technique (CUBIC R1a) was used to clear the mammary gland and visualise the extensive disorganisation of MECs in the Roma-knockout mice during lactation. This finding may suggest a potential role for Roma in epithelial plasticity through EMT regulators and architectural organisation in the mammary gland. Finally, this thesis has undertaken important steps towards identifying the human orthologue of Roma, using several in silico approaches. In particular, online microarray databases, phylogenetics, BLAST sequence alignments of conserved domains and breast cancer signatures were analysed and cross- referenced, generating a list of candidates for the human orthologue of Roma. Overall, the findings of this thesis suggest that Roma may regulate mammary gland development through manipulation of key EMT factors via Mta3. Further characterisation of this protein will provide important information on mechanisms driving extensive tissue remodelling in the mammary gland, which is strictly regulated due to implications for both normal and malignant development.

The present thesis focuses on the representations of the Roma minority in Yugoslavian and Serbian narrative film. As a corpus-based study (with the total of 35 films divided into seven periods running from 1945 to 2010), it examines in detail the representational strategies employed in depicting the filmic Roma, and aims to specify a developmental trajectory that these strategies take. To this end, a two-step analytical procedure is used: (1) Information Structure Analysis, the analytical framework developed by the present author for the purposes of studying narrative representations, makes use of the diegetic domain categories (Topic/Focus; Active/Passive/Perceiver) as well as the meta-diegetic domain categories (Frame Setter) in order to identify the narrative signals deployed in the construction of minority representations. (2) Narrative-Semiotic Analysis is concerned with the specifics of the representational content. It takes as input the findings of the Information Structure Analysis and investigates more closely the narrative roles and plot units that the Roma are assigned in the film narratives. The representational strategies identified in the project fall into three types: Roma as interactants, indices of socio-psychological patterns, and meta-textual devices. The developmental path that emerges reveals a predominance of indexical representations and interactants as modified character types (the latter exemplified by such literary and filmic staples as The Fool/Jester) between 1945 and 1960; this is followed by a slow transition from the ideologically-constrained interactant representations in the 1960s to socially critical and oftentimes didactic representations in the early 2000s. The Yugoslavian New Film period (1960-1972) ushered in meta-textual roles, in which the Roma characters intervene in the filmic text from an interpretively privileged and causally separate narrative position, formulating a varyingly explicit criticism of the public image-oriented Yugoslavian politics of the day. This representational strategy has been found to decrease in number and change focus in the last two periods, thematizing broader issues such as individuality, emotionality, and the nature of relationships. Lastly, the archetype of the Roma musician is posited as the most frequent and salient representation based on the analyses of the corpus.

This thesis explores the relationship between the colour-blind public philosophy of republicanism and the French state's policies targeting the Roma. It addresses one core research question: how did political actors use neo-republican ideas to communicate and justify policies targeting the Roma? To do this, it examines the discourse of French and European Union (EU) actors involved in the formulation and implementation of polices targeting the Roma from 2010 to 2016. This discourse comprised political speeches, policy reports, memos, media clippings and 50 in-depth interviews with French and EU actors. Building on Christina Boswell and James Hampshire's theory of discursive strategies, this thesis focuses on the strategic deployment of republican ideas, notably the ways in which political actors were able to exploit their polyvalence. This thesis argues that political actors used four key republican ideas to communicate and justify policies targeting the Roma in France. First, a commitment to universalism allowed political actors to deny accusations of ethnic targeting while pursuing policies that disproportionally targeted Roma migrants. Second, political actors deployed the idea of a 'neutral' public sphere to justify the eviction and deportation of residents living in so-called Roma camps. Third, political actors used a logic of administrative selection to predetermine which evicted 'Roma' migrants were worthy of state support. Fourth, recipients of this support were subject to a state-led process of assimilation akin to a modern 'civilising mission', which political actors defended as a necessary step towards integration. This thesis concludes that it was precisely the polyvalence of republican ideas that allowed actors to deploy them to communicate and justify discriminatory policies. In doing so, it builds upon a growing literature on the role of republicanism in contemporary French politics and provides a rich empirical study that captures the influence of a general public philosophy on specific policy decisions. Additionally, it extends recent scholarship on the treatment of the Roma in Europe and contributes to debate about the challenges of free movement in an enlarged EU.

Roma in former Czechoslovakia have historically experienced economic and political marginalisation and been treated and portrayed as inferior to ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. Roma thereby became perceived as different from non-Roma citizens, as not belonging to the Czech or Slovak nation, as an 'exception'. The post-socialist transition produced economic precarity, new inequalities, and a climate of rising nationalist sentiments in Central and Eastern Europe. The perception of Roma as not having the same rights as ethnic Czechs or Slovaks to access state care became even more salient than during the socialist period. Following the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, Roma are now able to move freely across EU borders and to find employment and settle in the United Kingdom. Migration to the UK, including Leeds, offered Roma new economic opportunities as well as the promise of escaping ethnic stigmatisation. It seemed to offer the possibility to lead what I refer to as a 'normal life' as equal citizens. This thesis is based on ethnographic research among Czech and Slovak Roma in Leeds. It reveals the processes that contribute to Roma becoming defined as an exception after migrating to Leeds, and looks at the ways in which Roma resist this. It recounts the interactions that Roma have with different aspects of state care, namely welfare provision, services and projects aimed at improving the well-being of Roma, and with non-Roma Czech and Slovak interpreters. Some Roma in Leeds have converted to a Roma Pentecostal Church, the Life and Light. In this thesis I argue that by providing material support to Roma, both converts and non-converts, and through a narrative that Roma are a lost tribe of Israel, the Church constructs Roma as a moral collectivity and subverts their position of inferiority and 'exceptionality'. The Church provides a way for Roma to be respectable, to live with dignity and to have what they understand to be a 'normal' life, whilst retaining their Roma identity.

This thesis seeks to use the politics and practices of language to understand social hierarchies and social change in a post-conflict and postsocialist context. My research was conducted among Roma who speak four languages in Prizren, Kosovo. My participants were primarily from a compact Roma area which is relatively central and integrated into the town, and my major fieldsite was there, and at a local Romani NGO and radio station. Shifts in language practices have reflected the demise of Yugoslav socialism, ethno-nationalist politics and conflict, and the post-war reversal of power relations in Kosovo. At the same time Prizren is still seen as one of the more cosmopolitan areas, retaining pre-war multiculturalism. The position of Roma in this cosmopolitanism is ambiguous; while they stress their relative integration, their position is fragile in the face of Albanian nationalist politics, and imported neoliberal economic strategies. Within this, Roma NGO workers have managed to carve an economic niche through the minority and multiculturalist project work funded by western governments. However this has led to further subdivisions among Roma, and in particular with the newly formed ethnic groups Egyptians and Ashkali. I discuss the historical trajectory and current configurations of a Romani organisation in the town, the standardisation of Romani and the hierarchical organisation of linguistic forms and language learning, the self-representation of Roma and the 'gypsy' image through Romani language drama, and attitudes to purism, mixing and cosmopolitanism. My central research question is: How are social hierarchies articulated through linguistic ideology and speech practices at different scales? By ethnographically investigating both usage and ideology of language, and treating language as metonymic of social relations more broadly, I argue that language is used to represent and reproduce social hierarchies. My central method was language learning: by positioning myself as a learner I was able to elicit ideologies related both to Romani language and Romani multilingualism, as well as conflicts and inconsistencies between language ideology and speech practices. As such the thesis complicates and critiques both purist and cosmopolitanist understandings of language and of multilingualism, and suggests that by further embedding language in social relations it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the way the dynamics of political change are played out on a local level.

Grounded in a theoretical debate between anthropological studies on Roma/Gypsies and anthropological studies of Christianity, the focus of this thesis is on the experience of social and religious life among members of a traditional minority in Finland, the Finnish Kaale/Finnish Roma, a population of approximately 13.000 people living in Finland and Sweden. Over the past decades, the processes of urbanisation and sedentarisation have led to shifts in the ways in which the social lives of Kaale families are lived. A shift towards individualisation is interlinked with the continuous importance placed on family and kin belonging, which come together in a re-assessment of people's central attachments in the world. At the same time, over the same period of time, a large number of this population have converted to Pentecostal and charismatic movements in the country, leading to subtle changes in the shape of social relations within and outside their own community: between believers and non-believers, between Kaale and non-Kaale. Making use of participant observation, interviews, conversion stories and individual life histories among Finnish Kaale living in the capital city of Helsinki and in Eastern parts of the country, this ethnography provides an insight into the multiple, overlapping and complex ways in which Kaale belonging is understood and into the ways in which Pentecostal religious life takes shape among born-again Kaale. Furthermore, looking specifically at the practice of Evangelism and missionary work, which defines the life of Pentecostal Kaale believers, the role of faith as an enhanced engagement with the world is analysed. A conversation therefore emerges also on the role of Pentecostal belonging in mobilising believers in relation to the world around them and, more specifically, on the way in which Pentecostal faith provides an avenue for a further social engagement and social mobilisation of individual Kaale believers.

Through close textual analysis of 20th century Czech anthropological texts from the Revivalist and Socialist periods and contemporary social research conducted after the Velvet Revolution, I demonstrate certain prominent discourses of identity developed in early Bohemian anthropology and their continuities in present day popular discourses. In each period, identity is deeply intertwined with teleological theories of history with Czech populations at the apex of cultural evolutionary development. In the Revivalist period this apex was believed to be the democratic nation state, transitioning to a Marxist nation state in the Socialist period, and in the contemporary period is conceived of as a neoliberal nation state. A major function of anthropology in the Revivalist and Socialist periods was to legitimate either period’s respective teleological theory and Czech possession of relevant values as 'objective' and 'natural' fact, a general mode of discourse which continued in the contemporary period in numerous editorials in the 1990s on the advantages of capitalism. The contemporary manifestation has particularly noteworthy consequences for the Roma minority, which I argue has provided Czech discourses with an ethnic category 'anti-thetical' to their own identity, providing a 'repository' for negative Czech self-stereotypes emerging from collaboration in the Socialist period.

The thesis explains the socioeconomic differences among the Roma through a historical exploration of the relations established between Roma and significant Others at local, regional, and central levels in different, overlapping spheres of power (state, politics, religion, informal economy). Through a historical-ethnographic analysis of difference and power struggles, the thesis seeks to bring the political aspects of Roma lives back into the discourses of empowerment which are highly depoliticized by both the state and transnational neo-liberal governance (World Bank, UNDP, EU etc.). It is largely an explanation of transformations undergone by two Roma groups in Romania who experienced utterly different living conditions (while some got ’poorer’, the others became more affluent) in the period from socialism to post-socialism. The qualitative analysis, based on 7-months of ethnographic fieldwork, overcomes the flaws of policy-oriented research based primarily on statistics. The latter is produced by state and transnational development actors and ignores qualitative differences between Roma groups, the context of Romanian and Eastern European transformations (e.g. clientelism, informal economy, neopatrimonial state) and constitutes ’identities’ (’the poor’, ’the marginal’, ’the vulnerable’) through which the Roma are governed and maintained in a subordinate position. These symbolic categories are used as part of a larger neoliberal problematization of governance called ’social integration’, which constitutes itself as a ’regime of truth’ and follows an economic rationality which reproduces the status quo and does not necessarily empower the Roma. In addition, these ’regimes of enunciations’ are adopted un-reflexively as objects of study in social science and Romani studies. Distancing itself from these academic and policy practices, my comparative historical ethnography of power relations and discursive practices among the Roma challenges and brings a reconsideration of the current mentality of governance as social integration. Furthermore, my thesis constitutes an important contribution to Romani studies by 1) challenging a unilateral perspective directed by political agendas, and 2) producing reflexivity in relation to the object of study. It indicates that the historical study of power struggles as “an ascending analysis of power” (Foucault 1980: 99) is more beneficial in terms of empowerment than the study of predefined themes of governance (e.g. poverty and marginalization). The Roma continuously negotiate their relations with the Others in interaction with an uncertain socioeconomic environment, and these struggles constitute mechanisms of transformation in their lives. My thesis thus reveals different interactions Roma have had within and across spheres of power struggle (economy, state, politics, religion), which suggest an explanation for the two Roma groups’ different living conditions. A ‘mobile’ or a ‘sedentary’ interaction with the socialism-to-postsocialism socioeconomic transformations provided opportunities or restrictions for the improvement of the Roma’s material living conditions. While a ‘mobile’ and trans-local approach was adopted by Caldarars, a ‘sedentary’, localized socioeconomic practice was experienced as a restriction by the Romanianized Gypsies. Although these ‘patterns’ largely correspond to the groups studied, there was a variation in terms of mobility and wealth within both. Nevertheless, the mobile-sedentary distinction is relevant as it shows different ways of governance. While a trans-local mobile approach with low levels of subjection to state governance worked as a form of self-governance, a local ‘navigation’ of limited field of possibilities restricted access to better living conditions and increased the subjection to state governance. My thesis also draws attention to possible sources of empowerment (Roma politics) which are blocked by particular transformations of state and politics (patronage politics and political patronage), or translated by the state into the language of ‘social integration’ (e.g. Pentecostalism as self-governance). To sum up, I consider that my thesis undertakes a re-evaluation of the existent problematization of social integration and constitutes a reflexive knowledge base for the support of genuine forms of empowerment among the Roma.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain and explain the effectiveness of Roma political activism in contesting state oppression in Macedonia and Serbia. More specifically, this thesis seeks to investigate the divergent treatment of Roma communities in the respective states by analyzing the role of state institutions, civil society, political parties and international organizations. The thesis seeks to provide a multi-level analysis of Roma mobilization in Macedonia and Serbia by addressing the domestic and international factors that influence Roma political activism, and relies on two main theoretical concepts within the social movement literature: the Political Opportunity Structure (POS) model and 'transnational advocacy networks.' The POS model is a comprehensive framework to assess if Roma political activism has been effective in Macedonia and Serbia. This study uses the following components to describe the domestic factors that may facilitate or constrain Romani activism in the respective states: state repression and/or facilitation, institutional access, influential domestic and international allies. This thesis attempts to provide a detailed analysis of movement dynamics by taking into account the inter-relationship between actors and contesting groups. The limitations of the domestic opportunity structure regarding Roma advocacy in Macedonia and Serbia are outlined by describing the political context concerning minority inclusion, institutional mechanisms, and NGO/political party activities. As domestic opportunity structures are 'closed,' Roma activists and NGOs seek international allies to influence and change domestic policy on Roma inclusion. This study, while recognizing the importance of other international initiatives, specifically focuses on various institutions of the European Union as the main international actor influencing Roma inclusion policies in Eastern Europe. The thesis outlines the main EU initiatives on Roma inclusion to provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges in the international arena. Furthermore, it analyzes the interaction between international and civil society organizations assessing the effectiveness of the 'transnational advocacy networks.' Finally, the thesis provides a comparative analysis of Roma political activism in Macedonia and Serbia, indicating coordinated action has not been successful.

The collapse of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989-1990 heralded the beginning of an economic transition from central planning to market economies. The subsequent period was marked by malfunctioning of these countries’ social sectors, including their health care systems, raising serious issues of equity. This thesis examines the impact of the transition period and the introduction of social insurance on equity in health care provision in Bulgaria. Equity in health care is investigated with respect to function - i.e. financing (according to ability to pay) and delivery (according to need) - and outcomes - i.e. health status, income inequality and poverty. Differences in health, health care financing and delivery are explored by income, education, ethnic, employment, marital status, age and sex groups. Furthermore, the thesis outlines the impact of health care provision, in particular social insurance, on poverty and health inequalities. The thesis employs empirical analysis based on household data. Its methodology includes concentration and decomposition analysis, and provides new ways of modelling health care financing and delivery, as well as the link between health and health care delivery. The thesis concludes that social insurance does not provide a uniform means of improving equity and that the root cause of the problem lies in the large proportion of out-of-pocket payments and the rather limited size of the health insurance sector. Inequity in health care provision leads to poverty and untreated illness. The data suggests that there are differences between socio-economic groups as regards their likelihood to seek treatment for their ill health, which result in differences in their health status. The social factors that have impacted the most on health are low education and low income.

This dissertation examines how contentious collective action in two post communist states, Poland and the Czech Republic, has broadened to include European and international actors. It identifies the emergence of new opportunities for contention brought about by recent episodes of institutional change, specifically EU accession, and questions how they benefit materially or politically weak NGOs. With the intention of determining how three interrelated processes, democratization, Europeanization and internationalization, affect the nature and scope of contentious politics, this dissertation carries out an investigation of several concrete episodes of political mobilization and contention. As shown these 'contentious events' involved a myriad of national, European and international actors, mobilizing to challenge national policy. Data from NGO questionnaires, interviews and newswire/newspaper archives are used to discern the nature and scope of contentious collective action. This dissertation assesses the extent to which transnationalization of advocacy politics has disrupted existing power arrangements at the national level between NGOs and government. Hypothesizing that European Union accession in 2004 changed the nature and scope of contentious collective action in post communist Europe, this dissertation undertakes a comparative empirical examination of three sectors, environment, women and Roma, and twenty-nine representative NGOs. My research identifies three important developments in the Polish and Czech nonprofit sector: first, European advocacy networks and institutions are helping national NGOs overcome power disparities at the national level; second, issues once confined to national political space have acquired a European dimension, and; third, despite Europeanization, a few notable policy issues (i.e. reproductive rights, nuclear energy and domestic violence) remain firmly under national jurisdiction. This dissertation contributes to existing collective action/post communist scholarship in three ways. It applies established theories of contention/collective action to several recent episodes of political mobilization; it confirms that post accession institutional change does offer new political opportunity structures to national NGOs, and finally; it presents new empirical research on post communist collective action.

Romania is a country with a high-income economy that is experiencing considerable growth following its economic reforms of earlier decades. With growth, tendencies for an unequal society are prevalent. Therefore, appropriate economic policies that are specifically targeted toward bottlenecks are essential. This thesis seeks to outline the major types of poverty in Romania while also offering actionable entrepreneurial and educational insights that practically combat poverty at its roots.

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the exclusion of Roma in northeastern Hungary and its social impacts on Roma communities. Based on 21 months of fieldwork in the region, I argue that pharrajimos—a Romani word meaning “fragmentation” or “cutting up” also used to name the Roma Holocaust—shapes how Roma communities in Hungary experience exclusion, evictability, and deportability through what I call neo-pharrajimos, or new, material, and affective forms of anti-Roma ideology that recur into the present. The entangled poetics of evictability and deportability facing Roma endure as racialized chronotopes that are disappeared through the fragmenting impacts of anti-Roma racism structuring Hungarian illiberalism, but have real material impacts including homelessness and loss of public benefits. Ethnographically engaging with various interactional and narrative genres of neo-pharrajimos, this work points to the ways in which Roma collectively and personally conduct themselves otherwise by moving away from direct forms of confrontation in response to the slow liquidation of publics in which Roma can be heard, in which their voices are audible. Methodologically I track this process and its implications for the possibility of addressing social inequalities through analyses of (1) a speech performed by a Roma activist during a demonstration in solidarity with refugees arriving at Hungary’s southern border in the summer of 2015, (2) slogans imprinted on large banners used by activists protesting a discriminatory housing decree disproportionately affecting Roma community members, and (3) narratives as related by former Roma refugee claimants whose refugee claims were rejected in Canada forcing them to return to Hungary. Analyses of the racialized erasures and removals taking place in ordinary life in post-socialist, illiberal Hungary reveal a deep inability to reckon with its own past as it articulates its relationship with the shared values of the European Union.

En la antigua Roma los antepasados, así como mantener vivo el recuerdo de los muer tos entre la familia, era realmente importante. Esto se expresaba a través de la religión privada, por un lado en el hogar, donde encontramos los retratos de los ancestros siempre presentes en la vida de los romanos, y por otro en las necrópolis convertidas en verdaderas ciudades donde las tumbas y las inscripciones que las acompañaban eran una forma de conmemoración a aquellos que permanecían sepultados allí. Lugares muy transitados donde rendir homenaje con ofrendas regulares a los muertos. Los difuntos se convertían en divinidades o espíritus familiares llamados Manes, que protegían a sus familias a cambio de no caer en el olvido. Así se instituyó un culto a los muertos repleto de ceremonias, fiestas, sacrificios rituales y ofrendas. Con este trabajo daremos una visión general de la muerte en la antigua Roma basándonos en el culto a los dioses Manes, intentando indagar en su origen y en la impor tancia que tenían dentro del mundo romano.

This article focuses on the canonization process of Madrid’s patron saint, san Isidro Labrador, in the post-Tridentine context of the city’s transformation into the permanent seat of the Court. The first part of the article deals with the difficulties posed by the local worship of the incorrupt body of this farmer who had died centuries before and was considered a saint, but lacked formal ecclesiastical recognition. The second part analyzes Spanish diplomatic correspondence during the years that the process lasted. While St Isidore’s status as a local and well-established saint was decisive, the correspondence reveals Spain’s attempt to directly achieve the canonization of a figure who was now the patron not only of the Villa (town) but also of the Corte (court).

Los sermones predicados en 1668 con motivo de la beatificación de Rosa de Lima contienen un conjunto de referencias que tejen una "biografía emblematizada" de la que forman parte la vida, virtudes y experiencias místicas de la beata. Este trabajo muestra el valor de la emblemática como transmisora de significados dentro de los códigos cifrados de la Edad Moderna.

Transylvanian folk music is marked by conflicting claims about ethnic belonging. While it is common to label the csárdás a Hungarian dance and the hora a Romanian dance, songs performed by Transylvanian Rroma (gypsy) musicians are regularly claimed by both Hungarians and Romanians as “theirs.” This dissertation examines various processes by which trio transilvan music, a string band tradition that has been popular in rural central Transylvania for well over a century, is ascribed various ethnic essences and how these contingent ascriptions have hardened into a durable, fixed set of categories. Using clear examples of various violin playing techniques, such as a straight or bent left wrist, bowing patterns, articulation, trills, and other ornaments that exemplify the trio transilvan style, I trace the physical practice of trio transilvan musicians and set these examples in relief upon the history of folk music institutions in Romania and Hungary, and Bartók’s ethnographic work and influence on scholars. Drawing from my intensive ethnographic fieldwork in câmpia, a subregion of Transylvania, Romania, I argue that violin playing techniques are social acts, the performances of a musician’s concept of essential melody and embellishment, which is formed by their explicit training and informed by their habitus. Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and hexis are useful in this context because he deals with the performance and recurrence of unconscious actions, those invisible guideposts that circulate among a community that shape our physical and intellectual stance in the world. My findings generally support a processual stance on ethnicity: ethnic labels of music do not reflect inherent sonic traits (a music “DNA”) that can be uncovered as being Hungarian, Romanian, or Rroma as an a priori fact deducible by musical analysis, as Bartók and his inheritors would have us believe. Instead, the apparent ethnicity of folk music emerges from various forms of contestation embodied in performance, in narrative, and institutional processes.

Este trabajo de investigación realiza un acercamiento a las concepciones y al conocimiento del estudiantado de Historia acerca de diferentes aspectos relacionados con la desigualdad entre sexos en la antigua Roma. Mediante el diseño y la aplicación de un cuestionario con una escala de valoración tipo Likert, analizamos las respuestas del alumnado en torno a distintas afirmaciones que abordan temas como la desigualdad en el acceso al poder político, los derechos jurídicos o las actividades económicas de las mujeres en época romana. Las respuestas obtenidas parecen reflejar que estos son aspectos poco abordados en los contenidos universitarios acerca de la Historia de Roma, caracterizados tradicionalmente por un sesgo androcéntrico, como los de otras muchas áreas de conocimiento. Estos resultados también evidencian la necesidad de continuar trabajando en el desarrollo del conocimiento acerca de la desigualdad histórica entre mujeres y hombres, así como en su incorporación en los planes de estudio.

The purpose of this systematic grounded theory study was to explore the process of change in teacher attitudes toward including Roma (“Gypsy”) students in non-segregated schools in Romania. The theories guiding this study included Mezirow’s (1991, 2000) theory of transformation, Gay’s (2002, 2013) theory of culturally responsive teaching, and Bandura’s (1977, 1997) theory of self-efficacy. These three theories guided this research inquiry into how attitudes change, how teacher attitudes affect beliefs and actions, and how self-efficacy affects teacher attitudes. This study sought to answer the following questions: What is the process of transforming Romanian teacher attitudes toward including Roma students? What factors influence attitude change of Romanian teachers toward the Roma? How do Romanian teachers use their transformed attitudes in working with Roma students? What role does self-efficacy play in developing Romanian teacher attitudes toward Roma students? Interviews, observations, and timelines of 23 current teachers took place in Romania. The Model of Transformation: Awakening to Empowering was constructed to show the process of transformation that was revealed during this study. The greatest influences discovered for affecting attitude change were personal reflection, childhood experiences, role models, and ongoing education courses. Teachers who chose to see their classroom as a familial unit, becoming like a foster parent for their students, and incorporated new teaching strategies, worked most successfully with their Roma students. Based on the data, self-efficacy was important for empowering the teachers and helping them to empower others in working with the Roma.

The post-communist political shift to liberal democracies in Eastern Europe has given new hope to Romani communities scattered across the region. However, plagued by a history entangled with episodes of slavery, persecution, and extermination, many Roma remain wary about this transition, lacking faith that it truly extends beyond a nominal domain. This paper first offers a critical exploration into unpacking Roma culture – specifically their material disadvantage and discrimination – from both an abstract and realist perspective. By properly understanding the relationship between their experience with poverty and desires for cultural autonomy, forming a rational, multi-level plan to intervene becomes more accessible. Ultimately, this leads to a series of policy interventions, particularly in the realm of primary and secondary education. Looking closely at this one area of the Roma experience with non-Roma institutions could provide key insights into their interaction with other overlapping exchanges, help to break down the centuries-old legacy of distrust and antagonism between the two sides, and promote a healthier environment for cooperation.

Premised on the fact that nothing ever does actually perish, this manuscript is an analysis of transformation, shaped through a variety of substances, objects, temporalities, qualities, metaphors, and phenomenological ways of being in the world—and being perceived in the world. I examine material objects undergoing various kinds of transformations and the people involved in those material metamorphoses, paying close attention to the intersections of humans and non-human objects in processes of change, stasis, temporal movement, and spatial organization. My research centers on the Roma minority in Bulgaria, markedly overrepresented in the waste labor sector, which has come to occupy the role of Europe’s “social waste.” I denaturalize links between Roma and trash by focusing on waste in its discursive, metaphorical, historical, and material dimensions. I ask the simple and enduring question: how does change happen? Using waste as the conceptual connector, I explore transformation on three planes, which move in and out of each other. First, I look at transformation —of tangible things categorized as waste —into other categories of material, into money, into heat, into energy. Second, I look at waste transformations over time. I explore how Bulgaria changed both in terms of European Union harmonization procedures and reactive measures to those policies, from the socialist period through 2014. Third, I trace the possibilities of—and hindrances to—transformations of the humans dealing with waste. I see these three kinds of transformation—material, temporal, social—as ongoing projects in planar, non-hierarchical relation with each other. I highlight how material transformations of things (i.e. soda cans into money, trash bags into municipal heat) take shape as part of human-material processes that refuse, reject, and inhibit the changing social positions of those involved in such waste practices. Ultimately, I show that the utopian project of Europeanization—enmeshed within larger processes of electoral mobilization, capitalist development, neoliberal work regimes, environmental degradation, and unequal distributions of wealth and infrastructural access—is predicated on the categorical linkages of humans and things (i.e. waste and social trash) but, in practice, puts into stark relief differentials for transformation between humans and non-human objects.

This paper deals with the controversial inclusion of Lope de Vega’s Roma abrasada in the genre of tragedy. Paying attention to the context of the first play which Lope himself referred to as a “tragedy”, Roma abrasada is set against the tradition of the late 16th century tragedy in order to study how it follows it and how –maybe due to the new perspective of the comedia nueva– it deviates from it, opening (althouh quite imperfectly) the way for what would eventually become the “tragedia española”.

Me propongo ofrecer un sucinto análisis de los textos y las fuentes que afirman o se limitan a referir ciertas "veneradas tradiciones" que se incardinan en los momentos iniciales de la presencia del cristianismo en nuestra península. Analizaré tres que han quedado grabadas de forma especial -por su progresiva consolidación multisecular y su arribo a nuestros días-, en la propagación oral y en memoria colectiva de nuestro pueblo y en la transmisión escrita de la historia de nuestra nación.

The purpose of this project was to investigate the issue of the lack of access of RAE women in Kosovo to antenatal health care services. The study which included 30 research participants from RAE community in Fushe Kosova and Prizren and interviews with Ministry of Helath, two NGOs, and a gynecologist from Universal Clinical Center in Kosovo, has examined the reasons of the problem and the work done so far by relevant stakeholders regarding the lack of access to antenatal health care among RAE women. Some of the main findings suggest that the factors that cause this problem are multiple and interlinked. These factors include lack of awareness regarding the importance of health, socioeconomic and spatial constraints.

Why do some ethnic groups mobilize in violent ways whereas some others mobilize by using peaceful methods? And why do some ethnic groups seek integration while some others pursue separatist goals? This dissertation proposes a theoretical framework to answer these questions. It suggests that a state’s ethnic incorporation policies shape both why (centripetal or centrifugal aims) and how (peaceful or violent methods) ethnic groups mobilize. It argues that (1) consocitionalism recognizes ethnic groups and grants a degree of political autonomy to them, yet limits individuals’ political participation via non-ethnic channels of political participation; and, therefore, it leads to peaceful and moderately centrifugal ethnic mobilizations; (2) liberal multiculturalism recognizes ethnic groups, grants a degree of political autonomy to them, and allows individuals to participate in politics via non-ethnic channels; and, therefore, it leads to peaceful and moderately centripetal mobilizations; (3) civic assimilationism neither recognizes ethnic groups nor grants a degree of political autonomy to them, yet allows individuals to participate in politics via non-ethnic channels; and therefore it leads to peaceful and centripetal mobilizations of groups which lack pre-existing ethnic mobilization; but it leads to moderately violent and centrifugal mobilizations of groups which have strong pre-existing ethnic mobilizations; and (4) ethnocracies neither recognize ethnic groups nor grant a degree of political autonomy to them, and they also limit individuals’ political participation via non-ethnic channels. Therefore, they lead to centrifugal and violent ethnic mobilizations. The dissertation uses a mixed method research design. The hypotheses are tested based on the Minorities at Risk data as well as the case studies of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria and Cyprus, and Kurds and the Roma in Turkey. The case studies benefit from an extensive field research in Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Turkey using original interviews with former and current guerillas, guerilla families, political activists, and politicians from each ethnic group under scrutiny and archival research on newspapers and legal documents. The findings indicate that politics of ethnic accommodation are not only an explanation for the causes of different ethnic mobilization patterns, but also a feasible remedy for ethnic disputes spanning all over the world.

My dissertation asks whether, when, and how the adoption of Evangelical Christianity by multiply stigmatized Roma (or Gypsies) in post-socialist Bulgaria has affected the status and engagement of Roma women in their families, communities, and the larger society. Scholars have shown that Evangelical Christianity has facilitated women's advancement in some patriarchal societies in the developing world. This raises the question of whether it might have a similar impact among Roma in Eastern Europe. In 2009-2010, I conducted a year-long immersive ethnographic fieldwork in the town of Sliven, which is distinctive for its large and heterogeneous Roma population. Against the background of economic dislocation, complex hierarchical interethnic relations, an indifferent state, and a changing religious marketplace, I examined the dynamic interplay between outside religious actors (foreign and Bulgarian), on the one hand, and members of local Roma communities that vary in the extent of their marginalization and in the degree of their adherence to traditional patriarchal attitudes and behaviors, on the other hand. I focused especially on the most marginalized Roma in the walled-in Nadezhda ghetto and the more integrated Roma in the Nikola Kochev neighborhood. I argue that participation in Evangelical churches has a minimal impact in the most marginalized communities, while it enhances women's status in more integrated Roma communities. The confluence of local and external religious actors in Nadezhda has created incentives for enterprising men to found and manage churches as a way of procuring external material resources in this extremely resource-poor environment. Manipulating the multiplicity of scales that characterize the Evangelical networks in which they are embedded, the Nadezhdan pastors have carved out a niche characterized by fluidity, ruthless competitiveness, corruption, and lack of bureaucratization and institutionalization. This has had significant consequences for the social dynamics in Nadezhdan churches and for their effects on gender relations. By underscoring the role patriarchal structures and practices play in the cycle of exclusion, and by illuminating the variable effects of religious participation, this research seeks to enhance the understanding of the persistent problem of the marginalization of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe.

This dissertation is a critical ethnography of the Roma ethnic minority in post-communist Romania within the socio-economic and political context of the country's post-accession to the European Union. The focus broadly is on the identity negotiation of the Roma minority in Romanian urban space. To this end, I explore Roma communicative practices in capital city of Bucharest. I examine the urban intercultural contact zones that represent Roma-non Roma relations and interactions. I draw on the productive "travelling" postcolonial theories and translate them into an examination of the Roma minority in Romanian physical space. My ethnography is informed by postcolonial theoretical frameworks that challenge the seemingly dichotomous colonizer/colonized relation. I look at discursive practices among Roma individuals suggesting alternative epistemes to allow for a nuanced understanding of the Roma-non Roma encounter. My methods include in-depth interviews, participant observation, and direct observation. The personal narratives of the 35 participants involved in this study emphasize a range of identity negotiation patterns. These reveal in turn complex, interrelated configurations of internalized oppression, passing, and hybridity that make possible both resistance and conformity to the dominant cultural production of the Gypsy Other. This research is an attempt to produce a constructive impact on policy and practice and therefore addresses the urgent need for critical, responsible inquiry that explores the diversity of Romani experience.

Gypsies or Roma are one of the minorities frequently represented in film, whenever we talk about European or American film; within this context Russian and Eastern European cinema seems to offer the richest palette of portrayals, as in this region Roma represent an important and controversial minority. Film scholars agreed that from the moment when Roma appeared on screen and until the last decades when a shift toward a more realistic approach can be detected, their filmic representations were predominantly stereotypic and highly exoticized. Films from the last decades show more interest in the depiction of poverty, discrimination and marginalization, but stereotypical representation is still present and dominant. The purpose of this paper is to focus on several stereotypes generally perceived as negative stereotypes (theft, drunkenness, vulgar language, falseness, etc.) and to demonstrate that in relation to Gypsy representations on screen, these stereotypes change their function, trying to inculcate upon the viewer sympathetic feelings and accentuating the gap between the Roma cinematic image and the dominant ideology about them in the societies where they live. This thesis will examine negative stereotypes and their function in some of the most representative films of the Gypsy cinema: Skupljaci perja / I Even Met Happy Gypsies (Petrović 1967), Tabor ukhodit v Nebo/ Gypsy Camp Goes to Heaven or Queen of the Gypsies (Loteanu 1976), Ko to tamo peva? / Who’s Singin’ Over There? (Sijan 1980), Dom za vesanje / Time of the Gypsies Gypsies (Kusturica 1988), Gadjo Dillo / The Crazy Stranger (Gatlif 1997), Dallas Pashamende / Dallas among Us (Pejo 2005), and Baklava (Petrov 2007). Special attention will be paid to the relationship between the subjects of representation (Roma), their authors (the directors), and their consumers (the viewers).

This study examined the media portrayals of Roma in the United States by taking a closer look at ―Gypsy crime‖ articles in a purposive sample of newspaper articles. These newspaper articles give details of ―confidence‖ crimes and name the alleged perpetrators as Roma or members of the ethnic minority group commonly known as Gypsies. A textual analysis was conducted of 23 articles appearing in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel from August 16, 2011 to February 8, 2013 covering fraud charges against several members of the Marks family. This primary evaluation narrowed the initial sample to nine articles that contained references to Roma, Romani, or Gypsy. Further analysis of these nine articles revealed four major categories of findings regarding the representation of the ethnic minority. The categories included: 1) the pairing of the preferred term, Roma with the pejorative term, Gypsy; 2) reinforcement of stereotypes; 3) portrayal of the ethnic group as foreign others; and 4) Roma portrayed as a threat to the dominant culture and its members. The theoretical bases for the study included Social Stigma Theory (Goffman, 1963) and Orientalism (Said, 1978) both of which offer a critical lens through which to examine the portrayals of this ethnic minority.

Reseña de Dag TESSORE, Pedro el apóstol y el primer siglo cristiano, Madrid: Ciudad Nueva, 2009, 181 pp., 13 x 20, ISBN 978-84-9715-169-6.

Reseña de Emilio MITRE, Una primera Europa. Romanos, cristianos y germanos (400-1000), Madrid: Encuentro, 2009, 334 pp., 15 x 23, ISBN 978-84-7490-959-3.

Recensión de Davide CITO e Fernando PUIG (a cura di), Parola di Dio e missione della Chiesa. Aspetti giuridici, Giuffrè Editore, Milano, 2009, XIV + 402 pp.

Publication of a letter from Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, dated 17 January 1983, addressed to Msgr Álvaro del Portillo, the Prelate of Opus Dei. In the letter, the Prefect informs the Prelate that he had been received by Pope John Paul II in an audience on 8 January 1983. He also states that on this occasion, the Pope had clarified de meaning and the scope of the change of the positioning of the canons concerning personal prelatures in de Code of Canon Law of 1983.

This study measures the influence that multiple social, political, and economic conditions have on the development of ethno/national separatist terrorist organizations. It begins by analyzing the nationalist theories of primordialism, modernism, and ethnosymbolism, and the terrorist theories of strategic logic and psychology. The nationalist theories consider cultural symbols a powerful component behind nationalist movements and populations with significant symbolic attachments especially prone to react aggressively against perceived threats to those symbols. Proponents of strategic logic and psychological theory also view terrorism as reactive but deviate on whether this response is conceived rationally. Examining the origins of Basque and Catalan terrorism and Roma passivity in Spain assists in identifying background conditions that are evaluated using a logit regression model. The logit model assesses two-hundred ninety-seven minority populations in one-hundred twenty-six states, primarily between 1945 and 2003. The results show cultural identity and sensitivity, violent encounters, political freedom, social unrest, underrepresentation, disproportionate economic privation, and stagnant educational systems and other factors of civil development correlating significantly with the formation of ethno/national separatist terrorist organizations. These findings imply an ability to detect populations and environments with increased potential for producing ethno/national separatist terrorism, and that by addressing those conditions facilitating its development, it may be possible to reduce the probability of additional campaigns developing.

Reseña de Olivier CL£MENT, Roma, de otra manera, Ediciones Cristiandad, Madrid 2004, 148 pp., 10 X 18, ISBN 84- 7057-486-8.

The dominant ideology in Eastern Europe has kept and still keeps Roma people at the lowest level of society through a long list of negative stereotypes and active discrimination. Up to the end of the twentieth century, cinematography tended to portray Gypsies as an exotic element in romantic settings, avoiding social and political issues like poverty, discrimination and marginalization. The fall of communism marked a change, as more films dared to speak against the dominant ideology. This thesis examines the socio-cultural stereotypes used to portray the Gypsies and the levels of ideology present in two movies: Gadjo Dilo (Tony Gatlif, 1997, France) and Time of the Gypsies (Emir Kusturica, 1989, Yugoslavia).

This thesis primarily deals with how the ongoing political transformations in Central and Eastern Europe have affected one particular group, the Roma or Gypsies. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many initially greeted the radical reconfiguration of hegemonic governmental structures with nationalist zeal, and the democratization of socialist regimes was universally hailed as a victory for all. But for the Roma, a historically persecuted pariah group continually surrounded by misconceptions and Orientalist stereotypes, the radical transformation to "Western" capitalism and democracy must not be viewed in such a positive light. As an ethnic group the Roma exhibit a wide-ranging cultural variation, from the Sinti in Germany (who have been integrated in the German context for centuries) to Vlax Roma (enslaved in modem day Romania until the mid 19th century). Collectively Roma exhibit a tenuous identity and little solidarity. In this thesis I shall deal with two contexts: post-socialist Russia and socialist Hungary. In both environments the Roma studied have shown a remarkable tendency to culturally adapt to the changing post-socialist conditions.

Reseña de Robert D. SIDER (ed.), Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire. The Witness of Tertullian, Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C. 2001, 177 pp., 13 x 21, ISBN 0-8132-1021-6.

This dissertation reports the sociocultural organization of Roma, a community of sedentary, socially integrated Gypsies, in Athens, Greece. The study explores the hypothesis that the Roma manipulate cultural borders through conscious, albeit not necessarily volitional, behavior that ensures their biosocial reproduction. Of special significance to this work is the sociocultural change and adaptation of this ethnic minority group as this relates to (1) recent historical and sociopolitical forces that account for these Gypsies' migration from Turkey and settlement in Greece; (2) causes for and implications of residential coexistence with other Greeks; (3) partial social integration into Greek social institutions such as religion, education, and the military; and (4) sociocultural synergism as it is expressed in their economic system, domestic organization, and political order. Local behavior and thought are examined as mechanisms for maintaining sociocultural equilibrium against the backdrop of external forces and structures of power that impinge upon the group's status. The focus of investigation and analysis is the work by this endemically marginal group in its struggle to ensure its structural mobility, channel its sociocultural evolution, and protect itself against extinction. The research design consisted of classic ethnographic field methods, including participant observation, formal and informal interviewing, collection of life histories, and network analysis. Analysis of the data reveals that these Roma manipulate, manage, and direct native and host cultural material to ensure social solidarity. They do so through conscious adaptation, a process characterized by economic resourcefulness, ideational flexibility, and cultural selection. Examination of their social organization reveals that these Gypsies embrace change for the sake of perpetuity through a time-honored native formula of sociocultural hybridism. Flexible standards for domestic behavior, resourceful strategies for earning a living, and accommodative responses to political requirements have proven adaptive for the Roma who live as a socioculturally distinct collectivity within the Greek nation-state.

Reseña del libro de José ORLANDIS, Memorias de Roma en guerra (1942-1945), Rialp («Testimonios»), Madrid 1992, 128 pp.