A failed Roma revolution: Conflict, fragmentation and status quo maintenance in Rome

Abstract

This article examines novel spaces for Roma political participation that opened up under a right-wing municipal government in Rome between 2008 and 2013. Three channels were created through which Roma could engage with policy-makers and, in theory, make their voices heard: a ‘Mayor’s Delegate for Roma Issues’; a forum for debate among Roma groups and elected representatives in two official camps. Based on in-depth interviews with protagonists of this key period of mobilisation, we evaluate the successes achieved and obstacles faced. In particular, we highlight the differentiations which emerged among Roma actors, concluding that, following an initial period of enthusiasm and cohesion, most participants withdrew, achieving few of their initial goals. While the analysis demonstrates the heterogeneity of Roma groups and interests in this process, it also underlines the constraints created by the external political opportunity structure which ultimately worked to co-opt activists in order to maintain the status quo.

The informal faces of the (neo-)ghetto: State confinement, formalization and multidimensional informalities in Italy’s Roma camps

“…While such claims remain unverifiable, their importance lies in the widespread perception among Roma, NGO workers and functionaries that formal regulations were no longer enforceable, replaced by informal power dynamics. Studies have shown that Rome's camps system has fostered complex internal hierarchies, resulting in some individuals wielding power over others financially, through intimidation, or through historic political capital (Clough Marinaro and Daniele, 2014;Daniele, 2011). Already before the court rulings, NGO workers were frequently obliged to subjectively interpret rules due to the dissonance between formal regulations and their applicability to many Roma's complex bureaucratic statuses.…”

“…The term Roma has rightly been criticized for homogenizing groups with distinct identities that instead should be understood as 'super-diverse' (Tremlett, 2014). Numerous studies highlight the complex systems of self-identification among people who refer to themselves as 'Roma', 'Xomá', 'Sinti' and variants of those terms (see Solimene, 2017 andDaniele, 2014 for more detail of divisions in Rome). This article focuses on the management of people whose histories, cultural identities, lifestyles and priorities are vastly heterogeneous but whose socioeconomic conditions have forced them into camps that are constructed, by the institutions, as constitutive of their identity.…”

What’s in a name again? The identity frames and mobilisation strategies of Czech Romani and Pro-Romani activists

“…The articulation of an identity (‘who we are’) 1 is followed by the articulation of interests. Together, what is articulated in these two areas, form ‘the two main elements around which mobilisation is defined’ (Marinaro and Daniele, 2014: 777; see also Polletta and Jasper, 2001: 292). And a fragmentation, or even an absence, of a collective identity 2 is, in this regard one of the most frequently mentioned interpretations (see, e.g.…”