Revitalising the uncanny: Challenging inertia in the struggle against forced evictions

Abstract

Citation for final published version:Lancione, Michele 2017. Revitalising the uncanny: challenging inertia in the struggle against forced evictions. Environment and Planning D 35 (6) , pp.

‘Get out of Traian Square!’: Roma Stigmatization as a Mobilizing Tool for the Far Right in Timişoara, Romania

“…The marginal (socio‐economic) condition of urban Roma in the CEE region has been highlighted in numerous studies. The Roma are spatially restricted to urban ghettos, which are presented as hostile environments (Creţan and Turnock, ; Vincze and Raţ, ; Lancione, ; ; Powell and Lever, ). The long‐term poverty of most Roma communities in conjunction with their segregation has resulted in lack of access to education, labour markets and housing (O'Nions, ; van Baar, ; ; Málovics et al ., ).…”

“…The current trend of emphasizing segregation through the creation of neo‐ghettos has been linked to economic and political interests (Clough Marinaro, ; ) and to attempts to avoid harassment (Filčák and Steger, ; Powell and Lever, ). The pressures on Roma housing in Romanian urban areas has been considered in Lancione's (; ) and Chelcea's (; ) ethnographic works. Chelcea ( ibid .)…”

“…Lancione's recent work (2018) provides an understanding of urban precarity, embodiment and politics to identify the ways in which precarity is both an embodied product and a producer of the urban political context. Forced evictions have the practical effect of removing a base from which the Roma can exercise resistance, making them more pliant and containable (Lancione, ).…”

“…Roma areas include the Kunz quarter (where families live in substandard conditions in the northeast of Timişoara), Piaţa Traian in the centre, and the neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the city's three railway stations. As in Bucharest (see Lancione, ; ) and in other urban and rural areas in Romania, the Roma in Timişoara have no secure work, relying instead on low‐paid activities such as collecting garbage or scrap iron to sell for survival. Some Roma, such as those in southern part of the city, became even poorer when industrial activities associated with clay brick making stopped in the post‐1989 period as a result of competition.…”

The Power of Group Stigmatization: Wealthy Roma, Urban Space and Strategies of Defence in Post‐socialist Romania

“…Băsescu had always regarded the Roma people as a burden, and as Mayor of Bucharest (2000–2004) he stated that ‘Gypsies are nomads and nobody can do anything about them—they will bring their horses into the flats ... we should build special camps and keep them outside our cities’ (Scicluna, : n.p.n.). Roma have also faced, and in some cases resisted, widespread evictions in recent years as a result of the 2001 Restitution Act (see Lancione, ).…”