LitArk » Books » Politics

Peter Vermeersch - The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe

Here you can read online Peter Vermeersch - The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2006, publisher: Berghahn Books, genre: Politics. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Book:
The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe
Author:
Peter Vermeersch
Publisher:
Berghahn Books
Genre:
Books / Politics
Year:
2006
Rating:
4 / 5
Favourites:
Add to favourites
Your mark:
- 80
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

Description
Author's other books
Similar books

The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

The collapse of communism and the process of state building that ensued in the 1990s have highlighted the existence of significant minorities in many European states, particularly in Central Europe. In this context, the growing plight of Europes biggest minority, the Roma (Gypsies), has been particularly salient. Traditionally dispersed, possessing few resources and devoid of a common kin state to protect their interests, the Roma have often suffered from widespread exclusion and institutionalized discrimination. Politically underrepresented and lacking popular support amongst the wider populations of their host countries, the Roma have consequently become one of Europes greatest losers in the transition towards democracy.

Against this background, the author examines the recent attempts of the Roma in Central Europe and their supporters to form a political movement and to influence domestic and international politics. On the basis of first-hand observation and interviews with activists and politicians in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, he analyzes connections between the evolving state policies towards the Roma and the recent history of Romani mobilization. In order to reach a better understanding of the movements dynamics at work, the author explores a number of theories commonly applied to the study of social movements and collective action.

Peter Vermeersch: author's other books

Who wrote The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

The Romani Movement

Studies in Ethnopolitics

General Editors: Timothy D. Sisk, University of Denver, and Stefan Wolff, University of Bath

This new series focuses on the growing importance of international and external influences on ethnopolitical issues, such as diplomatic or military intervention, and the increasing effects of the forces of globalisation on ethnic identities and their political expressions.

Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict SettlementStefan Wolff

Peace at Last? The Impact of the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland Edited by Jrg Neuheiser and Stefan Wolff

Radical Ethnic Movements in Contemporary Europe
Edited by Farimah Daftary and Stefan Troebst

The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe
Peter Vermeersch

Modernity and Secession: The Social Sciences and the Political Discourse of the Lega Nord in Italy
Michel Huysseune

The Romani Movement

Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in
Contemporary Central Europe

Peter Vermeersch

First published in 2006 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

2006, 2007 Peter Vermeersch
First paperback edition published in 2007
First ebook edition published in 2014

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vermeersch, Peter, 1972-

/ Peter Vermeersch.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84545-164-6 (hbk) -- ISBN 978-1-84545-102-8 (pbk) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-678-6 (ebk)

1. Romanies--Europe, Eastern--Policies and government--20th century. 2. Romanies--Europe, Eastern--Politics and government--21st century. 3. Romanies--Europe, Eastern--Government relations--20th century. 4. Romanies--Europe, Eastern--Government relations--21st century. I. Title.

DX210.V47 2006
323.1191479047--dc22

2006042833

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-84545-164-6 hardback
ISBN 978-1-84545-102-8 paperback
ISBN 978-0-85745-678-6 ebook

Contents

Acknowledgements

I remember exactly when and where Tcha Limberger told me about his dream. It was a gray and frigid afternoon in midwinter 1995 in Krakw, and we were walking to the railway station. Tcha was a friend visiting from Bruges, my hometown in Belgium, and I was studying abroad in Poland for eighteen months. Tcha, being an unusually talented musician, and blind, carried his violin and a tape recorder everywhere he went through the city; he was on a constant search for new sounds and musical impressions. The street musicians in the heart of Europe, who continued to play their instruments even if the streets were blanketed with snow, had whetted his appetite. His dream was to go to Budapest, live there for a year, and learn to play the magyar nta, an old repertoire of Hungarian popular songs made famous by Gypsy bands like those of the round-faced violin virtuoso Roby Lakatos. I was afraid at the time that Tchas plan was overly romantic, that Hungary would not be the welcoming fairy-tale world he imagined it to be, that the traffic in Budapest would be implacable to someone who could not see it, and that the traditional Romani family orchestras would not be as open to outsiders as his Manush family in Belgium had been.

Three years later Tcha had learned to speak Hungarian and had persuaded me to come to Budapest. We were in the beautiful but crumbling neighborhood around Klauzl tr, sitting at a table laden with pancakes in the small flat of one of the citys masters of the magyar nta. By then I had become interested in minority politics, so I talked with the primas about his dealings with the local Romani activists. But soon the topic of conversation inevitably shifted to music, and he and Tcha became increasingly engrossed in a technical discussion about finger grips and wooden bows. The outside world no longer existed; I rubbed a clear patch on the window and saw nothing but a thick evening mist.

I remember how impressed I was by what I thought was the deeper meaning of this little scene: how mutual passions could inconspicuously remove barriers between people, countries, and cultures. The music in this room had made the geographical distance between Belgium and Hungary meaningless; ethnic differences no longer appeared to play a role in this setting; even language had become close to superfluous. Yet I knew that outside this flat there was a world of barriers. In many places in Central Europe, groups of people were mentally or physically isolated from the rest of society, not only in forgotten industrial wastelands and impoverished villages, such as I had seen in central Romania and in the eastern parts of Hungary and Slovakia, but even in the poorer districts of the capitals. In 1990, the year that I began to study Slavic languages and Eastern European Studies, many had believed that the psychological and political barriers that divided Eastern and Western Europe would soon disappear. A few years later, however, many people realized that other divisions continued to mark the continent. The division separating those known as Roma from other groups in society was a case in point.

I also realized that in Hungary, as in other countries in Central Europe, a growing group of people was trying to organize a movement aimed at finding ways to overcome this barrier. These efforts, and the additional difficulties they often created, were taking place at the margins of politics and society, and they were not a frequent topic in mainstream political science. Yet the more I was thinking about them there in Budapest, in that small apartment, sitting at a kitchen table listening to two violins being tuned to pitch, the more I thought they were important. It was there I decided what I wanted to do: write a book about them.

This task was challenging, and if I was able to accomplish it, it is to a large extent thanks to the support and help of a considerable group of people. First of all, I wish to thank the many people across Central Europe who opened their doors and generously shared their thoughts. They were an invaluable source of information. A lot of material from these meetings and interviews did not make it to the book, but every talk was crucial in advancing my knowledge about the Romani movement. I have listed the names of a number of my interviewees in the text where appropriate. In addition to those, I would like to thank the following people:

In Hungary: Jnos Bthory, Andrs Bir, gnes Darczi, Antnia Hga, Aladr Horvth, Jen Kaltenbach, Blanka Kozma, Jzsef Krasznai, Gbor Miklosi, Attila Mohcsi, Gyula Nday, va Orss, Bla Osztojkn, Gyrgy Rosts-Farkas, Gabriella Varj, Gyrgy Kernyi, Csaba Tabajdi, and Jen Zsig.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe»

Look at similar books to The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Cerasela Voiculescu

European Social Integration and the Roma: Questioning Neoliberal Governmentality

Ian Law

Ethnicity and Education in England and Europe: Gangstas, Geeks and Gorjas

Can Yıldız

Roma Migrants in the European Union: Un/Free Mobility

Ari Joskowicz

Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust

Simon Constantine

Sinti and Roma in Germany (1871-1933): Gypsy Policy in the Second Empire and Weimar Republic

Yaron Matras

I Met Lucky People: The Story of the Romani Gypsies

Plamen Makariev

The Public Legitimacy of Minority Claims: A Central/Eastern European Perspective

Yaron Matras

Open Borders, Unlocked Cultures: Romanian Roma Migrants in Western Europe

Victoria Shmidt

Historicizing Roma in Central Europe: Between Critical Whiteness and Epistemic Injustice (Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe)

Anton Weiss-Wendt

The Nazi Genocide of the Roma: Reassessment and Commemoration

McGarry

Romaphobia. The last acceptable form of racism

Becky Taylor

Another Darkness, Another Dawn: A History of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers

Reviews about «The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe»

Discussion, reviews of the book The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.