This pioneering volume refocuses scholarship and activism in striking ways. The authors are as knowledgeable about feminist and gender theory as about the political dilemmas of activism. Filled with fresh, critical insights for productive alliances, the book is innovative in genre. Some chapters, inspired by postcolonial thought, offer sharp analyses of the Romani womens movement. In others, activists and scholars reflect together on their motivations and differences of position, identity and vision. Facing inward, the book courageously dissects tensions within Romani communities and among differently placed women. Facing outward, it locates Romani gender politics within European national and transnational contexts, in a regime of non-governmental organizations.
Susan Gal,Mae & Sidney G. Metzl Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, of Linguistics, and of Social Sciences, University of Chicago
The Romani Womens Movement volume makes a key contribution to the field, enriching and revitalizing debates about the importance of theories and practices of structural and political intersectionality for an adequate understanding of the crucial role that the Romani womens movement has played in the contemporary struggle for justice, equality, rights, and recognition for Romani women and men. This timely and important collection brings together a team of internationally pioneering scholars who themselves have played a vital role in the movement and who analyze its history, challenges, and prospects in the broader context of feminist, gender, Black, subaltern, and LGBTQI theories, practices, and movements.
Huub van Baar,Assistant Professor of Political Theory, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany, and University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
This much needed contribution is unique in three ways at least: as a novel and specifically European contribution to anti-racist scholarship; as a very fine-tuned, empirical and exemplary contribution to political intersectionality integrating race, sex, gender, sexuality and class; and as a solid scholarly illustration of giving voice to Romani feminist activists.
Mieke Verloo,Professor of Comparative Politics and Inequality Issues, Radboud University, Nijmegen
The Romani Womens Movement
The lack of recognition of Romani gender politics in the wider Romani movement and the womens movements is accompanied by a scarcity of academic literature on Romani womens mobilization in wider social justice struggles and debates.
The Romani Womens Movement highlights the role that Romani womens politics plays in shaping equality related discourses, policies, and movements in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe. Presenting the diverse experiences and voices of Romani women activists, this volume reveals how they translate experiences of structural inequalities into political struggles by defining their own spaces of action; participating in formalized or less formal activist practices, and challenging the agendas and mechanisms of the established Romani and womens movements.
Moving discourses on and of Romani women from the periphery of scholarly exchange to the mainstream, the volume invites scholars and activists from different disciplines and movements to critically reflect on their engagements with particular social justice agendas. It will appeal to students, researchers, and practitioners interested in fields such as social movements, gender quality, and social and ethnic justice.
Angla Kcz is Assistant Professor of Romani Studies and Academic Director of the Roma Graduate Preparation Program at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Violetta Zentai is co-director of the Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Jelena Jovanovi is Policy and Research Coordinator for the European Roma Grassroots Organizations (ERGO) Network, Brussels, Belgium as well as Research Affiliate of the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Enik Vincze is Professor at Babe-Bolyai University and housing activist in Cluj, Romania.
Routledge Research in Gender and Society
Bodies, Symbols and Organizational Practice
The Gendered Dynamics of Power
Edited by Agnes Bols, Stine Helena Bang Svendsen, Siri ysleb Srensen
Beyond Gender
An Advanced Introduction to Futures of Feminist and Sexuality Studies
Edited by Greta Olson, Daniel Hartley, Mirjam Horn-Schott, and Leonie Schmidt
Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality
Transforming the Discourse of Mean Girls
Edited by Krista Mcqueeney and Alicia A. Girgenti-Malone
Modern Motherhood and Womens Dual Identities
Rewriting the Sexual Contract
Petra Bueskens
Age, Gender and Sexuality through the Life Course
The Girl in Time
Susan Pickard
The Romani Womens Movement
Struggles and Debates in Central and Eastern Europe
Edited by Angla Kcz, Violetta Zentai, Jelena Jovanovi, and Enik Vincze
Affective Inequalities in Intimate Relationships
Edited by Tuula Juvonen and Marjo Kolehmainen
Masculinities, Sexualities and Love
Aliraza Javaid
Body, Migration, Re/constructive Surgeries
Making the Gendered Body in a Globalized World
Gabriele Griffin and Malin Jordal
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/sociology/series/SE0271
The Romani Womens Movement
Struggles and Debates in Central and Eastern Europe
Edited by
Angla Kcz, Violetta Zentai, Jelena Jovanovi and Enik Vincze
First published 2019
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2019 selection and editorial matter, Angla Kcz, Violetta Zentai, Jelena Jovanovi, and Enik Vincze; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Angla Kcz, Violetta Zentai, Jelena Jovanovi, and Enik Vincze to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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ISBN: 978-1-138-48509-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-05039-5 (ebk)
Our volume is dedicated to the lives of Romani women who have endured, resisted, and struggled to transform difficult and unjust social conditions without public recognition.
