Naslov
Racial Cities: Governance and the segregation of Romani people in urban Europe, by Giovanni Picker, London and New York, Routledge, 2017, 174 pp., £110.00 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-138-80878-2

Autori
Tomicic, Ana

Izvornik
Transnational social review (2193-1674) 8 (2018), 3; 346-349

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, prikaz, ostalo

Ključne riječi
racism ; economic rights ; cultural rights ; Roma ; cities ; racialization ; book review

Sažetak
In Europe today, a large number of Roma are still living in deplorable conditions below the minimum standard of decent housing, which is a key factor contributing to the exclusion the Roma endure. Moreover, the ongoing privatization of municipal dwellings mostly affects people of Roma origin, who are unlikely to rent long-term accommodation from private owners, while long-term tenancy is often a prerequisite for employment and access to other social, economic and cultural rights (Tomicic & Kupka, 2017). This historical discrimination is in particular motivated by the stereotypes that prevail in our societies where residential and social alienation has been increasingly articulated by the ‘slumification’ of middle-class neighborhoods, affecting property prices and resulting in concentrated disadvantage. It is important to underscore that this concentration does not stem from some primordial desire for a common life among ‘themselves’. It is not the result of ethnic instincts, as it is some- times presented. It is the result of external circumstances, structural conditions that the Roma can hardly resist. In his book, Racial Cities, Giovanni Picker (Marie- Skłodowska Curie Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham School of Social Policy, UK) sets out to expound on the history and persistence of stigmatized and segregated ‘Gypsy urban areas’ in both Eastern and Western Europe. With substantial reference lists for each of the chapters of this well documented, ethnographically sound, multi-sited work, Picker contributes to the field and understanding of this issue with a solid and informed critique of existing literature – a critique which he justifiably bases on the lack of understanding of colonial origins and class formation as bases of the ‘process of racialization’ (Picker, 2017, p. 3). T

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Etnologija i antropologija

POVEZANOST RADA