This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the emergence,
development and implications of the Roma political phenomenon in
contemporary Europe. It also challenges the conventional epistemological
basis to political claims of distinct Roma people and argues that the
contemporary politics of Roma is better understood as the public
application of Roma identity.
In recent times a new word has entered the political lexicon across
Europe and beyond: Roma. Thirty years ago it would have been hard to
encounter the public use of the word outside of a small number of
academics and activists. In the second decade of the new millennium,
Roma has become a dynamic political identity championed by hundreds of
organisations, thousands of activists and applied to millions of people
across Europe and beyond. Roma has become an agenda item for local and
national authorities, as well as being taken up by the European Union
and other international organisations. In challenging the conventional
epistemology, this book examines the principal interests and processes
that are constructing Roma as a public, political identity encompassing
highly differentiated groups of people.
This book brings together critical race theory and theories of ethnic
mobilisation to provide a new critical framework for understanding Roma
identity, history and transnational politics. It will be of particular
interest to students and academics within the fields of global
racialization and ethnicity studies.
