Those Who Count
The way in which researchers, experts and scientists classify people—in this case the Roma—can have serious consequences. Highly repetitive Roma-related themes and in conjunction with mass media production, the topics such as poverty, lack of education, unemployment and welfare dependency, and all these were transformed into an iconic depiction of Roma. A critical reading of Roma-related literature illuminates the implications of the objectification of people's private lives, and that the scientific and expert findings circulated by Roma-related research are highly influenced by the political regimes in power.
As a result of this a consistently negative image of Roma persists. Many of those labeled as Roma internalize these enduring stereotypes, which limits their expectations, and often negatively influences their life course.
In the author’s view, the best way is not to analyze the Roma themselves (since ethnic identity is contextual and fluid) but to look at their various classifiers—and especially to the expert categorizers—and to the various means of objectification. The study contributes to a critical debate which could lead to more sensitivity, more prudent assumptions, descriptions and methodological designs, and may assist in depoliticizing Roma ethnicity.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: EPISTEMIC AND POLITICAL CLASSIFICATIONS
1. Classifications that Matter
Strengthening the object of study
Static and Variable in Roma classifications
2. Scientific Interests and Political Relevance
The political economy of knowledge production
3. From Expert to Self-Ascription
CHAPTER 2: ETHNICITY THEORIES AND RESEARCH PRACTICES
1. Constructivist Theories vs. Essentialist Practices
Ethnicity as a fiction made by science
The entrepreneurial side of ethnicity
Ethnicity as an artificial boundary
Ethnicity as an uncritical circulated category
2. Roma Ethnicity Measurement in Sociological Surveys
How Roma representative samples are made
Framing questions and interpreting findings in Roma-related surveys
CHAPTER 3: DISCIPLINARY TRADITIONS IN THE STUDY OF ROMA
1. From Police Profiling to Policy Research Profiles
2. Anthropological, Historical, and Linguistic Accounts of Roma
Linguistics and historiography of Roma
Social history on Roma minoritization and stigmatization
Anthropological views on Roma origin: Exoticization and irrelevance
3. Roma Identity between Activism and Politics
4. Studies on Roma Discrimination
CHAPTER 4: ETHNICITY INSCRIPTIONS IN CENSUSES AND SURVEYS
1. The Census in Racial Policy Regimes
The Census in Nazi Germany
The Census in apartheid South Africa
2. Ethnicity Inscription in Modern Censuses
Governmental practices of recording ethnicity in censuses
The Census as a tool of governance
Resistance to census categorization
3. From Fiscal to Ethnic Categories and Further On to ‘Ethnic Unavailable’
Gypsies as a social and fiscal category
Gypsies as an undercounted census category
Roma as an unavailable ethnic category
4. Problematic Consensus on the Roma Undercount in Censuses
5. Representative Surveys Samples Built on Unrepresentative Census Data
CHAPTER 5: INFLUENCERS OF ACADEMIC AND EXPERT DISCOURSE ABOUT ROMA
1. A Bibliometric Approach
2. Institutionalization of Roma Category in Academic Discourse
3. Disentangling Influence
4. Who is Who in Expert Discourse about Roma
CHAPTER 6: CASE STUDIES ON ROMA-RELATED DISCOURSE
1. Recycling Frames in World Bank Publications (Case Study 1)
Cultural frames
Repetitio est mater studiourum
Selectivity of sources and assembling evidence in Roma-related research
2. Roma Welfare Dependency:
How Representations are Created and Dismantled (Case Study 2)
Unmaking public opinion
3. Genetic Studies: Interest in Roma Origin(s) and Mobility (Case Study 3)
Endogamy as a master narrative frame in Roma-related genetic papers
The unbearable generalization: From convenience samples to Roma population
Roma as subjects of medical genetic research
4. “The Sun is a Gypsy Stove” (Case Study 4)
CHAPTER 7: VISUAL DEPICTIONS OF ROMA IN EXPERT PUBLICATIONS
1. Reading Photography: Pretext, Text, and Context
Selection of photographs for analysis
2. Roma Images in Policy Literature
Roma girl writing in a schoolbook
Children by the garbage dumpsite
The smoking Roma
3. The Untold Roma Story or the Repressed Normalcy
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index