Marginality, Advocacy, and the Ambiguities of Multiculturalism

Notes on Romani Activism in Central Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7802160
AuthorsP Vermeersch (0000-0002-8326-7557, KU Leuven, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume12
Issue4
Pages451-478
Publication date2005-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueIdentities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1070-289X • E-ISSN: 1547-3384
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10702890500332618
OpenAlexW1971446897
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited38

Activists who take up the cause of marginalized and discriminated cultural groups often find themselves in an ambiguous position in relation to the very people whose interests they seek to represent. Inspired by the ideas of multiculturalism, minority advocates turn the cultural identity of marginalized and discriminated minorities into the central focus of a political struggle for recognition. By so doing, however, they construct a particular sectional minority identity that not only fails to give full expression to individual identities, but is usually also “stigmatized” in the sense that it is popularly associated with standard stereotypical images and negative characteristics. This article identifies this ambiguity in contemporary projects of minority rights advocacy aimed at redressing the social and economic grievances of the Roma in Central Europe. It shows how activists in the articulation of their claims rely on essentialist assumptions of Romani identity. While these minority rights claims resonate well in international forums, they also run the risk of reifying cultural boundaries, stimulating thinking in ethnic collectives, reinforcing stereotypes, and hampering collective action. By reviewing some of the recent literature on multiculturalism in social and political theory, this article explores ways of dealing with this ambiguity. It concludes that minority advocacy for the Roma can avoid the tacit reproduction of essential identities by contesting the essentializing categorization schemes that lie at the heart of categorized oppression and by foregrounding the structural inequality that drives political mobilization

Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Essentialism · Foregrounding · Identity (music · Identity politics · Minority rights · Multiculturalism · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Law · Romani and Gypsy Studies

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