tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88968586529417487972012-01-27T14:34:26.789+01:00GopkState . Nationalism . Political culturesGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.comBlogger1601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-89203323016283339882011-11-11T00:04:00.003+01:002011-11-11T00:08:01.122+01:00Writing Culture at 25: James Clifford This video is helping me currently in writing up my paper on Cluj. Yes, finally I am writing an article - not just a paper - on Cluj.
This helps me in a very peculiar way. Clifford is not giving me practical tips. His way of speaking, rather than what he speaks about, helps me. It helps me approaching my data with a nice distance which allows irony and urges me to step back from a too deep Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-30342632512232328542011-08-20T13:57:00.011+01:002011-08-21T20:35:02.618+01:00What is happening to Europe (or to its Nation-States)?
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A year after Sarkozy’s contested decision Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-15245918667128467402011-06-15T14:47:00.007+01:002011-06-27T09:56:50.943+01:00Working summerVara placuta! Have a good summer everyone! For me it will be a busy one. It seems I am getting used to that, as last time I spent two weeks at the seaside was in 1995. This year, two conferences, one seminar, and six weeks of fieldwork. In two two weeks I'm heading to Cyprus. In Nicosia there is a conference on RESPECT, tolerance and multiculturalism in European cities, and I am presenting a Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0Cluj-Napoca, Romania46.777248 23.5998899999999646.7137905 23.51008949999996 46.8407055 23.68969049999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-23138362819872713142011-05-15T09:20:00.000+01:002011-05-15T09:20:37.575+01:00Le sort des tziganes en France et en Europe
A brief lecture by professor Asséo about "Roma policy" in Europe since the beginning of the 20th century, stemming from an analysis of evictions by the French government in summer 2010.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-12392635077321697532011-04-18T16:40:00.002+01:002011-04-18T16:49:08.535+01:00Imagining Pata RatPata Rat is a place that I visited in 2008 and so far it is still the same. It is a garbage dump, on which or close to which about 1.000 people live and out of which they make their daily living. It is a place which does not look like any place in the world I have been to. It is a challenge to common sense ideas of how groups of children, mothers, fathers and grandpas look like. It pushes the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-28535164674933949282011-04-06T16:22:00.004+01:002011-04-06T16:26:36.287+01:00New Blog!Today I received an email by two postgraduates in anthropology, telling about a new blog where anthropologists write what they do, and how their work can be beneficial to different organisations.
Here's the email:
"Our concern about the state of higher education has spurred usinto thinking about career opportunities for anthropologists outside of the academy. In order to help publicise the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-39524842964429817262011-03-16T08:53:00.003+01:002011-03-16T08:56:40.421+01:00Please take deep interest in Japan massive quakeAs I am part of anthropologymatters.com mailing list, today I received this email, which I post here. It touched me as it more than speculative or empirical accounts of natural disasters is able to communicate the sense of disappointment of Japanese and it gives the world a fair glimpse on what is going on beyond media accounts. (For contacting the author of this letter, please post a comment)
Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-24217581988874936362011-02-23T23:19:00.000+01:002011-02-23T23:19:43.183+01:00Changes...that world from which we are used to hear almost no news. That world which is seen as intrinsically "foreign", "strange", or hostis by "us": guest workers, nomads of the presents, are its citizens. That world is under siege by an inner social force against its political élite. Its changes are going to re-design power relations everywhere, and what's next is to be understood. Here one of the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-39440043402646034372011-02-20T17:47:00.002+01:002011-02-20T17:49:56.430+01:00EN 2011Follwoing the successful experience of last year, I am going to teach again a seminar within Political Sociology of Europe - MA Social Anthropology - University of Milan Bicocca. "Embodied Nationalisms", this is the title of the seminar, will explore the banal ways in which the nation as cultural fiction is perpetuated in everyday life, and how the state is promoting itself as a pure, immutable, Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-51383511369575355202011-02-17T14:29:00.003+01:002011-02-17T19:11:58.670+01:00TodayWith this new shape, I am going to be blogging more frequently with short posts (posts, still, not tweets...:). For my current research I find much inspiration in Anthropology Today, a scholarly journal which is not as sophisticated as the standard academic publications. It provides insights on how anthropology and civil society can get together, without the former to renounce to its cultural Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-81532074197760933432011-02-06T17:09:00.003+01:002011-02-06T17:46:39.628+01:00ConversationA conversation with Michael Herzfeld (podcast) on bureaucracy, comparison, and the role of anthropology in our neoliberal world.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-77748266715729183982011-02-06T13:52:00.009+01:002011-02-17T14:55:00.081+01:00Michael Burawoy For Public Sociology This is one of a series of videos of a 2009 lecture (all videos can be accessed here). In this video he lucidly explains the internal divisions of "sociological labour", and argues that public and critical sociology are as necessary as the professional and policy sides of doing sociology. Amazing lecture and intertaining show. (MB is professor of sociology at Berkely). Here his writings on the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-18995529961023656452011-02-04T11:21:00.000+01:002011-02-04T11:21:19.171+01:00I’m not racist, but...Racists’ favorite device, in one form or another, is the elegant regret of a humanism wounded and betrayed. It takes on an air of bafflement at how reasonable people can find the speaker’s best intentions so evil, and it invokes a respect for clean individuals, as opposed to the stinking crowd. In claiming to preclude categorical prejudice altogether, it proclaims that very stance: „I’m not Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-52572221398892397392010-12-02T17:20:00.007+01:002011-03-16T08:59:33.612+01:00Camps etc.It is not a new topic for me, but I keep on finding new inspiration and sources relating to that. 'The camp' is a very interesting topic as such, as well as a lens through which looking at the spatial organization of sociality and politics. When it comes to Roma in the Italian context, the relevance of the camp goes without saying. It is particularly useful, imho, to contextualize the analysis ofGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-68898030747004500522010-11-26T09:52:00.004+01:002010-12-06T15:07:45.946+01:00little by little...It is not always easy to wait a long time for feedback from reviewers, at least for me. Yet once I receive good quality reviews I value them a lot, since they are one of the very few things I have access to now, for growing professionally. And they do make a difference in relation to what I used to think and to the way I used to formulate ideas and findings before receiving them. I recently got gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-14503147897657510682010-11-03T14:28:00.002+01:002011-02-16T23:45:19.135+01:00LSE Research Online - Anthropology (click on me)Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-18217193806079911402010-10-31T19:52:00.012+01:002011-02-16T23:48:33.219+01:00New book - Romany StudiesIn August, finally, this e-book appeared, that is a paramount effort by scholars towards understanding livelihoods of Romani people and their surroundings. There is also a chapter by the author of this blog, in which Left- and Right-wing cultures are comparatively analyzed and taken as point of departure for an analysis anti-gypsism in contemporary Italy... is Italy a Nomads' Land?
I suggest you gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-60915512895292686192010-10-21T15:00:00.002+01:002010-10-21T15:03:44.586+01:00DIKHEN ANDE ITALIA - KERIEVAFROM ALBUM 'STAND ASIDE' RALA RECORDS 2010The songs' conception was due to and is about the following incident:-"GYPSY GIRLS' CORPSES ON BEACH IN ITALY FAIL TO PUT OFF SUNBATHERS"http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/...· Incident raises questions about attitude to minority· Civil rights group calls for inquiry into 'drowning'John Hooper - Rome, for The Guardian, Monday 21 July 2008If you would gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-44401268909917010802010-08-09T13:58:00.006+01:002010-08-09T20:35:57.236+01:00Romani children want to get educated!
Campaign for schooling - Bacau, RomStar Centre.
The father turned his own accordion into his child's school backpack.
Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-21173844843733037602010-08-01T19:12:00.002+01:002010-08-01T19:13:41.688+01:00UpdateLong time I don't visit this blog and it seems I am getting included in blogrolls I did not expect to be. Anyway, this is only a mid-summer update about my job. I am currently in Bacau, Romania, trying to collect as much material as possible on the local management of social marginality with a focus on Roma. My key informants are of three kinds: policy makers; activists and journalists. Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-78023889364773314092010-01-30T16:28:00.007+01:002010-01-30T17:58:56.663+01:00Torino, New York, BanatAfter the nice conference in Oxford, I'll be moving to Torino beginning of March, where I will start a 9-month research at FIERI on public policies vis-a-vis Romanian and Romani migration to the city. I will aslo analyze the media discourse on migrants, both in Turin and in the departure contexts, i.e. two small towns in the Banat region, one not far from Timisoara. So, my job will be part of a gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-89501798770202301112010-01-10T03:14:00.007+01:002010-01-10T04:11:24.776+01:00TimeAs it has always been the case in my recent years, there is one thing which conforts me when I need to be exceptionally hard in going on with my activities, or in taking other directions: time. Time is a friend for me, and - one could argue - seen the timeframe of my life, it could not be different. Right. Indeed, I am slower than many other people in taking the 'important decisions' of life. Butgopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-72758955018123800662009-12-29T09:58:00.007+01:002009-12-30T20:24:22.399+01:00On humanity and fingerprintingI'm still on the review, because I want to write a comprehensive comment on the recent state racism against Roma in Italy showing that scholarly research is now more than ever needed in order to widen our narrow views on the issue. It is narrow because as it has been happeninig in any European country, production of knowledge on Roma has until very recently served only disciplinary and more Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-19449300454757403872009-12-21T16:59:00.002+01:002011-02-16T23:49:23.337+01:00Are non-discriminatory policies for Roma in Italy possible?This is the title of the book review essay I am writing. I review two books:Cherchi, R. e Loy, G. (acd), Rom e Sinti in Italia. Tra stereotipi e diritti negati, Roma 2009.Vitale, T. (acd), Politiche possibili. Abitare le città con i Rom e i Sinti, Roma 2009.gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-65922790268048321802009-12-13T22:25:00.005+01:002009-12-14T01:19:05.659+01:00affinitiesThere are people with whom during the first meeting I realize that they know quite much about me because they are familiar with texts and authors with which I am also familiar. It's a nice thing, I like it. One could say that after all, this is nothing else than sharing interests...but when your interests are simultaneously your 24-hour activities - well sharing interests can mean good friendshipGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-18069163250336524412009-12-13T13:31:00.003+01:002009-12-13T13:43:57.693+01:00Things evolve...The story I have told so far was an important part of my path through my research. The continuation of this blog is intended as a more comprehensive path through my life in the post-Ph.D. period. I can tell you that I do not know yet whether I will talk more about private or professional life, or whether and to what extent these two big boxes will become intermingled. What I want to do is to tellGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-70507039926465116232009-06-10T10:56:00.006+01:002009-06-10T11:09:59.545+01:00Thank youThe dissertation is done. I just sent it off to the three professors of the commettee. It was 248 pages, 1,28 kg...Again, I want to thank all of you who intervened in this blog, making it a really enriching experience for me.THANK YOUThis blog is going to stay open, because it conserves two years of my work, and it will be useful for me to come back to it and get inspirations, memories, keep the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-67715976859171006972009-05-18T16:08:00.006+01:002009-05-18T16:49:23.190+01:00Notes - randomComparison: Pescara-Cluj. Everyday idioms of identification. Local knowledge and political framework.Florence-Pescara - brief sketch of a comparative framework for further research. Main source: Almagisti 2006.Citizenship. First variable is public sense and understanding of Roma. Belonging to the urban polity - access to rights / perceprions of being part of a (local / national) gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-25935458296573401712009-05-07T20:49:00.001+01:002009-05-07T20:50:38.129+01:00Another adviceShare your work with other people...it improves so much.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-7280660188932661332009-05-05T12:44:00.007+01:002009-05-05T13:30:49.357+01:00Innovation...I thought that since I am approaching the end of this pathway, it would be good to have some sorts of guidelines or good tips to carry on reflexively the job that I am in. Today I want to begin with a conference held by a scholar that I sometimes quoted in this blog, Craigh Calhoun.Here he speaks about "Interdisciplinarity, innovation and informing the public". In other words, how we, academics, gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-50724248241626389812009-04-27T04:54:00.003+01:002009-04-27T04:59:32.611+01:00New last periodI am going to leave New York with many provocative and fascinating insights on my dissertation. Especially I could benefit from a paper on the 'ethnomanagement' of Hungarians and Germans in Romania - for the institutional part. And from the criticism I received straight after my presentation. I'll revise some of the assumptions and add material. I hope tomorrow I'll be able to have access to the gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-84868992058758503612009-04-25T03:38:00.003+01:002009-04-27T04:53:54.142+01:00DoneColumbia is done as well. Now I have one month to put together all the pieces of the dissertation in a logic, consistent and good shape. I'll mainly concentrate on the premises and the conclusion, and will put the ethnographic findings only in a concise form. I think I need to make the point and leave to articles the empirical material. But it is a decision yet to come.New York is showing its gopknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-15117547614974263632009-04-16T20:08:00.004+01:002009-04-16T20:31:28.874+01:00Last steps...People,this blog was opened two years ago in order to account for an in fieri Ph.D. dissertation in Sociology that has costed time, energies, tears and smiles. Surely, it has meant work every single day, apart from few short and empowering trips since last summer. Now I am approaching the end, and I would like to start to thank all of the people who intervened in this blog since the beginning, Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-80117953686139572082009-04-01T14:14:00.003+01:002011-02-16T23:46:08.225+01:00LondonA post about the city where I am right now...(writing in a coffee shop in Kingsway...very postmodern...).In comparison with Paris there is one thing that really stricks me. Not less energetic, not slower, not less beautiful, not less stylish. London is simply sadder, and more stressed! When walking on a street at 9 am, in Kingsway for example, you feel a sort of competition between people walkingGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-51423159781598597462009-03-28T16:49:00.004+01:002009-03-28T16:54:38.842+01:00ReflexivityAre social scientists unable to analyse the fundamental principles of their own society because the lenses through which they see the world are coloured by these very principles - in the same way that looking through, for example, yellow glasses, you cannot distinghuish yellow?(Wimmer, Nationalist exclusion and ethnic conflict. Shadows of modernity, 2002, 6).Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-77799959376969225692009-03-21T14:25:00.008+01:002009-03-21T14:49:54.803+01:00CategorizationIn what is commonly known as the debate around racism and differentialism, there is one element which seems to me to be growing. I have a special 'privilege' to follow the debates around Roma/Gypsies in Europe, because I receive e-mails, I participate in courses, in conferences, in debates, and because I have been involved in my research for three years now. Nonetheless, I don't think this Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-78784789365358185802009-03-14T22:05:00.003+01:002009-03-14T23:32:56.793+01:00Going on workingIn this sense, work on the contemporary consists in the scientific and ethical labour of linking the recent past to the near future, and the near future to the recent past. By ethical here I don't mean the more or less political claims for discourse, present today, but rathter a practice of embodying a existential and conceptual transformation through inquiry and reflection on self and others, Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-12381442517220783102009-03-14T01:11:00.006+01:002009-03-20T11:39:38.203+01:00Those videosThe ones below are recently posted Youtube videos. I am really sorry that they have no English subtitles. He is a historian living in Bologna, Italy. He taught in Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCLA and other universities. Since 2006 he teaches history of European Cultures in Pisa, Italy.In those videos he informally discusses in half an hour the basic traits of Fascism in relation to nowadays Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-13975398744560916602009-03-14T00:01:00.004+01:002009-03-14T00:13:27.865+01:00Ginzburg (in French) on the futures of FascismGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-65820572111745512902009-03-03T14:37:00.006+01:002009-03-03T15:34:38.558+01:00New videoYesterday I had an interesting conversation with two persons I had just met, with whom it was a real pleasure to stay and talk. Among the several topics we discussed, we approached Roma, and I happened to realize that my general knowledge about Gypsies is scarce. Either I know particular issues, localized in time and space about Romani life, or I know so little about general panoramas that I am Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-11588313614412605082009-02-07T06:19:00.003+01:002009-02-07T06:33:28.570+01:00Too muchI really couldn't think that the present Italian government was able to go that far. I really couldn't.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-41098737622220701152009-02-05T10:51:00.009+01:002011-02-16T23:46:08.226+01:00Comparative 'Gypsy problems'I am currently writing a paper for a conference which will take place at LSE, at the end of March. The paper is a comparative analysis of the political and conceptual framework in which the 'Gyspy problem' has been constructed over the past twenty years in two Italian cities, Florence and Pescara. In these two cities there are periphery areas highly stigmatized as 'Gypsy areas', and defined as Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-3768422002147831312009-02-04T15:00:00.004+01:002009-02-04T15:04:43.508+01:00Mike Davis' way of writing.The first line of this article. The pleasures of reading critical social science.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-52859559293181436072009-01-26T15:02:00.005+01:002009-01-26T15:29:32.817+01:00PassageEvery step in the understanding of something in life is a leading force to go on in the same direction. This is what normally happens to me, and since it is going on like that for decades, I can relaxely say that this is my way of living. Sometimes this "something" you happen to understand arrives completely unattended, unforeseen and unforseable. Today I came across a passage in a book which Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-8177255653804726872009-01-15T20:13:00.011+01:002009-01-21T17:41:22.944+01:00GazaThis blog does not always feel the need to intervene in the actual global news, unless they are in a way related to the topic of the dissertation. Today I decided to intervene.Yesterday at the European Parliament there was a debate on the situation in the Middle East, here the video:http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/faces/vod/player.jsp?date=20090114(click on the bottom-right Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-8290192768869171042009-01-07T15:58:00.014+01:002009-01-21T17:42:29.173+01:00Another point. Theory againLast day, talking with one of my readers, I realized that blaming the overemphasis of culture by the political power (i.e., the "politicization of culture" - e. g. Wright 1997 ) is not enough. "Actually, Giovanni, you need to state what you mean by culture". Culture is a fiction, in Clifford's words (The predicament of culture). Fiction does not mean falsehood. Fiction means a narration, a story Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-724263154317305522008-12-25T17:05:00.005+01:002008-12-25T17:35:46.159+01:00A programWe thus return to the primary historical mission of critical thought, which is to serveas a solvent of doxa, to perpetually question the obviousness and the very framesof civic debate so as to give ourselves a chance to think the world, rather thanbeing thought by it, to take apart and understand its mechanisms, and thus toreappropriate it intellectually and materially.(L. Wacquant, 2004 - Here)IGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-54995737460224618522008-12-04T16:02:00.006+01:002011-02-17T10:53:28.740+01:00Everyday life'There is no reason to suppose that the investigation of structures of social life (which, if done one-sidedly, can certainly be called 'objectivistic') and the investigation of the meanings of various aspects of social life as experienced by the people concerned (which, if done one-sidedly, can very well be called 'subjectivistic'), are incompatible. The investigation of the experimental Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-26009770978451276682008-12-04T15:42:00.002+01:002008-12-04T15:45:30.812+01:00East WestIf in the west substantial citizenship was used as a form of social integration, in contrast, in east-central Europe, it was rather the formal citizenship that prevailed.C. Iodarchi, Citizenship and National Identity in Romania, 33. Drawing on Gellner, The Condition of Liberty, 1994, 115-117.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-41501581192658047872008-12-02T17:30:00.012+01:002008-12-04T19:03:24.327+01:00Thick comparison: why it might be a good ideaThe history of Gypsies in Romania, or of Romanian Gypsies, is intriguing. But what I find even more interesting is the way of narrating it. The most quoted book on the history of Gypsies in Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. Crowe 1994; revised and updated 2006) concentrates on numbers, analyzing very often the shifts on the censuses of those who declared themselves as Gypsies since the first Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-2596334405189641462008-11-22T22:44:00.001+01:002011-02-17T10:53:28.741+01:00Writing about Cluj, intensively.Dear Mr., we are happy to inform you that your paper has been accepted to our conference. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-75247550257212900252008-11-19T18:38:00.011+01:002008-11-19T23:19:45.615+01:00Going on #3I'm stuck in the literature review. That's why I'm silent.I'm going through necessary traditions and schools of thought. I've nothing really interesting to write about my dissertation. Something strong and very good happened to me in the past days, not related to this research.I just sent a book review to one journal. Tomorrow the abstract for the conference in Timisoara is due...as well as the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-74963874563204039622008-11-05T00:15:00.003+01:002008-11-05T00:23:38.900+01:00deadlinesAbstracts for LSE and Columbia submitted. Timisoara is November 20, so not to be worried. I'm organizing my fieldnotes and it's being exciting to re-dive into Iris and Cluj after almost four months, and so useful.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-15145379995778967842008-11-02T17:06:00.013+01:002008-11-04T21:26:07.000+01:00One pointWhat I want to argue is that citizenship and ethnicity are cultural constructions. That is not easy at all...but if you analyse the imaginaire which is behind the constitution and the management of 'Gypsy neighborhoods', it is somehow very explicit that radical taken-for-granted assumptions about cultural specificities are the very sources (besides the given, objective, material conditions - suchGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-79382856434338328812008-11-02T17:00:00.003+01:002008-11-02T17:02:38.982+01:00Nomad camps and other segregated spatial configurations"[...] one can envisage a form of materiality only in its relation to the imaginaire". (Bayart 2005: 233)Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-69931451698268379312008-11-02T15:09:00.011+01:002008-11-02T17:05:25.227+01:00Culture again..."If we want to understand both strategies of identity-related closure and indecisiveness about identity or processes of cultural expansion, the dynamics of homogenization as well as those of 'heterogenisation', culturalism cannot help us, for it commits three methodological errors: it maintains that culture is a corpus of representations that is stable over time; it sees this corpus as closed in Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-52704989821993453792008-10-28T10:35:00.006+01:002008-10-28T10:57:06.227+01:00Perceptions as cultural products. Bourdieu's pointIt's true that perceptual configurations, social Gestalten, exist objectively, and that the proximity of conditions and thus of dispositions tends to be re-translated into durable links and groupings, immediately perceptible social units such as socially distinct regions or districts (with spatial segregation), or sets of agents possessing altogether similar visible properties, such as Weber's Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-1298999500444720452008-10-26T20:04:00.012+01:002008-10-26T23:17:03.266+01:00Culture as suchSo far I treated the category of "culture" only in a very critical way. What could be a possible "pars construens" discussion of culture?Adreas Wimmer provides a definition of culture which is not idealist, abstract, a-historical, but also not overcharged by materialist issues."Culture could be defined as an open and unstable process of negotiating meaning, which has cognitively competent Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-64325143189446800392008-10-10T22:21:00.000+02:002008-10-10T22:33:58.921+02:00Becoming Roma...Please, read here:De Carli said there was no shortage of volunteers, and other readers will include blind people, Roma and Sinti, taxi drivers, students, athletes, prisoners, journalists and former prostitutes. "I think we tapped into a need believers are feeling to return to the source of their faith," he said.The full article is hereIntegral Europe, integral Italy: I would be curious to know Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-28688183292454117312008-10-08T01:18:00.009+02:002008-10-08T02:10:05.860+02:00Novelty!I want to point at Perfect Mothers in Soviet and Post Soviet Russia, a thoughtful "comparative research on the relation of reproductive policy and fertility choices in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia", in her own words. I like what she is doing, and I'm going to stay updated about it.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-16874728588334928472008-10-07T16:34:00.006+02:002008-10-07T16:44:41.205+02:00Going on #3The idea to write each part of the dissertation in the view of a conference seems to be the most popular amongst many I have in my head.Actually, I already have two conferences in my mind, and the deadline for abstracts is realistic for me. One in Timisoara on the 4-5 of December, and the other in London at the end of April. There would also be a big big conference in NYC in April...but I think IGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-12859467375807738032008-10-06T00:59:00.006+02:002008-10-06T01:21:17.755+02:00ErrataA few posts ago, I was pointing at the idea that probably more than against Gypsies "as such", racist violence should be rather considered as against certain behaviours perceived in the popular discourse as related to Gypsiness, such as lazyness, disorder and so on.Actually, I was wrong. If you listen to Gentilini, the mayor of Treviso (Italy), you can easily understand why. In this political Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-18228857065772925922008-10-01T10:06:00.000+02:002008-10-01T10:07:15.693+02:00To be checkedThis articleGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-40955187011926852272008-09-26T19:31:00.008+02:002008-09-26T20:42:11.309+02:00Two or three things I know about freedom: doubts.Sometimes I wonder whether following someone else's will is freedom or not. First of all, I would say that it depends on a major distinction: if you made the choice to follow someone else's will or not. In the first case, then I would say it is freedom. In the second, I would say it is not. But, of course, there are ambiguous and exceptional situations. For instance, you made this choice some Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-55863269577296109342008-09-19T16:42:00.004+02:002008-09-19T17:03:25.137+02:00Celbrating EndNote Web 2.3EndNote Web 2.3 is the most useful, user-friendly and wide-range available bibliographical software of all times.Grouping articles, pdf files, books and visual material? Citing anything while writing? No problem, now you have EN2.3! It's the economy of time and energies. It makes you love the utility of the web. You'll love it. EndNote: if it didn't exist, it should have been invented.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-74544140980111145632008-09-10T16:20:00.013+02:002008-09-26T20:13:02.367+02:00Working Gypsiness in violenceRecently I got to know that the Interpol, the international police force, was founded at the beginning of the XX century in order to fight against the "plague of the Gypsies".Many times I have to explain what I know (little, very little!!) about the history of Gypsies.For the most interested people, here is a useful, and in my opinion reliable (because I think that Patrin is a reliable web page),Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-12931571138581610072008-09-07T13:24:00.007+02:002008-09-10T12:48:43.739+02:00RestHaving a rest on the grass in the main Milanese park, checking grants and other stuff, nearby, a group of musicians suddenly begun to play...Gypsy music. Loud. Nice songs from Gadjo Dilo and other famous tracks. There will be a kind of Gypsy music festival in the next days here. It is the first time that in this town this kind of music appears in such outstanding shape...a phenomenon happening inGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-73365296240562187782008-08-30T01:04:00.003+02:002008-08-31T19:06:20.750+02:00LeavingI am going to leave Ljubljana with a full "bag". Hopefully there will be some aftermaths of these days meetings. Concrete, I mean. Anyway, it was another confirmation of why sociology can benefit from social anthropology, and why sociologists can benefit from social anthropologists. And why knowing people is better than not knowing people.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-54405842967712073162008-08-26T15:40:00.002+02:002008-08-26T15:43:57.109+02:00Anthropological Ljubljana...I got here, finally. And I am already feeling at home. Lost in the many venues and programs, lectures and food-meetings, hostels and will to visit the town, I will for sure end up missing Slovenia.No problem, Ljubljana does not go anywhere, and from Budapest is only 8 hours by train...Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-47922183512784866332008-08-20T14:41:00.011+02:002008-08-21T00:29:09.547+02:00ParallelismsThinking about cultural fundamentalism one may approach the more general issue of fundamentalism as such.This is what just happened to me. Let me propose my understanding of fundamentalism. The core element of this phenomenon (i.e. attitude) is the lack of recognition of he necessity to consider the difference between your ideas and principle, and views of he world, which you developped in the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-4126661122361125782008-08-19T20:40:00.001+02:002008-08-19T20:40:19.848+02:00P.s....tiredGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-1764987019204469092008-08-19T20:01:00.006+02:002008-08-21T00:26:41.986+02:00Ending PescaraIn a Eastern-looking man's armonium's melancholic notes, sitting in a café in the center of the city, I'm farewelling Pescara. Ljubljana on Monday. 10 hours trip, by train.Finally there has not been any press conference (and no "conference press" either. Ah, my English!), because people are not working in this time of the year in Pescara. Especially politicians: they are used to go on holidays inGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-40494328726719657622008-08-10T16:46:00.006+02:002008-08-10T17:06:08.635+02:00Accepting/reinterpreting/circumventing"...and my aim is to discuss the ways in which two activists of a Roma organization build systems of legitimization of access to resources (basically social/housing rights), by accepting, reinterpreting, circumventing the ethnic definitions imposed by the first two Regional laws concerning "Roma ethnicity" in Florence. Through an anlysis of their life stories from the one hand and of their Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-4311181658389727922008-08-09T00:48:00.002+02:002008-08-09T17:12:40.467+02:00Easy?As it often happens, at the beginning it seems to be easy, but then...actually people are go on holidays. Thought I am happy for them, I find myself lacking inerviews to political leaders.Today, talking to the mayor's secretary, an interesting thing came out: there is no Gypsy question in Pescara, because Gypsies are perfectly integrated, since they have houses. A report by the OSCE denouncing Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-6995766718670209782008-07-26T20:52:00.009+02:002008-07-26T22:11:49.194+02:00SurpriseRarely happens to find in a bookshop a book by a person you met years ago, with whom during this time you shared good and bad moments, who was able to cheer you up and make you arrive to resonable solutions to your problems. In this book there is a lot of his last 7 years, the way he writes about Israel and Palestine - his topic - is revealing of his growth.The fact to find my name among many Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-41362396373740885522008-07-25T21:32:00.002+02:002008-07-25T21:35:16.500+02:00Jewish and Gypsy musicHere a really amazing narration by Dumneazu...Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-70038764569221970892008-07-25T16:43:00.005+02:002008-07-26T22:02:11.696+02:00Pescara #1Welcome to the third part of my fieldwork! I got Pescara on Monday, and got a room in a flat right close to Rancitelli. Rancitelli is a pecular name here...everyone you ask, s/he will tell you that it is an off-limit area, and the Gypsy (Zingari) area. My first reaction was to link this public view to the one attached to Iris in Cluj. Any taxi driver I was talking to in Cluj told me that in Iris Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-33875996037197123262008-07-15T16:13:00.006+02:002008-07-16T23:56:18.857+02:00Preparing, presenting, closingMaybe it is a common destiny of all those who are usually labeled as "knowledge workers", I don't know. In any case, my engagement in this research came today to a crossroad. I just presented my paper about immigrant Roma in Florence, I am following a summer school on Romany studies, I am closing my fieldwork here in Cluj, and I am planning my fieldwork in Pescara, which will begin this Sunday, Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-68717621637553075272008-07-07T15:25:00.009+02:002008-07-07T18:27:58.084+02:00About fieldwork in PescaraSince my five data sources for the Romanian part of my fieldwork have been quite harmoiously circulating around a common quiestion mark (i.e. "In which ways is the "Roma issue" in this town unespectedly hidden in the public discourses?"), I expect that for the Italian part there will emerge other unexpected issues. Nevertheless, I will leave to Pescara on the 20th of this month, and now I am Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-40704753464676622452008-07-05T23:45:00.006+02:002008-07-05T23:56:03.704+02:00The Italian government, nomadism and legalityQuesta articolata quanto moderata riflessione di Alessandro Simoni.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-82052784897058146422008-07-05T11:57:00.014+02:002008-07-07T16:02:57.271+02:00About fieldwork in Cluj-NapocaFinally my focus group with policemen will take place this Monday, 7th of July...52 days to get it...In this hot windy Saturday afternoon, I am planning to be sitting in a pub in Iris (together with Rancitelli in Pescara, part of the comparison) talking about the neighborhood's history and social life. I'll probably go to visit a monument built up in honor of an Hungarian national hero...at leastGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-18846334156155779182008-07-04T18:14:00.012+02:002008-07-07T15:54:19.154+02:00FingerprintingSome months ago, I replied to a comment posted by one of the six readers of this blog who wrote "[Ethnic cleansing in Italy] is something not avoidable, what do you want to do?". I replied that I was scared, because ethnic cleansing, i.e. physical elimination on the base of a common sense perception of something called "ethnic belonging", makes me think that over the last 60 or so years few Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-32673099358396363012008-06-24T12:05:00.003+02:002008-06-24T17:43:36.947+02:0039From the first time that I tried to have an interview with some police officers until today, when I succeded to schedule a meeting for the 3th of July, thirty-nine days passed.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-71515854675745416892008-06-23T08:33:00.007+02:002008-06-23T09:00:20.500+02:00Going on #2Finally, yesterday evening I finished my paper on the Florentine nomad camps. I was in Florence three weeks ago, and I visited several archives in order to find documents concerning the treatment by local institutions of the immigrant Roma coming since the late '80 from Yugoslavia.I will present the paper in July in Cluj (Summer school) and in Ljubljana in late August (Easa). I am quite satisfiedGopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-26471248926849003132008-06-19T21:24:00.015+02:002008-07-05T13:50:02.177+02:00Culture and beyond...Sometimes I need clarity. Well, sometimes more than other times, let's say. And this time - when I am writing the final version of the paper on Florence - I really need it. I am coming from almost two weeks of intensive in-depth fieldwork in Iris and going through texts in a completely different context (immigrants in Italy) seems not to be easy.So, though quotations may appear as a "guiding Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-53503280449892896692008-06-06T17:26:00.008+02:002008-06-16T17:09:27.589+02:00Academic writing"There is a way to do each single thing". This is among my father's favourite sayings. As many other similar ones, I often forget it, but it's like they appear at a certain moment when there is something which happens to confirm them.Here is one of such cases. When I usually am in front of a white page, ready to be filled up with words, I simply write with the most direct style without paying Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-66958530940888968672008-05-21T21:03:00.006+02:002008-05-21T21:38:08.449+02:00One year after...I'm sorry for the dimensions but I could not find the url...Anyway, I remember when I talked about it. And with the nowadays Italian situation it could be a good souvenirLa section EHESS de la Ligue des droits de l’homme vous invite au débat Un ministère de l'identité nationale, pour quoi faire ? Lundi 26 mai 2008 18h30 EHESS- Hall du 54 boulevard Raspail – 75006 Paris Un an après sa Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-27524700174240069462008-05-20T14:54:00.002+02:002008-05-20T14:58:23.124+02:00Interesting...conference in Paris. Whoever is going to go will be welcome to this post with comments and summaries.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-45981156481152110742008-05-20T11:47:00.013+02:002008-05-20T12:50:38.894+02:00Belpaese #2Yesterday I received a letter from a collegue based in Florence inviting me to take part in a forum about the widespread racism in Italy. My collegue didn't propose any specific topic of discussion, his request stemming from indignation rather than from a need of analytic understanding or strategic activism. It is largely understandable: the newspaper's accounts concerning "Roma/Gypsies/Nomads" Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-40078709373832600102008-05-17T23:16:00.013+02:002008-05-20T12:44:11.374+02:00BelpaeseThis blog keeps distance from the facts happening these days in some southern Italian cities regarding persons living in nomad camps and other periphery areas.This blog is trying to collect material for a lucid analysis of the institutional behaviors vis-à-vis Roma and some other groupings in those towns.This blog also welcomes anyone willing to start social/juridical/political actions in order Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-40911921139158732192008-05-15T21:33:00.004+02:002008-05-15T21:40:33.977+02:00Amazament:when a police officer spontaneusly wastes two hours of his work to take you in his car to the main Gypsy communities in town, stopping there from time to time to have a short nice talk with the inhabitants.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-52042261128894494612008-05-15T20:59:00.003+02:002008-05-15T21:33:15.047+02:00Practical vocationThere are times in which one thinks about what s/he is doing. This operation, outside a strictly sociological act of reflexivity, for me, is a novelty. Not that I don't think about the action I am carrying out here in Cluj when I am crossing the street or cooking my good meat. The point is that when I am doing something, e.g. walking to get a public office where a person is waiting for an Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-11623625550433281882008-05-10T17:45:00.013+02:002008-05-10T18:54:50.737+02:00ReviewSome posts ago I ambitiously wrote about my five data sources...Now I can take stock of it, at least for a first round. My interviews can only start on Monday, for bureaucratic reasons, and for the same reasons I hope that they will be successful (i.e. people will be open and explicit as I experienced in Florence). On Monday the newspaper archive inquiry will also begin: I found interesting Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-86208724636710364912008-04-20T22:53:00.007+02:002008-04-21T05:14:46.024+02:00Passports? Clues on East-WestA: Yes, I like Italian cinema. You probably understand it better than I do, since you are Italian.G: Well, I don't know, the directors you mentioned (Pasolini, Fellini) for example are very much attached to Rome. Since I have always been living in Milan, well, for me that setting is not that familiar.A: But still...G: Don't know. And you? The fact that you are Romanian [Romanian passport since Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-11772323733744287392008-04-16T22:04:00.007+02:002008-04-16T22:14:11.371+02:00Entering the fieldSunt student la doctorat la facultatea de sociologie... Sunt în Cluj-Napoca de la începutul lunii martie pentru cercetarea mea. [...]These are the magic initial words (of a very formal letter) with which the doors of the Clujean Municipality should open themselves.Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-33202615038369262542008-04-14T19:53:00.011+02:002008-04-16T09:38:18.007+02:00Ljubljana"Dear Giovanni Picker, We are glad to inform you that your submission for our panel „Beyond identity: new directions in the anthropology of Roma/Gypsy groups“ on the EASA biennial conference was accepted.[...And that tomorrow you should go to the library, close yourself into the building and come back to the world only after you'll be done with your interpretative inquiry. And don't forget Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-61116469903124281332008-04-14T13:23:00.016+02:002008-04-25T15:31:53.810+02:00Clarification (Towards a critique of the exclusive...#2)Maybe I should clarify something from my previous post, since I guess there are some obscure points.When I say that comparisons between Roma and non-Roma (Roma as an example of any "ethnic group") is misleading, the problem does not lie in the asymmetry per se. The division between dominants and dominated is heuristic in sociology, and it would be a blind practice not to recognize it. And such Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-77495549715068206042008-04-11T22:25:00.010+02:002008-04-12T11:05:26.929+02:00Towards a critique of the exclusive character of EthnicityMany times I came across analyses where something called "ethnic group" was compared with something called differently, for instance "dominant group", or "non-something group".I consider this way of reasoning extremely biased by the unaware asymmetry which it implies. I say unaware because authors claiming for such analysis feel legitimize to discuss for instance "Roma - non-Roma" comparisons, Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-70437896262366827192008-04-09T15:23:00.005+02:002008-04-09T16:33:37.509+02:00About science One thing that seems to me to be important, and which I tried to demonstrate, is that the social world is not a kind of perpetual movement, a continuous change. At the time when I began to deal with sociology, one of the words which was most of the time in the “sociologists’” mouth was the word “change”. “Everything is changing: this changes, that changes...!”, and we still keep on saying it Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896858652941748797.post-22519830823434219052008-04-07T11:30:00.009+02:002008-04-09T09:47:31.236+02:00Film ReviewThis is the first part of a film review I wrote for a class. The documentatry is worth seeing, and it is especially one of the few attempts to shed light on this issue.Hidden Sorrows. The persecution of Romanian Gypsies during WWII (by Michelle Kelso, Romania 2005) The documentary, result of ten years long fieldwork, is a basic account of the deportation of Romanian Roma, and of the Gopkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13272542295951115755noreply@blogger.com0