Čierno-biele svety: Rómovia v majoritnej spoločnosti na Slovensku ed. by Tatiana Podolinská, Tomáš Hrustič (review)

The volume The black and white worlds: The Roma in majority society in Slovakia is the result of the effort of a large interdisciplinary research team, not only of Slovak, but also Czech and foreign authors interested in the Roma in Slovakia. The book consists of an editorial note, an introduction, and seventeen chapters divided into three thematic and problem areas: 1. Black and white politics. Discourses, attitudes and opportunities to participate; 2. Where and how do we live? The socioeconomic representations of two different worlds; 3. Linguistic and social representations of the Roma as an instrument for maintaining the world of “the black” and the world of “the white”. The text is written in Slovak and Czech, but the book contains longer summaries of all papers in English.

In a short editorial note, the editors, Podolinská and Hrustič, explain the linguistic and spelling dilemmas regarding the key words within the publication, and their decisions on the use of certain terms (pp. 6–9). This is followed by an introductory text by Tatiana Podolinská in which she presents the themes and aims of the publication, and the applied concepts and methodology (pp. 12–36). The volume is characterised by a multiplicity of approaches (both qualitative and quantitative), a wide range of methods of analysis and the use of all available sources of information (archives, field research results, newspaper articles, the internet). Podolinská considers the issue of research ethics, which is of particular significance in Romani studies. She stresses the importance of connecting the emic and etic perspectives in the process of researching the Roma communities, and this is a common thread that runs through the entire volume. Podolinská also considers the name of the publication, pointing to the view that there are no two separate and monolithic worlds, but rather numerous groups and subgroups within each world, the boundaries of which can be firm or permeable.

The papers in the first part of the publication deal with the attitudes of a majority population towards the Roma and the analysis of the possibilities the Romani have of partaking in creating regional and state policies. Milan Hrabovský considers antiziganism as a form of racism and as a barrier to Roma inclusion (pp. 40–58). This author points out that the way the social context of the Roma communities (poverty, life in ghetto, etc.) is attributed to the inferiority of the race they belong to. The prevalence of such attitudes affects the success of the programmes for Roma inclusion.

Based on Said’s concept of orientalism – as a discourse of power which essentialised the Other (1978), Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov explain that marginalisation and exoticisation are two main, interconnected approaches to Roma communities in science, politics, and social practice (pp. 60–83). The Roma are represented as marginalised, poor, and socially vulnerable; they are the recipients of aid, which is frequently counterproductive because it leads to further stereotyping and anti-Roma feeling. On the other hand, through exoticisation, the Roma are approached as an isolated, hermetically sealed, closed community, without acknowledging the context of their connection to the wider society.

The team of authors Andrej Findor, Zuzana Maďarová and Alexandra Ostertágová address the problem of social justice in Slovakia – the moral foundations of a contentious political issue (pp. 84–103). The authors consider the results of empirical research in the context of the lack of public support for social inclusion of the Roma.

In his comprehensive paper, Tomáš Hrustič gives an overview of Roma political participation in Slovakia from 1990 to 2014 (pp. 104–42). He explains that the recent history of political participation of the Roma in Slovakia is marked by a rejection from the mainstream media on the one hand, and the rivalry of Roma representatives on the...