This book provides an analysis of the highly politicized field of Roma inclusion and addresses the controversies surrounding the effectiveness of funding initiatives derived from European Cohesion Policy. It confronts the widely held notion that European financial transfers (Structural Funds) are highly suitable instruments to address the systemic causes of poverty and to facilitate changes towards substantive equality for Europe’s largest ethnic minority. Shedding critical light on the Structural Funds programme, it offers an innovative approach to thinking about the value of European funding schemes and efficacy of national Roma inclusion strategies. Multidisciplinary in approach, it draws on rich interview material and literature from fields including policy implementation, new public governance, equality studies, and political representation, Financing Roma Inclusion with European Structural Funds examines the implementation of European funding in Spain and Slovakia, two countries with contrasting policy outputs, and offers a nuanced picture of the way European Cohesion Policy interacts with intricacies of domestic policy-making. It thus sheds light on the key challenges facing Roma inclusion strategies in contemporary Europe and will be of interest for for scholars interested in European studies, equality policy, new public governance and minority studies.

This book highlights a range of individuals and groups in UK society who experience exclusion or marginalisation, including Roma, young carers and people with Autism Spectrum Disorders. It takes a unique practice-based focus, designed to encourage discussion about diversity in society and to debunk myths about 'the others'.

Exploring contemporary debates and developments in Roma-related research and forms of activism, this volume argues for taking up reflexivity as practice in these fields, and advocates a necessary renewal of research sites, methods, and epistemologies. The contributors gathered here – whose professional trajectories often lie at the confluence between activism, academia, and policy or development interventions – are exceptionally well placed to reflect on mainstream practices in all these fields, and, from their particular positions, envision a reimagining of these practices.

This book presents a critical analysis of the concept of ‘adequate housing’. While the concept of adequate housing is used largely as a normative standard in the protection of housing rights and in the implementation of housing policies, its apparent objectivity and universality have never been questioned by political and legal theory. This book analyses and challenges the understanding of this term in law and politics by investigating its relationship with the idea of ‘home’. ‘It is necessary to provide them with adequate housing!’ It is very common to hear this phrase when dealing with housing poverty, especially in relation to migrants, minorities, indigenous and other subaltern groups are concerned. But what does "adequate housing" mean? This book tackles this issue by proposing a critical analysis of this concept and of its use in the development of housing policies addressing the subaltern group par excellence in Europe, Roma. In so doing, it focuses on the lives of Roma and Sinti in Italy who have been the target of inclusion policies. Highlighting the emotional connection to housing, and dismantling some of the most ‘common sense’ ideas about Roma, it offers a radical revision of how social justice in the housing sector might be refigured. This book will be invaluable for scholars and students working on relevant themes in socio and critical legal studies, sociology, human rights, urban studies, human geography and Romani studies

Despite an increasing number of EU and government initiatives in their favor, the situation of Roma in Europe has only worsened. This book explores the many miscalculations, misconceptions, and blunders that have led to this failure. Looking at Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania, Rostas shows how policy makers in each country have mishandled already confused EU policy, from failing to define “Roma” to not having a way to evaluate their own progress. Rostas further argues that the alleged successes of these policies were actually the product of poor information and sometimes outright deception. Examining perennial topics among Roma like school segregation and political representation, the author shows how often the so-called success of Roma policies can be fallacious and simply pave the way for further problems. Rostas maintains that when the EU’s Framework for Roma program comes to an end in 2020, there must be a fundamental shift in policy for there to be any real improvement for Roma. Policy makers will have to address Roma issues not only in terms of poverty and social exclusion but also in terms of the particular nature of Romani ethnic identity. This shift requires reconceiving Roma as a “politically insular minority” and rearranging the power dynamics of local government to ensure that when the new era of Roma policy begins Roma themselves will have a voice in its formulation.

This report presents the main insights gained during the EU Fundamental Rights Agency's project on local engagement for Roma inclusion, which explores how to best involve Roma in integration efforts at the local level. Bringing together local authorities and residents, especially Roma, it investigated what aspects work, which ones do not, and why this is the case. The 21 localities in 11 Member States covered by the research involved diverse local contexts, needs and challenges. But the experiences in all of them underscored that resources need to be better used to bring actual improvements in the lives of Roma across the EU. This report outlines the main lessons learned during the research, providing an opportunity to improve the design, implementation and monitoring of integration efforts at local level - for the benefit of all individuals still living on the margins of society, Roma and otherwise.

The Handbook of International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education provides a groundbreaking compilation of research from an interdisciplinary group of distinguished experts in early childhood education (ECE), child development, cultural and cross-cultural research in the psychological sciences, etc. The chapters provide current overviews of ECE in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, the US, and Canada, and convey how ECE is multi-sectorial, multi-cultural, and multi-disciplinary, undergirded by such disciplines as neuroscience, psychological anthropology, cross-cultural human development, childhood studies, and political science.