Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 09:00 - 10:30
ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS
perception of what rural life represents in order to protect against creeping urbanisation and wider threats of social
change that bring increased geographical mobility and the social and spatial implications inherent in them.
Structural Racism and Sectarianism in Northern Ireland
Gilligan, C.
(University of the West of Scotland)
The academic and policy literature and practice regarding racism and sectarianism in Northern Ireland focuses on
'street level' racism and sectarianism. Psychological and cultural factors are most commonly cited in explanations for
racism and sectarianism in Northern Ireland (e.g. a culture of intolerance which has build up over years to produce a
criminally hating society). This paper critiques these psychological and cultural explanations and outlines structural
factors (such as the consociational nature of Government; continuing segregation, and; immigration controls) which
help to explain racism and sectarianism in contemporary Northern Ireland.
Eritrean Community Organising in Milan: Strengths and Weaknesses of an Oral History Methodology in
Researching Migrants’ Communities
Martignoni, M.
(University of Leicester)
Oral history has been deployed to investigate communities and their histories. As a methodology that seeks to
research the aspects of subjectivity and of the histories in contraposition or complementarily to History, the use of oral
sources suits perfectly the research of those social experiences that don't have an archive where it is possible to trace
their histories. This is the case of local communities and in particular of migrants' communities. If we think to the
precarious and the always on the move status of many migrants' groups today in Europe, it is evident that an archive
of migrants' histories is still to be created. Many experiments are trying to gather in different forms migrant's
testimonies, but they focus much on contingent situations.
My research, focusing on the history (from late 1960s to nowadays) of the Eritreans living in Milan, wants to trace the
forms of organising of those migrants, looking particularly at forms of self-organising in everyday life, but also to their
own institutions. To do so I deployed oral history as my main research methodology. If this methodology seemed to
me the more appropriated to research the history of a migrant community, I have experienced challenges that I would
like to discuss in my presentation. In particular the following two questions arise: how can we give an account of forms
of organization through oral narratives? Is oral history compatible with social sciences practices of understanding and
writing research?
Race, Ethnicity and Migration 5
ROUNDTABLE 17, CONFERENCE HALL, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
'Sometimes Intimidating, Sometimes Offensive': Integration, Asociality and the Moral 'Othering' of Roma
Communities in Britain
Clark , C.
(University of the West of Scotland)
In November 2013, diverse Eastern European Roma communities living in Britain faced an unwelcome spotlight.
Issues of 'problematic' integration and alleged 'asociality' followed on from cases in Greece and Ireland where Roma
families were accused of child abduction. Although false, the 'threat' lingered and later David Blunkett and Nick Clegg,
via radio broadcasts, entered a heavily charged debate that implied Slovak and Romanian Roma communities in
Britain were acting and behaving in ways that challenged static, normative assumptions regarding the 'proper
behaviour and culture' of people in Britain. The accusations were direct and forceful; improper rubbish disposal,
'loitering' on street corners, criminal activity, issues of sanitation etc. Following these interventions, print and broadcast
media ran investigative features on Roma communities in Sheffield and Glasgow that labelled the Roma as being the
anti-social 'neighbours from hell' no one wanted to live beside. Sociologically, these views are contradicted by the
voices/experiences of Roma themselves. Based on fieldwork in Glasgow, this paper argues that what is constructed
as anti-social for non-Roma is actually seen as being hospitable/inclusionary by Roma themselves (e.g. 'loitering' is
socialising with friends and 'improper' rubbish disposal is recycling/income generation). Drawing on material from the
media and fieldwork data, the paper argues that Beckeresque 'moral entrepreneurship' is at play when it comes to
Roma communities in Britain. Further, issues of class, gender as well as ethnicity are crucial to consider, vis-à-vis
243 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University