Roma 'Acts of Citizenship': Negotiating Categories and Housing Solutions

Abstract

This article presents the case study of a community-based Roma struggle to challenge categorisations, improve housing conditions and access citizenship rights. It is an ethnographic account of the citizenship enactments that a Roma family network, which migrated from Romania to Italy, has been pursuing since its arrival in the southern Italian town of Bari. The aim is to promote the value of ethnographic research in understanding the numerous, complex ways in which 'being political' among Roma is possible. This can take place not only through elite Roma activism, or by communities of Roma producing 'hidden transcripts', but also through community-based 'acts of citizenship'.