6 – 9 May 2025, Porto
The Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference 2025 #RSA25 is being held in partnership with the School of Economics and Management at the University of Porto, Portugal. This four-day conference brings together academics and policymakers to exchange news, views and research findings from the fields of regional studies and science, regional and economic development, policy and planning. There will be representation from around 55 different global territories as we gather both established experts and early career researchers in the beautiful city of Porto.
Any questions, please email nicola.pilling@regionalstudies.org | https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/rsa25/
Special Session 59 – Call for Papers Deadline: 5th January 2025
Living on the Margins: Belonging, Agency, and Aspirations of the Roma Minority in Europe’s Peripheries
Convenors:
Stefánia Toma, researcher, Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities;
Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania | Email: stefaniatoma@gmail.com
Maria Manuela Mendes, sociologist, ISCSP, ULisboa, CIES-Iscte, Portugal
The Special Session aims to discuss the lived experiences of marginality and peripherality of the Roma minority in different European regions. Roma persons and communities are often characterized by poverty and discrimination, living in areas with limited access to resources, infrastructure, and services and thus experiencing the stigmatizing experience of living on both the geographical (rural isolation or urban segregation) and social periphery (facing stigmatization, racism, antigypsyism, exclusion).
The session will explore how these dual peripheries shape Roma minority’s sense of of belonging, identity, and aspirations. We also aim to highlight how Roma persons and communities exercise transformative agency to navigate and overcome their marginality.
We invite contributions that address belonging and agency as key concepts to interrogate geographical and social marginalities. We are particularly interested in contributions grounded in the direct experiences of the Roma communities, as well as those that critically engage with the potential policy relevance of their findings at local, regional, and international levels. Some key questions might include:
How does the intersection of geographical marginality and social exclusion shape the everyday experiences of belonging for members of the Roma minority?
What are the research and policy challenges in understanding rural and urban marginality?
How do Roma individuals/households use mobility, migration and transnational networks to challenge marginality?
How do ethnic relations frame questions of identity and belonging, including experiences of those who are living on the margins?
How can policies move beyond “integration” and focus on agency and empowerment?