In an era of globalisation, often described as the era of mobility and of the decline of the relevance of territory, the Roma and the Travellers embody a transnational and non-territorial society. Yet this minority group experiences deplorable living conditions and the survival of its culture is endangered. A study of minority protection mechanisms in international law reveals that the grasp of territory and "sedentarism" has far from disappeared from this branch of law. Territory (or the absence thereof) and movement are the main challenges faced by international law in the development of solutions to the situation of the Roma and the Travellers. In light of the failure of current minority protection regimes, the quest for recognition of a "Roma nation" appears to be an avenue worth exploring. However, while the Roma may not fall clearly within the parameters of minority protection, they do not fall clearly within the concept of nation either. When examining the potential of such recognition, one realizes that it is necessary to redefine the right of self-determination in the context of minority protection and in a transnational and non-territorial perspective.

In the context of globalization, the idea of place is reputed to be losing its footing. This thesis explores the implications of these developments with respect to the way that place is constructed in law by focusing on tensions between the concept of jurisdiction and the ways that the contexts of law overspill it, threatening to engulf comparative analysis. Central to the idea that jurisdiction is losing its familiar moorings is the implication that other forms of thinking about legal normativity are emerging as more commonsensical alternatives to the state-based idea of jurisdiction that emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The thesis explores this hypothesis by bringing elements of the discipline of comparative law (conventionally state based) into play with elements of the discipline of legal anthropology (conventionally culture based). The focus for this theoretical intrigue is an Gitano population in the South of Spain that served as the fieldwork locale for seven months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in 1995. Investigations are centered on the theme of family law. Familiar notions of state and culture, and the legal sensibilities associated with each, are examined through exploring the interplay between local expressions of Gitanitude in Jerez de la Frontera and regional, national, international, and global forces that structure legal sensibilities in the area. The first chapter explores the interplay by focusing on the context surrounding Spain's reforms to family law in the 1980s. The familiar frontiers of the state are prodded through this analysis. The second chapter then explores the frontiers of culture through an examination of a variety of expressions of Gitanitude in Spain. The third chapter brings modified versions of state and culture together in a reconceptualisation of family law. As a whole, the thesis suggests a new way of approaching the problematic relationship between context and the disciplines of comparative law an

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iii, 323 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 304-323).

The thesis called ``Illegible foreigners{\crqq} deals with the way Českobudějovické listy (renamed Českobudějovický deník in October 2006) presents minorities living in the Czech Republic. The thesis focuses on Romanies, the most frequently mentioned minority in this south Bohemia daily. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part outlines important theo-retical concepts that should explain the current situation of minorities as pre-sented in the south Bohemia daily. The main indicator of the relationship be-tween the media, minorities and the majority society are stereotypes, which can be positive or negative. The thesis lists the main stereotypical attributes as-cribed to minorities by the media and discusses the degree of objectivity in articles that mention minorities.The second part of the thesis uses specific arti-cles on minorities published from 1 January 2004 to 31 July 2006 in the south Bohemia daily to document whether minorities are depicted in a negative or positive way and whether the articles (journalists) are objective.

My Thesis is aimed at the life of the Romanies in Czech society. The topic was chosen intentionally as relations between the Roma minority and the members of the major society belongs to current topics, and although the Romanies have already been living at our territory for several centuries they still remain unknown for most of the inhabitants. The aim of the Thesis was particularly to collect information on how the Romanies themselves perceive thein life in our society and to open discussion about different topics then e.g. crime or poverty. The scope was influenced by my owen work with Romay people and the isme is really familiar to me. The Thesis is dividend into two parts. The theoretical part describes the history of the Romanies, thein present situation in the Czech republic and deals with topics like racism and extremism. The practical part is based on qualitive and quantitative research. The first part interprets data obtained within a field research in selected location of České Budějovice. The research was performed in the formo f semi-controlled interview in May and June. The sekond part is based on the technice of content analysis of a primary document. A Romany magazíne Romano hangos was chosen for the purpose of the research. The selection set of my analysis consists of all the 2008 issues of Romano hangos magazíne. An article is the basic selection unit. To qualify for inclusion into the content analysis an article had to contain communication of how the Romanies perceive thein life in our society. The research results confirm that Romanies still feel like foreigners in our society.

Grounded in a theoretical debate between anthropological studies on Roma/Gypsies and anthropological studies of Christianity, the focus of this thesis is on the experience of social and religious life among members of a traditional minority in Finland, the Finnish Kaale/Finnish Roma, a population of approximately 13.000 people living in Finland and Sweden. Over the past decades, the processes of urbanisation and sedentarisation have led to shifts in the ways in which the social lives of Kaale families are lived. A shift towards individualisation is interlinked with the continuous importance placed on family and kin belonging, which come together in a re-assessment of people's central attachments in the world. At the same time, over the same period of time, a large number of this population have converted to Pentecostal and charismatic movements in the country, leading to subtle changes in the shape of social relations within and outside their own community: between believers and non-believers, between Kaale and non-Kaale. Making use of participant observation, interviews, conversion stories and individual life histories among Finnish Kaale living in the capital city of Helsinki and in Eastern parts of the country, this ethnography provides an insight into the multiple, overlapping and complex ways in which Kaale belonging is understood and into the ways in which Pentecostal religious life takes shape among born-again Kaale. Furthermore, looking specifically at the practice of Evangelism and missionary work, which defines the life of Pentecostal Kaale believers, the role of faith as an enhanced engagement with the world is analysed. A conversation therefore emerges also on the role of Pentecostal belonging in mobilising believers in relation to the world around them and, more specifically, on the way in which Pentecostal faith provides an avenue for a further social engagement and social mobilisation of individual Kaale believers.

<p>This thesis analyses how romanies look upon schooling and how they reflect upon the possibility of getting an education. Many inquiries relating to romanies have been published in Sweden but very few are based on fieldwork among romanies. The aim of this thesis is therefore to through fieldwork focus on how romanies themselves look upon their educational situation.</p><p>The main questions for this study are: How is the image of romanies as a problem constructed in school? How are romanies separated from other students? How is the interplay between romanies and school representatives formed? How do romanies look upon the possibility of getting an education and does their perception differ from the usual official apprehension?</p><p>An important conclusion concerns how social workers and teachers continuously categorize romanies as different. The group is constantly differentiated from other ethnic groups and is often the target of integration projects. This leads to a constant stigmatization of the group but also to “weak power”. In certain situations where the ethnic identity may be an advantage the ethnic identity is over communicated while it is under communicated in an inferior situation.</p>

This thesis analyses how romanies look upon schooling and how they reflect upon the possibility of getting an education. Many inquiries relating to romanies have been published in Sweden but very few are based on fieldwork among romanies. The aim of this thesis is therefore to through fieldwork focus on how romanies themselves look upon their educational situation. The main questions for this study are: How is the image of romanies as a problem constructed in school? How are romanies separated from other students? How is the interplay between romanies and school representatives formed? How do romanies look upon the possibility of getting an education and does their perception differ from the usual official apprehension? An important conclusion concerns how social workers and teachers continuously categorize romanies as different. The group is constantly differentiated from other ethnic groups and is often the target of integration projects. This leads to a constant stigmatization of the group but also to “weak power”. In certain situations where the ethnic identity may be an advantage the ethnic identity is over communicated while it is under communicated in an inferior situation.

This thesis deals with social support - any help provided to a man by other people (both laymen and profesionals). The thesis tries to describe, evaluate and analyse some negative aspects of social support provided to the Romanies who live in a socially excluded locations (considering the concrete situation in Písek) and suggest suitable measures how to improve it. Although this thesis is conceived as theoretical, for completion it contains views of social workers from Písek who provide social support to the Romanies, and in case reports, there are mapped social nets and experiences of small sample of the Roma residents from Písek´s socially excluded locations.

In the introductory chapter, I concentrated on the origins of Romanies and their history in our part of the world, their traditional way of life, and their culture and language. The second chapter focuses on the problems that Romanies have in the Czech Republic, their demographic situation, current problems, institutional and political frame of Romany integration and ther education. The third chapter is devoted to the Romanies in Jihlava, their situation in this town, the organizations that deal with their problems, the elementary schools, and the secondary Romany school of sociology and legal studies. The next chapter is devoted to the Romany center of the Regional Charity of Jihlava, where I present in detail the program for Romany and non-Romany children and the Center´s leisure activities. The objective of my Diploma Thesis is to find out about: 1) Mutual relations between Romany and Czech childern. 2) Romany children´s reasons for coming to the Romany Community Center in Jihlava.