Olga Serradell

From Research to Policy: Roma Participation Through Communicative Organization

For centuries, Roma people’s social exclusion has been reinforced through research that has legitimized stereotypes rather than helping to overcome them. This has led Roma people to refuse to participate in the kind of research that has contributed to discrimination against them. We describe how the critical communicative methodology, used in the European Framework Programme, provides Roma people with the opportunity to participate in research at the highest possible level. In particular, the communicative organization of research allows them to contribute directly as members of the research teams. This article focuses on the advisory committee as a mechanism used to guarantee that Roma people can be directly involved in decision making because this model has been transferred from research to policy.

Solidarity networks that challenge racialized discourses: The case of Romani immigrant women in Spain

In the midst of the global financial crisis and in the ‘anti-race era’, Europe has witnessed a revival of deeply racialized discourses targeting the Roma, leading to new discriminatory practices and legitimating existing ones in many social domains. While westward Roma immigration has spurred these discourses, it has also favored the emergence of invisible grassroots reactions against them that need to be further analyzed. Drawing on interviews with migrant Romani women, this article aims to shed light on these unknown processes, as experienced by women in Romani women-based solidarity networks. Data show that these networks help the women to access basic social facilities, while also challenging the abovementioned racialized discourses.

Dialogicidad y poder en el discurso racista y antirracista

Los discursos que se generan entre sujetos en situaciones comunicativas reales incluyen, aunque se generen dentro de una relacion dialogica, interacciones dialogicas y de poder. Cuando un empresario entrevista a una mujer gitana, musulmana o de un grupo cultural minoritario para un puesto de trabajo, aunque tenga muy buenas intenciones, la relacion no es puramente dialogica, pues existen interacciones de poder fruto tanto de la estructura social como de las creencias racistas que se reproducen en el propio lenguaje y experiencia cultural. Nuestra aportacion parte de un problema social global como es el racismo para analizar la influencia que tienen los actos comunicativos, tanto en su reproduccion como en su superacion. Esto nos lleva a estudiar las interacciones de poder que son la base de actos comunicativos racistas como los que se estan dando actualmente en Europa. Tambien vamos a identificar la existencia de otro tipo de interacciones, las dialogicas, orientadas al consenso, que son la base de actos comunicativos dialogicos y, por lo tanto, del lenguaje y las practicas antirracistas.

Can the men's movement attract young men? The men in dialogue association

One challenge facing the mens movement is how to attract a more diverse range of participants, especially in terms of age and culture. In Spain, people generally believe that the mens movement has had little impact on young people, focused as it is on issues such as doing chores or caring for children, issues that affect only a particular group of men. Seeking ways to attract more young men to the movement, the authors conducted a case study with the Men in Dialogue association (MiD). MiD has developed a new approach to masculinity by incorporating in its discourse issues that young people face in their everyday lives. The authors analysed this discourse and identified key aspects – desire, friendship and solidarity, and equality – of the MiD messages that are attractive to young heterosexual males.

Aisha, From Being Invisible to Becoming a Promoter of Social Change

Aisha is a Moroccan woman who lives with her three children in a city in northern Spain. In July 2014, her husband was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking. This situation led her to return to Morocco with her family, but her high level of involvement in the school where her children had received an excellent academic and humanistic education was a key factor in her decision to come back to Spain. Mustafa, Ali, and Mohamed, aged 3, 6, and 8, are schooled in a Learning Community where Aisha participates as a volunteer. Specifically, she participates in a Dialogic Literary Gathering that is mobilizing a large number of other Moroccan women, as they are engaged in crucial debates regarding the social conditions and opportunities in the neighborhood. This biography analyzes how her involvement in Dialogic Gatherings with other Moroccan women and the sharing of thoughts has helped Aisha to transform her own personal situation as well as the social context in her neighborhood and the lives of “other women.”

Exploring the Barriers: A Qualitative Study about the Experiences of Mid-SES Roma Navigating the Spanish Healthcare System

Whereas the topic of the ‘cultural sensitivity’ of healthcare systems has been addressed extensively in the US and the UK, literature on the subject in most European countries, specifically looking at the situation of Roma, is still scarce. Drawing on qualitative research conducted mainly in the city of Barcelona under the communicative approach with Roma subjects who have stable socioeconomic positions and higher cultural capitals (end-users, professionals of the healthcare system, and key informants of a regional policy oriented to the improvement of Roma living conditions), the present study aims to fill this gap. We explore the barriers that the Roma face in accessing the healthcare system, reflecting on how these barriers are accentuated by the existing anti-Roma prejudices and institutional arrangements that do not account for minority cultures. Our results point out a series of obstacles at two levels, in the interaction with healthcare professionals, and in relation to existing institutional arrangements, which prevent Roma families from having equal access to the healthcare system. Education stands up as a mechanism to contest anti-Roma sentiments among healthcare professionals.