The spatial politics of antigypsyism: institutional local logics, conflicts and the transformation of citizenship. An Italian case study

The article presents the experience of the Roma settled in Cosenza, Italy. The purpose of this study is to understand the spreading of antigypsyism at the local level by focusing on the spatial segregation polices deployed in Cosenza towards Roma communities and on the vicious circle of violence and conflicts they have produced. Drawing on 70 in-depth interviews conducted with representatives of different Roma groups and of the local associations supporting them, we critique theoretical approaches presenting Roma communities as a homogenous minority oppressed by national dynamics of racialization to show a more complex and controversial reality, that even the Roma actively transform. On one hand, empirical evidences show in particular the emergence in Cosenza of new stigma and prejudices against Romani people, which play a relevant role in the processes of neoliberal reorganization of urban spaces that this city is experiencing. On the other hand, however, the context of multiple crisis and growing inequalities in which these phenomena took place facilitate the correlation of the multiple strategies and forms of resistance opposed by the Roma in their spatial integration process with those acted by non-Roma local residents suffering analogous situations of social and territorial exclusion. The result is the production of hybrid urban spaces in which different identities converge triggering new senses of belonging and patterns of inclusion “from below” that highly impact on citizenship, localizing its meanings and functioning