STRENGTHENING THE ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP OF ROMA WOMEN THROUGH THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE ROMA POLITICAL SCHOOL IN GREECE

Athina Konstantinou, Theofano Papakonstantinou, Maria Pavlis Korres

Abstract


This article explores the participation of Roma women in public life and how this is strengthened through their participation in the Roma Political School in Greece. The study focused on the reasons for participation and the expectations of women from their participation in the Roma Political School, but also on the barriers they encounter and the opportunities they are given to participate in social and political events. It has highlighted the emergence of proposals for the empowerment and strengthening of the position of Roma women in politics. A qualitative methodology was followed, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 4 Roma women and two officials of the Council of Europe who participated in the Roma Political School in Greece. The findings of the study showed that progress has been made towards the active citizenship of Greek Roma women and, through their participation in the RPS, women expect to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in order to actively participate in the community and contribute to resolving the problems and addressing the needs of their community. However, there are also several inhibiting factors that affect the active citizenship of women: stereotypical perceptions of the position of women prevailing in the Gypsy community, women's low level of education, and their lack of self-confidence. The main proposals that emerged in relation to strengthening women's participation in the public sphere are related to information and the dissemination of information, the strengthening of women's participation in associations, the participation of women in education and adult education and in specialized political programs, and the breaking down of stereotypes concerning the position of women.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


Roma women, active citizenship, non-formal education, Council of Europe, Roma political school

Full Text:

PDF

References


Acton, Τ. (1974). Gypsy Politics and Social Change. Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. SAGE Publications Ltd.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2000). Research Methods in Education (5th ed.). London: Routledge Falmer.

Crowe, D. M. (1995). A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia. I. B. Tauris Publishers.

Crowley, N., Genova, A., & Sansonetti, S. (2013). Empowerment of Roma Women within the European Framework of National Roma Inclusion Strategies. European Parliament. Available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/studies

Devendra, K. (2001). Whose empowerment are we talking of: Women! But where will we find our girls!!” In Promilla Kapur (ed.), Empowering the Indian Women. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Corsi, M., Crepaldi, C., Samek Lodovici, M. (2010). Ethnic minority and Roma women in Europe: a case for gender equality?, Publications Office. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2767/35311

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014). Roma Survey. Data in Focus. Discrimination Against and Living Conditions of Roma Women in 11 EU Member States. Luxemburg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Fraser, A. (1992). The Gypsies. Blackwell Publishers.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder & Herder.

Hoskins, B. et al. (2006). Measuring Active Citizenship in Europe. Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen. CRELL Research Paper 4. EUR 22530. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Hoskins, B. & Mascherini, M. (2009). Measuring Active Citizenship through the Development of a Composite Indicator. Social Indicators Research, 90(3), 459-488.

Jarvis, P. (2008). Democracy, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society: Active Citizenship in a Late Modern Age (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203001707

Khader, S. J. (2011). Adaptive preferences and women’s empowerment. Oxford University Press.

Kumar, Pankaj (2017). Participation of Women in Politics: Worldwide experience. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 22(12), 77-88. DOI: 10.9790/0837-2212067788.

Leijenaar, M. (2004). Political empowerment of women: The Netherlands and other countries. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Liégeois, J. P. (1986). Gypsies: An Illustrated History. Billing and Sons Ltd.

Liegeois, J. P. (1994). Roma, Gypsies, Travelers. Council of Europe.

Mandal, K. (2013). Concept and Types of Women Empowerment. International Forum of Teaching and Studies, 9(2), 17-30.

Quamruzzaman, A., & Lange, M. (2016). Female political representation and child health: Evidence from a multilevel analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 171, 48–57.

ROMACT (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://coe-romact.org/

Turner, B. S. (1993). Citizenship and Social Theory. SAGE Publications.

Yani, A. A., & Hidayat, A. R. (n.d.). What is the Citizenship Quality of Our Community? Measuring Active Citizenship. Public Administration Issues, 0(6), 119.

Pavlis Korres, M. (2017). Roma and Education: Perspectives and considerations. In Th. Thanos, J. Kamarianos, Argyris Kyridis, N. Fotopoulos, Pavlis Korres, M., & Tourtouras, Chr. Sociology and Education. Introduction to basic concepts and thematics, (pp. 742-809). Athens: Gutenberg. (In Greek)

Pavlis Korres, M. (2018). Social relations – Family. In G. Markou, Chr. Parthenis, G. Papakonstantinou, & M. Pavlis Korres, The integration of Roma in Greek society. Otherness and structural exclusion, (pp.305-360). Athens: Grigoris. (In Greek)

Papakonstantinou, T., Pavlis Korres, M., & Ladopoulos D.A., (2021). Roma women views on their empowerment and education via the “Erasmus+ Nefeli” non-formal education program. In Proceedings “7th International Conference for the Promotion of Educational Innovation, Larisa, October 15-17, 2021 (pp. 1200-1209). (In Greek). Available at http://syndrio.eepek.gr

Rogers, A. (2004). Non-Formal Education: Flexible schooling or participatory education. Comparative Education Research Centre the University of Hong Kong.

Shreeves, R. (2021). Women in politics in the EU: State of play. EPRS: European Parliamentary Research Service. Retrieved from https://policycommons.net/artifacts/1426980/women-in-politics-in-the-eu/2041583/ on 07 Apr 2022. CID: 20.500.12592/cp4q3k.

Tourtouras, Chr., Pavlis Korres, M., & Kyridis, A. (2016). The School Career and the Educational Exclusion of the Roma Children in Greece. Journal of Sociological Research, 7(1), 10-32.

Vassiliadou, M., & Pavlis Korres, M. (2011). Roma Education in Greece. Κον 3ανεl But, But Crdel Ama Em “Kon Crdel But, But 3anel (Those who know much, suffer much). Athens: Ministry of Education, INEDIVIM. (In Greek)




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v7i5.1271

Copyright (c) 2022 Athina Konstantinou, Theofano Papakonstantinou, Maria Pavlis Korres

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2016 - 2023. European Journal Of Social Sciences Studies (ISSN 2501-8590) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.