Abstract
The editorial introduces the key ideas of this thematic issue, which originated within the European Research Council project ‘RomaInterbellum. Roma Civic Emancipation between the Two World Wars.’ The period between WWI and WWII in the region of Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe was an era of worldwide significant changes, which marked the birth of the Roma civic emancipation movement and impacted Roma communities’ living strategies and visions about their future, worldwide. The aspiration of this thematic issue is to present the main dimensions of the processes of Roma civic emancipation and to outline the role of the Roma as active participants in the historical processes occurring in the studied region and as the creators of their own history. The editorial offers clarifications on the terminology and methodology employed in the articles included in this issue and their spatial and chronological parameters while also briefly introducing the individual authored studies of this issue.
Highlights
Keywords Central Europe; civic emancipation; Eastern Europe; equality; Gypsy Policy; inclusion; Interwar Period; nation-state; Roma Activism; Southeastern Europe. Issue This editorial is part of the issue “Gypsy Policy and Roma Activism: From the Interwar Period to Current Policies and Challenges” edited by Elena Marushiakova (University of St Andrews, UK) and Vesselin Popov (University of St Andrews, UK). This thematic issue addresses the history of the Roma— known at that time under different local denominations, translated into English as Gypsies—in the period between WWI and WWII in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe, and its impacts in current policies and activism
Clarifications on the terminology and methodology employed in the articles in this thematic issue of Social Inclusion are due, as well as on their spatial and chronological parameters
The two key terms used in the literature, source material and analysed in the articles in this issue are ‘Roma’ and ‘Gypsies.’ There is no need to pay attention here to the public debate surrounding the use of these terms, in which two discourses are wrongly mixed; this debate is closely correlated with the development of contemporary Roma activism and is under the decisive influence of current political structures at international and national levels (Marushiakova & Popov, 2018, pp. 385–418)
Summary
This thematic issue addresses the history of the Roma— known at that time under different local denominations, translated into English as Gypsies—in the period between WWI and WWII in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe, and its impacts in current policies and activism. Thе period in analysis represented an era of significant changes worldwide, encompassing the breakdown of old Empires, the re-drawing of borders, the beginning of new-world relations on a macro-level and new interethnic relations on micro-levels, huge movement of populations, the birth of new nation states, the rise of nationalism and internationalism, exchange of populations, civil wars and more. All these events marked the Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 260–264 beginning of a new stage in world history but, on a microlevel, had a direct impact on living strategies and visions for the future of Roma communities worldwide.
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