1. HEARING THE VOICE OF GYPSIES AND
TRAVELLERS
Gypsy and Traveller Community Organisations: History,
Issues and Futures
Dr Andrew Ryder (Research Fellow,
University of Bristol and TSRC
Associate Fellow -
A.R.Ryder@bristol.ac.uk
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2. Big Society?
• The Gypsy and community spokesperson Gloria
Buckley MBE, reflecting on the Coalition Government
flagship policy entitled the ’Big Society’, commented:
• ‘I don’t know what ‘Big Society’ is. If, as has been
suggested, it is local communities, neighbourhoods
and families looking after each other, then Gypsies
and Travellers have always been members of a Big
Society; it has been the only one we could rely on’
(Ryder, et al., 2011, 39).
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3. Who Are the Gypsies and Travellers?
• 300,000 Gypsies, Irish Travellers in Britain
• One of the most excluded groups in society (CRE, 2006, Cemlyn et al,
2009).
• Life-expectancy is 10 – 12 years less than for members of the settled
community (Van Cleemput, 2008)
• Profound educational exclusion in school.
In 2007 15.6% of Irish Travellers and 14 % of Gypsy/ Roma achieved 5+ A*-C
GSCEs or GNVQs compared to 59.3% of all pupils (DCSF 2008).
• One fifth of caravan dwelling population has no authorised sites

4. Exclusion and Community
Development
• Bonding forms of social capital – boundaries
• The Traveller Economy
• Paternalism
Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation
• Ethnogenesis – 1966 The Gypsy Council
• Charismatic leadership
• 20 Gypsy and Traveller groups on the charities register

5. Inclusive Forms of Community Development
• The GRT third sector – moving away from NGOisation
• Positive action – employment – role models – gender
• Asset based community development – search conferences –
forums – panels – support – social enterprise
• Tenants and Residents’Associations
• Links with service providers ‘personalisation’
• Roma groups

6. Looking to the Future
• Cutbacks and funding
• Localism
• UK inter-ministerial report – non consultation
• The European Framework for Roma Integration Strategies

7. Further Reading – See TSRC Papers
• Paper 63: UK Gypsies and Travellers and the third sector, Dr
Andrew Ryder (July 2011)
• Paper 84: Hearing the voice of Gypsies and Travellers: the history,
development and challenges of Gypsy and Traveller tenants and
residents’ associations (2012)
• Discussion Paper: THE REAL BIG SOCIETY: Gypsy Traveller
Tenants and Residents’ Associations and the Role Of Social Capital
and Empowerment in Reversing Exclusion