This document discusses frameworks for understanding marginalized groups and their participation in society. It focuses on intersectionality and how people have multiple, intersecting identities that shape their experiences of marginalization. Gypsy communities are used as a case study. Some key challenges to their participation include poverty, poor health, lack of education, employment barriers, and cultural barriers. However, the online sphere, like Facebook, may help lower barriers to political and civic participation for marginalized youth by making engagement easier and more interactive at low cost. Understanding intersectionality and exploring virtual spaces are presented as ways to potentially increase meaningful participation of marginalized groups like young Gypsies.

1. Rethinking the participation of young
marginalised groups in a European
context with an emphasis on Gypsy
communities
Hugo Santos, University of Porto, Portugal
Nighet Riaz, University of the West of Scotland, Scotland
Migena Selcetaj, University of Bologna, Italy
Marta Carvalho, University of Porto, Portugal

2. The concept of the “margins”:
The concerns of Social and Human Sciences about marginalised groups and their trend in
emancipate the Other and give him/her voice;
A grammar of power, domination and inequality (e.g., Critical Theory of Frankfurt, Marxist
and Neomarxist Theories, Feminist and queer Theory, etc);
The role of citizenship in leveling unequal power relations (Marshall, 1950; Araújo, 2007)
the connections with participation (Menezes, 2010; Ferreira & Menezes, 2012);
The neutral gaze of Science and recent neoliberal ideas about entrepeneurship, individual
agency and positive narratives (e.g., participation of “young people”. But who are these
young people?).
Critics:
Oportunistic interests (economic, cultural, …) in Saving the Other (Spivak, 1989; Santos,
2013);
“Margins” as a metaphor for exclusion is a multidimensional concept: both stigmatising and
produtive (hooks, 1989; Foucault, 1999; Magalhães & Stoer, 2005; Neves, 2012).
Must we listen all voices or empower all groups? (e.g., Malcolm X and Le Pen).

3. Against essentialism: intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; Puar, 2007;
Taylor, 2010).
Intersectionality: hybrid margins of a post-modern world;
Multiple identities and positions of subject (Butler, 1999; Hall, 2000);
The dangers of a single story (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).
Examples of margins and multiple combinations:
Sex/Gender/Sexual orientation/Gender identity or expression;
Social Class/Social Status/Educational outcomes/Professional activity;
Ethnic belonging or expression/Skin colour/nationality;
Religion;
Disability (mental and/or physical);
Age;
Physical appearance
Gypsy identity

4. “Consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection, coming and going
in all four directions. Discrimination, like traffic through an
intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If
an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars
traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of
them (…) But it is not always easy to reconstruct an accident:
sometimes the skid marks and the injuries simply indicate that they
occurred simultaneously, frustrating efforts to determine which
driver caused the harm. In these cases the tendency seems to be
that no driver is held responsible, no treatment is administered,
and the involved parties simply get back in their cars and zoom
away.” (Crenshaw, 1989: 63).

5. Definition of civic participation
Montgomery, Gottlieb-Robles and Larson (2004)
define civic engagement as any activity which is
aimed at improving one’s community, whereas Banaji
and Buckingham (2011, p22) discuss how during their
study, they have had trouble pinning down the
meaning of civic and how it is used interchangeably
by other researchers with ‘political’ or ‘social’. Banaji
(2008) raises the question of who defines the
‘common good’ and who then decides who is
included or excluded from this definition.

6. Civic participation involves behaviour aimed at resolving
problems of the community (Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, &
Delli-Carpini, 2006), whereas political participation (both offline
and online) refers to behaviour seeking to influence government
action and policymaking (Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995).

7. Definition of Youth Participation
Bakker and de Vreese (2011) discuss previous research carried
out which describes the increasing detachment of younger
people from politics, through the decline of political interest,
dropping participation and low turnout at elections (Delli Carpini,
2000; Phelps, 2004; Pirie and Worcester, 2000).

8. How does this fit in with the gypsy
traveller community?
Bhopal and Myers (2008,p109) found through their research that
the gypsy travellers in the United Kingdom wanted to be
accepted for who they were and not assimilation into the
mainstream culture.
Weeks argues that
The strongest sense of community is in fact likely to come from
those groups who find the premises of their collectives existence
threatened and who construct out of this a community of
identity which provides a strong sense of resistance and
empowerment. Seemingly unable to control the social relations
in which they find themselves, people, shrink the world to the size
of their communities and act politically on that basis (200, p 240-
3)

9. The Scottish Context
The Roma Community in the Southside of Glasgow, Govanhill
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/govanhills-roma-residents-aim-
to-be-part-of-the-solution-147511n.23114746

10. Gypsy Albanian Context
• Roma in Albania are known by different names. In the north,
they are known as gypsies, magjyp in the south as jevge and
the Southeast (Korce, etc.) as kurbatë and are also different
hypotheses about their origin and ancestry.
• People who do not have any Gypsy or Traveller friends are
more likely to use derogatory words against them compared
to those who do. This emphasizes the importance of inter-
group contact to lessen animosities against these groups.

11. Issues of Gypsy Community
• Poorer health status for the last year, were significantly more likely to have
a long‐term illness, health problem or disability, which limits daily activities
or work, had more problems with mobility, self‐care, usual activities, pain
or discomfort
• Employment: As a result of poverty and social exclusion by formal labor
market, Roma and Egyptians youth work in informal labor market, mainly
in collecting of iron, in the trade of used clothes, occasional jobs,
construction and begging.
• Education: They list a few reasons mainly related to poverty. Difficulty to
buy books and school items, lack of suitable clothes, poor living conditions
and lack of infrastructure, which should give contribution to the growth of
household income, care for sisters and younger brothers, etc., are some of
the main obstacles to the education of children.
• Cultural barriers: include gender roles, language and nomadic traditions.
• Rich in their social capital & Poor in structural capital

12. Participation as a right
• The first declaration of rights was adopted by the
International Save the Children Union in Geneva in1923, and
endorsed by the League of Nations General Assembly in
1924, as the World Child Welfare Charter.
• Article 12 states that children have the right to participate in
decision making processes relevant to their lives and to
influence decisions taken in their regard, especially in
schools or communities.
• In addition, Article 15 states that children have the right to
create and join associations and to assemble peacefully.

13. Models of participation
Triangular dimensions of youth
participation
(Marc Jans and Kurt de Backer)
Hart’s Ladder of
Participation depicts
participation on a
continuum, from
manipulation and
tokenism.

14. Models of participation
Shier’s model seeks to
clarify this by
identifying three
stages of commitment
at each level:
openings,
opportunities and
obligations.

15. Obstacles to Participation
Bernstein (1996) says that there are “conditions for an
effective democracy. […] People must feel that they have a
stake in society. […] By stake I mean that not only are people
concerned to receive something but that they are also
concerned to give something” (p. 6).
However, when they are in a situation of social exclusion, such
participation becomes compromised, once the primary
systems of socialization and redistribution of knowledge and
resources ultimately fail in giving the adequate response to
their social needs.
Taking this in mind, urges the need to (re)consider ways of
involving young people whose expression of citizenship, for
some reason, is compromised.

16. Increasing the participation of
marginalized groups: the “Online”
potential “The online sphere does not only offer
individuals the possibility to engage in
traditional forms of political participation,
but it also allows individuals to engage in
forms of political activity that were
previously not available” (Vissers & Stolle,
2012: 2).
These authors talk about Social Network
Sites (SNS), making emphasis on Facebook
, as influent and important tools for new
forms of political and civic participation.
"Liking” or “joining” pages, “sharing”
images, news, opinions or “status”, are
also ways of participation. These actions
are not only new and easier ways to
engage in social and civic issues, as they
are also low-cost activities compared to
other more traditional participation forms.
Simple
InteractiveLow-cost
The “democratic
potential of Internet:

17. Why is Facebook a possible tool of mobilization for political and
civic participation?
According to Vissers & Stolle, because:
• Of its “ubiquity” (id: 3);
• it “is a communication medium that holds a huge potential for
interactivity and interconnectivity” (id: 4);
• it “has the potential to make political information more readily
available, particularly for those who do not necessarily seek it[;]
• (…) allows individuals to communicate independent from time
and place, whether in real-time or under the form of ‘delayed’
or asymmetrical communication” (id: 5);
• it “holds new potential to foster political engagement by
lowering the barriers for political participation” (id: 5).

18. Why is this relevantto increaseparticipation
amongyoung gypsiesin a social exclusion
situation?
• It has the potential to include new groups into the political process
by lowering the threshold for individuals who were previously less
inclined toward traditional participation activities.
• The access to this new media device, for participation and social
activism purposes, could provide the necessary motivation for young
people to be social and politically informed and foster in them the
will to participate actively in their society.

19. Reflections
• This would increase respect for diversity and increase awareness of
students of different ethnic groups associated with each culture.
Meanwhile, strengthening the cultural identity of Roma students /
Egyptian school would make it much more friendly.
• Consequently educational policies should aim to train and qualify
teachers to work in multicultural classrooms, to recognize cultural
values of other ethnic groups, to recognize the needs of marginalized
groups and be able to treat all students equally.
• It was also clear that lack of education about Travellers, Gypsies and
Roma communities was contributing to the deficient knowledge and
understanding about these groups, their culture and traditions.
• School can be an important mediator in raising awareness to the
different possibilities of social engagement, including the sensibilization
for the potential of the Internet for civic and political participation.

20. Thank you