Neoliberal Governance, Education, and Roma in Romania

Abstract

State education is neo/liberalism’s preeminent form of self-governance, included in programmes of governance, which aim at integrating into the structures of the state populations (e.g. Roma) whose cultural constituencies and forms of knowledge are not yet subjected to market rationality. Based on interviews and participant observation, the dialectical communication between Roma local forms of knowledge and state education is critically explored by looking at interactions between teachers, school mediators, and Roma adults. Cultural idiosyncrasies are further analysed in relation to the utopian character of European neoliberal programme of social integration for the Roma. The article argues for a constructive dialogue between state education and idiosyncratic Roma forms of knowledge and culture, which can engender authentic forms of empowerment.