Sites, Schools & Civil Rights? -­‐ Gypsies, Travellers & the Bri:sh State Professor Colin Robert Clark School of Social Sciences Colin.Clark@uws.ac.uk @profcolinclark Cultural Value & Social Jus:ce: Towards a Collabora:ve Agenda @ Warwick, July 14th, 2014 SeNng the Agenda •  In words & ac:ons: the State detests Gypsy & Traveller families. A clear dichotomy of care/control – but even the ‘caring’ was about: discipline, monitor, control, surveillance & restric:on •  FOCUS: accommoda:on & educa:on – evic:ons, exclusion etc. Illustrates that policies of containment, exclusion & assimila:on have failed (at what cost?) •  Some crea:ve & ingenious ways that families have steered a way through policy ineptness, neoliberal red tape & bureaucra:c fascism •  A new agenda – one where civil & human rights are assured & delivered rather than promised & stalled Where does this ‘Detest’ come from? •  “The mental age of an average adult Gypsy is thought to be about that of a child of ten. Gypsies have never accomplished anything of great significance in wri:ng, pain:ng, musical composi:on, science or social organisa:on. Quarrelsome, quick to anger or laughter, they are unthinkingly but not deliberately cruel. Loving bright colours, they are ostenta:ous and boasaul, but lack bravery ... their tribal customs some:mes have the force of law ... they betray lible shame, curiosity, surprise or grief and show no solidarity…” •  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1956. (Hancock, 1979) Q. ‘What kind of state are we living in?’ •  The ground-­‐breaking work of Imogen Tyler (2013) -­‐Neoliberalism -­‐Social abjec:on -­‐Social exclusion -­‐Injus:ce -­‐S:gma:za:on & ‘scapegoat’ poli:cs •  How groups (‘chavs’, asylum seekers, Gypsies & Travellers, the 2011 London ‘rioters’) are rendered ‘revol:ng’ by the State & their responses to this... ‘An:-­‐Social Policy’ “In achieving this disloca*on of ‘the social’, the New Right governments of the 1980s have begun to realise their own visionary sense that ‘there is no such thing as society’ … The constructed discourses of ‘the social’ wielded by the states ‘social’ ins:tu:ons and the ‘social’ professions bear precious lible rela:on to the aspira:ons of civil society that the progressive and democra:c socialist tradi:on has long embraced.” •  Peter Squires (1990) ‘Disciplinary Rela:ons’ “How might we describe, other than by the designa:on ‘an*-­‐social policy’, proposals which increase the distance between rich and poor in terms of health, housing and educa:on; proposals which increase dependency upon inadequate means-­‐tested benefits and increase the numbers of homeless … or legisla:on which centralises poli:cal power and undermines civil liber:es?” •  Peter Squires (1990) Apparent Contradic:ons The State has a duty On one hand: welfare, human needs, rights to social protec:on And on the other: labour discipline, obliga:on to (paid) work, incen:ves Dominant, puni:ve, coercive… And… to travel is to not seek work? And to travel is to not want an educa:on? “Dundee is blighted by unauthorised Traveller camps because people are willing to give them work…” Evening Telegraph, August 21, 2013 MBFGW: a (new) culture of ‘blaming our own’ “TRAVELLERS today blasted mountains of rubble and mess ler at an Aberdeen beauty spot. Fields by Nigg Bay Golf Club – running along St FiNck’s Road and Greyhope Road in Aberdeen – were ler libered with mounds of tarmac, household waste and shrubbery… Shocked Aberdeen locals claimed it was the worst they had ever seen and one group of Travellers hit out at those who were blackening their name.” #An:TravellerBoulders as #An:HomelessSpikes ‘Educa:on otherwise?’ •  2011 Census -­‐ 58,000 [England/Wales] + 4,200 [Scotland] •  Educa:on Act 1944 à Plowden Report of 1967 – ‘schooling’ as ‘educa:on’? •  ONS – ‘Gypsy or Irish Travellers’ (aged 16+) had the highest propor:on of no qualifica:ons -­‐ 60% [England/Wales as a whole is 23%]. •  Why? Issues of curriculum, language, history, segrega:on, bullying etc. Source: hbp://:nyurl.com/q3akd2 (ONS, 2014) Other Models? •  The right to an educa:on •  Access, take-­‐up & delivery of services •  Not just within ‘school’ premises •  Out of necessity comes inven:on…? •  The ICT ‘revolu:on’ Moving Forwards? •  “There are possibili:es for ac:on. Arer six centuries in Western Europe, Roma/Gypsies are s:ll wai:ng for a coherent, concerted, respecaul policy concerning them to be drawn up and applied. Scholas:c policy is part of the package, and must indeed be a driving force. The means of achieving this are both simple and inexpensive.” •  Jean-­‐Pierre Liegeois & Nicolae Gheorghe (1995:31) Incessant Failures •  “If the history and contemporary experience of social policy in rela:on to Gypsy and Traveller communi:es tells us anything, it tells us that poor communica:on and consulta:on, a lack of reasoned and balanced discussion and an absence of truly ‘joined-­‐up’ policy has been far too common. The poli:cal mantra of ‘rights and responsibili:es’ has too oren focussed on the laber, rather than the former, in the case of Gypsy and Traveller ci:zenship.” •  Colin Clark (2008:69) Making Rights Real? -­‐ A new template for embedding human rights into all our lives – on a day-­‐to-­‐day basis Source: hbp://www.scoNshhumanrights.com/ac:onplan th
Post-­‐Sept 18 ?