Conference Program

In the EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation 2020–2030, the European Union has identified several strategic areas within which Member States are called upon to act in order to improve the living conditions of Roma and Sinti populations and promote their effective social inclusion. The three fundamental pillars of the framework concern equality, inclusion, and participation of Roma communities.

However, the historical relationship between majority societies and Romani populations has long been marked by deeply rooted prejudices that have contributed to constructing a cultural opposition between “us” and “them” (Bravi, 2009; Burgio, 2015). This relationship has largely been monological. Drawing on the distinction between the I–Thou and I–It relations elaborated by Martin Buber, Roma and Sinti communities have often been reduced to objects of social representation rather than recognized as fully legitimate interlocutors within the public sphere.

The outcomes of this marginalizing relationship are documented in numerous reports. European data present a critical picture: although Roma and Sinti communities constitute the largest ethnic minority in Europe—estimated at between 10 and 12 million people (European Commission, 2020)—they continue to experience significant forms of marginalization. In the city of Rome, such marginalization is spatially configured through the presence of Roma camps and peripheral urban areas and is also reflected in processes of identity representation, both subjective and collective.

The Romani populations remains exposed to multiple and intersecting forms of exclusion and discrimination operating across different domains: educational (early school leaving and limited educational opportunities), social (employment, housing, and economic conditions), and political (citizenship and social recognition). These dynamics contribute to a condition of multidimensional marginality.

Within this context, the role played by organizations and association operating at the local level becomes particularly significant, as they perform several functions, including an educational one. The aim of this contribution is to present the experience developed by Rampa Prenestina, a cultural and social promotion association that, since 2013, has been active in the eastern area of the city of Rome, promoting non-formal educational activities connected to the social, political, and identity-related issues affecting the Roma community.

More specifically, through identity workshops and participatory theatre—conceived as a pedagogical device of subjectivation—processes of self-representation, critical re-elaboration of lived experience, and identity redefinition are fostered at both individual and collective levels, grounded in the analysis of participants’ social and identity-related needs.

In this way, young participants become active subjects in a process of conscientization (Freire, 1968/2018) generated through the theatrical experience, enabling them to articulate the meaning of their identities within the societies in which they live while promoting processes of social transformation.

Through semi-structured interviews conducted with educators from the association—of both Roma and Italian backgrounds—the study examines the approach adopted in working with young people from Roma camps. In this context, theatre and identity workshops emerge as alternative dialogical spaces within which to reflect on the politics of identity, typically articulated by subaltern and marginalized groups (hooks, 1994).