What are sources of conflicts that haunts educators and social workers working with Roma in so called excluded localities? It is common to see them somehow caused by „culture“. But in what sense and how „the culture“ enters these conflicts?

We don't understand “culture” as a fixed framework, a thing or a social determinant but as a distributed network of meaning that is either cognitive and discursive. Such conception of culture allows both individual variation and social sharing through shared means of interpretation – cultural models. In this sense there is no Roma culture that drives Roma parents and children into conflicts with the Czech majority on the grounds of „different values“. There are different means of understanding and taking action on these understandings. But the conflict between Roma and Czech is not solely based on „arbitrary“ cultural differences in understanding. It is rather a process of mediated mis-understanding where the stigmatization and exclusion join the cultural differences.

We see three main sources of the conflicts. First source is not based on conceptual differences between Roma and non Roma but on large missing areas of common experience. This missing common experience causes lack of competences that are taken as granted by the majority (abilities to make phone calls, greet correctly others, fill official documents etc.). And this lack, caused mostly by the exclusion, is then interpreted by the majority as „stupidity“, „rudeness“ and is reflected back as contempt that Roma hate and try to fight it.

The second is based on „true“ cultural differences in expectations of how a family should work what are roles and responsibilities in the family, differences in the very methods of working with one's body, reactions towards attacks etc. These differences are read by the majority as Roma inability to properly care for their children, hyperactivity, laziness, aggression etc. Again, differences in cultural models for shared institutions (like „family“ or „discussion“) are interpreted by the majority as various psychological or social deficiencies and this disrespectful treatment that Roma can read in actions and talk of „whites“ is again fought against.

The third source is based on stigmatization. It is the behaviour and attitudes that are the most perplexing for the majority, where Roma ostentatiously present themselves as „somehow better“ than the white. They say they doesn't have to work, they expect to be cared for and served, they don't save and don't care. The majority that builds on the values of work is deeply offended by Roma concept of social benefits as „cheques“ (we don't have to work, we take cheques). We see this complex as kind of reflection: They are stigmatized as unequal underdogs by the majority but return it back as somehow hastily and naively patched „aristocratic habits“ and this discourse can drive „whites“ totally crazy.

The research was supported by Czech Science Foundation (Function of Cultural Models in Education, GACR, reg.no 406/08/0805).

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