From (in)securitisation to conviviality: the reconciliatory potential of participatory ethnography
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Date
2023-09
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Abstract
Abstract: Racialised bilinguals experience marginalisation all over the world. In
South-East Europe, millions of bilingual Roma share this experience alongside
emerging aspirations of conviviality, which remain rare. This paper considers
marginalisation as a consequence of (in)securitisation. The concept of (in)securitisation addresses discursive techniques of power which advocate the protection of
some at the price of excluding others. These discursive techniques are exerted on
different levels of social interaction, creating and maintaining uncertainty. The
paper discusses individual aspirations to conviviality, or peaceful cohabitation, in
(in)securitised local realities in a town in Hungary, where 20 % of the population
are bilingual Roma. Furthermore, it explores whether the leveraging of translingual practices can be an effective tool for conviviality. The argument is based on
long-term field research, and the data used comes from a series of participatory
workshops, attended by academic non-local and local participants. Using the
method of Moment Analysis to understand workshop discussions, the article focuses on the ways in which participants negotiate the dependencies of (in)securitisation while trying to forge convivial capabilities. Experience shows that acts of
(in)securitisation and racialised social roles define relations even within the
research group, and only certain types of capabilities considered convivial are
suitable to override them.