Feeling at Home? The inclusion of Roma in the housing sector in the light of the relationship between places and identity: a post-colonial analysis of housing rights and policies

The doctoral work proposes an analysis of the housing policies designed and implemented in European Union and Italy addressing Romani groups, departing from a theoretical reflection on the relationship between the house, the concept of home, identity and culture. The aim is to investigate potential shortcomings of the socio-economic strategy so far implemented and to highlight the elements that may enforce the success and sustainability of housing policies. The main hypothesis is that social justice in the housing sector does not require exclusively a process of socio-economic redistribution, but as well a cultural and symbolic change able to support the recognition of the identity of the individual and to avoid forms of symbolic violence. Recognition is not only due in order to prevent discriminatory practices that hinder the equal access to the provision of housing services and benefits, but also to avoid the universalisation of falsely neutral understandings of the house that risk misrecognising diversity in this sector and its relevance for the well-being of the individual. In the analysis, the author adopts the theoretical lenses of the feminist and post-colonial studies which, beyond emphasising the importance of relations of recognition, highlight the risks of bounded and fixed understandings of both the identity and the home and the necessity of focusing on the individual within reflections on identity and culture. In the light of the theoretical premises, the doctoral work analyses how house and home are understood in international and European legislation, in order to assess whether their definition is able to recognise diversity in this sector. It then continues with a critical discourse analysis of the European Union documents concerning housing and the socio-economic inclusion of Roma. The objective is to investigate whether the understanding of the house and the home is in line with international legislation, and how this affects the representation of Roma and the design of inclusion policies. Finally, with the aim of challenging the theoretical framework and the analysis of the international documents, the study presents three cases (Pisa, Messina, Trento-Rovereto) in which the inclusion of Roma has been tackled with different approaches. The analysis is conducted with a series of interviews with policy makers and stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of the projects. It, furthermore, supports the analysis with other interviews with Romani individuals living in the areas considered.