Crowley, Una and Kitchin, Rob (2007) Paradoxical spaces of Traveller citizenship in contemporary Ireland. Irish Geography, 40 (2). pp. 128-145. ISSN 0075-0778

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Abstract

In this paper we examine the role of law in shaping the socio-spatial lives of citizens through an examination of the changing nature of governmentality with respect to Travellers in Ireland between 1998 and 2003. Undertaking an analysis of the policy process, new legislation, the Citizen Traveller campaign, media reports, and interviews with politicians, police and Travellers, we document how the Irish government attempted during this period to shift its strategy of dealing with the ‘Traveller problem’ from a regulationist form of citizenship designed to force Travellers to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, to active citizenship that offered Travellers recognition, rewards and rights in return for managed nomadism or sedentary conformism. However, rather than leading to the emancipation and empowerment the Irish government envisaged, we detail how failings by both the government and Travellers in implementing reform has perpetuated the original situation and paradoxically led to new legislation that further criminalizes Traveller lifestyle and strengthened the government’s mandate to forcibly manage Travellers’ lives.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an electronic version of an article published in Una Crowley & Rob Kitchin (2007): Paradoxical spaces of traveller citizenship in contemporary Ireland, Irish Geography, 40:2, 128-145. Irish Geography is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00750770709555892
Keywords:	Travellers; active citizenship; law; nomadism;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > National Institute for Regional and Spatial analysis, NIRSA
Item ID:	2967
Depositing User:	Prof. Rob Kitchin
Date Deposited:	18 Jan 2012 10:30
Journal or Publication Title:	Irish Geography
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Refereed:	No
URI:	http://geographicalsocietyireland.ie/gsi...
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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