This book examines how the governance of the “unruly Roma” has been historically constructed as the imagined opposite of European ideals such as civilization, progress, and sedentary life. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of governmentalities, it traces the shifting strategies and technologies of power deployed across imperial, socialist, and post-socialist regimes to manage Roma populations and their representation as Europe’s internal Other. In contrast to policy-centric, Roma-centric, or social movement-focused scholarship, this study offers an alternative perspective by foregrounding Europe itself as the object of analysis and examining how changing political rationalities, governing instruments, and forms of expertise have shaped interventions directed at Roma populations. Engaging with debates on poverty governance, racialization, and urban neoliberalism, the book employs a Strategic Action Field (SAF) framework to explore the governance of “Gypsy Urban Areas” amid processes of gentrification and urban transformation in Romanian and Eastern European cities.

Ionut Marian Anghel is a scientific researcher at the Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy, Romania. His research interests lie at the intersection of social policy, welfare state transformation, poverty and marginalization, family policies, and the socio-political representation of ethnic minorities, particularly Roma populations in Eastern Europe.