Press discourses on Roma in the UK,Finland and Hungary

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the political and media discourses on Roma in Hungary, Finland and the UK, in relation to the local Roma in these countries as well as those who migrated from Central and Eastern Europe countries following the fall of communism. The authors have analysed left of centre and right of centre major newspapers in these three countries, focusing on specific case studies which were the foci of public debates during the last two decades. We also examined a common case study in 2013 (“blond Maria”) that was discussed throughout Europe. In each news paper, the constructions of Roma, local and migrant, and the changes to related discourses over the period were studied. In conclusion, we examine the multi-layered processes of social and political borderings in Europe which dominate discourses on Roma, “indigenous” and migrant, and the extent to which they constitute a coherent “European” construction of “the Roma”.     

城市承载力空间差异分析方法 --以常州市为例

城市承载力是指一定范围内,特定目标、特定时期城市的资源禀赋、生态环境、基础设施和公共服务对人口及经济社会活动的承载能力。基于城市复合生态系统理论,从资源环境对人类活动的支撑力、人类活动对环境的压力和调控力三方面提出城市承载力概念模型及综合承载指数计算方法,从城市管理的空间特性出发,提出基于微观空间层面的承载力空间差异性分析方法,构建承载力评价指标体系,并以常州市区为例对所提出方法进行实证研究。结果表明:(1)采用城市综合承载指数评价城市承载力,能够较为直观地显示和分析承载力空间差异,符合实际情况;(2)所划分的高、中、低承载区的空间分布与城市总体规划确定的城市空间形态基本吻合,且在城市未来发展方向上对城市空间结构规划具有指导性;(3)通过空间定量评价确定的承载力提升热点地区能够将提升要素空间化,定向、定位指导城市建设。但在提升要素筛选中受指标实际可获取性影响,存在一定的偏差,有待进一步完善。     

Prevalence of URAT1 allelic variants in the Roma population

ABSTRACT

The Roma represents a transnational ethnic group, with a current European population of 8–10 million. The evolutionary process that had the greatest impact on the gene pool of the Roma population is called the founder effect. Renal hypouricemia (RHUC) is a rare heterogenous inherited disorder characterized by impaired renal urate reabsorption. The affected individuals are predisposed to recurrent episodes of exercise-induced nonmyoglobinuric acute kidney injury and nephrolithiasis. To date, more than 150 patients with a loss-of-function mutation for the SLC22A12 (URAT1) gene have been found, most of whom are Asians. However, RHUC 1 patients have been described in a variety of ethnic groups (e.g., Arab Israelis, Iraqi Jews, Caucasians, and Roma) and in geographically noncontiguous countries. This study confirms our previous findings regarding the high frequency of SLC22A12 variants observed. Frequencies of the c.1245_1253del and c.1400C>T variants were found to be 1.92% and 5.56%, respectively, in a subgroup of the Roma population from five regions in three countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Spain. Our findings suggested that the common dysfunction allelic variants of URAT1 exist in the general Roma population and thus renal hypouricemia should be kept in differential diagnostic algorithm on Roma patients with defect in renal tubular urate transport. This leads to confirm that the genetic drift in the Roma have increased the prevalence of hereditary disorders caused by very rare variants in major population.     

Media mirrors? Framing Hungarian Romani migration to Canada in Hungarian and Canadian press

ABSTRACT

The most recent migration of Roma from Central-Eastern Europe to Canada started in the 1990s. Several thousand people from former socialist countries, including Hungarian Roma, moved overseas. There were many reasons but for Roma, the motivations not only included a drastic loss of employment, but re-emerging systemic and increasingly violent racism. This article focuses on the discursive framing of these motivations and the reaction within both Hungarian and Canadian newspapers from 1999 to 2013. In the article we show how the press engaged in framing and counter-framing the policies and politics of the host country through their coverage of “the Hungarian Roma” issue. Specifically, we focus on the differing and shifting spheres of consensus and the changing political/policy contexts by conducting an in-depth comparison of the changing media frames in Hungarian and Canadian newspaper coverage. We show how the “Hungarian Roma issue” becomes an example and reflection of the changing political culture.     

Doing the City from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Urban Marginality*

ABSTRACT

This special issue focuses on urban marginality in diverse contexts across the world (Africa, Latin America, Arab States and Europe) and proposes anthropological perspectives on contemporary urbanity that take into account the complexity of the social positions of those city dwellers that are on the margins. Three aspects of urban margins come to the fore. First, urbanites respond to increasing marginalisation through the production of alternative meanings and narratives about the city. While grand, powerful narratives may present cities as ‘divided’, ‘dual’ or ‘conflicted’, urban dwellers may carve out symbolic space through discourses of the non-spectacular and non-political, emerging out of lived space. Second, the cuts and frictions constituting urban margins do not only limit urban dwellers capacities, but can also provide spaces of agentic possibilities. As it is well known, the absence of state control can be turned by versatile urbanites into opportunities of the ‘informal’ economy. Third, urban dwellers engage in manifold practices that connect and entangle their marginalised position with spaces of power and resources. Through their practices urban margins become a relation to, not a disconnection from the ‘centre’. In this special issue we understand ‘urban margins’ not as essence or entities, but as forms of relations between urban dwellers shaped by processes of political, economic, spatial and social marginalisation. Seen in this way, urban margins constitute a perspective on the urban: a lens to entice comparisons of urban agency in the world of cities [Robinson, J. 2011. “Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 35 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.00982.x]].     

The Politics of Governance and Urban Marginality: A Camp Studies Perspective

ABSTRACT

Designed to provide temporary shelter to the displaced, in protracted refugee situations camps become places of long-term residency and undergo processes of urban change. The complex realities of protracted encampment challenge the dichotomy between the city (as a norm) and the camp (as an exception) that underpins dominant theoretical models of refugee camps. Instead, the theoretical lens of urban margins allows us to circumvent this binary and analyse the camps from the perspective of their relation to the city and the state. Rather than a specific location, this article approaches urban marginality as a condition produced by unequal power relations behind the enforcement of a particular urban order. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, it draws on the case of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. Unlike the majority of studies on Palestinian camps that focus either on top-down politics of exclusion or political agency of camp residents, the article examines how different actors, interests and modes of exercising power (both formal and informal) intersect in camp space and produce, as well as resist and subvert, the condition of urban marginality.     

Introduction to the special issue: racialized bordering discourses on European Roma

ABSTRACT

In the introduction to this special issue, we briefly introduce everyday bordering as the theoretical framing for the papers and explore its relationship to the process of racialization. We introduce our situated intersectional approach to the study of everyday bordering, illustrating the importance of capturing the differentially situated gazes of a range of social actors. We then go on to contextualize the importance of this framing and approach in a wider discussion of Roma in Europe before concluding with a summary of the particular contributions of each of the papers in this special issue to these debates.     

Above-ground biomass references for urban trees from terrestrial laser scanning data

Background and AimsWithin extending urban areas, trees serve a multitude of functions (e.g. carbon storage, suppression of air pollution, mitigation of the ‘heat island’ effect, oxygen, shade and recreation). Many of these services are positively correlated with tree size and structure. The quantification of above-ground biomass (AGB) is of especial importance to assess its carbon storage potential. However, quantification of AGB is difficult and the allometries applied are often based on forest trees, which are subject to very different growing conditions, competition and form. In this article we highlight the potential of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) techniques to extract highly detailed information on urban tree structure and AGB.MethodsFifty-five urban trees distributed over seven cities in Switzerland were measured using TLS and traditional forest inventory techniques before they were felled and weighed. Tree structure, volume and AGB from the TLS point clouds were extracted using quantitative structure modelling. TLS-derived AGB estimates were compared with AGB estimates based on forest tree allometries dependent on diameter at breast height only. The correlations of various tree metrics as AGB predictors were assessed.Key ResultsEstimates of AGB derived by TLS showed good performance when compared with destructively harvested references, with an R² of 0.954 (RMSE = 556 kg) compared with 0.837 (RMSE = 1159 kg) for allometrically derived AGB estimates. A correlation analysis showed that different TLS-derived wood volume estimates as well as trunk diameters and tree crown metrics show high correlation in describing total wood AGB, outperforming tree height.ConclusionsWood volume estimates based on TLS show high potential to estimate tree AGB independent of tree species, size and form. This allows us to retrieve highly accurate non-destructive AGB estimates that could be used to establish new allometric equations without the need for extensive destructive harvesting.     

Follow the money: international donors,external homelands and their effect on Romani media and advocacy

ABSTRACT

While Roma are both Europe’s largest minority, there is no “homeland” state that claims to guard their interest. The lack of “an external national homeland” [Brubaker, R. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] to watchdog and safeguard their rights has a particular effect on how Roma engage as political actors and subjects. International donors/foundations have assumed the role of “external homeland”. This article explores the effect that donors’ funding priorities have on Romani advocacy – specifically Romani journalism. Drawing upon multi-sited fieldwork in five countries, extensive document analysis, and interviews, Idemonstrate that the change in Romani media content over the past two decades reflects the shift in funders’ priorities, particularly in relation to the European project. “The Roma” become a tool for donors and European institutions to build a “European” identity while Romani-led advocacy becomes increasingly marganilized.     

Reducing Urban Disaster Risk by Improving Resilience in China from a Planning Perspective

ABSTRACT

This article aims to examine the implications of improving urban resilience that emerge from Chinese practices for reducing urban disaster risk. First, the concept of urban resilience is discussed, the goal of which is to shape a “culture of resilience” to the largest extent possible in order to reduce urban risk. Urban resilience encompasses broad and diverse areas, and thus can be improved in many ways. This article primarily discusses the planning process. Second, the main focus of the discussion on planning process to improve urban resilience is that of the urban risk management planning of Shenzhen, China. This was the first local urban government project in China to have comprehensively and broadly assessed and reduced urban risk, and it is covered along with the Chinese legislation system and current urban resilience programs in China. The findings show that both the Chinese central government and local governments are paying more and more attention to urban resilience through various legislation and programs, even if they are not using the same terminology as other countries.     

Direct and indirect racial discrimination of Roma people in Bulgaria,the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation

In this article, a methodological approach to the topic of the racial discrimination of Roma people in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation draws on three models of modus vivendi between Roma people and the majority, including the concepts and forms of direct and indirect discrimination. The core methodology employed in this article is the legal and sociological analysis of various national and international statistics as well as practices of the courts, which are focused upon throughout. The fieldwork within this article deals with the various attitudes of Roma parents to the introduction of Roma assistants in primary schools in the Czech Republic and is enriched with in-depth interviews conducted with Roma teaching assistants. Data from original research in three Czech elementary schools are compared with forms of discrimination in Bulgaria and in the Russian Federation regarding their educational systems.     

Coping with everyday bordering: Roma migrants and gatekeepers in Helsinki

ABSTRACT

The article analyses intra-European bordering on the local level through the case of Eastern European Roma in Helsinki. Precarious EU migrants outside the Nordic labour markets have formed a group neither “in” nor completely “out” of national welfare structures. We argue that various level authorities have responded to the loss of direct control over legitimate yet unwanted migrants by mobilizing municipal workers and local police as everyday gatekeepers. Policy towards the Roma migrants in Helsinki is ethnicized (conceptualizing them as a special category requiring targeted measures) and “NGOized” (relegating elementary social provision to the third sector). Their presence of is not formally challenged, yet they are effectively without access to social rights and pathways to permanent residence. Meanwhile, the migrants strive to improve their disadvantaged position through transnational, family-based livelihood strategies, which are actively adapted to the shifting European and Finnish borderscapes.     

Interdisciplinary research for the proposal of the Urban Biosphere Reserve of Rome Municipality

Abstract

The issue of urban sustainability is considered within the context of the metropolis of Rome, the capital of Italy. The aim is pursued through an Urban Biosphere Reserve proposal, drawn up by an interdisciplinary group of experts comprising landscape ecologists, geologists, plant ecologists, zoologists, geographers, city planners and environmental psychologists. The potential applicability of this project on an international level is discussed, with particular focus on its importance as (i) one of the first proposals of an Urban Biosphere Reserve encompassing the whole municipality of a large city, (ii) an original approach to urban ecosystem investigations within the framework of landscape ecology principles, and (iii) a good example of cooperation between scientists and local decision-makers to preserve the cultural and landscape identity in an urban and periurban context.     

Everyday Encounters in the Shopping Mall: (Un)Making Boundaries in the Divided Cities of Johannesburg and Mostar

ABSTRACT

The many studies that see shopping malls as places of power, control and exclusion have often neglected the potential of malls as places of encounters. Drawing on ethnographic data from the divided cities of Johannesburg in South Africa and Mostar in Bosnia–Herzegovina, we examine the ways in which urban dwellers who enter the mall from a marginalised position – poor black urban dwellers at a regional, middle class and white-dominated mall in Johannesburg and Bosniak city dwellers at a mall located in the Croat part of Mostar – use the mall, what kind of relations they build to others and how they rework boundaries of race, class, religion and ethnicity at the mall. Rather than being spaces that strengthen and reproduce centre–margins relations, urban dwellers appropriate them as places where these relations become reworked.     

Orthoptera of Montenegro: new faunistic data with new records for the country

Summary

Grasshoppers and crickets of Montenegro have never been systematically studied. In this paper we present new distribution records of 119 Orthoptera species from Montenegro, sampled at 116 localities in different parts of the country in the period between 2010 and 2017. We also present records of older material deposited in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. Oecanthus dulcisonans Gorochov, 1993 is recorded for the first time in Montenegro. Most of the areas investigated in this paper were never studied before, so our data represent the first information on Orthoptera of these parts of Montenegro.     

被遗忘的城市“生境”:重庆市墙体自生植物调查分析

被称为“钢筋水泥森林”的现代城市存在大量的墙体,包括建筑外墙、独立围墙、挡土墙等类型。通常情况下,这些完全硬质化的界面不会被认作为生境或栖息地。以典型山城重庆市为例,探索城区范围内墙体成为城市生境的可能性。于2017年9—11月对重庆主城区共120块墙,包含359个4×1 m小样方,调查墙面上自生植物的物种、覆盖度等信息;记录墙体4类特征共22个因子作为生境影响因素;并采用方差分解和典范对应分析(CCA)排序法研究影响因素与自生植物组成和分布的关系。结果表明:(1)市区墙境自生植物丰富,共记录到70科149属193种,以菊科植物种类最丰富,其次是禾本科和荨麻科。优势种包括蜈蚣草(蕨类)、井栏边草(蕨类)、构树幼苗(乔木)、贯众(蕨类)和黄葛树幼苗(乔木)。相比平面环境的自生植物以旱生为主,墙体上喜阴湿的蕨类植物占明显优势,反映出墙体作为生境的独特性,可以作为城市生态空间的有效补充。(2)墙体4类特征共解释自生植物组成与分布变化的14.4%,植物传播、定植与构建是一个综合复杂的过程,受各种随机因素影响;此外,本文所选因素也未考虑更大尺度的周边景观等因素。所有因子中,墙体高度、藤蔓覆盖度和墙体遮阴率是影响植物变化的主要因子,且与CCA排序第1轴相关性最强。这些因子均与墙体自身湿度有关,表明水分在决定墙面植物组成与分布起主要作用,植物在墙面沿水分呈梯度分布。讨论了本研究对现代城镇绿化的启示,从自然做功的角度提升城市生态系统服务,为城市生态设计与低成本管理提供科学依据。     

热岛效应对植物生长的影响以及叶片形态构成的适应性

热岛效应是一种由于地表覆盖改变及人类活动导致的热量在城区空间范围内聚集的现象,是城市气候最明显的特征之一,随着越来越多的人口涌入城市以及伴随而生的超大城市的出现,城市热岛效应将更加凸显,这种环境温度的升高必将影响到各种景观园林植物的生理状态乃至形态结构。选取以生长在热岛点和有大量绿植覆盖的低温点的两种典型园林植物大叶黄杨和丁香作为实验材料,研究了这两种植物叶在城市热岛效应影响下,在热岛点和低温点中的形态特征。结果表明,在热岛点环境温度和二氧化碳浓度显著高于低温点,但其他环境要素差异并不显著。热岛点的大叶黄杨和丁香叶生物量分别是低温点的1.6倍和1.4倍。进一步研究表明,相较于低温点,在热岛点生长的植物叶表现出较低的比叶面积、单位重量和单位面积叶氮含量。生物量在向各部分组织分配时,热岛点的植物叶倾向于将更多的生物量分配给叶肉部分,而减少了对叶柄的生物量投入。     

Fine‐scale variation within urban landscapes affects marking patterns and gastrointestinal parasite diversity in red foxes

1. Urban areas are often considered to be a hostile environment for wildlife as they are highly fragmented and frequently disturbed. However, these same habitats can contain abundant resources, while lacking many common competitors and predators. The urban environment can have a direct impact on the species living there but can also have indirect effects on their parasites and pathogens. To date, relatively few studies have measured how fine‐scale spatial heterogeneity within urban landscapes can affect parasite transmission and persistence.
2. Here, we surveyed 237 greenspaces across the urban environment of Edinburgh (UK) to investigate how fine‐scale variation in socio‐economic and ecological variables can affect red fox (Vulpes vulpes) marking behavior, gastrointestinal (GI) parasite prevalence, and parasite community diversity.
3. We found that the presence and abundance of red fox fecal markings were nonuniformly distributed across greenspaces and instead were dependent on the ecological characteristics of a site. Specifically, common foraging areas were left largely unmarked, which indicates that suitable resting and denning sites may be limiting factor in urban environments. In addition, the amount of greenspace around each site was positively correlated with overall GI parasite prevalence, species richness, and diversity, highlighting the importance of greenspace (a commonly used measure of landscape connectivity) in determining the composition of the parasite community in urban areas.
4. Our results suggest that fine‐scale variation within urban environments can be important for understanding the ecology of infectious diseases in urban wildlife and could have wider implication for the management of urban carnivores.

     

MARVELD2 (DFNB49) Mutations in the Hearing Impaired Central European Roma Population - Prevalence,Clinical Impact and the Common Origin

Background

In the present study we aimed: 1) To establish the prevalence and clinical impact of DFNB49 mutations in deaf Roma from 2 Central European countries (Slovakia and Hungary), and 2) to analyze a possible common origin of the c.1331+2T>C mutation among Roma and Pakistani mutation carriers identified in the present and previous studies.

Methods

We sequenced 6 exons of the MARVELD2 gene in a group of 143 unrelated hearing impaired Slovak Roma patients. Simultaneously, we used RFLP to detect the c.1331+2T>C mutation in 85 Hungarian deaf Roma patients, control groups of 702 normal hearing Romanies from both countries and 375 hearing impaired Slovak Caucasians. We analyzed the haplotype using 21 SNPs spanning a 5.34Mb around the mutation c.1331+2T>C.

Results

One pathogenic mutation (c.1331+2T>C) was identified in 12 homozygous hearing impaired Roma patients. Allele frequency of this mutation was higher in Hungarian (10%) than in Slovak (3.85%) Roma patients. The identified common haplotype in Roma patients was defined by 18 SNP markers (3.89 Mb). Fourteen common SNPs were also shared among Pakistani and Roma homozygotes. Biallelic mutation carriers suffered from prelingual bilateral moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss.

Conclusions

We demonstrate different frequencies of the c.1331+2T>C mutation in hearing impaired Romanies from 3 Central European countries. In addition, our results provide support for the hypothesis of a possible common ancestor of the Slovak, Hungarian and Czech Roma as well as Pakistani deaf patients. Testing for the c.1331+2T>C mutation may be recommended in GJB2 negative Roma cases with early-onset sensorineural hearing loss.