From 'Lagging Behind' to 'Being Beneath'? The De-developmentalization of Time and Social Order in Contemporary Europe

Van Baar combines the debate about Roma-related ‘institutional developmentalism’ with a reflection on how anti-Roma racisms have been addressed in the literature. He argues that, at the intersection of discourses and practices of anti-Roma racisms with programmes that are officially dedicated to improving the situation of the Roma, these development programmes have often become highly ambiguous. He argues that under biopolitical conditions, development-related governmentalities vis-à-vis the Roma tend to isolate them and contribute more to governing their poverty than to improving their situation. A ‘de-developmentalization’ tends to take place which is no longer based on the idea that the Roma will gradually join in with their ‘developed’ fellow citizens, but on the racialization of the Roma’s status as representing a lower societal position.