Fosztó, László (2015) Empowered by the Holy Spirit: Pentecostal conversions and prospects for social mobility among Roma in Eastern Europe. In: Religious Connections and Divisions in the Black Sea Region, 22–23 June 2015, New Europe College-Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest.
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Roma in Europe are most often portrayed as marginalised and deprived group living in deep poverty and being also politically disenfranchised. There is a current political discussion on the needs and potentials of social inclusion of the Roma in Europe. These political discussions focus almost exclusively on the secular aspects of social cohesion. Major policy documents like the Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (2011), the National Roma Inclusion Strategies adopted and implemented by the EU member states (since 2012) and the EU Council Recommendation on effective Roma integration measures in the Member States (2013) all are concerned with domains such education, health, housing and employment. The concept of empowerment is central to these discussions. While this is understandable from a political and institutional perspective; national governments and other state institutions are the main responsible actors for improving the living conditions of the marginalised groups, from the perspective of social sciences one must acknowledge that religious movements has a long record of both social mobilisation and also improving the living conditions of some of the Roma groups. This analysis will approach the phenomena of Pentecostal conversions among the Roma in Romania with broader implications for Eastern Europe (we have ethnographies form Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Hungary) from a social anthropological angle and aims to 1) overcome the limitations of the ‘deprivation hypothesis’ of religious conversion studies, 2) ground the analysis of conversion on ethnographical detailed descritions and 3) explore the potential of the ‘folk theory of empowerment’ inherent in Pentecostalism and 4) compare with the secular projects of social cohesion and inclusion.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Eastern Europe, Roma, Gypsy, Pentecostal, conversions, social mobility |
| Subjects: | B Mission Theology/Theory > Contextualization/Inculturation B Mission Theology/Theory > Conversion B Mission Theology/Theory > Spirituality H Social Sciences and Roma Christianity > Anthropology G Christian Traditions/ Denominations > Pentecostal |
| Divisions: | Eastern Europe |
| Depositing User: | Jelena Bakic |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Feb 2020 08:30 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Jun 2023 12:30 |
| URI: | https://rocprints.rockcentre.org/id/eprint/361 |
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