ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dynamics and character of contemporary antiziganism in Norway. Based upon fieldwork in Oslo, it shows how itinerant Roma are conceived by the populist right as well as other more mainstream state actors and media as threats to the established social order. Itinerant Roma have been marked as a threat to the ordered and disciplined body/nation, indirectly helping to re-invent the boundaries of national identity. In contrast to other European contexts, such as post-socialist Hungary, I find that prejudice towards itinerant Roma in Norway is more linked to ideas about social purity than grounded in perceptions of threat to the wealth and welfare of the majority population. Confirming a basic idea from the theory of nationalism (e.g. Gellner 1983), this chapter shows that the boundary making of the government, a coalition between the Conservative Party and the right-wing populist Progress Party, has progressively rendered indeterminate social positions difficult to maintain.
