ABSTRACT
Romani political mobilisation is an established part of the civil society landscape across Europe. The objective of Romani mobilisation efforts is often to reshape non-Roma's image of Roma, in particular in public institutions. Early international Romani mobilisation has been portrayed as a kind of national awakening, with much attention given by those involved in the process to the intricate details of allocation of offices and the content of statutes and resolutions of associations. A different kind of conflict is described by in connection with the political mobilisation of Roma in Germany. This chapter discusses whether the mobilisation of Romanian Roma in Manchester can be framed as a (micro-level) Social Movement rather than the kind of 'ethnic awakening' or 'ethnic identity construction' discussed in various contemporary studies of Romani mobilisation. It presents a case study that offers a new experience in the context of traditional dilemmas of 'identity politics'.
