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Mincéirs Siúladh: an Ethnographic Study of Young Travellers' Experiences of Racism in an Irish City Sindy Joyce Submitted In

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Mincéirs Siúladh: an Ethnographic Study of Young Travellers' Experiences of Racism in an Irish City Sindy Joyce Submitted In Mincéirs Siúladh: An ethnographic study of young Travellers’ experiences of racism in an Irish city Sindy Joyce Submitted in part fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Supervisors: Dr Amanda Haynes and Dr Martin Power University of Limerick Submitted to the University of Limerick, September 2018 Abstract This thesis is an ethnography of how young Travellers experience and negotiate urban space in the city of Galway, Ireland. This research builds upon the understanding that our relationships to space are mediated through our social and cultural identities. The core objective of the research is to understand how young Travellers’ movements through, access to and use of public and commercial urban space are shaped by their ethnicity. My research focuses on Travellers’ relationships to the socially constructed, policed and governed boundaries which control and regulate their spatial mobility. I also seek to determine whether young Travellers’ have developed tactics to resist or challenge attempts to limit their access to and use of urban spaces on the basis of their identity. Drawing on de Certeau’s (1984) observational methodology of ‘walking’ to analyse daily urban life, this research documents young Travellers’ experiences in and of urban space, using focus groups, maps and interviewing to further explore the meaning and significance of these experiences. Through ethnographic analysis, I investigate how young Travellers’ temporarily resist and disrupt social and spatial boundaries and how the dominant systems of power authorise and inscribe these boundaries between young Travellers and urban spaces. I am aided in this analysis by theoretical lenses and perspectives drawn from the sociology of racism, the sociology of space, and social geography. Situated within the field of Traveller studies (Ó hAodha, 2006; Bhreatnach, 2006a and 2006b; Helleiner, 2003.), the theoretical conclusions of this thesis connect the local to the global dynamics of anti-Traveller racism, and will be of relevance to scholars and activists both in Ireland and internationally. It contributes to theorisations of the character, operation and effects of anti-Traveller racism, particularly with respect to its spatial manifestations. Although there is an important body of work which addresses the relationship between anti-Traveller racism and space at the macro-level, in terms of the practice of nomadism, this is the first piece of research to examine the impact of racism on Travellers’ mobility at the micro-level. In doing so, this research advances upon understandings of the sedentarist nature of laws and policies which govern space (Delaney and Rucksthul 2006; James 2007; Crowley 2007), to reveal the hegemonic status of sedentarist ideology even at the micro-level. This thesis also highlights the agency of young Travellers, who have developed a range of tactics to negotiate racialised boundaries and the risks associated with traversing them. ii Acknowledgements There are a great number of people I would like to thank but first and foremost, I would like to express my eternal gratitude to my supervisor Dr Amanda Haynes for her infinite understanding, support and guidance as well as her patience and advice throughout this PhD. Her firm but fair and friendly stance reminded me to believe in myself and my reasons for doing this PhD. Her encouragement and assistance kept me on track and her vast knowledge and expertise in the area helped me at all levels of this research. I would like to thank her for support and assistance during difficult and challenging times which made my post-graduate experience a rewarding one. Thank you for allowing me to have intellectual freedom while demanding from me a high quality of work. Additionally, I would like to thank my second supervisor Dr Martin Power for his support and knowledge in the area. Thank you for your continuous assistance and encouragement, your friendly nature allowed me to explore my own ideas as well as challenge them. I could not have asked for two better supervisors, both of you are a credit to the University of Limerick as without you this thesis could not have come to completion, you allowed me to be myself without any judgement and gave me confidence to challenge society’s anti-Traveller views. Not only have you both supported me academically but also emotionally through the difficult road to finish this thesis, during the most difficult times in writing this thesis you have given me the moral support and freedom I needed. I would like to give a special thanks to all the young Travellers who contributed in any way to this thesis. Thank you for giving me your time and patience, without your honesty and knowledge this thesis would not be as rich and tangible as it is. I would also like to thank the young people’s parents and guardians for consenting to allowing the young people to be part of this research, in addition, thank you for allowing me to conduct focus groups in your homes. Your assistance and hospitality aided me to bring this thesis to completion. Thank you to the Traveller NGO’s and other support groups in Galway city for aiding me in finding participants for this research, and thank you for allowing me the use of your space to conduct focus groups. I will forever be grateful. I would like to thank my community for your belief in me to bring this thesis to completion. iii I would like to thank my partner, my soulmate, David who has stood by me and supported me in every way possible. Thank you for being you, you are the one that remains to be my constant light beaming. To my parents, thank you for being the best mum and dad anyone could ever ask for, you have pushed me to be the person I am today, thank you for being open-minded which encouraged me to step out of boundaries and break down barriers. Mum thank you for your strength and courage, for everything that you have been through you remain strong and loving, thank you for passing that strength onto me. Dad, thank you for sitting down in the trailer and making me read newspapers, which has given me a passion for learning and has allowed me to explore my interests. Without your belief in me, I could not have reached so high in education. Finally, this research could not have been completed without the scholarship’s I received; Year 1: FAHSS Dean’s Scholarship and EU fee Waivers, University of Limerick, Year 2: The Irish Research Council. Year 3 and 4: AHSS Registrar’s Scholarship Award. Thank you to the Faculty and the Department of Sociology for all their support and belief in me. iv Declaration I, Sindy Joyce, declare that this thesis, which I submit for assessment on the programme leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), is my own work and has not been submitted for any academic purpose other than in partial fulfilment for that which is stated above. Signed: September 2018 v Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 1:1 Background ......................................................................................................... 1 1:2 Research Question............................................................................................... 2 1:3 Positionality ........................................................................................................ 3 1:4 Methodological and Theoretical framework ........................................................ 4 1:5 Mapping the thesis structure ................................................................................ 6 Chapter 2: Locating the research theoretically ............................................................... 8 2:1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 8 2:2 The Right to the city ............................................................................................ 9 2:3 Tactics .............................................................................................................. 11 2:3:1 Tactics as an everyday practice ................................................................... 12 2:3:2 Distributing Agency ................................................................................... 15 2:4 Urban space as a social space ............................................................................ 16 2:5 Diversity in urban space .................................................................................... 18 2:6 Urban Spatial Mobility ...................................................................................... 20 2:7 Segregation in the urban space .......................................................................... 22 2:8 Race and ethnicity as a determinate of exclusion ............................................... 23 2:9 Gender as a determinate of exclusion ................................................................ 25 2:10 Youth as a determinate of exclusion ................................................................ 27 2:11 Conclusions..................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3: Travellers’ relationship to race and space ................................................... 30 3:1 An introduction to Irish Travellers .................................................................... 30 3:2 Nation building and the colonial legacy of anti-Traveller racism ....................... 32 3:3
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