Recent research in segregated areas has shown that Romani people are marginalised in Central Eastern Europe and that desegregation has become an important part of the agenda in local development policy-making. This paper aims to push forward this issue and to better understand how Roma living in segregated urban areas relate to the places and communities in which they live. The research therefore links the particular field of Romani Studies to wider developments in the social sciences, and especially to global debates on insecure/informal housing and (neo-)ghettoisation, by ascertaining how Roma people's personal attachment to place functions as a basis for their everyday activities in the ghetto and surrounding area(s). The analysis is based on a participatory action research (PAR) process carried out in Szeged, Hungary, with local scholar-activists, Roma representatives and Roma families living in local segregated spaces. The findings suggest that the world of Roma in segregated neighbourhoods is characterised by a strong feeling of place attachment fundamentally shaped by social relations and the features of those neighbourhoods, but certain centripetal forces alienate inhabitants from these spaces. This is important because existing place attachment to segregated Roma communities as a living environment is a contradictory situation for the affected Roma, which is characterised by "dual bonds": traditional relationships based on strong bonding capital and reciprocity still exist and represent significant material and emotional support for families and the places they inhabit, while at the same time communities are becoming more fragmented, with the most marginalised often being excluded from this "net of space protection." K E Y W O R D SParticipatory Action Research (PAR), place attachment, segregation, Szeged, urban Roma

A lakóhelyi szegregáció és térben koncentrált mélyszegénység komoly probléma a hazai városok számára. A tapasztalatok szerint mindkét jelenség halmozottan érinti az etnikai csoportokat – hazánkban a romákat. Kutatásunkkal arra a kérdésre keressük a választ, hogy hazai városi környezetben a szegregált lét az érintettek számára milyen erőforrásokat hordoz, és miben korlátozza őket. Külön figyelmet szentelünk ezen erőforrások és korlátozó tényezők térbeliségének. Egy hazai város szegregátumaiban készült, kvalitatív primer adatfelvételen alapuló eredményeink rámutatnak arra, hogy a városi szegregátumok és környékük egyszerre hordozhatnak kulcsfontosságú erőforrásokat az ott élők számára és lehetetlenítik el a mélyszegénységből való kitörést. A kapcsolatok és erőforrások térbeli koncentrálódása következtében a meggondolatlan, területi dekoncentrációt (deszegregációt) előtérbe helyező antiszegregációs beavatkozások könnyen ronthatnak az érintettek helyzetén, és önmagukban semmi esetre sem adnak választ arra a komplex problémahalmazra, amivel az érintetteknek meg kell küzdeniük. Mivel az egyes szegregátumok is sokban különbözhetnek egymástól és a szegregátumok lakossága messze nem homogén, nem takarítható meg egyetlen antiszegregációs beavatkozás esetében sem a megfelelő feltárási-konzultációs folyamat, a külső és belső kapcsolathálók feltérképezése, a személyre vagy családra szabott megoldások kidolgozása.

This article reflects on a participatory action research process in partnership with segregated Roma communities in Hungary. It will focus on the “non-positivist good theory”-building capacity of participatory action research in situations where social distance between participants is high and where action-oriented cooperation involves numerous actors, continuously extends to new stakeholders and areas, and aims to contribute to long-term and general social goals. Special attention will be paid to the effects of three phenomena: extreme poverty, extreme egalitarianism, and community hierarchy. We show that as cooperation shifts from discussions to actions and theories-in-use start dominating the process, PAR might become a complex and fuzzy process, characterized by numerous pragmatic and ethical challenges and contradictions. Thus, in a setting described above, it is a rather challenging task for PAR to create a “non-positivist good theory”: one which enables and empowers community members to make pragmatic and sustainable changes in their lives.

Even more emphasis is set on social capital in understanding, analyzing and planning poverty alleviation measures and policies. However, our understanding of the role of social capital in alleviating extreme poverty, enhancing social mobility and fighting spatial segregation, is still inadequate. Within the present study, we aim to examine and understand (1) the mechanisms that relate to social capital in the case of the segregated urban underclass and (2) the potential interventions for poverty alleviation concerning social capital. In order to examine the dynamics of poverty alleviation measures related to social capital, special attention is paid to the experiences of a cooperative network aimed at creating artificial bridging capital through the introduction of interpersonal relations locally between the middle class and underclass, the patronage network, which was initiated within a broader participatory action research (PAR) process. Our results show that bonding ties and related specific norms as tools for everyday survival easily overwrite system integration efforts for poverty alleviation and social mobility with long-term and uncertain benefits for the segregated urban underclass. In order to overcome this failure, social institutions should place more emphasis on developing meaningful interpersonal relations with the underclass since these might be able to provide personalized help, facilitation, and approximation of perspectives - all being vital for poverty alleviation and social mobility.