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Paper short abstract

This paper examines gender- and identity-based disinformation targeting Roma communities in Poland as a dynamic process of polarisation, producing social difference and exclusion, and explores the potential of engaged anthropology to intervene.

Paper long abstract

This paper situates itself within research on disinformation targeting groups constructed as “others,” including national and ethnic minorities and migrant populations, including those experiencing forced displacement (Freelon & Wells 2020; Farkas & Schou 2018; UNHCR 2022). Such studies show how disinformation functions as a mechanism of polarisation, reinforcing symbolic boundaries and legitimising social exclusion.

Against this backdrop, the paper examines disinformation targeting Roma communities in Poland as a dynamic process of polarisation, understood not as fixed binary oppositions but as ongoing production of difference, tension, and hierarchy (Eriksen 2015; Mouffe 2005; Kalb 2018). It draws on the Roma Shield report by the Foundation Dom na Pograniczu, the first systematic study in Poland on gender-based disinformation targeting Roma women and men (Caban et al. 2024).

Using anthropological approaches that conceptualise polarisation as relational and affective, the paper explores how media narratives, anonymisation, exoticisation, and stigmatisation act as affective charges (Ahmed 2004), intensifying symbolic conflict and legitimising exclusion. Particular attention is paid to Gender- and Identity-Based Disinformation (GIBD), which mobilises gender and identity to undermine targeted groups (Alcantara & Valentim 2023).

The paper argues that such disinformation is not merely epistemic failure but a form of discursive power embedded in histories of antigypsyism and structural exclusion (Todorova & Yakova 2022). It also highlights the potential of engaged, collaborative anthropology to intervene in polarising processes through knowledge production, media recommendations, and alternative representations (Hale 2006; Low & Merry 2010).