Paper short abstract:

The paper based on triangulating research methods argues that issues of perception of "different Other" - how the local Roma communities are seen, how conflicts are interpreted and represented by local actors above all - plays a fundamental role in the evolution of conflictual situations.

Paper long abstract:

In Romania there have been two waves of ethnic conflicts between Roma and the local majority population since 1990 involving 75 events that reached the national or international mass media.

The author has been trying to find social patterns and therefore explanatory mechanisms for these conflicts. Toma shows that we should see ethnic conflicts as proceses with demographic, social-economic, legislative/institutional, symbolic-attitude and conflict-management traditions shaping their development.

Many authors have argued that the issue of segregation leads to the development of a local "critical mass" of conflictual situations which in turn result in the formation of a "conflictual cloud". This conflictual cloud contributes to the intensification of conflict. Finally, one of a number of factors or events serve as the "last drop', tipping tension into an open conflict. This paper argues that issues of perception - how conflicts are interpreted and represented by local actors above all - plays a fundamental role in the evolution of these situations. The idea of the last drop is itself a matter of perception - it is not the cause of a conflict emerging but itself part of the representation of the conflict.

The paper uses two main sources of data. First, a survey targeted at social workers in 1,900 rural communities which aimed to discover how the institutional relationship between the local authorities and the Roma effected the perception of conflict. Second, fieldwork in two communities demonstrates that while conflicts may arise out of marginalization, how these conflicts develop varies radically.