The article describes urban marginality in Cluj (Romania) as it has developed in recent years and has transformed the town’s landfill into an inhabited area that hosts today approximately 1500 persons. The author observes that Anti-Gypsy racism becomes an important building block of neoliberalization as it “justifies” evictions and residential segregation by racializing ethnic Roma. She states that in cases when residentially segregated spaces are located nearby polluted areas (landfills, water treatment plants, chemical factories or deposits) the analysis of the phenomenon should observe how environmental racism dehumanizes poor Roma and pollutes the milieu where they are forced to live. [1]
[1] This article is linked to the author’s presentation at the series of events organized by the doctoral school “European Paradigm” at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, with the topic “University for a just society”. The series aimed at offering occasion for critically discussing on the social role of knowledge production, on university education as public good, on the function and positioning of the university in today’s society, but as well as about the public intellectual who practices his/her academic carrier assuming social and moral responsibilities. On April 23, 2013 our debates focused on the topic “Landfill and environmental racism” (with the participation of Mihaela Beu, expert in environmental protection, sociologist dr. Cristina Raţ and anthropologist dr. Enikő Vincze, university teachers at BBU, founding members of the Working Group of Civil Society Organizations). By this very event the organizers were also marking the World Day for Safety and Health at Work (28th of April), observing the inhuman conditions in which informal landfill workers labour, among others in the city of Cluj, Romania. Most importantly, this article builds on experiences gained by the author from her involvement into local civic activism against segregation (www.gloc.ro) and into research concerning spatialization and racialization of social exclusion (www.sparex-ro.eu).
