Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari, the article discusses Roma Pentecostalism as nomad self-governance or self-ministry and political affirmation, in a dialectical conversation with stable apparatuses of power such as state and transnational polities advancing a neoliberal program of social integration as semiological apparatus of capture. The latter is upheld by expert social sciences as royal sciences, which translate alternative forms of self-governance into the conceptual apparatus of the state and transnational polities. On the other hand, Pentecostal self-ministry works as disaffected power undoing the architecture of the state subject, authorizing new hermeneutics of the self to take control over semiological acts of translation, and engenders a political resubjectivation of the governed. The article identifies Roma Pentecostalism as a source of political reawakening of Romani civil society, a creative line of flight with an immense power of deterritorialization of the main domains of subjection.
AchimV (2004) The Roma in Romanian History, Budapest: Central European University Press.
2.
BeckUGiddensALashS (1994) Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order, Cambridge: Polity Press.
3.
BratosinSIonescuMA (2009) Church, religion and belief: Paradigms for understanding the political phenomenon in post-communist Romania. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies8(24): 3–18.
4.
Cantón-DelgadoM (2010) Gypsy Pentecostalism, ethnopolitical uses and construction of belonging in the South of Spain. Social Compass57(2): 253–267.
5.
ClarkW (2009) Networks of faith in Kazakhstan. In: PelkmansM (ed.) Conversion After Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies of Faith in the Former Soviet Union, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 129–143.
ComaroffJComaroffJ (2001) Millenial capitalism: First thoughts on a second coming. In: ComaroffJComaroffJL (eds) Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, pp. 1–56.
8.
CortenA (1997) The growth of the literature on Afro-American, Latin American and African Pentecostalism. Journal of Contemporary Religion12(3): 311–334.
9.
CucchiariS (1990) Between shame and sanctification: Patriarchy and its transformation in Sicilian Pentecostalism. American Ethnologist17(4): 687–707.
10.
De BernardiJ (1999) Spiritual warfare and territorial spirits: The globalization and localization of a ‘practical theology.’. Religious Studies and Theology18(2): 66–96.
11.
DeanM (2012) The signature of power. The Journal of Political Power5(1): 101–117.
12.
Deleuze G and Guattari F (1986) Nomadology: The War Machine. New York: Semiotext(e).
13.
DeleuzeGGuattariF (2005) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
14.
European Commission (2010) Commission Staff Working Document. Roma in Europe: The Implementation of European Union Instruments and Policies for Roma Inclusion – Progress Report 2008–2010, Brussels: EC, 7 April 2010.
15.
EwickPSilbeySS (1995) Subversive stories and hegemonic tales: Toward a sociology of narrative. Law and Society Review29(2): 197–226.
16.
FosztoL (2006) Mono-ethnic churches, the “Undertaker Parish” and rural civility in postsocialist Romania. In: HannC (ed.) The Post-socialist Religious Question. Faith and Power in Central Asia and East Central Europe, Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 269–293.
17.
FoucaultM (1997) The hermeneutic of the subject. In: RabinowP (ed.) Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, Essential Works of Foucault, New York: The New Press, pp. 93–106.
18.
Foucault M (2005) The Hermeneutics of the subject. In: F Gross, Francois E and F Alessandro (eds) Lectures at the College de France/1981–1982. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
19.
Gay y BlasoP (2002) Gypsy/Roma diaspora. A comparative perspective. Social Anthropology10(2): 173–188.
20.
GerlachLPHineV (1970) People, Power, Change: Movements of Social Transformation, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
21.
GogS (2009) Post-socialist religious pluralism. How do religious conversions of Roma fit into the wider landscape? From global to local perspectives. Transitions. Revue des Pays de L’Est. Nouvelles Identites rom en Europe Central and Orientale48(2): 93–109.
22.
HefnerRW (1993) Introduction: World building and the rationality of conversion. In: HefnerRW (ed.) Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 3–43.
HortonR (1975a) On the rationality of conversation: Part one. Africa45(3): 219–235.
25.
HortonR (1975b) On the rationality of conversation: Part two. Africa45(4): 373–399.
26.
IrelandR (1991) Kingdom’s Come: Religion and Politics in Brazil, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
27.
McGuireMB (1975) Toward a sociological interpretation of the “Catholic Pentecostal” movement. Review of Religious Research16(2): 94–104.
28.
MarshallR (2009) Political Spiritualties: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
29.
MarxK (1902) Wage-Labor and Capital, New York: New York Labor News Company.
30.
MeyerB (1996) Modernity and enchantment: The image of the devil on popular African Christianity. In: van der VeerP (ed.) Conversion to Modernities: The Globalization of Christianity, New York: Routledge, pp. 199–230.
31.
NollMA (2001) American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell.
32.
NorrisPInglehartR (2004) Sacred and Secular: Religions and Politics World Wide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
PelkmansMVatéVFalgeC (2005) Christian conversion in a changing world: Confronting issues of inequality, modernity and morality. In: JabeckJO (eds) Max Plank Institute for Social Anthropology Report 2004–2005, Halle: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, pp. 23–35.
34.
Pine F and Cabral JP (eds) (2008) On the Margins of Religion. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
35.
PodolinskaTHrusticT (2014) Religious change and its effects on social change for Roma in Slovakia. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica59(1): 235–256.
36.
ProcacciG (1991) Social economy and the government of poverty. In: GrahamBGordonCMillerP (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 151–169.
37.
RamnicelulBJ, Religion in Romania. ‘Romania’s evangelical Romanies.’. The Economist,2011. 17 January 2011.
38.
RanciereJ (1999) Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy, London and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.
39.
RanciereJ (2010) Dissensus. On Politics and Aesthetics, London and New York: Continuum.
40.
RiesJ (2007) “I must love them with all my heart”: Pentecostal mission and the Romani other. The Anthropology of East Europe Review25(2): 132–142.
41.
RobbinsJ (2004) The globalization of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity. Annual Review of Anthropology33(1): 117–143.
42.
SchillerNG (2005) Transnational social fields and imperialism: Bringing a theory of power to transnational studies. Anthropological Theory5(4): 439–461.
43.
SlavkovaM (2003) Roma pastors as leaders of Roma Protestant communities. In: DordevicDB (ed.) Roma Religious Culture, Nis: PUNTA, pp. 168–177.
44.
SobotkaEVermeerschP (2012) Governing human rights and Roma inclusion: Can the EU be a catalyst for local social change?Human Rights Quarterly34(3): 800–822.
45.
Steinberg MD and Wanner C (eds) (2008) Religion, Morality, and Community in Post-Soviet Societies. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
46.
Thurfjell D and Marsh A (eds) (2014) Romani Pentecostalism: Gypsies and Charismatic Christianity. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Academic Research.
47.
Trehan N and Sigona N (eds) (2009) Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe Poverty, Ethnic Mobilization and the Neoliberal Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
48.
Todorovic D (ed) (2004) Evangelization, Conversion, Proselytism. Nis: Yugoslav Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
49.
UNDP (2002) The Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Avoiding Dependency Trap. A Regional Human Development Report, Bratislava: UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth.
50.
Van BaarH (2012) Toward of politics of representation beyond hegemonic neoliberalism: The European Romani movement revisited. Citizenship Studies16(2): 285–294.
51.
VateV (2009) Redefining Chukchi practices in contexts of conversion to Pentecostalism. In: PelkmansM (ed.) Conversion After Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies of Faith in the Former Soviet Union, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 39–59.
52.
Voiculescu C (2012) To whom god speaks: Struggles for authority through religious reflexivity within a gypsy pentecostal church. Sociological Research Online 17(2–10).
53.
Voiculescu C (2017) European social integration and the Roma. Questioning neoliberal governmentality. London and New York: Routledge.
54.
WannerC (2007) Ukrainians and Global Evangelis: Communities of the Converted, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
55.
WeberM (1978) Domination and legitimacy. In: RothGWittichC (eds) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 941–956.
56.
WerthPW (2000) From ‘pagan’ Muslims to ‘Baptized’ communists: Religious conversation and ethnic particularity in Russia’s Eastern provinces. Comparatives Studies in Society and History42(3): 497–523.
57.
West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (2015) Eastern European Roma, Police Engagement & Youth Street Culture in Govanhill, Glasgow, UK. Unpublished.
58.
WillemsE (1967) Validation of authority in Pentecostal sects of Chile and Brazil. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion6(2): 253–258.
59.
WilsonJClowHK (1981) Themes of power and control in a Pentecostal assembly. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion20(3): 241–250.
60.
World Bank (2005) Roma in an Expanding Europe. Breaking the Poverty Cycle. Washington, DC: World Bank.
