Why Is Social Imagination so Important in the Case of the Roma?

Conclusion
As societies have no clear vision of themselves, they create collective images of themselves in order to know what they are. Social imagination, which consists of stereotypes and emblems, helps to structure collective identities, in this case, identity of the Roma.
Social imagination is difficult to interpret because it must be related to social context without being assigned a permanent meaning. Stereotyped themes and images put emphasis on generalizations which are learned from others and remain repeated in newspapers, literature, folklore, common hearsay and nursery rhymes.
Social imagination is important in case of the Roma as it shapes the attitude towards them as the ethnic group. It forms perception of Roma and influences the way how they are treated by society. Understanding of how social imagination was build may reduce social distances to the general population and discriminatory social images of the Roma community. Recreating social image towards more positive one will help to achieve progress in access to the welfare state, the labour market and the various collective services by fighting educational, employment, cultural and gender discrimination.
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