Governing the domestic space of the traveller in the UK: ‘family’, ‘home’ and the struggle over Dale Farm

Abstract

This article contends that domesticity and processes of domestication maintain a central role in the (re)production of British citizenship. Domesticity provides a template for living that shapes the raced, classed, gendered and sexed boundaries of Britishness. Drawing upon William Walters’ concept of ‘domopolitics’, the article specifically explores how norms of familial domesticity are used in the marginalisation and regulation of Traveller groups in the UK. Focussing on the eviction of Irish Travellers from the Dale Farm site in Essex, 2011, the article argues that the eviction relied upon the historical mobilisation of Travellers as ‘failing’ norms of domesticity. However, whilst the destruction of ‘home’ (domicide) at Dale Farm represented a form of domestication that is enacted in the name of the ‘true’ domos or the home of the citizen, this did not go unchallenged. The struggle and resistance to the state-led eviction at Dale Farm unsettled the boundaries of contemporary domopolitics by providing alternative claims to belonging and ‘home’. By examining the politics of domesticity in the production of marginality, we see how family and home not only act as means of stratifying and governing subjects but also emerge as sites of contestation.

Keywords:

• British citizenship
• domopolitics
• Dale Farm
• travellers
• eviction
• resistance
• domesticity and home

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this article for their in-depth feedback, as well as Helen Turton and Cristina Dragomir for their constructive comments on earlier drafts. Versions of this article were presented at the Government of Postcolonial Citizenship and Migration symposium at the University of Sheffield and the Postcolonial Governmentalities workshop at Cardiff University. I would like to thank the participants and fellow panellist at these events for their erudite questions and discussion.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I use the word Traveller more frequently here as a term which refers to different semi/nomadic groups in the UK: Travellers, Irish Travellers, Romanis and Scottish Traveller. I have designated a specific affiliation when it appears relevant. As Vanderbeck (2005) suggests, the term ‘Traveller’ has been rejected in favour of ‘Gypsy’, whilst others find ‘Gypsy’ a pejorative term. This follows the distinctions made by Traveller rights organisations and solidarity groups. The prevalence of the term Gypsy or Gipsy in negative portrayals in the tabloid press also influences my inclination towards the label Traveller, this by no means suggests that the term is unproblematic.