Dr Giovanni Picker

Senior Lecturer (Sociological & Cultural Studies)

telephone: +44(0)1413301774
email: Giovanni.Picker@glasgow.ac.uk

Biography

I am currently a Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor in Sociology. I studied Political Science and Cultural Sociology at the University of Milan, and completed a PhD in Sociology and Comparative Urban Studies at the University of Milan-Bicocca in 2010. I conducted my PhD research while based at the Central European University, Budapest.

Before joining the University of Glasgow in 2018, I taught at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, the University of Milan-Bicocca, European University Viadrina in Frankfurt Oder, and the University of Birmingham. Across these institutions, I designed and delivered courses on cities, ethnography, nationalism, race and racism, social inequalities and critical social theory.

Research interests

My work combines urban studies, critical race scholarship, political anthropology and historical inquiry. My research has developed through fieldwork and archival work in Kosovo, Romania, Italy, France, the UK and Germany. Working across cities, historical periods and political settings enables me to examine how different institutions variously classify populations, allocate resources and set the boundaries of social membership, as well as how memberships are contested. My approach brings urban research into conversation with wider debates on racisms, colonialism, global inequalities, postsocialism, nationalism and the state. My scholarship comprises three main strands:

A first strand investigates the governance of Romani populations and the making of segregated areas in European cities. This research connects contemporary urban arrangements with longer histories of colonial administration, nationalism and state formation. It also asks how exclusionary mechanisms persist while being presented through the language of protection, integration and care.

A second strand concerns Europe as an object of historical and sociological inquiry. Here I study relations between Eastern and Western Europe, colonial and metropolitan histories, as well as socialism and postsocialism. This work seeks to explain contemporary inequalities without treating dominant (self-)representations of Europe experiences as isolated from global relations.

A third strand addresses the urban planning-race nexus. My most recent work analyses how anticipation, fear, longing and morality make planning processes in Berlin, Rome and Bucharest. Through this focus, I develop a broader account of how apparently technical decisions acquire political meanings, and how democratic institutions may normalise coercive forms of governance inflected by longue-durée racial formations.

Methodologically, I mainly work with comparative ethnography and archival research. I am particularly interested in the relationship between the researcher’s position, the construction of comparable cases, and the forms of writing through which social inquiry circulates across different audiences.

This research agenda has resulted in one monograph, two co-edited books, four co-edited journal collections and a large body of articles, chapters, reviews and public-facing writing. Racial Cities: Governance and the Segregation of Romani People in Urban Europe [Routledge, 2017] explains the post-WWII emergence and persistence of deprived and segregated urban areas across Europe that are stigmatized as "G***y urban areas". I subsequently co-edited Racialized Labour in Romania: Spaces of Marginality at the Periphery of Global Capitalism [Palgrave, 2019] and European Cities: Modernity, Race and Colonialism [Manchester University Press, 2022]. My recent articles examine participatory planning and racism in 21st-century Berlin and the political force of affect in Rome’s planning from the 1990s onwards.

My current book project develops a framework for detecting racial inequalities in national contexts where the state does not collect any form of race-based data. In the first part, the book outlines a historical sociology of the relations between dominant racial and urban conceptions from the Middle Ages onwards. In the second part, it empirically illustrates that varied racial attitudes are constitutive of the logics through which urban institutions in three European cities order space, humans, and knowledge in the 21st-century.

Alongside research and teaching, I contribute to international research and educational initiatives, including collaborative research networks concerned and postgraduate summer schools addressing inequalities and (anti-)racist politics. I also collaborate with activists, museum curators, artists, and organisations working beyond higher education.

Related research interests

Urban sociology, urban anthropology and planning.
Race critical studies.
Colonialism, empire and European modernity.
Nationalism and the politics of belonging.
State power, policy and administrative knowledge.
Critical Romani studies.
Internment camps.
Socialism, postsocialism and histories of the Left.
Political emotions, affect and authoritarianism.
Comparative ethnography, archival inquiry and social-scientific writing.
Public sociology and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Research groups

Sociology

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2027 | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2006 | 2005

Number of items: 51.

2027

Ramadani, Đuli and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2027) Romani collectives in urban Europe: subjectivities, structures and scholarship. In: Routledge International Handbook of Urban Sociology. Routledge. (In Press)

2026

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2026) The affective politics of planning: longing for Gadjo-than Rome (1994–2017). Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, (doi: 10.1080/26884674.2026.2701685) (Early Online Publication)

2025

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2025) Creolizing the Modern: Transylvania Across Empires by Anca Parvulescu and Manuela Boatcă. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022. 261 pp. $34.95 (pbk). ISBN: 9781501766565. European Journal of Social Theory, (doi: 10.1177/13684310251359010)[Book Review] (Early Online Publication)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2025) Planning a European racial city: dealing (with) dread in 21st-Century Berlin. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 49(2), pp. 358-75. (doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.13297)

2024

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2024) Urban revolutions: urbanisation and (neo-)colonialism in transatlantic context , by Stefan Kipfer, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2022, 324 pp., £112.00 (hbk), ISBN: 9789004524903. Ethnic and Racial Studies, (doi: 10.1080/01419870.2024.2348719)[Book Review]

2022

Ha, Noa K. and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (Eds.) (2022) European Cities: Modernity, Race and Colonialism. Manchester University Press: Manchester. ISBN 9781526158437

Ha, Noa K. and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2022) Introduction: rethinking the European urban. In: Ha, Noa K. and Picker, Giovanni (eds.) European Cities: Modernity, Race and Colonialism. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 1-34. ISBN 9781526158437

2021

Ghebremariam Tesfau', Mackda and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2021) The Italian postracial archive. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(2), pp. 195-214. (doi: 10.1080/01419870.2020.1730924)

Murji, Karim and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2021) Racist morbidities: a conjunctural analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic. European Societies, 23(sup1), S307-S320. (doi: 10.1080/14616696.2020.1825767)

2019

Murji, Karim and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (Eds.) (2019) Special Issue: Racial and Post-racial Senses of Place. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. 39(11/12) [Edited Journal]

Murji, Karim and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2019) Race and place. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 39(11/12), pp. 913-922. (doi: 10.1108/IJSSP-10-2019-0203)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2019) Sovereignty beyond the state: exception and informality in a Western European city. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(3), pp. 576-581. (doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.12704)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139, Murji, Karim and Boatcă, Manuela (Eds.) (2019) Racial Urbanities: Toward A Global Cartography. Social Identities. [Edited Journal]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139, Murji, Karim and Boatcă, Manuela (2019) Racial urbanities: towards a global cartography. Social Identities, 25(1), pp. 1-10. (doi: 10.1080/13504630.2017.1418606)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2019) Anti-gitanismo, conocimiento racial y amnesia colonial. Sociología Histórica, 10(1), pp. 237-246.

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 and Vivaldi, Elisabetta (2019) Racial segregation: camps for Roma and slums in Italy. In: Cortés Gómez, Ismael and End, Markus (eds.) Dimensions of Antigypsyism in Europe. Series: ENAR Anti-Racism in Focus, 3. European Network Against Racism aisbl (ENAR) and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma: Brussels, Belgium, pp. 180-197. ISBN 9782960130829

2018

Vincze, Enikő, Petrovici, Norbert, Raț, Cristina and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (Eds.) (2018) Racialized Labour in Romania: Spaces of Marginality at the Periphery of Global Capitalism. Series: Neighborhoods, communities and urban marginality. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham. ISBN 9783319762722

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2018) Conclusion: (re)centring labour, class, and race. In: Vincze, Enikő, Petrovici, Norbert, Raț, Cristina and Picker, Giovanni (eds.) Radicalized Labour in Romania: Spaces of Marginality at the Periphery of Global Capitalism. Series: Neighborhoods, communities and urban marginality. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 207-226. ISBN 9783319762722 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-76273-9_8)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2018) Kristina Graaf and Noa Ha (eds). 2015. Street Vending in the Neoliberal City: A Global Perspective on the Practices and Policies of a Marginalized Economy. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. Urbanities, 8(1), pp. 80-81. [Book Review]

2017

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2017) Social inclusion/exclusion. In: Turner, Bryan S., Chang, Kyung-sup, Epstein, Cynthia F., Kvisto, Peter, Ryan, J. Michael and Outhwaite, William (eds.) The Wiley Encyclopedia of Social Theory. Series: Wiley Blackwell encyclopedias in social sciences (2908). Wiley-Blackwell: West Sussex, United Kingdom. ISBN 9781118430866 (doi: 10.1002/9781118430873.est0532)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2017) Post-socialist Europe and its “Constitutive Outside”: ethnographic resemblances for a comparative research agenda. In: Krase, Jerome and Uherek, Zdeněk (eds.) Diversity and Local Contexts: Urban Space, Borders, and Migration. Series: Palgrave studies in urban anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 39-53. ISBN 9783319539515 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-53952-2_3)

Pasquetti, Silvia and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (Eds.) (2017) Confined Informality: Global Margins, Statecraft, and Urban Life. International Sociology. 32(4) [Edited Journal]

Pasquetti, Silvia and Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2017) Urban informality and confinement: toward a relational framework. International Sociology, 32(4), pp. 532-544. (doi: 10.1177/0268580917701605)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2017) Rethinking ethnographic comparison: two cities, five years, one ethnographer. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 46(3), pp. 263-284. (doi: 10.1177/0891241614548105)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2017) Racial Cities: Governance and the Segregation of Romani People in Urban Europe. Series: Routledge advances in sociology. Routledge: London ; New York. ISBN 9781138808782

2016

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2016) ‘That neighbourhood is an ethnic bomb!’ The emergence of an urban governance apparatus in Western Europe. European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(2), pp. 136-148. (doi: 10.1177/0969776413502659)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2016) Christopher D. Lloyd, Ian G. Shuttleworth, and David W. Wong (eds), Social-spatial segregation. Concepts, processes and outcomes. Urban Research and Practice, 9(2), pp. 226-228. (doi: 10.1080/17535069.2016.1190511)[Book Review]

2015

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 and Pasquetti, Silvia (Eds.) (2015) Durable Camps: The State, the Urban, the Everyday. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action. 19(5) [Edited Journal]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2015) Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy. Urban Studies, 52(9), pp. 1742-1745. (doi: 10.1177/0042098015580755)[Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139, Greenfields, Margaret and Smith, David (2015) Colonial refractions: the ‘Gypsy camp’ as a spatio-racial political technology. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 19(5), pp. 741-752. (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2015.1071123)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 and Pasquetti, Silvia (2015) Durable camps: the state, the urban, the everyday. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 19(5), pp. 681-688. (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2015.1071122)

2014

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2014) Gypsies and Travellers in Housing: the Decline of Nomadism, by David Smith and Margaret Greenfields. Bristol: Policy Press, 2013. Roma Rights, 2014(1), pp. 113-114. [Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 and Roccheggiani, Gabriele (2014) Abnormalising minorities. The state and expert knowledge addressing the Roma in Italy. Identities, 21(2), pp. 185-201. (doi: 10.1080/1070289X.2013.854719)

2013

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2013) “Ţiganu-i ţigan”: verbal icons and urban marginality in a post-socialist European city. Civilisations, 62(1 & 2), pp. 51-70. (doi: 10.4000/civilisations.3271)

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2013) Policy logic and the spatial segregation of Roma in Europe. The cases of Florence and Cluj-Napoca. In: Zincone, Giovanna and Ponzo, Irene (eds.) How European Cities Craft Immigrant Integration: Something to Learn. Foundation for European Progressive Studies, pp. 40-57. ISBN 9788889988688

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2013) Sedentarisation and 'the right to nomadism': the urban and regional fabric of nomad camps in Italy (1967-1995). Zeitgeschichte, 40(5), pp. 276-286.

2012

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2012) La biopolitica della differenza. Un'antropologia delle politiche dei campi nomadi a Firenze. DADA Rivista di Antropologia post-globale, 2(2), pp. 93-110.

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2012) Racial Criminalization of Migrants in the 21st Century by Salvatore Palidda. Critical Sociology, 38(2), pp. 333-335. (doi: 10.1177/0896920511435762)[Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2012) Left-wing progress? Neo-nationalism and the case of Romany migrants in Italy. In: Stewart, Michael (ed.) The Gypsy ‘Menace’: Populism and the New Anti-Gypsy Politics. Hurst & Co.: London, pp. 81-94. ISBN 9781849042192

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2012) Policy Worlds: Anthropology and the Analysis of Contemporary Power. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(4), pp. 780-781. (doi: 10.1080/01419870.2011.639792)[Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2012) Territori postcoloniali ai limiti. I campi per rom in Italia e Francia tra doxa e storia. In: Ceva, Emanuela and Galeotti, Anna Elisabetta (eds.) Lo spazio del rispetto. Series: Ricerca. Bruno Mondadori: Milano, pp. 96-121. ISBN 9788861598126

2011

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2011) Rom e Sinti in Italia. Tra stereotipi e diritti negati, and Politiche possibili. Abitare le città con i Rom e i Sinti. Modern Italy, 16(3), pp. 398-401. (doi: 10.1080/13532944.2011.586546)[Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2011) Inclusione, esclusione, enclusione. Per un'etnografia della governance di rom migranti in Italia. In: Baldin, Serena and Zago, Moreno (eds.) Il mosaico Rom: specificità culturali e governance multilivello. Series: Collana ISMU (46). Franco Angeli: Milano, pp. 77-87. ISBN 9788856844719

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2011) Nomads’ land? Political cultures and nationalist stances vis-à-vis Roma in Italy. In: Stewart, Michael and Rövid, Márton (eds.) Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies. Central European University Press: Budapest, pp. 211-227. ISBN 9786155053160

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2011) Tra inclusione ed esclusione. Una storia sociale dell'educazione dei rom e dei sinti in Italia. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16(5), pp. 735-737. (doi: 10.1080/1354571X.2011.622488)[Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2011) Welcome ‘in’. Left-wing Tuscany and Romani migrants (1987–2007). Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16(5), pp. 607-620. (doi: 10.1080/1354571X.2011.622469)

2010

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2010) Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe. Poverty, Ethnic Mobilization and the Neoliberal Order. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(9), pp. 1677-1679. (doi: 10.1080/01419870.2010.510902)[Book Review]

2009

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2009) Inclusionary Rhetoric / Exclusionary Practices. Left-wing Politics and Migrants in Italy. Davide Però, New York: Berghahn Books, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-84545-157-8. Anthropology in Action, 16(3), pp. 69-70. (doi: 10.3167/aia.2009.160307)[Book Review]

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2009) Inclusionary Rhetoric / Exclusionary Practices. Left-wing Politics and Migrants in Italy. Davide Però, New York: Berghahn Books, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-84545-157-8. [Italian Translation]. Studi Emigrazione, XVII(3), pp. 56-57. [Book Review]

2006

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2006) Fieldwork between distance and intimacy: reflections on a photo exhibition on the streets. Achab: Rivista di Antropologia, 9, pp. 33-42.

2005

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2005) Le due rive di Mitrovica: il ponte sul fiume Ibar/Ibër come frontiera interna. Conflitti Globali(2), pp. 119-129.

This list was generated on Thu Sep 10 11:01:46 2026 BST.

Number of items: 51.

Articles

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2019) Anti-gitanismo, conocimiento racial y amnesia colonial. Sociología Histórica, 10(1), pp. 237-246.

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2005) Le due rive di Mitrovica: il ponte sul fiume Ibar/Ibër come frontiera interna. Conflitti Globali(2), pp. 119-129.

Books

Book Sections

Book Reviews

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139 (2009) Inclusionary Rhetoric / Exclusionary Practices. Left-wing Politics and Migrants in Italy. Davide Però, New York: Berghahn Books, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-84545-157-8. [Italian Translation]. Studi Emigrazione, XVII(3), pp. 56-57. [Book Review]

Edited Books

Edited Journals

Picker, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5789-9139, Murji, Karim and Boatcă, Manuela (Eds.) (2019) Racial Urbanities: Toward A Global Cartography. Social Identities. [Edited Journal]

This list was generated on Thu Sep 10 11:01:46 2026 BST.

Grants

Shaping a World-Class University Summer School Joint Grant, University of Padova, 2025.

International Partnership Development Fund Grant, University of Glasgow School of Social and Political Sciences, 2024.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellowship - European Commission, 2016-2018.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Co-Fund BRAIN Fellowship - European Commission and Brandenburg Land, 2015-2016.

Junior Research Fellowship, Central European University Institute for Advanced Study, Budapest, 2014.

Supervision

I would be happy to hear from students who are considering to pursue a PhD about any aspects of my research interests.

PhD students I am currently co-supervising:

Siddhi Joshi - Mirroring GalGael: An Ethnography of Repair and Belonging.

Santagata, Nichelle
Black Women's Mental Health and Healing Through Autoethnography and Arts-Based Methods

Students I co-supervised and who successfully completed their PhD:

Chase Beecrof - Janus-Faced Liberalism: Race and the Modern World-System (2026).
Concetta Smedile (University of Cordoba) - La ideología de la virginidad, las identidades y la educación contemporánea de las jóvenes gitanas discriminadas (2026).
Leslie Molina - Between Mediation and Facilitation: Immigration Legal Practitioners and the Racial State in Trump’s US and Brexit Britain” (2025).
Haritha Venu - Experiences and Negotiation of Climate Change in three coastal fishing villages of Kerala (2025).

Teaching

2026-2027

Global Inequalities, Level 1 Contributor(BA) - Semester 1

Level 1 Tutorials (BA) - Semester 1

Racial Justice and the City (MA) - Semester 2

Critique and Criticism (PhD) - Semester 2

2025-2026

Global Inequalities (BA) Level 1 Contributor - Semester 1

Media and International Journalism Tutorials (MA) - Semester 1

(Semester 2 - Study Leave)

2024-2025