Abstract
The text introduces a collective monograph. It outlines an interpretation framework that links the book's chapters.
It is based on the idea that the Roma stereotype is not a mere label referring to an ethnic group. One cannot comprehend the Roma stereotype only as a reflection of the bilateral relationship of a majority and minority, but as a category that transcends the relationship.
The Roma stereotype constitutes a norm or an instrument of society's becoming conformist that is deliberately or spontaneously used to maintain the social order. This is a personification of a failing individual or a "symbolic nobody" from whom society distances itself.
Such an established stereotype is then translated both in the behaviour of the Roma themselves (the distanciation prevents them from being identified with their Roma character) and in the strategy of members of majority society who try to negotiate on their social acceptability upon the background of the Roma stereotype.