Andria Timmer's volume is a persuasive and rich-in-detail account of the hindrances and shortcomings of the modus operandi of educational Roma NGOs and organizations that work with Roma in Hungary. The approach is problem-centered and critical, sometimes offering unequivocal hints on approaches NGOs should take in order to have an effective impact on the larger society, to loosen constraints and to avoid the perverting effects of their actions.

Chapter 1 raises the fundamental question of who is a Rom (and who should be considered Roma) and which issues (besides identity politics) currently define not only academic discourses, but also everyday practices of project development and implementation. See, for example, Eben Friedman & Victor A. Friedman, eds., Romani Worlds: Academia, Policy and Modern Media, 2015, at http://romanistudies.eu/news/ebook-romani-worlds/. Timmer highlights substantial and arduous problems in defining the Roma minority as inherently different when compared to the majority population, regardless of which criteria are used in defining what being Roma means. On the other hand, she also underlines that homogenizing the numerous Roma groups into one loosely conceptualized category of people might bring the same misconceptions and false steps in designing projects and policies. The discussion on the definition of who are the Roma offers a shred of the literature on the topic. While this is not the main topic of the volume, it is a unavoidable dimension through which the following sections of the book are discussed.

Chapter 2 gives an instructive introductory glimpse into European-level policies that Roma are subject to, continuing with Hungarian practices, cleverly (and briefly) introducing the scholarly debate regarding the methods of identifying who Roma are.

Chapter 3 advances the context for the in-depth analysis we see more of in chapter 4. It is a thorough and well-structured presentation of the NGO sector working on educational issues. Timmer chose to analyze five dimensions of NGO work. First, she presents the ideology or arguments behind the decision of an NGO to work on educational issues. Second, we get the reasons for planning an intervention, from discrimination to the poor quality of teaching. The third dimension analyzed is the primary model for intervention in a community which can focus on social, cultural, and judicial aspects or can differ based on who are chosen as primary subjects of the interventions—students or teachers. The fourth aspect is the expected results of the intervention categorized into four main groups. Finally, the activities of the NGOs are categorized depending on the target community, whether it is local, regional, or national.

Chapters 4 and Chapter 5 represent the core of the volume and discuss through an in-depth ethnography the structural and ideological context in which Roma NGOs and pro-Roma NGOs working with Roma construct a catch 22–like situation in which neither the providers nor the recipients are satisfied. Moreover, they unintentionally reiterate all those stereotypes against which they initially intended to build their strategies. Whether their focus is cultural, social, or ethnic, discrimination and anti-Roma violence, (re)-construction of pride in Roma identity, or helping “highly motivated” Roma students, the chosen topics, and the applied strategies of implementing the interventions, all contribute to the construction of a Roma beneficiary in “need” and “with problems” who is fundamentally “different” (as described in chapter 1) and perceived as somebody who needs to adapt to the mainstream context. Moreover, even in the case of the so-called “inclusion” programs, they are designed in a way that excludes the participation of members of the majority population because of the logic of the funding.

Overall, although the declared aim of the text is the analysis of educational policies and Roma nongovernmental organizations, the volume unintentionally extends beyond its main topic and geographical focus, thus being a valuable contribution to the cognition of the civil society sphere in central and eastern Europe. The deficiencies of the contribution are two-fold. First, the methodological approach does not obviously differentiate between Roma NGOs and NGOs working with Roma, which could be useful, while discussing them together might be a conscious decision of the author. Second, the ambitious topic and the length of the book stretch each other, making some of the chapters fragmented. This is not to lessen the important puzzle in the conclusion of the volume: the answer is 42 (from Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy), “but it is unclear what the question was” (143).