Contradictions of Community: Questions of Identity for Young British Muslim Women

Abstract

The author addresses contradictions of community through a case study which explores how young British Muslim women construct and contest their identities. Drawing upon the work of Hall, and others, in their theorisation of 'new ethnicities' or 'hybrid identities', she examines the possibilities for reworking the idea of community as a dynamic process which has a discursive and political effectivity. Through an examination of the constructions of community negotiated and deployed by young British Muslim women she highlights the ways in which different imaginations of community can be both empowering and constraining.

Religion, place and space: a framework for investigating historical geographies of religious identities and communities

“…Central to the resurgentinterest in community formation is the recognition that the production of meaning and identity are contested processes, which involve institutions and individuals in the co-constitution of place (Kong 2001b;Dwyer, 1999b;Putnam, 2000;Revill, 1993;Young, 1990). This approach rejects perspectives that situate history as a mere backdrop against which events take place in a spatial arena, in preference for approaches that examine how spatial units, like Cornwall, become institutionalised historically through cultural processes (see Harvey, 2000Harvey, , 2003.…”

Understanding Processes of Ethnic Concentration and Dispersal : South Asian Residential Preferences in Glasgow

“…This is an aspect highlighted by Dwyer (1999) and in the Scottish context by Hopkins (2004). A move to suburbia loosened the hold that the local framework of public life had on the interviewees' private lives leading to increased personal freedom.…”

Funny Looks: British Pakistanis' experiences after 7 July 2005

“…British Pakistanis often express hybridised forms of collective identification (Brah 1993;Dwyer 1999a). However, for Muslims these are increasingly expressed in relation to Islam in 6 response to global political conflicts and British social, cultural and political movements and changes (Hopkins 2007b;Jacobson 1997;Samad 1992 Mahmuda Ali (over 35) from Beeston described herself as a Pakistani Muslim.…”

“…Asian Muslims the focus of recent debates has shifted to a concern with how ethnicity, religion and nationality are articulated as sources of identity (Dwyer 1999a;Hopkins, 2004;2007a;Bagguley and Hussain 2008, pp. 143-57).…”