Embodied Othering Encounters with Muslim(‐Looking) Passengers: Riding across Amsterdam, Tallinn, Leipzig, and Turku¹

Abstract

Often framed in the public discourse as Europe's ultimate Other, Muslims have been heftily debated and vastly problematized as violent, unfaithful suspect citizens, unwanted immigrants, part of a bad diversity, and refusal of modernity. Taking the Muslim Other into consideration, we explore young Muslim(looking) passengers' everyday Othering encounters within the (im)mobile spaces of public transport that entangle their bodies with different imaginaries, histories, emotions, and affects. Employing qualitative research methods in a cross-national and interurban study in Amsterdam, Tallinn, Leipzig, and Turku, which offer different dimensions of diversity, size, and history, important for understanding European cities in their complexities, we present public transport as a cross-cultural meeting place with socio-spatial negotiations of difference to study everyday travel experiences of 74 young Muslim(-looking) passengers. We highlight how Othering discourses become part of their everyday travel experiences. In so doing, we investigate multiple modes through which the Muslim Other is (re)produced and Othering is lived out in the networks of their everyday embodied, that is, sensorial, corporeal, and affective, experiences of public transport. In this way, we critically position public transport at the intersection of what it means to experience European cities through riding public transport.

Public transport as public space: Introduction

“…Apart from positive encounters, public transport is also the site of negative ones (Wilson, 2011). Little acts, like putting bags on the seats or turning one’s head away could mark racially stereotyping behaviours (Shaker, 2021; Shaker et al, 2022). Nevertheless, public transport can also provide spaces for interaction in segregated cities (Rokem and Vaughan, 2018).…”

“…There are both voluntary and involuntary incidences of exposure, and thus also insecurities about revealing oneself in public spaces (Kemmer et al, 2022). This is of course something that is particularly felt by those who are Othered, differing visibly from the categories of supposed 'normality' assumed, whether this judgement is based on religion (Shaker et al, 2022), race (Wilson, 2011) or sexuality (Kemmer et al, 2022;Lubitow et al, 2017). A stranger is both 'recognised as well as produced through embodied encounters' (Simonsen and Koefoed, 2020: 98), highlighting the shared presence in public spaces that can both be pleasant but also lead to acts of Othering.…”

“I’m Trying to Give Them My Face.” Everyday Embodied Agency of the Muslim Other in Amsterdam

“…Othering predominantly happens through the visual (Shaker 2021; Shaker et al. 2021; Shaker et al. forthcoming a); to respond some Muslims tend to restrict the amount, or share a particular kind, of information from getting to mainstream society as an attempt to avoid any problems.…”

Encountering the Other

“…Intense corporeal encounters within the confined and mobile spaces of public transport carry powerful socio-spatial potentials. There are a full range of Othering processes, racial and class tensions and confrontations, (tacit/explicit) negotiations of difference, symbolic power struggle, and protests over space, rights, and status where passengers are engaged in a complex system of selection, exclusion, and control as well as politics of location and movement (Purifoye, 2015;Wilson, 2011;Koefoed et al, 2017;Shaker, n.d.;Shaker, 2021;Shaker et al, 2022). Further, the 'bitter looks' on the tram and the reluctance of other passengers to sit next to Hafez on the busy train clearly show how the visual and haptic forms of Othering (see chapters three and five) derive from the aesthetic representation of faith through clothing.…”