Book reviews

William G. Lockwood

European Moslems: Economy and Ethnicity in Western Bosnia

New York, Academic Press, 1975, pp. 241; $18.50 (Bibliography 10)

Muslim Communities In Non‐Muslim States

London, Islamic Council of Europe, 1980, pp. 169 $5.00     

Muslims in Fiji: a brief survey

Chaitwat Satha‐Anand

Islam and Violence: A Case Study of Violent Events in the Four Southern Province, Thailand, 1976–1981.

Monographs in Religion and Public Policy. No. 2., Department of Religious Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, 1986, pp.54 (bibliography).

Malise Ruthven

Islam in the World

London: Oxford University Press, 1984, Price $10.95

Mumtaz Ahmad (Ed.)

State Politics and Islam

Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1986.160 pp. n.p.

Akbar S. Ahmed

Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History and Society

London, Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1988, pp.253.

David Gilmartin

Empire and Islam — Punjab and the Making of Pakistan

Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1988, pp. xii+258.

Kail C. Ellis, ed.

The Vatican, Islam, and the Middle East

Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987, pp 344.     

Book review

Ethnicity, Race and American foreign policy: A History Alexander DeConde Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992, 270 pp., $40.00 cloth; $15.95 paper.     

Book reviews

Peter G. Gowing & Robert D. Mc. Amis (ed.)

The Muslim Filipinos: Their History, Society and Contemporary Problems,

Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1974, pp. 311.

Cesar Adib Majul

Muslims in the Philippines,

Manila: Saint Mary's Publishing, 1978, pp. 392.

T.J.S. George

Revolt in Mindanao: The Rise of Islam in Philippines Politics

Kuala Lumpur; Oxford University Press, 1981, pp. 294.     

Book review

The Jama Mapun. A Changing Samal Society in the Southern Philippines

Eric Casino

Quezon City (Philippines), Ateneo De Manil University Press, 159 pages; $12.00, $7.75 (paper)     

An intergenerational conceptualisation of Italian-Australian ethnic identity through Bourdieu and Heidegger

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a phenomenological reconceptualisation of ethnic identity. Drawing upon a case study of a family originating in Calabria, Italy, and living in Adelaide, South Australia, I consider the way in which the three generations perceive their ‘being ethnic’ across time and space. The first-generation participants were born in Italy and migrated to Australia during the 1950s; the second generation are their children; and the third generation are the children of the second generation. The findings show a widespread intergenerational identification of ethnicity as ‘being Italian’, which, however, has different meanings across the three generations. This depends on the participants’ phenomenological perceptions of being thrown into the world [Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. (J. Macquarie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York, NY: Harper]. Some 40 years after Huber’s [(1977). From pasta to Pavlova: A comparative study of Italian settlers in Sydney and Griffith. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press] study about the assimilation of Italian-Australians published in her book From Pasta to Pavlova, the present paper shows a movement from pavlova to pasta, especially by the third-generation participants, who experience a sense of ethnic revival. Essential in such a shift of ethnic identity is what I refer to as institutional positionality; that is, one’s perceptions of the position of one’s ‘ethnic being in the world’. This is investigated by combining with the sociology of migration, including the Bourdieusian conceptual apparatus of capital [Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research in the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press], a Heideggerian existential theory [Heidegger, 1962]. Such a juxtaposition provides further reflexivity through a reconceptualisation that considers the role of ontology in the sociology of migration.     

Book reviews

Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, Paul Gilroy, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, October 1993.     

The peasant matrix for nation building: an effective model? Some reflections on the Belarusian case

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges and difficulties faced in using a peasant model to create a national matrix for Belarus. The sense of belonging to a nation generated by the ‘community of the soil’ [Foucher, M. (2007). L'obsession des frontières [Obsession of the Frontiers]. Paris: Perrin] has a special significance for ‘community of destiny’ [Weber, M. (1995). Économie et société: tome 2 [Economy and Society: vol. 2]. Paris: Plon] for the Belarusian nation in that Belarus is a peasant nation. ‘The peasantry is the most authentic expression of the relationship between a nation and its land; peasant customs become ethnic symbols and referents’ [Thiesse, A.-M. (1999). La création des identités nationales: Europe XVIII^e–XX^e siècles [The Creation of National Identities. Europe XVIII^th–XX^th centuries]. Paris: Seuil, 159]. By studying the origin of the sense of belief in a community, Weber (1995) notes that it may originate from the similarities of the exterior habitus [Bourdieu, P. (1964). Le déracinement [Uprooting]. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit] adaptation to external conditions, and imitation of a neighboring group. These assumptions are of significant importance for the study of Belarusian identity, an understanding of which cannot be reached without taking into account the fundamental role played by the peasantry in the history of Belarus. Historical analysis indeed bears out the importance of the peasant stratum in the Belarusian socio-political and identity structure. Many scholars insist on the fact that identity-building process are inherently territorial Foucher (2007), relating to the ‘soil’ of the nation [Balibar, E. (2005). Europe. Constitution. Frontière [Europe. Constitution. Frontier]. Paris: Editions du Passant], which is particularly important for peasant nations, as Belarusians.     

Towards pluralistic and grassroots national identity: a study of national identity representation by the Kurdish diaspora on social media

ABSTRACT

This study examines the distinctive roles that social media play for the diasporic Kurds in regard to the political and nationhood process. It attempts to understand how the notion of Kurdayeti [Kurdish nationalism] has been affected by the growth of Kurdish social media. It argues: although the Kurdish political activism has been accelerated by the rise of social media and the ethnic identity discussions have become much more visible, the idea of a unified imagined Kurdish nation has been affected by the existing socio-political fragmentations among the Kurds and transformed into a participatory and pluralistic imagined community.     

Living Differences: Ethnicity and Fearless Girls in Public Spaces

Its strength (of the book of Jules Verne, Snr) comes precisely from knowing never to invent, but paying acute, almost hypnotic, attention to the real, so as to get it to yield up its secret and reveal its possibilities.(Writings on the City)     

Vastu compliance: the gentrification of India’s sacred spaces and the mobilities of ideas

ABSTRACT

This article examines the mobilities of ideas in the context of sacred spaces in India and transnational flows of trends and services. Mobile subjects on the global stage are still bound by immobile concerns, such as their homes. In this article I examine the anxieties of India’s globally mobile middle and elite classes through their efforts to make their gated multi-storey residences compliant with an ancient form of spatial spirituality: vastu shastra. Now common in advertisements for luxury apartments, I argue that vastu compliance is a form of liquid spirituality that is part and parcel of the privatisation of the urban landscape and the replacement of fixed or local sacred spaces and those that dwell around them: homeless or ‘occupying’ mendicants. In between these two polar opposite mobile subjects of the elite and the mendicant are vastu consultants who derive a living from their knowledge and practice of a form of liquid spirituality growing in popularity around the world.     

Beyond Islamophobia? The role of Englishness and English national identity within English Defence League discourse and politics

ABSTRACT

Unsurprisingly, most scholarship on the English Defence League (EDL) focuses on the Islamophobic nature of the group's politics. This has found that, whilst the group presents a more moderate, public-facing image, the EDL's backstage discourse is a far less nuanced brand of Islamophobia and cultural racism (Allen, C. (2011). Opposing Islamification or promoting Islamophobia? Understanding the English Defence League. Patterns of Prejudice, 45(4), 279–294; Kassimeris, G., & Jackson, L. (2015). The ideology and discourse of the English Defence League: ‘Not racist, not violent, just no longer silent’. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 17, 171–188). A more fundamental area of EDL ideology has been left unexamined, however: what notion of ‘England’ is the EDL trying to ‘defend’? Using content analysis of EDL online discourse, this article examines how the EDL articulates, represents, and uses English national identity within its discourse and politics.     

Indigenous identity construction: enacted upon us,or within us

ABSTRACT

This commentary essay questions, theorizes, explores and grapples with the phenomenon of the creation of racial, social and cultural identity: in childhood as Native American identity is negotiated from others; and in adulthood as Native identity is constructed from within. ‘Indigenous Identity Construction: Enacted upon Us, or Within Us?’ is a commentary piece focused around Native American identity and how it is formed both through childhood and into adulthood. I analyze and interpret my experiences and understanding of my identity formation as an indigenous person- which usually is left out of the socio-political notions of modernity. Conceptualizations from ‘othering’ racial identities are discussed along with indigenous ontologies constructed within land and water. Through metaphorically revisiting past racializing incidents this piece continues working through the idea of othering and induction into whiteness in childhood, but also focuses on how indigenous identities might be constructed and sustained in adulthood. Efforts to model the indigenous assertion of self-determination and decolonizing the mind was used to re-present thoughts on the construction of Native American identity     

The emergence of Alevism as an ethno-religious identity

ABSTRACT

Alevism has been regarded as a contested identity which is difficult to define because of its ‘syncretic’ character. Attempts at definition have been overwhelmed by essentialist approaches as well as different political agendas since the fifteenth-century Ottoman period. This paper aims to trace the history of Alevism with a particular focus on historical sources such as the Velāyetnāmes and the organization of ocaks and dergahs. The paper argues that we shall see Alevism as an ethno-religious identity which is formed under different social conditions and emerged through the complexities of the organization of ocaks in a vast territory encompassing different ethnic groups.     

State Power,Violence, Crime and Everyday Life: A Case Study of Soweto in Post-Apartheid South Africa

This article was subsequently retracted from publication for the reasons outlined in Social Identities 10.1: Retraction     

Television and the making of a transnational Alevi identity

ABSTRACT

Satellite broadcasting technologies contribute a great deal to interaction across national boundaries, and in this regard satellite television is significant in the construction of a transnational public sphere for the Alevi community in Turkey and abroad. This paper addresses the role of television in the making of that transnational Alevi identity. In particular, it focuses on the flow and the programme contents of Cem TV and Yol TV, two leading Alevi channels, to demonstrate how the transnational imagination of Alevi identity corresponds to different political understandings of Aleviness.     

Seeking a Mexicana/Mestiza1 Ethic of Care: Rosa’s Revolución of carrying alongside

Abstract

This Chicana Critical Feminist Testimonio reveals a Mexican/Mexican-American Ethic of Care particular to the needs and strengths of Mexicana/o students and Testimonios of struggle, survival informing one Mexican/Mexican-American female educator of predominantly Mexican/Mexican-American students. This work, theoretically framed within Chicana and Black Feminisms, is part of a larger ethnographic study conducted through multiple methods. Findings reveal Rosa’s Mexicana/Mestiza Ethic of Care, a (re)incarnated social justice revolution carrying education as ethical imperative toward uplift. Findings have implications for all educators to protect and sustain ongoing struggles for equity and dignity for Mexicana/o youth and all those on the margins of schooling.     

Fassil Demissie on Building the Colonial Edifices in Algiers Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontation: Algiers under the French Rule by Zeynep Celik

Ahmed, Akabar (1992) Postmodernism and Islam, London: Routledge. Gellner, Ernest (1992) Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, London: Routledge.     

Making discipline relevant: toward a theory of culturally responsive positive schoolwide discipline

Abstract

Implicit in the discourse on school discipline reform is the belief that utilizing positive school discipline practices, as opposed to suspension and classroom removal, will necessarily reduce the racially disproportionate representation of black and brown students in school discipline outcomes. Yet even in schools that utilize positive school discipline approaches, racial disproportionality persists; students of color continue to be disciplined more often and more harshly than their white peers, even when controlling for gender, socioeconomic status, and behavior. Framed by Vavrus and Cole’s concept of the socioculturally contextualized disciplinary moment, this article argues for an approach to positive discipline that incorporates the tenets of culturally relevant education. Implications for policy, research, and practice are discussed.