An anthropology of Muslims in Europe - A modest attempt by Martijn
It’s almost holiday here and what is better than to read a good article from an anthropological journal (except swimming, riding and/or walking in the mountains or doing nothing at all)? Anyway, because the AAA journals do so well, they decided to give people free access to the most cited articles of their different journals, for one one month. Here’s the overview with the links you need.
This Amsterdam University Autumn School wants to think through the conundrums posed not only by the visible but also by the sonic presence of Muslims in the West. It aims at understanding the issues at stake of the sensing, and more particular listening body, in connection to secular-liberal governance by post-Christian nation-states. We want to tackle several questions: What does the emerging and quickly evolving Islamic soundscape and their interlinked listening practices in the West tell us about new (ethical) Muslim subjectivities? How does this relate to the ways in which sonic experiences affect the body? What kind of transformation occurs when these new practices leave the protected space of the counter-public sphere? How can these Islamic sound practices be submitted to governmental regimes? To what extent are sound policies implemented in order to securize the Western (European) secular (post-Christian) hegemonic project? The three days summer school, followed by a one-day workshop, will take place from 27-30 October
Attributing Wilders’ victory to a rise of Dutch intolerance (although that may be the case) means neglecting a trend that has been going on for more than a decade now and the variety in people’s motives for voting for him. It also neglects the fact that other parties have been subjected to the same trend as well. This is a trend in which people increasingly perceive conflict according to a logic of ‘culture talk’.
Kan een moskee een partner zijn voor het voortgezet onderwijs? Dit onderwerp komt aan bod in een special van het Tijdschrift Pedagogiek. Dit themanummer is gebaseerd op de jarenlange praktijk in Gouda waar moskee An Nour een project verzorgde voor schoolloopbaanbegeleiding voor Marokkaans-Nederlandse en (later ook) autochtone Nederlandse jongens en meisjes. In dit nummer aandacht voor de debatten en conflicten door voortkwamen uit de samenwerking van deze moskee met jeugdhulpverleningsinstelling RCJ/Het Woonhuis en Goudse scholen. Vanuit antropologische, rechtsfilosofische, ethiek en godsdienstfilosofie invalshoeken wordt gereflecteerd over deze specifieke pedagogische casus.
Sociaal-wetenschappelijk onderzoek staat ter discussie. Het zou vooringenomen links zijn, niet wetenschappelijk en niet meer dan ‘de zoveelste mening’. In dit stuk ga ik in op het onbehagen ten opzichte van sociaal-wetenschappelijk onderzoek, de (twijfels omtrent de) geldigheid ervan en de rol van wetenschappers.
An anthropologist in the Muhammad Cartoon debate. Last week there was a lot of talk about the publication of one of the Muhammad cartoons in a Dutch newspaper. A Muslim group responded and launched a video in which several people appeared, including your blogger. In this post I reflect about that and the ensuing debate and its relation to the Dutch Islam debate and public anthropology.
Political leaders, social movements and opinion leaders use visual rhetoric for the public representation and manipulation of their ideological messages by means of culturally recognizable symbols but (and this is the interesting part of chart wars) also by more abstract images conveying the message of chaos or order. What people need to know about the political power of visualizing data in 5 minutes.
Much of the debate about the establishment of mosques, women with niqab, processes of alienation among native Dutch in migrant areas, christmas decoration and so on, pertain to the issue of ‘place’ as in physical areas that are related to humans and their practices in particular ways. All kinds of histories, practices, meanings and experiences turn an area into much more than just an area. It is an imaginary landscape imbued with all kinds of meanings and contestations of those meanings changing over time. The dynamics of space and place constitute an important research field for anthropologists as they try go grasp the significance of the connections between people’s everyday lives, materiality and place in particular contexts.
Professor Thijl Sunier delivered his inaugural lecture last Friday at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Sunier published a short piece in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad in which he criticized the current state of research as being too much determined by the state’s and society’s agenda for example by focusing on radicalization at the expense of other developments among Muslims. Tillie, one of the radicalization researchers, has criticized Sunier’s allegation of a lack of independence and presenting his research by down playing others. What matters here I think, and Sunier points to that, is that scientific knowledge has a history and societal context and is embedded in and the product of power relations.
The Anthropology Day 2009 will address the complex relations between religion and conflict. In public debate, religion – especially Islam – is considered a prime source and trigger of contemporary conflict. Plenty of anthropological research shows that such ideas make a caricature of reality and lack context. Then what do we have to say about that complex connection? How can anthropologists contribute to this fascinating and important theme?
