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Everyday politics of belonging: The ambivalent experience of being young, female and Muslim in rural Norway.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social and Economic Geography.
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Here, I explore young female Muslims’ (age 13–17 years) everyday negotiations and practices of belonging in Norwegian towns. The analysis draws on Nira Yuval-Davis’ writing on belonging and the politics of belonging, and illustrates how discourses of belonging/non-belonging to the nation come into play in social encounters. The analysis is presented through three individual stories using an intersectional lens, including a time–space dimension, deconstructing the category ‘Muslim girl’. The stories provide insights into young women’s experiences and challenges regarding the contemporary politics of belonging in Northern Europe, highlighting their strategies for negotiating and creating belonging, including the role space plays in these strategies.

Keywords [en]
belonging, gender, place, intersectionality, everyday racism, negative social control
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Social and Economic Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-401831OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-401831DiVA, id: diva2:1384062
Available from: 2020-01-09 Created: 2020-01-09 Last updated: 2020-01-27Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Between being and longing: Young former refugees’ experiences of place attachment and multiple belongings
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Between being and longing: Young former refugees’ experiences of place attachment and multiple belongings
2020 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis focuses on young former refugees’ lived experiences of and reflections on processes of place attachment and negotiation of belonging in Norway. The analysis draws on a postcolonial understanding of migration and belonging, and is inspired by post-structuralism and critical phenomenology. The thesis analyses belonging from two perspectives: as a personal relationship to people and places, and as relationally produced and negotiated through social discourses and boundary-making practices in everyday life. The thesis is based on fieldwork conducted with forty former refugee youths, using multiple methods such as in-depth interviews, participant observation, activity diaries, and auto-photography. In addition, teachers, municipal representatives, peer students, siblings, and parents contributed to the knowledge presented in the thesis. Article I explores how the youths’ translocal networks and practices contributed to the process of attaching to a new place, arguing that it is necessary to understand how ideas of both roots and routes are entangled in the young former refugees’ sense of belonging. Article II discusses the spatial organizing of newly arrived students in school and its social consequences. It is argued that the “foreigner” category is socially constructed through a racialization process in which space, skin colour, and language are key components, and that this process is reinforced in school. Article III explores how generic discourses rendering Muslims “the other” in Norway affect young Muslim girls’ experiences of belonging in different geographical and social spaces. The article highlights how the navigation of belonging that the girls undertook entailed constant work that they could not escape due to their visibility as Muslim girls. Article IV explores place attachment and belonging with a focus on everyday habits and routines, and shows that the youths simultaneously drew on shared knowledge from their social networks and on embodied knowledge gained through the habitual use of place to perform belonging. Overall, the thesis provides a nuanced understanding of young former refugees’ belonging that is both multi-sited and multi-layered.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2020. p. 148
Series
Geographica, ISSN 0431-2023 ; 27
Keywords
youth, refugees, place attachment, belonging, translocality, place, negotiation, racialization, education
National Category
Social and Economic Geography
Research subject
Social and Economic Geography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-401838 (URN)978-91-506-2800-5 (ISBN)
Public defence
2020-02-28, University Hall Room IX, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, 10:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2020-02-07 Created: 2020-01-09 Last updated: 2020-02-07

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Mathisen, Tina

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
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  • nn-NB
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More languages
Output format
  • html
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  • asciidoc
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