ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE Continuities of Culture in the Cosmopolitan City: Accessing London/Turkish Spiritualities in Commercial Cultures through Accidental Clues AUTHORS Varul, M.Z. DEPOSITED IN ORE 16 June 2014 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15022 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication Continuities of Culture in the City: Using Accidental Clues to Access London/Turkish Spiritualities in Commercial Cultures Paper prepared for the Global Studies Association conference 10th to 12th July 2013 at the University of Roehampton Matthias Zick Varul University of Exeter, CSSIS Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology Amory Building, Rennes Drive Exeter EX4 4RJ +44 (0) 1392 26 3283
[email protected] 1 While European leaders squabble about whether or not Turkey does or does not belong into the European Union and in Germany, the main destination of Turkish migration in the second half of the 20th century, Turks remain the target of racist discrimination and blame (Soysal 2013), Turkish London looks like a model case of cosmopolitan co-existence. During the 2011 Riots Daily Mail reading British tourists in Turkey learned in amazement how members of this Muslim population played the part of vigilante defenders of British retail, while the Turkish media noted that against the looters London Turks stood together with London Kurds. While celebrations of multicultural success stories need to be taken with a pinch of salt (particularly as they might be used as reproach towards groups considered less well integrated), the inconspicuous and under-researched case of London Turcophone ordinary cosmopolitanism (Lamont/Aksartova 2002, also cf.