VOL. 12, NO. 1, 2010 ISSN 2079-6595 Depicting Diversities GUEST EDITOR: Steven Vertovec
1 STEVEN VERTOVEC Depicting Diversities – Editorial Introduction
5 ANGÉLINE ESCAFRÉ-DUBLET Art, Power and Protest: Immigrants’ Artistic Production and Political Mobilisation in France Open Forum 21 KERSTIN DUEMMLER, JANINE DAHINDEN, JOËLLE MORET 59 WEISHAN HUANG Gender Equality as ‘Cultural Immigration and Stuff': Ethnic Boundary Work Gentrification: in a Classroom in Switzerland A Case Study of Cultural Restructuring in Flushing, 41 EKATERINA BRAGINSKAIA Queens Official Discourses and Patterns of State Engagement 73 DOROTTYA NAGY with Muslim Communities in Where is China in World Britain and Russia Christianity?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATION: Paul de Guchteneire EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Gabi Alex CO-EDITOR: Christiane Kofri ASSISTANT EDITOR: Diana Aurisch UNESCO and Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Director of Publication: Paul de Guchteneire (UNESCO) Editor-In-Chief: Gabriele Alex (MPI-MMG) Co-Editor: Christiane Kofri Assistant Editors: Diana Aurisch and Amber French Layout and Design: Birgitt Sippel
Past Issues in 2008-2009: “Turks Abroad: Settlers, Citizens, Transnationals”, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2009 “The Human Rights of Migrants”, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2009 “The Conditions of Modern Return Migrants”, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2008 “Citizenship Tests in a Post-National Era”, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2008
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ISSN 2079-6595
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Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010
Foreword from the Editors
We are happy to present this Launching Issue of DIVERSITIES, a combined initiative of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity with the UNESCO's social sciences research and policy division. It carries on the work of its predecessor, The International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS). DIVERSITIES is an on-line journal publishing high quality, peer-reviewed articles concerning multiple forms of diversity. It presents new research on different kinds of social difference – including ethnicity, religion, language, gender, sexuality, disability, social status and age: how these notions are socially constructed, how they unfold in different contexts and how they are addressed in policy and practice. The journal provides a forum for discussion, debate, refinement of social theory and development of key ideas at the nexus of research and policy making. Topics and contributors represent a range of global regions. Steven Vertovec is the Guest Editor of the first Issue of DIVERSITIES which is addressing the very way we look at social differences. In ‘Depicting Diversities’, a group of social scientists address the challenges of modern societies in providing space for debate on better policies on managing social, cultural and political differences. In a globalizing world, the notion of diverse societies will be ever more prominent and social scientists should not shy away from providing practical support to policy development. Theoretical reflection on the representation of diversities is essential in this respect: nothing more practical than a good theory! We hope that the new DIVERSITIES will stimulate readers globally to engage in intellectual debate and exchange of ideas, information and research outcomes. Scholars interested in publication in the journal can write to the editors at [email protected], or visit the website at: www.unesco.org/shs/diversities.
Your Editorial Office,
Editor: Prof. Dr. Gabriele Alex Co-Editor: Christiane Kofri Assistant Editor: Diana Aurisch
Publication Director: Paul de Guchteneire Chief International Migration and Urbanization UNESCO, Paris
Introduction: Depicting diversity
STEVEN VERTOVEC (Director, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen)
Whether we are concerned with ethnic, of diversity governance themselves utilise or religious, gender-, age-, sexuality- or disability- create depictions of diversity. related diversities, social scientists, policy- Within the Department of Socio-Cultural makers and members of the general public Diversity at the Max-Planck-Institute for the tend to be conceptually confined to certain Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, which depictions of diversity. To depict something is launches the UNESCO journal Diversities with to describe, to represent, to characterise. In this special issue, this topic is approached by so-doing – particularly surrounding something way of a conceptual triad of ‘configurations- as socially, culturally and politically charged as representations-encounters’ (see Vertovec ‘diversity’ – the act of depiction may serve to 2009). In addressing any specific global set or to limit a given discourse, to explore or context (regardless of scale), ‘configurations’ to promote a particular theory of society, to refer to how diversity is measured within define or to position a set of groups within a specific structural and demographic con- social hierarchy, and to structure or to ditions; ‘representations’ includes ways in implement a specific political agenda. Depic- which diversity is imagined or depicted, while tions of diversity arise in everyday communi- ‘encounters’ considers the means and modes cation; unwittingly or purposefully, they may by way of which diversities are actually expe- become embodied in institutional practices and rienced in practice and social interaction. To modes of national governance. call this a conceptual triad is to insist that – Studying depictions of diversity – their again with respect to whatever the context processes of production and reproduction, being researched – each part of the triad their effects and transformations – should be must be understood in light of the other two. an essential task in social science and cultural Thus, for instance with regard to the theme studies today. Identities, human differences, of this issue, to better appreciate the ways in social structures and patterns of inequality which a certain context of diversity is cannot be assumed to be of one kind: they are depicted (here, by students within Swiss contextually conceived and enacted. Further schools, among artists and anti-racists within research and theory is required in order to the 1980s French political and art scene, and understand better the relationships between by Russian and British policy-makers regar- how diversities (and the groups within a varied ding relations to Muslim organisations), one social array) are imagined, how they related to must also gain a good grasp of the demo- social, economic and geographical characte- graphic and political-economic context as well ristics, how such depictions reflect or influence as the nature of everyday interactions affect- social interactions, and how political systems ting the groups who employ said depictions. Through a kind of hermeneutic circle – or
Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010: 1-3 ISSN 2079-6595 www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol12/issue1/art6 © UNESCO DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Steven Vertovec better, in this case, triangle, researchers can political expression vis-à-vis its (tokenistic?) achieve a more complete view on to diversity inclusion in the art world as „immigrant art‟. A dynamics. conundrum surrounding such art and Each of the articles within this special issue expression to this day, notes Escafré-Dublet, is of Diversities examines a range of inter-related that „from the point of view of immigrant issues of depiction, or how the dynamics activists, it is never political enough; from the of configurations-representations-encounters point of view of immigrant artists, it is never have unfolded within particular arenas. The artistic enough.‟ works arise through IMISCOE („Immigration, Reflecting a Barthian approach to ethnic Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe‟), boundary construction, Kerstin Duemmler, the Network of Excellence established under Janine Dahinden and Joëlle Moret offer their the European Commission‟s Sixth Framework study on „Gender equality as “cultural stuff” ‟. research programme (see www.imiscoe.org). And in line with Fredrik Barth‟s salient view, The network links some 30 research institutes they are interested in the social organisation of and over 500 researchers across Europe. cultural difference. Cultural difference – the Within IMISCOE, the research cluster on „stuff‟ of the title – is not assumed a priori, but cultural, religious and linguistic diversity has seen to arise in the conceptual or discursive organised numerous streams of research, marking of boundaries in everyday inter- events and publications. The cluster leaders actions, here within Swiss schools. The authors have been especially keen to promote selected observe in group discussions among students work by young scholars within the network, the reification of notions of culture, tradition and the authors and articles presented here and gender relations. In this way processes of have been chosen from among those group-making and group-marking are seen presented at an IMISCOE cluster workshop on through discursive processes of categorisation. „Understanding diversity: Theoretical and We are provided accounts of how young methodological challenges‟ held in 2009 at the people make distinctions about attitudes to Max Planck Institute in Göttingen. gender, how these become ethnicised and, in Reflecting one of the key research themes turn, how they create moral hierarchies and within the IMISCOE cluster (see Martiniello and assertions of exclusion, superiority and domi- Lafleur 2008), Angéline Escafré-Dublet‟s piece nance. Duemmler et al. provide a lucid account on „Art, power and protest‟ engages significant of the dynamics and effects of representations questions surrounding the politics of (of what is „culturally different‟) within patterns representation. The study is set in the early of everyday encounter. 1980s amid the French public debates and Finally, in Ekaterina Braginskaia‟s contri- activities surrounding the Anti-racism bution, we are presented, as it were, with a movement, the mobilisation of the so-called play on two meanings of representation: as second generation (described at the time as group image and as group voice. Braginskaia „children of immigration‟) and the national takes a comparative look at state roles in March for Equality and Against Racism, known formulating these two senses of representation as the Marche des Beurs. Escafré-Dublet‟s through comparative research on central state interest concerns immigrant artistic production policies for the engagement of Islamic and its relation to the anti-racism political organisations in Russia and Britain. The cases movement. She interrogates the contemporary comprise very different, and therefore very debates on anti-racism alongside depictions of telling, configurations of ethnicity and religion. diversity within a particular national and In Britain a broad, contemporary policy historical configuration. In this study, we might framework is framed around rhetorics of say that depiction refers to art as a mode of community cohesion. In Russia, policy con-
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Introduction DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 tinues a long historical legacy of politically Of course, questions of depiction do not just containing national minorities. Yet both occur within schools, political movements and countries today temper their policies with governments. The media, workplaces, and respect to common concerns of securitisation public spaces of many kinds give rise to myriad (since now both countries have fairly recent ways of depicting diversities. Further, in order experiences of Islamic terrorism). Respective to better reflect on the processes, functions government policies and institutes for relations and outcomes of various modes of depiction, with Muslim umbrella organisations show not social scientists must consider the ways that only differential depictions of religious they themselves selectively depict how various diversity, but also contrasting strategies for actors and institutions practice, create and managing it. Braginskaia shows how the British represent diversity. We all employ depictions government tends to delegate matters to local of diversity, and the most culturally sensitive, levels, while the Russian government favours politically productive and analytically valuable centralisation. depictions will be those entailing a high degree of critical self-reflection.
References
MARTINIELLO, M. and LAFLEUR, J. (2008) VERTOVEC, S. (2009) “Conceiving and Resear- “Ethnic Minorities‟ Cultural and Artistic ching Diversity”. Working Paper 09-01. Practices as Forms of Political Expression: A Göttingen: Max-Planck-Institute for Religious Review of the Literature and a Theoretical and Ethnic Diversity. Discussion on Music”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34 (8): 1191 – 215.
About the author Steven Vertovec is Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen and Honorary Joint Professor of Sociology and Ethnology, University of Göttingen.
In the Open Forum of this issue, Weishan Huang discusses how culture and economics intertwine in urban re-structuring before and after the 1990 recession in New York City by using the case study of Flushing, Queens. In her article, Dorottya Nagy aims to localise China in its relation to World Christianity and vice versa, focusing on issues such as transnational communities, ecumenical understanding, contextualisation and theological pluralism. The Open Forum papers illuminate how we may understand complex social phenomena using a guiding principle of „super-diversity‟.
Editorial Office
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Art, Power and Protest
Immigrants’ Artistic Production and Political Mobilisation in France
ANGÉLINE ESCAFRÉ-DUBLET (National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), Paris)
Abstract The mobilisation of second generation immigrants in the early 1980s in France has often been studied from the perspective of social movements and political participation. The presence of various forms of artistic creation as crucial vehicles for the expression of this generation has also been mentioned but rarely linked to the mobilisation itself. Drawing from an investigation on artistic initiatives conducted before and after the March for Equality and Against Racism in France (also referred to as the ‘Marche des Beurs’), this paper examines issues of representation, mobilisation and strategies of appropriation as expressed through artistic creation. It argues that immigrants’ artistic production contributes to the expression of minority-related demands by enabling particular interests to be represented and by challenging institutionalised interpretations of culture. It investigates the opportunity for immigrant artists to articulate minority-related demands through artistic creation and analyses the relationship between immigrant artists and cultural institutions.
Introduction they faced, in terms of living conditions but The political mobilisation of first and second also in terms of identity construction and dis- generation immigrants has often been studied crimination (Escafré-Dublet 2008c, 2009). This from the perspective of social movements and paper examines the contribution of immigrant political participation (Siméant 1998; Wihtol de artists to the political mobilisation of second Wenden 1988). In the French context, authors generation immigrants in the early 1980s. It have argued that the general distrust of par- takes the example of the 1983 March for Equa- ticular interests has forced immigrant groups lity and Against Racism and links this political to articulate their claims alongside labour event to an exhibition which took place movements and, as a result, to keep ethnic subsequently in the Centre Georges Pompidou, forms of expression and cultural practices in ‘The Children of Immigration’ (January to April the private sphere (Rainhorn 2005; Schnapper 1984). It contributes to the discussion on 1974). However, this approach overlooks the artistic practices as forms of political fact that immigrants employ cultural means of expression (Martiniello and Lafleur 2008) and expression to voice their specific experience. shows how artistic production was used to For instance, in the 1970s, immigrant activists address minority issues in France in the 1980s. used artistic forms of expression – in particular The specific context of the 1980s in France street theatre – to address the specific issues provides an interesting backdrop to explore the
Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010: 1-3 ISSN 2079-6595 www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol12/issue1/art6 © UNESCO DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Angéline Escafré-Dublet relationship between immigrant artistic pro- contributes to this discussion and explores how duction, political mobilisation and government being an immigrant artist adds to the politics. In the autumn of 1983, a group of challenge of meeting the expectation of the young people marched across France to claim established group. their right to equal treatment and to protest The documents this article is based on were against an increase in racist crimes. What was selected to give different points of view on the announced as the March for Equality and events described and to highlight the speci- Against Racism was soon to be called the ficity of the artist‟s viewpoint. It draws upon March of the Beurs, (Beur being the slang working documents of the administration, a word for Arabs adopted by second generation video of a meeting between Beur artists and immigrants of North African descent in the project managers at the Ministry of Culture in early 1980s). The march succeeded in raising the wake of the March, and interviews with awareness of the issues related to second artists and administrative officials.1 It explores generation immigrants in France, and in the point of view on immigrant cultural pro- attracting political and media attention, and duction from ministers, administrative officials, this aspect has been discussed elsewhere curators and artists. (Battegay and Boubeker 1993; Leveau and Two further points should be clarified in this Wihtol de Wenden 2001). The purpose of this introduction. First, being a second generation paper is to analyse the role of various forms of immigrant in the early 1980s meant being born artistic expression in supporting the movement of immigrant parents who had arrived in and in representing the second generation of France during the mass immigration of the immigrants in France. Emerging artists of post-war period. It meant that those parents immigrant descent were driven by the need to were from former colonial countries - mainly express issues pertaining to their generation. Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, but not At the same time, activists found a medium to exclusively. Portuguese migrants represented a voice their demands through artistic production major share of the post-war inflow. In 1974, (music, visual arts, cinema, novels or comic 16.9 percent of immigrants were Portuguese strips). and 14.3 percent were Algerians.2 However, The paper examines the reaction of policy the expression „second generation immigrants‟ makers and administrative officials to the tends to refer mainly to people of non- emergence of an artistic scene in connection European descent. This can be explained by with the movement. Elements of a Beur culture the racial construction of the Other in society have often been mentioned in the literature and the clear divide that has long existed while little attention has been given to its between European and non-European migrants politics and its relationship with state-spon- (Blanchard et al. 2005). In the early 1980s, the sored culture (Hargreaves 1994; Silverstein young people who looked different from the 2005). Yet, in the context of 1980s France, rest of French society were those of North politicians and project managers in the Ministry African descent. Ultimately, this leads to a of Culture played an important part in promo- focus on immigrant cultural production in the ting second generation immigrants‟ artistic 1980s from the perspective of the Beur production. What were their assessment generation, while questioning how this criteria and to what extent was this a form of acknowledgement of their artistic contribution? 1 All materials were collected during fieldwork Young artists‟ acceptance by the established conducted for a PhD dissertation in modern group is one crucial element in the analysis of history, Escafré-Dublet 2008a. artistic fields (Bourdieu 1992). This paper 2 National Census of 1974, Source: INSEE (Natio- nal Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies).
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Art, Power and Protest DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595
particular group of people was brought to the immigrant art and an institutionalised state- forefront and why. funded type of culture. Second, the demonstration requires that a distinction be made between two meanings of The Artistic Scene around the March of the word culture. On the one hand, the the Beurs tradition of the Ministry of Culture has It has often been argued that the March for established a meaning of culture restricted to Equality and Against Racism was cultural in the its artistic component. When created by sense that the marchers were asking for Charles De Gaulle in 1959, the Ministry of recognition of the multicultural character of Culture was headed by French writer André French society and therefore referring to the Malraux and, since then, its activities have anthropological meaning of the word culture. ranged from maintaining the French artistic This was pointed out by Secretary of State for heritage to supporting artistic production and Immigrant Workers Georgina Dufoix at the performances in music, dance or theatre time, and it is still her point of view on the (Lebovics 1999). On the other hand, when event.3 However, I argue that the March was second generation immigrants went on a also cultural in the artistic sense of the word, march to ask for equal treatment and the because it was associated with a counter acknowledgement of the multicultural compo- culture and it shed light on an emerging nent of society, their claim was cultural from artistic scene. After describing the mobilisation an anthropological point of view. Their demand itself, I will analyse the marchers‟ choices in covered a broader definition of culture that terms of protest culture and the components encompasses the various systems of signs and of the counter culture associated with the symbols that give meaning to a group. It event. implied that they were asking to be acknow- ledged for their own contribution to the The March for Equality and Against Racism national community. The issue with immigrant The mobilisation itself was rooted in the cultural production in this paper lies in the context of insecurity plaguing the life of tension between these two meanings given to second generation immigrants at the turn of the word culture: when immigrants‟ cultures the 1980s. Numerous racist crimes took place are considered for their artistic component, in the summer of 1983 and the event which and when the issue concerns their place in the sparked the March was linked, in particular, to national community. the difficult relationship between the police The paper argues that immigrants‟ artistic and young people living in neglected areas of production contributes to the expression of big cities: while the police were patrolling a minority-related demands by enabling group of housing projects on the outskirts of particular interests to be represented and by Lyon - the „Les Minguettes‟ neighbourhood - a challenging institutionalised interpretations of young boy was bitten by a police dog. In culture. It is divided into three parts. First, it reaction to this, a young man named Toumi examines the artistic scene surrounding the Djaïdja confronted the policeman. A 20-year- 4 French “Beur movement” in the 1980s and the old son of a Harki , Toumi Djaïdja was the connection between artists and militants. Second, it investigates the opportunity for 3 immigrant artists to articulate minority-related Libération December 4 1983, and interview by the author with Georgina Dufoix, 12 September demands through artistic creation. Third, it 2006. addresses issues of representation through 4 Harki refers to the French Muslims who enrolled artistic creation and relationships between in the French army during the Algerian war of independence (Hamoumou 1994).
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Angéline Escafré-Dublet founder and president of the local association been a long-standing demand of immigrant SOS Minguettes. During his altercation with the associations and was therefore a major policeman a shot was fired, injuring the young political achievement (Weil 2005). man.5 Toumi Djaïdja was then taken to hospital, where he stayed for a few days and The Choice of a Specific Protest Culture: the was visited by his fellow association members. Reference to the Civil Rights Movement On the advice of Father Delorme, a local priest The young activists adopted a form of involved in the association CIMADE6, the group protest culture that emphasised their political of young people decided to launch a march demands. They chose to organise a march that would cross the country, from the south instead of a demonstration and in doing so of France (Marseille) to Paris. made explicit reference to the Civil Rights When the „marchers‟ arrived in Paris, Movement and the March on Washington of thousands of people gathered at the Place de 1963.8 It was a strong break in terms of la Bastille. Such a successful mobilisation was protest culture, in comparison with the form of by no means guaranteed from the outset, mobilisation chosen by immigrant groups considering how the project started. The during the previous decade. In the 1970s, marchers had set out as a small group of immigrants who fought for foreign workers‟ people, leaving the city of Marseille on 15 rights mobilised along the same line as the October 1983. Even though they could count labour movement in France; they organised on the support of local socialist party units in street demonstrations, following the call of their trek across the country, they could only various immigrant workers‟ associations really rely on the solidarity of local immigrant (Siméant 1998). In addition to this, protest associations in terms of food and accommo- was focused around the rights of non-citizens, dation.7 However, they managed to arouse the whereas the young activists were French sympathy of the population they encountered citizens and their demands were framed in on their way, and when they were nearing the terms of equal treatment and anti-racism. The capital, a number of senior political officials Civil Rights Movement in the United States had came to meet them: the Secretary of State for managed to put an end to a discriminatory Immigrant workers, Georgina Dufoix, on 20 regime, the segregation system of the November in Strasbourg; the Minister of southern states (McAdam 1999). In their Culture, Jack Lang, on 29 November; and the attempt to establish a link with the struggle Minister of Social Affairs, Pierre Bérégovoy, on against segregation, the young activists placed 1 December. Upon their arrival in Paris, a the spotlight on the discriminatory regime of delegation of marchers was invited to meet the which they considered themselves to be President of the Republic, François Mitterrand. victims. When the marchers walked out of the Moreover, it can be argued that such a Presidential Palace, they had received a choice underlines the transition from the promise that foreigners would be granted a popular figure of the immigrant worker, born residence permit of up to 10 years, which had in a foreign country, to that of the second generations whose skin colour made them look 5 The description of the events appears as such different to the rest of the French population. in Robert Marmoz, „Tout a commencé aux Minguettes‟, Libération, December 3 1983. 6 CIMADE (Committee in aid of evacuees) is a 8 The decision is explicitly stated in the flyer charity organisation founded in 1939 supporting announcing the event. Flyer included in a memo foreigners‟ rights, see: www.cimade.org. by Christian N‟Guyen to the Ministry of Foreign 7 Source: media coverage of the event, for Affairs, 25 November 1983 (Archives of Patrick instance, Libération, 3 December 1983. Weil, box number 51).
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The use of a different protest culture highlights that these young people were part of a larger both the change in demands and in the youth culture, involving portable cassette activists themselves. However, it is important players and rock music. Accounts of the parties to note that the break with the previous that took place in the public areas where they generation of immigrants was presented as found refuge always mentioned rock music. such by the media but not necessarily intended Finally, when the marchers reached Paris, a this way by the young activists. It is true that concert featured the Lyon-based rock band, the second generation was less concerned with Carte de Séjour and its lead singer Rachid workers‟ rights (some of them were actually Taha.9 The very name of the band – Residence unemployed) and also less organised along Permit – appealed to the political aspirations of national lines (the immigrants workers‟ the marchers and the members of the band movement comprised a loosely linked group of were also young people of North African associations: the Moroccan Association, the descent. Algerian Committee, the General Union of Moreover, the work of some young artists, Senegalese Workers, etc). Yet, the young writers and filmmakers reached wider attention activist Saliha Amara was reported stating: „It because it tied in with the March. For example, is precisely because our parents fought during the newspaper Libération published a cartoon the Algerian War that we are what we are‟ by Farid Boudjellal to illustrate the „identity (Polac 1991; see also Mara 2006). It can even crisis‟ that all the Beurs were likely to be argued that the media downplayed the link experience, i.e. difficult relationships with their with the anti-colonial struggle that still parents and the contrast between traditional embodied the workers‟ movement of the 1970s family values and the challenge of a post- and rather emphasised the new framework industrial society. Farid Boudjellal was already referring to the Black Movement. The left wing working as a cartoonist before the March, but newspaper Libération produced headlines such his work drew increasing interest, and in a as „Beur is Beautiful‟ (2 December 1983). sense, became more meaningful after the However, in their attempt to denounce event. discrimination and claim their right to equal With the March for Equality and Against treatment, the young activists who started the Racism, a number of second generation March were also denouncing their treatment as immigrant artists came to light. For instance, second-class citizens, which echoed the anti- on 9 December 1983, the Ministry of Culture colonial claim. There was continuity in the organised a meeting with Beur artists and struggle. The major change was rather on the activists to ask for their reactions to the event. focus of the protest, from foreigners‟ rights to Upon closer investigation of the Ministry of antidiscrimination, and this was highlighted by Culture‟s work, it is not surprising that a the change in protest culture. number of officials and project managers were familiar with this generation of artists.10 This A Political and Cultural Movement: Emergence of a Counterculture During and After the
Protest 9 Carte de Séjour (Residence Permit) was created Elements of a youth counterculture gave a in 1983 in Lyon. It became famous with a cover specific tone to the protest. In the description version of Charles Trenet‟s song Douce France in of the marchers, the image of young men or 1986. Rachid Taha later pursued a solo career. 10 Drawn from the archives of the Ministry of Cul- women walking along with their headphones ture and, more precisely, of the Fund for Cultural over their ears was a recurrent theme in the Intervention (FIC), a department of the ministry newspapers and media, along with the idea in charge of finding and funding cutting-edge projects in terms of innovation and outreach
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Angéline Escafré-Dublet should be placed in the specific context of the contrasting attitudes towards their formal early 1980s, when Jack Lang was appointed membership of a second generation of Minister of Culture in the new socialist immigrants.13 According to Karim Kacel, he government, with a larger budget than his only „discovered‟ that he was a „second predecessors and the mission to increase the generation immigrant‟ when his album was scope of its activities from high-brow culture to released and journalists interviewed him as more popular forms of culture such as rock such. In contrast, Mehdi Charef recalls striving music, cartoons and street art (Looseley 1999). to reflect accurately the experience of his Yet, the event clearly made the work of these generation, with the language of the street, artists politically relevant to the ministry using short dialogues and without trying to officials. justify the actions of his characters. In terms of a strategy of identity, these artists did not The Power of Art: Connecting the all share the same feelings either. On the one Movement hand, Hamoud Graïa explains that before he The second part of this paper analyses the managed to enter Patrice Chéreau‟s theatre reaction of second generation immigrant artists company, he always refused to play the role of to the political mobilisation of the March and the typical Arab person, even though he made evaluates how they aimed to „represent‟ the a point of applying to the Conservatoire with concern of their generation through their his „Algerian papers‟. On the other hand, Smaïn work.11 To this end, I will use the material thinks that talent has no race and he agrees to collected during a meeting organised by the play the role of a typical Arab person because Ministry of Culture on the wake of the March, he thinks that if he is good, people will forget in its audiovisual and printed versions.12 I will he has „curly hair‟. use the concept of „generation‟ to argue that The issue of cultural ascription and the beyond its essential function to give identity to normative expectations of the audience are a group, the artistic scene of the early 1980s also pervasive in their discourse. Even though had political implications: it gave a sense of only a few of them were able to visit the affinity to the movement and enabled country their parents left in order to settle in participants to identify with a cause. France, in the eyes of the audience they are associated with foreign artists. In the Searching for commonality: the issue of documentary, a journalist asks Mehdi Charef nationality whether he feels torn about writing in French At first glance, it is striking that the artists and refers to Kateb Yassin who used to invited by the Ministry of Culture to meet complain that he had to write in French to together six days after the March should have make himself heard. Kateb Yassin was born in Algeria in 1929 and educated in both (e.g. projects targeting rural audiences, disabled persons or immigrants). 13 The guest artists included Mehdi Charef, who 11 For an analysis of the content of their work, had just published a book on the life of two see Hargreaves 1994 and Silverstein 2005. young men, Patrick and Madjid, growing up in 12 Video footage of the debate on 9 December the suburbs of Paris (Charef 1983); Smaïn, who 1983: „Jeunesse en quête d‟une culture, les beurs had started out as an actor and was touring as a prennent la parole‟, directed by Ali Akika, Centre stand-up comedian; Karim Kacel, who had just for Contemporary Archives, National Archives, released the album Banlieue with a song about Fontainebleau, Number 1987 0737, article 10. In the life in the suburbs (1982); Hamou Graïa, who addition, the staff of the FIC also published an was a theatre actor; and Rachid Khimoune, a account of the meeting in the Cahiers FIC visual artist. All of them pursued a career in their available at the Documentation Centre of the respective field and are acknowledged artists Ministry of Culture. today.
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languages. In the late 1950s, he became Algeria.15 This issue is also reflected in the film famous among avant-garde intellectuals in Mehdi Charef later directed entitled Le Thé au Paris for his works of poetry in French. Kateb Harem d‟Archimède. In addition to the story of Yassin and Mehdi Charef have two very the book, he included a scene during which different backgrounds. As Mehdi Charef the young Majid meets with a counsellor in the explains in the documentary, he learned Arabic unemployment agency (Charef 1985). The from his mother and only knows it in its latter recommends that he takes French spoken form; French is the only language in nationality to be able to apply for an which he can write. However, in the eyes of apprenticeship. Madjid refuses, and later on in the journalist, the two writers share similar the film his mother runs after him accusing traits. The experience of the visual artist him of being lazy and not working, to which he Rachid Khimoune is similar in the sense that he answers he could very well work if he took used elements of calligraphy in his work French nationality. Hearing these words, because he felt that, as an artist with an Majid‟s mother becomes angry and shouts at Algerian background, he was expected to do him: „Never, do you hear me? You will never so. And yet, he decided to use them for their take French nationality!‟ This issue was central aesthetic quality without paying attention to for the marchers. In an interview for the their meaning. According to him, artists, newspaper Libération, one of them, Rachida, „should they be English, American Japanese or elaborates on the issue and explains that she Senegalese, are primarily concerned with would not take French nationality even if it aesthetics‟.14 These successive experiences makes things complicated to find a job tend to cause artists to reject their member- because she would consider it a betrayal.16 ship in a specific group, apart from that of the artistic community. Connecting the Movement However, upon closer examination, the issue When looking at the issue of nationality, we of nationality appears central to the thinking of observe the successive contributions of these artists, and we observe the expression of activists and artists to the expression of one a specific concern and how it translates into specific issue pertaining to second generation the different realms of politics and arts. In the immigrants. However, more than the mere discussion, Hamou Graïa explains that he „illustration‟ of a common experience, I argue made a point in applying to the Conservatoire that activists relied on artists and their work to with his „Algerian papers‟. And yet, he does provide credentials for their mobilisation and also have „French papers‟. As for Smaïn, he give identity to the movement. A discussion mentions being willing to hold both between writer Mehdi Charef and activist nationalities (French and Algerian). Indeed, Magid Benbouriche, shows that the artistic nationality was a burning issue at the component was part of Benbouriche‟s political beginning of the 1980s. Children born in strategy. When Mehdi Charef acknowledges France to Algerian parents born in Algeria that he did not formally take part in the when it was a French colony were French by mobilisation („I saw the March from the other virtue of the double jus soli (Weil 2008). And side, I did not take to the streets‟) and adds yet, for children of Algerian immigrants, French nationality could be considered as a betrayal of 15 their parents‟ fight for the independence of On Algerians‟ difficulties in admitting to having „French papers‟, see Abdelmalek Sayad, The Suffering of the Immigrant, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2004. 14 Interview by the author with Rachid Khimoune, 16 „Rachida ou le féminin de beur‟, Libération, 4 Aubervilliers, 16 June 2003. December 1983.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Angéline Escafré-Dublet that it is better when activists or community parents), but the March opened their eyes to leaders „show the way‟, Magid Benbouriche their common destiny and to their membership answers: „The work that [Mehdi Charef] did of a generational unit. According to Mannheim, with his book reflects our experience in French generation units „are characterised by the fact society. It is our task, as community that they do not merely involve a loose organisers, to interpret his work.‟17 Mehdi participation by a number of individuals Charef and Magid Benbouriche suggest a form differently, but an identity of responses, a of „task distribution‟ between the work of the certain affinity in the way in which all move artist and the mobilisation of the activists; with and are formed by their common although each of them uses different tools, experiences‟ (Mannheim 1990: 62). It can be both have the same collective objective to bear argued that art was the element that witness and change the living conditions of contributed to the „affinity‟ in the way second second generation immigrants. generation immigrants experienced the early The artistic component was part of the 1980s in France. mobilisation because it helped create a feeling A Beur movement existed thanks to the among young people that they were facing a combination of a mobilisation for the equal „generational issue‟. When social scientists treatment of second generation immigrants, mention „second generations‟, they refer to the predominantly of North African descent, and demographic meaning of the word generation. the cultural production that echoed the cause. The „second generations‟ are the children of Most likely, the Beurs represented the tip of the newcomers. In the study of immigrant the iceberg; their demands and their profile did processes and adaptation, this term refers not accurately represent the rest of their specifically to various experiences such as cohort. However, a combination of factors acculturation, ethnic construction and integra- such as political mobilisation and artistic tion (Portes and Rumbaut 2001). However, in production connected a generation of young the early 1980s, journalists and politicians people in a way that gave context to the used the term „second generation‟ to refer to a expression „Beur movement‟ or „Beur specific group of young people of North African generation‟. descent, who grew up in neglected areas and who encountered discrimination (particularly The Art of Power: Strategies of on the job market). Arguably, many second Appropriation generation immigrants felt uncomfortable to be The paper now turns to the perspective of a associated with a group of people that they did cultural institution - the Centre Georges not necessarily identify with - more specifically Pompidou in Paris - and analyses how it second generation Portuguese immigrants who „represented‟ the contribution of immigration felt their specific experience was not being through the „Children of Immigration‟ addressed. exhibition (January – April 1984). The initial However, in line with Mannheim‟s theory of project was to showcase the cultural generation, which differentiates between contribution of immigrants to society. generational sites and generational units, it However, the context of the March gave it a can be stated that second generation political tone and led to various strategies of immigrants shared a common generational site appropriation on the part of politicians and (being in their early 20s and having immigrant activists. The example of this exhibition provides a means to analyse issues of rating 17 Quotation from video footage of the 9 and evaluation by an institution of higher December 1983 debate: “Jeunesse en quête culture when it comes to the promotion of d‟une culture…”, op.cit.
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emerging forms of art. I will argue that the Culture; in search of innovation and looking at institution subordinated its criteria to the the creative power of a new generation. symbolic dimension of immigrant arts and in Josée Chapelle was appointed curator for doing so denied full legitimacy to their artistic the exhibition in 1983. With Veronique Baux, contribution. While some of these artists assistant curator, they started to scan the field eventually managed to break through, this of immigrant initiatives, in search of innovative example demonstrates the difficulty of projects. In an interview, Josée Chapelle representing particular experiences in a placed emphasis on their decision to search for Universalist context. activities outside the usual official paths.18 Yet, looking at the artists who took part in the The Organisation of the “Children of exhibition, it is clear that the sculptor Rachid Immigration” Exhibition Khimoune or the writer Mehdi Charef were The project was initiated some time before already in contact with the institution, that is, the March, but the exhibition happened to be the Ministry of Culture (cf. their participation in scheduled to take place right after (January - the debate described above). However, when April 1984). It featured artists with an discussing this matter with Josée Chapelle, it immigrant background and a large number of appeared that she meant the usual official cultural associations were invited to come and organisations which promoted immigrants‟ share their experiences through videos, live culture of origin. Indeed, the preservation of performances and music (Baux and Chapelle immigrants‟ cultural links with their culture of 1984). origin was the target of numerous From the outset, the very fact that the organisations mandated by sending states, Centre for Industrial Creation initiated the such as the Amicale des Algériens or the project shows that its aim was both symbolic Amicale des commerçants et travailleurs and artistic. The Centre was created in 1969 to marocains. These organisations were not provide exhibitions on design, the living spontaneous initiatives arising from the environment and urbanism, and aimed to immigrant community, but rather nationalistic initiate a reflection on people‟s lives and their political structures that foreign governments relationship with their surroundings. It was initiated to maintain migrants‟ loyalty to the meant to „bring to light the forms that shape national ideology of the new independent our daily life and make sure that the aesthetic countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia or and functional value of objects becomes a Senegal. It is not clear whether these kinds of major preoccupation for manufacturers‟ organisations had a real impact on immigrants‟ (Centre Georges Pompidou 1985). In February cultural life. However, they had been the main 1982, the department‟s head, Paul Blanquart, contact organisations for French officials in was an urban sociologist who wanted to their attempt to act upon immigrants‟ cultural explore not only the aesthetics of the urban life in the previous decade (Escafre-Dublet environment but also its social component. 2008b). In her attempt to collect innovative With this in mind, he decided to launch an artistic work, Josée Chapelle clearly sought to exhibition on the cultural contribution of move away from the official line of the second generation immigrants in French emigration states. society. His approach was that of a social The organisation of the exhibition scientist. He aimed to explore social practices encountered obstacles that demonstrate the and their impact in terms of cultural complexity and the political potential of such transformation. He was also in line with the new approach adopted by the Ministry of 18 Interview by the author with Josée Chapelle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 20 May 2003.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Angéline Escafré-Dublet an event. Although Josée Chapelle and acts but had faced the whistles of the crowd Veronique Baux had been working on the gathered in front of her. This had been later exhibition for a few months, the director of the explained by young activists as a sign that Centre for Industrial Creation decided to stop their support should not be taken for granted the project, arguing that it would cost too by the government even though their political much. It was true that the organisation of the positioning was clearly on the left.20 With her exhibition included the funding of costly presence at the opening of a show at the community projects. However, according to Centre Georges Pompidou – a field of activity Josée Chapelle, the more likely reason was slightly outside the scope of her responsibility that the director was afraid of too strong a – Georgina Dufoix demonstrated that she was political mobilisation around this exhibition. open to the various forms of expression that Eventually, the curators and artists, who were the second generation of immigrants decided already involved in the project, lobbied the to chose, should it be politics or art. ministry of Culture and the Social Action Fund From the viewpoint of French cultural (an administrative unit under the supervision policies, Jack Lang was there to show that the of the Secretary of State for Immigrant Ministry of Culture was ready to consider Workers) and obtained some more funding.19 immigrants‟ art for its artistic value, to The exhibition did open in January 1984, and recognise its quality, and beyond that, to is an interesting locus to examine the acknowledge its legitimacy. In this sense, Jack strategies of appropriation of both activists and Lang‟s visit to the marchers, and later on, his political officials. presence at the opening of the Pompidou exhibition, indicated that the Ministry of The Symbolic Dimension for the Socialist Culture intended to make immigrant cultural Government production a new area of intervention and The Minister of Culture Jack Lang, together expertise. with Secretary of State for Immigrant Workers This has to be placed in the context of the Georgina Dufoix, opened the exhibition on 8 relationship between France and the January 1984; a premiere for an exhibition governments of certain emigration countries. featuring immigrant art, and not something As mentioned above, it was considered that that was usual for the Centre George immigrants‟ cultural life was the exclusive Pompidou, either. In their speeches, both domain of their government of origin. made the link with the March and announced Regarding second generation immigrants, the more funding for immigrant cultural production French government could claim a right to in the future. From the viewpoint of address their cultural needs by virtue of the government politics, it was clear that ministers fact that they would become French nationals had to show that they stood side by side with at the age of 18. However, in the specific the young „children of immigration‟ and not context of Franco-Algerian political relations, against them. When the marchers reached the this was a highly sensitive matter. In 1983, the Place de la Bastille on December 3 1983, French government was in the process of re- Georgina Dufoix had tried to make a speech negotiating agreements with Algeria, and the announcing new legal sanctions against racist Algerian government proved touchy on the topic of second generation Algerian immigrants growing up in France. The Algerian official line 19 360 000 francs from the Ministry of Culture and 150 000 francs from the Social Action Fund, was to condemn the „de-culturation‟ or the i.e. 52 percent of the total budget for the exhibition. From a document found in the archives of the Centre Georges Pompidou, 1984. 20 Libération, 6 December 1983.
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French „cultural invasion‟ of their identity.21 Frontière, was part of the project, along with Against this backdrop, the Algerian govern- Paulo Moreira, who worked on Mosaïque (a TV ment looked unfavourably upon Jack Lang‟s show about immigrants‟ life in France). Not visit to the marchers and the prospect that just initiated by „twenty or so young second generation Algerian immigrants could immigrants‟, it was rather the case that some become the target of French cultural politics.22 experienced activists in the field of immigration The fact that the Minister of Culture opened news decided to connect various emerging the exhibition proved symbolic in the sense associations into a network for the promotion that he acknowledged the second generation‟s of information on young immigrants. During artistic contribution but also indicated that he the exhibition, IM‟média issued a magazine intended to make it an area of intervention, describing the event and criticising the content which was a new political approach to second for not sufficiently addressing issues relating to generation immigrants‟ cultural life. second generation immigrants‟ life in France.24 In an article entitled „Cultural New Deal‟ („New The Political Potential for Immigrant Political Deal culturel‟) they criticised the institutional Activists „grip‟ of the Centre Georges Pompidou on the The immigrant militant scene was also quick content of the exhibition. In doing so, to recognise the political potential of the event. IM‟media maintained a traditional form of The newly formed IM‟media agency took part political opposition to the institution when it in the project and seized the opportunity of the comes to immigrant cultural production. In the exhibition to criticise the institution and 1970s, the government had also resorted to government politics. IM‟media was created in cultural means to support its return policy 1983 out of the „mobilisation of twenty or so (organisation of a theatre festival entitled Le young immigrants living in several French cities Printemps des Peuples Présents, for instance). with the objective of participating in the Even though the change in political orientation production of information about young people was strong between the two periods, the living in disadvantaged areas and of combating activists demonstrated that they could still the general distrust between young people and exert oppositional pressure. journalists‟.23 IM‟média connected a network of associations in France, from which a number of The Challenge of Representing Immigration video montages were selected and featured in From the viewpoint of the second gene- the exhibition. ration immigrant artists participating in the However, upon closer investigation of the show, the issue lies in the tension between the funding application of IM‟média to the Social acknowledgement of their work for their Action Fund, it appears that Samir Abdallah, immigrant background and not for its artistic former founder of immigrant newspaper Sans value. The primary focus of the exhibition being to acknowledge the cultural contribution 21 „De-culturation‟ was mentioned in the notes of of second generation immigrants, the artistic the first conference on French emigration quality of the work was not the priority for the organised by the Algerian government in Algiers (February 1973); „cultural invasion‟ was curators of the show. According to Josée mentioned in a letter sent from the French Chapelle, their aim was to state that second ambassador in Algeria to the foreign ministry in France (20 May 1984). 22 Notes included in the working documents of 24 M'Media, “Le New Deal culturel à Beaubourg”, Secretary of State Georgina Dufoix, 20 May 1984. Bulletin de l'agence IM'Media, 18 January to 23 23 Funding application from IM‟media found in April 1984, Paris: Agence IM'Media. Archives of the Notes from the Administrative Board of the the Centre national d'art et de culture, Centre Social Action Fund, 19 January 1984. Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Angéline Escafré-Dublet generation self-expression existed, „here it is‟.25 grounds that immigrant contribution has to be Therefore, the show featured works from both recognised may have led the curators to lower professional and amateur artists presented their standards of selection, therefore creating side by side. For the show, curators had frustration among some artists. commissioned works by artists such as the The question of artistic quality and the issue sculptor Mohand Amara, the artist Mehdi of creating a double standard of selection have Lallaoui, the photographer Joseph Marando to be viewed from the perspective of the and visual artist Rachid Khimoune. Their works Ministry of Culture‟s mandate. When created in were displayed among various projects 1959, the ministry‟s role was to make initiated by community organisations: a video accessible humanity‟s greatest masterpieces montage from a group of young people from (as stated in the founding decree of 24 July Montbéliard, some pencil drawings and some 1959). From the outset, the work of the poems from another group. According to ministry was to select and promote works of Khimoune, when he came to install his work, art under certain artistic criteria that made he found himself among young people who them likely to be considered as masterpieces. „did not know what they were doing‟26 and to Along with the task of managing museums and him, they contrasted with artists like him; he other artistic institutions, the administrative had studied at the Beaux Arts and was trying officials in the Ministry of Culture assumed the to start a professional career (by then, he had role of art critics. The question of artistic had a number of solo and group shows, cf. quality became a matter of great importance Khimoune 2001). Khimoune had been involved and, in the case of the Children of Immigration in the support committee to maintain the exhibition, creating a double standard of exhibition when Paul Blanquart had called for selection was a way to deny the fundamental its halt, and before the exhibition opened, he right of each individual to be treated equally. met with Jack Lang and other artists at the French Universalism leaves few options to Ministry of Culture. There is no denying that artistic institutions other than to apply a form having his work on display at the Centre of double standard when it comes to making Georges Pompidou was an important stage in room for symbolic forms of representation. The his career. However, Khimoune expressed a system lacks fluidity in accepting represen- feeling of frustration by pointing out the tative forms of art, such as minority art or difference between his work and some other forms of creative expression created by pieces of the show. That the artist owed his marginal groups. This comes from the original participation in a collective exhibition at one of mandate of the Ministry of Culture that was to the country‟s major artistic institutions to his avoid the promotion of amateur and regional immigrant origin was problematic. „I would forms of expression in the context of the rather have my work featured in an exhibition country‟s reconstruction after the Second at the Centre Georges Pompidou because of its World War. However, this central element to value and not because my parents were French cultural politics creates a major immigrants‟.27 Organising an exhibition on the obstacle to the recognition of immigrants‟ contribution to the national culture. 25 Interview by the author with Josée Chapelle, Finally, in their attempt to display the 20 May 2003. cultural contribution of second generation 26 Interview by the author with Rachid Khimoune, immigrants, the organisers of the show also Aubervilliers, 16 June 2003. 27 While his father had arrived from Algeria in wanted to create a space for lively debate and 1946, Rachid Khimoune was born in France and grew up in the South West. When he was a region, with his parents. He now lives and works teenager, he moved to Aubervilliers, in the Paris in Aubervilliers.
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to bring together immigrant cultural pro- Conclusion ductions with different origins (Algerians, That immigrants‟ protests are cultural per se Portuguese, Caribbean, etc.). For instance, is reflected in the use of cultural production images of Portuguese rock bands were on during and after a political mobilisation such as display side by side with African jazz dancers; the March for Equality and Against Racism. performances in the amphitheatre featured Moreover, because the March had brought music from the Caribbean on one night, North Beurs into the spotlight, and even more so, African theatre the following night and African because the expression of immigrant-related dancers the day after. Yet, during an interview diversity was politically challenging in the with a young girl from Montbéliard who French context, the exhibition which opened in worked with artist Antoine de Bary on an art the Pompidou centre a month later raised a piece about girls of North African descent and number of issues. It revealed the political their relationship with tradition, it was clear symbolism of showcasing immigrant artistic that the time she spent in the exhibition was contributions to the nation, but also the devoted to making contact with fellow second difficulty of acknowledging emerging forms of generation immigrants of North African art in such a context: from the point of view of descent.28 This could easily be explained by immigrant activists, it is never political enough; the higher proportion of works produced by from the point of view of immigrant artists, it is artists with a North African background in the never artistic enough. exhibition, which reflected their proportion in The example of the Beur movement of the the French population (in 1982: 14.8 percent early 1980s in France provides insights for of immigrants were Algerians; 9.1 percent understanding issues pertaining to cultural were Moroccan, 5 percent were Tunisians and politics and migration-related diversity. It 15,8 percent were Portuguese). demonstrates how immigrant artistic produc- However, transnational studies also tion can become a tool to voice immigrant demonstrate that the primary focus of demands and to contribute to connecting a immigrants and their children is to negotiate movement. It shows that immigrant arts their cultural affiliations with both the host challenge national lines and help us refine our society and their culture of origin. It is understanding of national models. It allows us therefore questionable that this would allow to appreciate how French understanding of room for meeting with different cultures in the Universalism is expressed at the level of host society. That strategy is a convenient cultural policies towards second generation choice for the advocates of a melting pot in immigrants. Moreover, comparing the view- which all cultures come together. The organi- points of the institutional representatives, sation of the exhibition reflects this ideological journalists, artists and immigrants, gives an principle: that all immigrant cultures should insight into the general process of ethnic meet and demonstrate their integration into construction and categorisation. The picture of the French culture. However, this does not the 1980s is relevant for today in the sense always match the various interests at stake, that it contributes to our understanding of and primarily conflicts with the fact that cultural ascription and ethnic categorisation. identity construction happens at the individual While categories inform the practice of policy- level and that institutions can hardly direct the making and governance, the rationale process. surrounding immigrant artistic production give us insight into how they were formed.
28 Participant in the show interviewed by the author, Paris, 12 June 2003.
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References
BATTEGAY, A. and BOUBEKER, A. 1993. Les associative issue de l‟immigration. Paris: CNRS images publiques de l‟immigration: médias, éditions. actualité, immigration dans la France des LOOSELEY, D. 1999. The Politics of Fun: Cultural années 1980. Paris: L‟Harmattan. Policy and Debate in Contemporary France. BAUX, V. and CHAPELLE, J. 1984. Les Enfants de Oxford: Berg. l‟Immigration: Catalogue de l‟exposition. Paris: MARA, S. 2006. L‟impasse de la République : Ré- Centre de création industrielle. cit d‟enfance (1954-1962). Paris: L‟Harmattan. BLANCHARD, P. et al. (dir). 2005. La Fracture MANNHEIM, K. 1990. Le problème des géné- coloniale. La Société française au prisme de rations. Translated by G. Mauger and N. Peri- l'héritage colonial. Paris: La Découverte. volaropoulou. Paris: Nathan. BOURDIEU, P. 1992. Les Règles de l‟Art. Genèse MARTINIELLO, M. and LAFLEUR, J.-M. 2008. et Structure du Champ Littéraire. Paris: Seuil. “Ethnic Minorities' Cultural and Artistic Prac- CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU. 1985. Rapport tices as Forms of Political Expression: A d‟activité. Paris: Centre national d‟art et de Review of the Literature and a Theoretical culture. Discussion on Music”. Journal of Ethnic and CHAREF, M. 1983. Le Thé au Harem d‟Archi Migration Studies 34 (8): 1191 – 215. Ahmed. Paris: Le Mercure de France. McADAM, D. 1999. Political Process and the CHAREF, M. dir. 1985. Le Thé au harem d‟Archi- Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. mède. Paris: KG Productions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ESCAFRE-DUBLET, A. 2009. “Les cultures immi- POLAC, C. 1991. “Quand les immigrés prennent grées sont elles solubles dans les cultures la parole: histoire sociale du journal Sans populaires?”. Mouvements 57 (1): 89-96. Frontière”. Master‟s thesis, Sciences Po, Paris. ESCAFRE-DUBLET, A. 2008a. “Immigration, Cul- PORTES, A. and RUMBAUT, R. 2001. Legacies: ture, and the State: The Cultural Dimension of The Story of the Immigrant Second Gene- French Immigration Policies, 1958-1991”. PhD ration. Berkeley: University of California Press. diss., Sciences Po Paris. RAINHORN, J. 2005. Paris, New York, des ESCAFRE-DUBLET, A. 2008b. “L‟Etat et la culture migrants italiens, années 1880 -années 1930. des immigrés”, Histoire@Politique (4). Paris: CNRS histoire. ESCAFRE-DUBLET, A. 2008c. "L‟aventure de SCHNAPPER, D. 1974. “Centralisme et Mohamed prends ta valise de Kateb Yacine: fédéralisme culturels: les immigrés italiens en histoire d‟un théâtre de la contestation en France et aux Etats-Unis”. Annales ESC 9: milieu immigré, France-Algérie, 1972". In: P. 1141-59. Brasseur and M. Gonzalez, eds., Théâtre des SIMEANT, J. 1998. La Cause des Sans-papiers. minorités. Paris : L‟Harmattan. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po. HARGREAVES, A. 1994. Immigration, Race and SILVERSTEIN, P. 2005. Algeria in France: Ethnicity in Contemporary France. London and Transpolitics, Race and Nation. Bloomington: New York: Routledge. Indiana University Press. HAMOUMOU, M. 1994. Et ils sont devenus harkis. WEIL, P. 2008. How to Be French: Nationality in Paris: Fayard. the Making since 1789. Durham: Duke KHIMOUNE, R. 2001. Les Enfants du Monde. University Press. Paris: Somogy. WEIL, P. 2005. La France et ses étrangers, LEBOVICS, H. 1999. Mona Lisa‟s Escort, André l‟aventure d‟une politique de l‟immigration de Malraux and the Reinvention of French 1938 à nos jours. Paris: Gallimard. Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. WIHTOL DE WENDEN, C. 1988. Les immigrés et LEVEAU, R. and WIHTOL DE WENDEN, C. 2001. la politique: cent cinquante ans d‟évolution. La Beurgeoisie : Les trois âges de la vie Paris, Presses de la FNSP.
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About the author Angéline Escafré-Dublet holds a PhD in modern history from Sciences Po, Paris. She is currently a research fellow in the research unit on International Migration and Minorities at the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), Paris. Her research interests focus on the study of migration, and how this relates to matters of politics and culture, in modern Europe and North America. She teaches immigration history at Sciences Po. For a complete list of her publications, see: http://www.ined.fr/en/current_researchs/researchers/bdd/nom/Escafre-Dublet+Angeline/
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Gender Equality as ‘Cultural Stuff’: Ethnic Boundary Work in a Classroom in Switzerland
KERSTIN DUEMMLER, JANINE DAHINDEN, JOËLLE MORET (Maison d'analyse des processus sociaux (MAPS), University of Neuchâtel)
Abstract: The idea of boundary work has become a key concept in studies on ethnicity and provides new theoretical insights into the social organisation of cultural difference. People articulate ethnic boundaries in everyday interactions using conceptual distinctions to construct notions of „us‟ and „them‟. This study is based on an empirical case study (ethnographic fieldwork, interviews) with young people (16-21 years old) in a Swiss vocational school. The results emphasise that the moral imperative of gender equality is the most significant category used to create boundaries between Swiss and Albanian migrants. Our study considers boundary work as relational and thus examines the strategies of both the Swiss majority and the (male) Albanian minority. Results suggest that the boundary itself is seldom contested by either Swiss or Albanians, and we argue that the visibility of the boundary („brightness‟) is closely linked to larger power relations in society between those groups.
Introduction discourses to construct notions of „us‟ and In the course of their everyday lives, „them‟? In other words, how can the properties individuals engage in conceptual distinctions of boundaries be described and by what which join some things, objects, people or mechanisms and dynamics are boundaries events together and separate them from created, activated, maintained, disputed, others along certain boundaries. The idea of subverted, bridged or crossed? In this article, boundary work has come to play a key role in we aim to further advance the boundary- important new lines of scholarship across the making approach in the study of ethnicity as it social sciences (for an overview, see Pachucki was developed during the last decades (for a et al. 2007), and it opens up new theoretical recent overview see Wimmer 2008b). insights into the social organisation of Based on the work of Weber, Durkheim, difference. Modern societies are, by definition, Barth and Bourdieu, contemporary writers places of intensified diversity and hetero- have developed an idea of ethnicity which is geneity, hereby producing new contexts in not perceived as a result of differences which „difference‟ is constructed and inequa- between pre-defined, fixed groups with some lities are (re)produced. In short, the question kind of natural demarcated boundaries, but of how „differences‟ are socially organised is “rather as a dynamic process of constituting gaining new pertinence in such contexts. What and re-configuring groups by defining the are the conceptual distinctions used by boundaries between them” (Wimmer 2008a: individuals in everyday interactions and in 1027). We aim to contribute to the growing
Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010: 1-3 ISSN 2079-6595 www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol12/issue1/art6 © UNESCO DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret literature (Espiritu 2001; Korteweg and moral imperative of gender equality. This Yurdakul 2009), first, by showing through an produces a differentiation between the Swiss empirical case study that gender is the most and the Albanians – but also a hierarchisation salient category, the ‗cultural stuff‘ in the – while legitimising the exclusion of the latter. words of Barth (1969: 15), which is mobilised Then, we depict the counter strategies of the to create, maintain and contest ethnic stigmatised group: the communality of those boundaries. More exactly, the idea of gender strategies is that they do not aim to call into equality between women and men becomes question or blur the boundary. Instead, the moral imperative upon which an ethnic students of the minority take this line as boundary between Swiss and Albanians is granted and naturalise it in such a way that legitimated and a ‗we‘ and a culturally different the boundary adopts almost a primordial ‗you‘ is built and contested in everyday character. However, these students develop encounters among young people. strategies of the excluded. In the concluding Scholars recently contributed to this debate remarks, some reflections of a more by analysing mainly the perspective of either theoretical nature are developed. We argue the majority or the minority group. However, that questions of power and domination have ethnic boundary work is necessarily relational not yet received the full attention they deserve and a two-way process of collective self- within the boundary-work literature. If identifications and external categorisation boundaries are institutionalised through reified (Barth 1969; Jenkins 1997). Furthermore, ideas about culture, tradition and gender boundary making has to do with power relations, it is impossible for minority groups to relations and social inequalities between blur or shift them. majorities and minorities. Because of this, and with the aim of contributing to the burgeoning Ethnic boundary work: relationality, literature, we ask how the ‗stigmatised others‘ forms and gendered ‘cultural stuff’ engage, contest and react to exclusive The notion of boundary has been used boundaries in the larger society. What counter throughout the social sciences, rendering strategies can the minority deploy? By what social classifications visible across a wide means, arguments and practices can they variety of contexts. In general, boundaries are challenge those institutionalised ethnic understood as having both social and symbolic boundaries? dimensions; this article mainly deals with the The article is based on a qualitative case latter. Symbolic boundaries have been defined study with young people of different origins in as ‗conceptual distinctions made by social a classroom context. In the first section, we actors to categorise objects, people and introduce the idea of ethnicity as boundary practices. [… They] also separate people into work and relate it to gender, thereby focusing groups and generate feelings of similarity and on two intersecting forces of domination and group membership‘. In addition, social subordination. This is followed by a brief boundaries are ‗objectified forms of social outline of the methodology. Then, the estab- differences manifested in unequal access to lished and ‗bright‘ boundaries (Alba 2005) and unequal distribution of resources and between Swiss and Albanians are described social opportunities‘ (Lamont and Molnar 2002: based on the existing literature, because, 168). In daily interaction, actors are involved obviously, boundary making in a classroom is in struggles over social distinctions and not free from the wider societal context but is classifications through which symbolic boun- anchored in it. Next, we present the ethnic daries can shift. When symbolic boundaries are boundary work among the students and the widely agreed upon, however, they can take ways in which it is taking place around the on a constraining character and they can
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Gender Equality as 'Cultural Stuff' DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 become social boundaries (Lamont and Molnar need be. Racism, to give an example, is most 2002: 168). typically a result of social categorisation. The With regard to ethnicity, since the 1960s power to name ethnically can be formal, scholars have put forward the idea that ethnic where, for instance, the state designates groups exist solely through the creation and particular criteria for ethnic classification. This maintenance of their boundaries. It was Barth way Jenkins draws an analytical distinction (1969) who insisted that ethnic groups must between groups and categories, introducing be understood as the outcome of self- the idea of power relations. definitions and ascriptions offered by others, Our article takes up this point. We examine hereby adopting an interactional and relational how young people identify and define perspective of ethnicity. According to him, themselves in terms of groups and how they ethnic groups are maintained through are identified and defined by others in terms of relational processes of inclusion and exclusion, categories. We are interested in the and different cultural elements – called distinctions that the majority group (Swiss) use ‗cultural stuff‘ (Barth 1969: 15) – are mobilised to draw boundaries (i.e. by their identification in order to mark a difference to other groups as a group and in categorisations of out- and confirm similarities among the in-group. groups). However, we also reveal the counter- For our purpose, three elements of these strategies that the stigmatised group theoretical debates need to be further (Albanians) produce to affect the meaning discussed as they will be of relevance for our given to them by others. This means exploring argument: the dialectic and relational group identifications – what it means for Swiss character of ethnic boundary work, the and for Albanians to belong to their group different forms of boundaries, and the idea of (what defines their differences, similarities) – mobilising ‗cultural stuff‘ in order to mark and how they are influenced by the external communalities and differences. categorisation that members of the two groups hold in regard to each other. Relationality Following Jenkins (1997: 54ff.), we refer to Forms of ethnic boundary work a twin process of group identification and The boundary-making approach highlights external social categorisation which underlies the potential transformative character of this relational and dialectic character of ethnicity. Ethnicity varies in relation to social boundary work. On the one hand, individuals and historical contexts and from one society to must be able to differentiate themselves from another as it is understood as the momentary others by drawing on criteria of similarities and result of the actor‘s (individual, nation-state, shared belonging within the in-group. Such media, etc.) struggles over classifications ethnic communality is a form of monopolistic about ‗us‘ and ‗others‘.1 Zolberg and Woon social closure; it defines membership, eligibility (1999) provide a conceptual starting point for and access. On the other hand, this internal any discussion of boundary change, identification process must be recognised by distinguishing three types of boundary work: outsiders for an objectified collective identity boundary crossing, blurring, and shifting. to emerge. Such external categorisations are Boundary crossing corresponds to the classic intimately bound up with power relations and version of individual-level assimilation; relate to the capacity of one group to successfully impose its categories of ascription upon another set of people and to the 1 This does not mean that they would not resources which the categorised collectivity develop persistence – especially when there are institutionalised boundaries. can draw upon to resist that imposition, if
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret someone moves from one group to the other a consequence, ethnic boundary making refers without any real change to the boundary itself. to meaningful differences and similarities Boundary blurring implies that the social profile which do not signify real confirmation. of a boundary has become less distinct; the The case study reveals that gender is highly clarity of the social distinction involved has relevant for both processes of ethnic group become clouded, and individuals‘ location with identification and external categorisation. We respect to the boundary may appear understand gender as a relational and indeterminate. Boundary shifting involves the analytical category. Accordingly, gender can be relocation of a boundary so that populations described as the social construction and once situated on one side are now included on production of the feminine and the masculine the other; former outsiders are transformed (a dichotomous matrix), related to identities into insiders. Wimmer (2008a) distinguishes and subjectivities but also producing systems five main strategies deployed by actors to of domination and subordination (Butler 1990: transform boundaries: to redraw (shift) a 880; Gildemeister 2001: 531). This is reflected, boundary by either expanding or limiting the for example, in the division of labour, in social domain of people included in one‘s own ethnic representations, ascriptions, behavioural category; to modify existing boundaries by expectations or in general in the social status challenging the hierarchical ordering of ethnic of men and women. Gender is neither a categories or by changing one‘s own position biological characteristic nor a stable socialised within a boundary system, or by emphasising identity of individuals, but an element that is other, non-ethnic forms of belonging. In this actively re-produced in social practices and article, we are interested in the strategies and interactions (‗doing gender‘) (West and forms to transform boundaries that we find Zimmermann 1987). among the young people in a class. However, Scholars of intersectionality have drawn our the capacity to transform boundaries depends attention to the simultaneous and interacting on the social position individuals occupy (i.e. effects of systems of oppression on the basis migrant minority or Swiss majority) and on the of gender, ‗race‘, religion, ethnicity, sexual existing dominance schemes (here gender and orientation, etc., as categories of difference ethnicity) that are widely agreed upon in (Anthias 2002; Crenshaw 1991). This has society. proven to be a powerful critique of mutually exclusive categories, such as ‗women‘ or Gender as ‗cultural stuff‘ used for ethnic ‗foreigner‘, that have served to mask boundary work intersecting and interacting relations of Any ‗cultural stuff‘ in common can provide a domination and inequality. Following these basis and resource for ethnic closure: ideas, in this paper we will focus mainly on language, ritual, kinship, economic way of life, two intersecting forces of domination: gender or lifestyle more generally – an idea rooted and ethnicity (and – to some extent - ‗Islam‘) without doubt in the writings of Max Weber. which are related to our topic of boundary He defined ethnicity as a subjectively felt work. sense of belonging based on the belief in a Gender as well as ethnicity can be described shared culture and a common ancestry (Weber in terms of boundary work. Thorne (1993) 2005 [1922]: 355ff.). According to Weber, emphasised in her study the interactional work different cultural markers can be used to of children in schools that continuously reinforce and maintain this sense of belonging: maintained a difference between boys and myths of a common historical origin, girls (‗borderwork‘) as there was a social phenotypic similarities, or any cultural pressure to behave and to live up to the ideal practices seen as typical for the community. As of being a boy or a girl (for Germany, see
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Kelles and Breidenstein 1998). However, we young people have to position themselves in are primarily concerned here with ethnic schools, in peer groups or even in the labour boundary work coupled with representations market. The importance of belonging is visible about gender. Scholars have already reported in the various classifications that young people from different parts of the world and based refer to in order to differentiate groups (e.g. upon different empirical case studies that dress styles). However, recognition and reified cultural differences have been linked acceptance of belonging play fundamental with reified perceptions of gender relations roles because they often depend on certain and that those ideas have been mobilised in criteria and sometimes on ethno-national order to legitimate hierarchical boundaries origin. Young people in a classroom in between ethnic groups (Nader 1989; Nagel Switzerland are generally heterogeneous 1998). We propose that the boundary regarding ethno-national origin, religion or perspective can help in overcoming gender, and they are not necessarily friends essentialised ideas of ‗cultural difference‘ but must spend some time together. (critically, among others, Grillo 2003; Stolcke Therefore, boundary work might become 1995) by showing that it is not a natural, highly relevant among young people in the substantivist cultural difference with regard to school context. gender relations which is the raison d‘être for Moreover, carrying out such research in a the existence of groups, but that subjective school allows one to go beyond a particular mobilisation of such ideas by actors produce ethnic group or immigrant community and to the groups in question. It is not the possession focus on a specific context and on the social of so-called ‗cultural characteristics‘ that makes interactions that happen between people in social groups distinct but rather the social this context. The presence of both children of interactions with other groups that make the immigrants and youth from Swiss families difference possible, visible, socially meaningful allows the study of their dialectic involvement and recognised or confirmed by others. in ethnic boundary work (external cate- gorisations and group identifications). What The study, research methods and the must unfortunately be left out in this analysis classroom setting is the role of the school.3 Studying ethnic identifications and The school of this case study is situated in a categorisations was the aim of a qualitative town (60,000 inhabitants) in the German- research project with young people of a Swiss speaking part of Switzerland which is vocational school characterised by multicultural characterised by the ethno-national diversity of diversity.2 Boundary work is particularly its population: as in the rest of Switzerland, relevant among adolescents since social around 20 percent have a foreign nationality, belonging to groups is especially important coming, in particular, from the former during this period of life. While they gain Yugoslavia (e.g. Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia) or independence from parents and the family, Germany, Portugal, Italy or Spain. Regarding the religious affiliation of the population,
2 The study is funded by the Swiss National Research Programme NRP 58 ‗Religions in Switzerland‘ and conducted by a research team 3 Such a larger perspective could allow going composed of the three authors. Although this beyond the categorisations and group article is based on data from only one specific identifications among young people and enable class, the study includes fieldwork and interviews taking into consideration the institutional context in nine different classes in two regions of where they occur (Schiffauer et al. 2002)(for Switzerland. such an approach see Schiffauer et al. 2002).
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Catholicism is dominant and – in comparison lessons one day a week in school. There were with other regions – the town has been 17 pupils in class; the number in terms of men Catholic for a long time. (7) and women (10) was quite balanced. Ethnic boundary work can be empirically The students who took part in the interactions studied in social interactions. For this reason, or interviews mentioned in this article are ethnographic fieldwork (observations during briefly introduced here. Cornelia and Luisa5, lessons and breaks) was carried out during both 18 years old and with Swiss parents, four months in 2008/2009 in a class. One were best friends in the class. Sabine (20 female researcher of the team4 spent at least years old) and Chiara (21 years old) also had one day every week during this period with Swiss nationality while their fathers had come these young people. In addition, she carried originally from Portugal and Italy, respectively. out group discussions and different types of There were also two second-generation personal interviews with students as well as migrants – Admir (16 years old) and Edi (18 with teachers and directors. Interviews and years old) – with parents from Montenegro observations were transcribed by the and Kosovo, respectively. While Admir was researcher and data analysis was based on the born in Switzerland, Edi arrived when he was Grounded Theory research approach (Glaser very young. Both had the original nationality of and Strauss 1967). This allowed us to their parents and had been granted Swiss triangulate data stemming from interactions citizenship. Admir and Edi formed a group between students (observations) with together with Stefan (18 years old, Swiss interview-data gathered from conversations parents), and ethnic origin was a recurring between the researcher and the students. In topic among them. For instance, Stefan, an iterative process, we developed codes and although being Swiss, regularly mentioned that more abstract concepts from this different he could also be considered a ‗foreigner‘ like data. Data analysis and discussions occurred Admir and Edi since he had grown up with a regularly in the research team in order to lot of ‗foreigners from Kosovo‘ and, therefore, debate codes, concepts and theoretical ideas he would be conscious of their preoccupations (peer debriefing) (Flick 2006). Gender equality and values. Sabine, Chiara, Luisa and Cornelia was one of the main concepts we observed also perceived this group of young men as the focusing on ethnic boundary work. However, it ‗foreigners‘ as the group participated regularly dominates in interview-data (compared to the in the performance of this image. Finally, there observation) since our questions stimulated was Martin (18 years old, Swiss parents) who ethnic boundary work whereas the had no close relationship either with Admir, Edi spontaneous situations in class were generated and Stefan or with the other women. by the students themselves and were therefore Although our aim is to understand how less frequent. students themselves mobilise their ethnic The students in the class were 16 to 21 belonging to mark boundaries, we find it years old and had already finished secondary nevertheless important to highlight whether school. They did a manual apprenticeship, they are Swiss or second generation migrants working in different small artisan companies, in order to show what social position they hold mostly outside the town in suburban or rural (majority or minority from former Yugoslavia) areas, where they learned the practical issues and how their boundary work strategies could of their profession, and attended theoretical be interpreted from this perspective.
4 The researcher is the first author of the article. 5 Their names have been changed for this article.
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‘Bright’ boundaries between Swiss and Switzerland was only possible by seeking Albanians – Retracing the dominant asylum or through family reunification. The discourse Swiss admission policy – as those of other We argue that we can nowadays identify countries – created different categories of symbolic as well as social boundaries between migrants through a kind of ‗ethno-national- Swiss and Albanians. Albanians in Switzerland sorting‘. Immigrants from the former are confronted with social exclusion, Yugoslavia were now categorised as members marginalisation and discrimination; the of the so-called ‗third‘ circle, considered to be boundaries between the two groups have been culturally the most distant from the Swiss institutionalised, and ‗folk classifications‘ people (Dahinden 2009). contribute to the stereotyping of Albanians in Confronted with economic hardship and with terms of cultural difference. As it is against this increasing political unrest at home, the background that the young people in our case Albanian workers slowly abandoned their plans study are engaged in boundary work, we have for returning and decided instead, whenever to take into account this dominant discourse possible, to bring their families to Switzerland. which informs their categorical distinctions. As a consequence, since 1989 there has been Albanian-speaking migrants are among the a steady increase in the Albanian population in most important immigrant groups in Switzerland through chain migration, and a Switzerland in terms of both number and feminisation of the migration flow has been public debate. Albanians have been working in observed. Moreover, Albanians were one of Switzerland since the late 1960s, as Yugoslavia the groups hardest hit by recession in the was a traditional recruitment region for so- 1990s following the economic restructuring of called guest workers. These guest workers the labour market. Since then this group has were mostly young men without families been affected by economic marginalisation and (Leuenberger and Maillard 1999). From the unemployment, and their socio-economic 1980s onward, the political and economic position is low (Piguet 2005). situation in the former Yugoslavia, and This ‗ethno-national-sorting‘ of the Swiss specifically in Kosovo, has deteriorated admission policy and the ongoing public drastically, directly increasing emigration discourses have had different side effects. pressures. At the same time, with the shift in Until the 1980s the Yugoslav immigrants immigration policies in Switzerland, and remained relatively unnoticed by the Swiss specifically with the implementation of the public. However, parallel to the reinforcement ‗three circles‘ model in 1991, the recruitment of ‗Otherness‘ in Swiss immigration law of workers from the former Yugoslavia was no through the circles model of cultural longer possible.6 From then on, immigration to difference, the Yugoslavs have come under fire from the media and in public: drug dealing, violence, patriarchal culture and family structure, crime and high unemployment are 6 The first circle consists of EU/EFTA countries. The second circle includes the USA, Canada, the catchwords which are today connected Australia, and New Zealand. The recruitment of with this section of the population. There has qualified workers was – and still is – possible. been an increasing tendency to explain the The third circle concerns all other non-European observed social exclusion of some of these countries: recruitment is and was only possible exceptionally and under condition of high immigrants by stressing their cultural qualification. Meanwhile Switzerland adopted a peculiarities – or even their cultural dual admission policy – in line with most ‗incompatibility‘, as expressed by some right- European countries with which it has agreements wing parties (for details, see Dahinden 2005). of free mobility – linking it with qualification. Recent studies have shown that first- and
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret second-generation migrants from the former and where men dominate women, and, on the Yugoslavia are confronted with cultural other, they trace equal gender relations where stereotypes and discrimination, for instance in we find equality between the sexes.7 the labour market (Fibbi et al. 2003) and Moreover, they ethnicise this dichotomy and regarding access to Swiss citizenship (Fibbi et allocate each type of gender relations to a al. 2005). specific ethnic group. Hierarchical gender Alba (2005) maintains that the precise relations are identified as typical for Albanians nature of the ethnic boundary is important. or for migrants from the former Yugoslavia in Some boundaries are ‗bright‘ – the distinction general. Equal ones, on the contrary, are involved is unambiguous, so that individuals supposed to be representative of the Swiss know at all times which side of the boundary population. Second-generation migrants as they are on. Others are ‗blurry‘, involving well as the other students in class actively take zones of self-presentation and social part in the social construction of this ‗ethnic representation that allow for ambiguous difference‘. They confirm it by identifying locations with respect to the boundary. The themselves collectively with one type of nature of the minority-majority boundary gender relations and by categorising others as depends on the way in which it has been agents of the opposite. Furthermore, gender institutionalised in different domains, some of equality becomes a moral imperative and them are correlated with an ethnic distinction produces a clear hierarchic order between rather than being constitutive of the distinction ethnic categories. Accordingly, one day some itself. In turn, the nature of the boundary students in the classroom mobilised the idea of fundamentally affects the processes by which ‗cultural differences with regard to gender individuals gain access to the opportunities relations‘ (equality versus inequality) in order afforded to the majority. On surveying the to provoke others and work on boundaries. available literature, we argue that, in this case, we are dealing with a boundary which is Establishing the boundaries: Differentiation ‗bright‘ in its character, and upon which it and dichotomisation might be difficult to do ‗blurring‘ work. In the afternoon, students regularly However, we do not know how individuals attended a practical course during which they contribute in daily interactions and discourses worked individually at their desks and to the maintenance of this boundary. Do we discussed private matters with each other. One find the same boundaries in the classroom as day, while the teacher was not in the room, in the surrounding society? Are those the researcher who was present witnessed the boundaries modified or contested by agents of following scene:8 the majority or the stereotyped minority? Admir (second-generation Montenegrin) These questions are at the core of the turned around on his chair and asked Sabine following sections. (Swiss) with a little smile on his face: ‗Are you
Ethnic boundary work: mobilising a dichotomy of gender relations and establishing a moral imperative 7 Both ideas of gender relations are submitted to During fieldwork, we observed how young a particular heteronormativity, the norm of having heterosexual relationships which people trace a clear and simplistic dichotomy perpetuates the distinction between men and between two different types of gender women. relations. On the one hand, there exist – in 8 This and the following exchanges or interviews their view – hierarchical gender relations took place in a Swiss-German classroom and were translated by the researchers. where men have more ‗authority‘ than women
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in favour of (gender) equality?‘ Sabine did not He had some success, as some students, in answer. Instead Martin (Swiss) reacted: ‗I particular the other women (e.g. Cornelia, definitely am!‘ The discussion continued; Chiara), responded to this incitement since Admir stood up and suddenly said a phrase they perceived this kind of provocation as but I (researcher) only understood the word typical of men coming from the former ‗beat‘. Thereupon Martin responded again: ‗I Yugoslavia who do not accept – in their view – don‘t do that.‘ The word ‗beat‘ used by Admir equality between men and women (‗But your attracted the attention of the whole class. women don‘t dare to get divorced‘ or ‗The way Most of the students abruptly stopped their you treat your women‘). Admir and Edi were work, observed the scene and listened to the seen as representatives of a ‗different culture‘ discussion. Then, Admir proclaimed in a loud favouring hierarchical gender relations that are voice that it would be important in life to find too distant from the Swiss people favouring a woman to marry while still young, and Edi equality between men and women. The Swiss declared that Swiss people get divorced women confirmed the ethnic boundary by anyway. Some students in the class objected categorising themselves and the ‗Other‘, to Edi‘s statement and Cornelia (Swiss) said mobilising specific ideas about cultural gender with a little smile: ‗But your women don‘t dare differences. When it comes to the boundary, to get divorced.‘ Edi answered back, also with they know which side they are on, and which a little smile: ‗They obey us at least.‘ […] side the ‗Other‘ is on. Suddenly Chiara (Swiss, Italian) intervened Interestingly enough, migrants from and shouted agitatedly: ‗The way you treat Southern Europe (Italy, Portugal or Spain) your women. That they want to marry early in were not perceived as a different ‗Other‘ and life is because of the pressure from your have – in the classification system of these nation. I feel I have to defend as I am also young women – crossed the ethnic boundary Swiss.‘ […] The spontaneous discussion in and now belong to ‗them‘. The ethnic class ended up of with a call from two women boundary was expanded by including southern sitting in the back of the classroom: ‗I don‘t Europeans in their own ethnic category while want a foreigner‘ and two other women reinforcing the boundary between Swiss and completed: ‗Except people from Southern migrants from the former Yugoslavia. Luisa Europe.‘ made that very clear in an interview:
In this situation, the idea of gender equality Well, I would say that I have a certain was used by Admir to provoke one of the opposition or concern about the Albanian women in class (Sabine). Although he did not culture and I decided that I don‘t want this. succeed in provoking her, he contested a Even if they have grown up here, their genes normative concept regarding gender which is instruct them how to treat women. And I widely accepted in liberal democracies – would say that even my parents wouldn‘t be gender equality – defining the rights of men happy, if I had an Albanian [boyfriend]. In my and women as equal and women‘s view, the Germans, the Italians, the emancipation as a must. He was aware that it Portuguese, they all would be okay. could be a sensitive topic and therefore, he In sum, moral imperatives about gender played with it as a provocation – making relations – intimately connected with ideas visible the performative nature of ethnicity. In about power relations and domination other words, Admir is conscious of these moral schemes between men and women – ideas linked to gender relations, and he uses characterise the symbolic boundary that is them consciously in order to provoke and to mutually mobilised by the students in the class work on the ethnic boundary. to provoke each other and to articulate ethnic
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret differences. In this sense, members of the shouldn‘t force a woman to do something that majority (i.e. Cornelia) as well as of the she doesn‘t want to do. minority (i.e. Edi) confirm this symbolic What we can read out of the quote is that boundary between Swiss and migrants from Stefan is directly producing a moral hierarchy the former Yugoslavia. Cornelia mobilises the and a hierarchical order between the ethnic idea that ‗their‘ women are oppressed and Edi categories: it is obvious that the equality confirms her argument by mobilising the idea model is more valued and better than the that ‗their own‘ women have to obey men. The women-in-the-family model. Stefan underlines situation shows further that group his argument by describing a contrast: in his identification and categorisation mutually view, men and women in Switzerland are more stimulate and reinforce each other during equal because women generally have paid social interactions and that in this case employment and also have the right to work. everybody agrees upon the boundary – there Since Albanian women do not work outside the is no blurring – making the boundary ‗bright‘. family after marriage or do not have the right What is interesting is that the imperative of to do that – according to Stefan – they are gender inequality is not exclusively used by the inferior and do not hold equal positions. Stefan two young men to mark a symbolic boundary reifies the two ethnic categories and justifies between the Kosovar and the Swiss, but the the difference in an over-simplistic and idea is continuously confirmed by others. In homogenous way since he talks neither about fact, the category ‗Albanians‘ serves as a Swiss women who do unpaid work at home counterpoint for other students to proclaim nor about Albanian women who have a that ‗Swiss people‘ have realised equal rights professional activity after marriage – both of between men and women – although we know which, obviously, exist. His argumentation from many studies that this is far from being refers to an egalitarian discourse which the case in Switzerland (Branger 2008). stresses women‘s economic independence as a
precondition for equality between men and Hierarchisation and segregation women. Stefan confirms it, arguing that this This dichotomisation is also visible in an lifestyle is typical for Swiss people and ascribes interview with Stefan. The young man said himself to this group, placing himself on the that he had many friends with a foreign ‗good‘ and dominant side of this moral nationality, in particular from Kosovo, and that imperative. Moreover, he activates a powerful is why he knows that they are really different discourse against Albanians as not from Swiss people: corresponding to this liberal principle, even if Simply the way of thinking, the opinion he sees himself as a friend of ‗foreigners‘. somebody has. There are, for instance, I don‘t He also mobilises similar strong know, Albanians. Albanians differ from us, classifications and attributions in public on the from the Swiss, in the position they have school yard which reinforces this specific towards a woman. If they get married, the representation about Albanians – and woman stays at home and cooks. Among us, contributes to a ‗brightening‘ of the ethnic among Swiss people, the woman also works as boundary. One day, when Admir was chatting the man does […] as I already said, I think it and flirting with another migrant woman from is a prejudice against women that they have to former Yugoslavia during a break, Stefan do such things. I think a woman has her own reminded him loudly that he would get in mind, she can decide on her own, what she trouble with the father or brother of this girl – wants to do and what she doesn‘t. And a man presuming that this woman is not allowed to have an unreserved relationship with a man
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Gender Equality as 'Cultural Stuff' DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 and must not enjoy sexual liberty. Albanians they push her towards somebody. And yes, I are confronted with such attributions about never want my children or my grand-children their supposed typical cultural behaviour in to grow up in such a relationship. And not only everyday life and they are obliged to position because of bad experiences with them, it is themselves towards these categorisations. We simple; they are simply completely different will show later what counter-strategies they from a Catholic and from a Protestant. deploy. In a similar vein to Stefan, Luisa mobilises the
principle of gender equality, but she uses it in Legitimating exclusion reference to a highly moralised topic, namely However, the ethnic boundary between forced marriages. Albanian women are – Swiss and Albanians is not only based upon according to Luisa – not free to have a date, to differences but is at the same time go out or to decide whom they want to marry. exclusionary. The young people also explicitly Although she is aware that (some) Albanians assume that unequal gender relations are ‗bad‘ describe such practices as belonging to the and therefore legitimise a hierarchic order of past, she does not grant them the right to the ethnic categories producing a specific have a say about it. This example makes clear system of dominance. Different interviewed how the majority can impose a discourse women made it clear – when asked about about the practices of the minority. Moreover, marriage – that they would reject a close she legitimises her arguments with her own relationship with an Albanian from Kosovo, and experiences, arguing that she befriended as Chiara put forward, she would even reject female Albanians in the past. This exclusion is such a relationship for a future daughter of not only expressed in the interview. Luisa - hers. after the spontaneous discussion in class - I don‘t know, an Albanian perhaps, yes I directly addressed Edi and said that she is would be worried about an Albanian [as boy- opposed to Albanians as partners because she friend for my future daughter]. (Interviewer: had had bad experiences with them. And why?) I don‘t know, because he may Luisa reifies the categories ‗Albanian‘ and mistreat her. ‗Muslim‘ in a homogenous way and draws a boundary between Swiss women and Albanian Luisa (Swiss), in contrast, justifies her women. Furthermore, she mobilises ‗religious argument in more detail and not only with differences‘ between Muslims and ethnic but also with religious ‗differences‘9 Protestants/Catholics but does not mention when she speaks about Albanians and thereby different religious ideologies: rather, she uses mobilises the category of Muslims: religion as a marker to boost the ethnic Before, I had a lot of Albanian women as boundary (Mitchell 2006). Starting in the friends. How they are disrespected! They don‘t 1990s, Muslims have been highly stigmatised have the right to have a date or to go out. The in public debates in many European countries son is free to do everything. Among the (Schneuwly Purdie et al. 2009). The wearing of Muslims, they are even forced to marry a headscarf and more recently a niqab by somebody although they say it isn‘t like that Muslim women is presented as implicating a anymore. But a hundred percent, if they finish general subordination of women. In an earlier school and have nothing to do, they do it and study, Lutz (1991) revealed that migrant women of so-called ‗Islamic background‘ are assumed to be oppressed by male power in 9 There are Catholic and Muslim Albanians from western representations. In particular, the idea Kosovo living in Switzerland. of Islamic patriarchy often serves to assume
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret general male control over women‘s sexuality or by challenging the reified nature of the (e.g. virginity) and is thus regularly mobilised boundaries. as a counterpoint to the sexuality of the liberated western woman. Reassessing the value of being a man and Luisa re-activates such representations and boundary drawing against women enacts a power relation by accentuating At first sight it seems paradoxical that supposed ‘cultural differences‘ which serve to members of the minority contribute to the exclude Albanians and Muslims. In other ‗brightening‘ of the ethnic boundary by terms, religion intersects here with ethnicity confirming the dichotomy of the two types of and gender and produces not only ‗bright‘ gender relations, and identify themselves with boundaries but also interacting systems of the stigmatised category – stigmatised at least dominance. by the majority in class and by liberal moral principles. However, the empirical material Counter strategies to face exclusionary shows that male members of the minority boundaries subscribe to this non-equality model of gender Until now we have mainly described how relations because they can use it to subvert two dichotomised types of gender relations their individual subordinate status. They do so (one based on equality between men and by emphasising another boundary, the one women, the other based on unequal relations) between men and women in which they are employed by students to draw a clear and dominate, to counter the ethnic boundary that bright ethnic boundary. It was shown that stigmatises them. The gender boundary they members of the majority as well as of the highlight (for instance, in their provocations minority contribute to this boundary work by about gender equality) allocates to them reinforcing the same boundary. This boundary recognition and power within their ethnic is not neutral, however, as it implies a group and compensates for their lower status hierarchical order where people belonging to in the ethnic hierarchical order. the category ‗Swiss‘ are perceived as ‗superior‘ Admir and Edi argue in the interviews that to those with origin in the former Yugoslavia. gender relations are typically hierarchical in We could say that the categorisations we the Balkan countries – in both Catholic and found in the larger society were reproduced in Islamic regions. Accordingly, women have, as micro-social interactions in the classroom. they express it, less authority than men in However, the story is more complicated. We their culture of origin, which contrasts with argue that different strategies can be depicted countries like Switzerland. In an interview with that aim to counter the boundaries and the Edi, he says that he has more Kosovar friends hierarchical order they imply. than Swiss friends and explains that they do Three different strategies adopted by actors things differently: can be identified in this specific class: First, the … [F]or instance, regarding women. Most of male members of the minority contribute to the women have quite a say in Switzerland. A the dominant discourse by reassessing the woman says quite a lot. Among Albanians it is values associated with being a man. Second, little. A woman has also for sure some they call into question the hierarchical ordering authority, but not too much. Swiss people pay of the boundary by proclaiming their own more attention to a woman, more attention moral superiority with regard to gender than Albanians. I think that a woman is relations. Third, some members of the majority allowed to say something, of course, that‘s as well as of the minority try to blur the clear, but not too much. existing boundaries (mostly with little success) by emphasising non-ethnic forms of belonging
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Later he goes on to explain why women have Yugoslavia. In a situation where the ethnic less authority than men among Albanians: criterion situates them on ‗the wrong‘ and sub- ordinated side of the boundary, insisting on the moral imperative of gender inequality gives Women are discriminated. They are not them some power and recognition of being a allowed to say much, in the past they were man. not at all. I watched a documentary on the One day in school, when the pupils had to television where a woman was getting discuss in small groups graphics showing married. She had a sack on her head and was migration flows to Switzerland, Edi argues sitting on a horse. Then, she was brought to towards Stefan and Admir that he is an her husband … Albanian and that their women are responsible Edi justifies male domination of women by for all the housework. His father would not mobilising the idea of ‗tradition‘. He mentions even touch a sock. The young men laugh the exchange of women between different about that comment and Edi tries to convince families as – in his view – a traditional his friends that it is like that among Albanians marriage custom. In the same way, Admir and that it should be like that. In a personal claims in an interview that it is a typical tradi- interview with Edi, he also explains that it is of tion for the Balkan countries that ‗women have capital importance that his sister gets married. to go to men‘ when they get married and not From his point of view, being responsible for a the other way round. He adds that he would husband and a family seems to be the prime never change his residence for a woman. duty for an Albanian woman – despite the fact Patrilocality and arranged marriage appear that Edi‘s sister will certainly also do an in these discourses as practices that are apprenticeship. legitimated by tradition. Eric Hobsbawm and This strategy of emphasising their position Terence Ranger (1983) describe how practices in relation to one type of boundary (the which are considered traditional serve to gender boundary) over another (the ethnic justify values or behavioural norms and enable boundary) may help Albanian men reassess the maintained continuity with the past or to their own value: being a dominant man is define a community. ‗Tradition‘ can be preferable to being a subordinated Albanian. mobilised as ‗cultural stuff‘ in order to However, this strategy does not question the subjectively produce communality and ethnic boundary itself. Although the male difference. Various practices, rituals or symbols members of the minority counter their – be they real or fictive – find their place subordination by reassessing the value of within this umbrella idea of tradition and each being a man, they continuously contribute to can be mobilised.10 and confirm the ethnic boundary work In the case of Admir and Edi, tradition is described above. used as a discursive element to legitimise a hierarchical order between men and women. Inverting the ethnic hierarchical ordering – They draw a boundary between the sexes and proclaiming one‘s own moral superiority this conceptual distinction allows them to However, the empirical findings reveal identify with the supposed dominant male part additional strategies aiming to modify the in relationships with women from the former ethnic boundary. These strategies question the hierarchical ordering between Swiss and migrants from the former Yugoslavia, and the 10 Traditions, despite their initial definition, are minority tries to prove their moral superior sometimes recent re-inventions and deliberate lifestyle in comparison with the Swiss. The kind constructions to draw boundaries. of morality that is emphasised is closely linked
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret to women‘s behaviour in their relationships women. In an interview, Admir says he does with men. not find it right for women to ‗sleep around‘: In the classroom debate described above It is like that. Well, maybe for Swiss people it (as well as in the personal interviews), Admir is normal [he laughs]. But I can‘t say for them. and Edi proclaimed that Swiss marriages And we have been brought up differently. For mostly end up in divorce, something that – in instance, when we want to marry we look for their view – does not happen to Albanian a virgin. families. The common failure of Swiss couples is implicitly attributed to women‘s freedom in In this quote, a ‗we‘ (migrants from the former comparison with women coming from the Yugoslavia) is constructed where morally ire- former Yugoslavia. This attribution is a joint proachable behaviour is expected from construction by members of both the majority women, in contrast to a ‗them‘ (‗Swiss people‘) (‗your women don‘t dare to get divorced‘, who do not care and find it normal that implying that Swiss women have the freedom women have multiple sexual relations before to do so if they want to) and the minority (‗at they get married. The inverting of the hierar- least they obey us‘, making it clear that the chical order is here quite clear with an attempt non-contested subordination of women to men to change the signifier of the boundary. The has led, as a positive consequence, to dominant discourse in the classroom is about enduring marriages). While the students of gender equality and in this field students Swiss origin emphasise the value of women‘s whose parents came from the Balkan region freedom, the male students with immigrant have no chance to win the game, i.e. to be parents argue that enduring marriages are an considered on top of the hierarchical order. important value, even if it means less freedom Instead of contesting the boundary, the young for women. This is certainly also a strategy of men actively try to change the emphasis put legitimising the dominance of men over on its content: moving from a gender equality women. It gives a rational and moral motive ideology, they bring in a replacing ideology for men to control ‗their‘ women. By doing so, related to the safeguarding of women‘s sexual Edi and Admir aim to invert the ethnic integrity and morality. Based on this new ‗cul- hierarchical order that is imposed on them by tural content‘, these young men have the the majority students of Swiss origin. They aim means to assert the moral superiority of their to show that inequality in gender relations has own ethnic group over the ‗immoral‘ majority. an important advantage, namely, to safeguard This becomes very clear by looking at how Edi important moral values, which is not the case responded to Luisa when she was declaring among Swiss families. that she had had bad experiences with Alba- However, strategies aiming to change the nian men. Edi hereupon laughed and excused ethnic hierarchical order of the boundary Albanian men with the comment: ‗They don‘t exceed the realm of family values to include want bitches.‘ The honour of women stands sexual behaviours, in particular those of here as the signifier for a whole group‘s women. In class discussions as well as in superiority (Alexander 1996; Espiritu 2001). In interviews, Admir and Edi repeatedly argue light of this, challenging the moral superiority that it is impressive when men have sexual of the Swiss people in their interactions with relations with different women, but they students in the classroom can be seen as a strongly despise women acting the same way. way for the male members of the minority11 to Although this kind of discourse is widespread among youth of all origins, a new ethnic 11 boundary is drawn around the sexuality of There were no Albanian women in this specific class.
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Gender Equality as 'Cultural Stuff' DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 gain control of their immediate environment – minority group. One day during recreation with the classroom as a public place – and to his friends Stefan and Admir, Edi mentioned challenge the subjugation of their ethnic that Albanian men, on top of dominating category in Swiss society. women, also deal violently with them. Admir (and Stefan) immediately disagreed with Edi: Blurring the ethnic boundary ‗Albanians don‘t deal violently with women. These examples confirm the bright nature of Not all Albanians.‘ Admir tries to blur the the ethnic boundary between Albanians and ethnic boundary by recalling that there are Swiss. In view of this, it might be not also differences within the group and by surprising that members of the minority as contesting the reified image of Albanians as a well as of the majority only tentatively engage homogeneous ethnic category of people in ‗blurring strategies‘. Only occasionally do having hierarchical gender relations where they bring up this kind of boundary work men also wield physical power over women. aiming to render the ethnic boundary less Both examples show that reified ideas about distinct and sharp. For instance, Luisa was Albanians circulate and how social interviewed together with her best friend categorisations can change from situation to Cornelia, the young woman who accused situation. It must be noted, however, that Albanian women of not daring to get divorced members of both the majority and the male (in the interaction with Edi and Admir, see minority groups only seldom attempt to blur situation above). While Luisa presents a reified the ethnic boundary. Moreover, these attempts image about Albanians in the interview, are mostly ineffective and have little weight Cornelia suddenly sets up counter-arguments when confronted with the important boundary against her view: work that has been described until now, which mostly contributes to maintaining and I don‘t care about that. Certainly there are reinforcing the boundary. different countries where women are treated
differently and even here in Switzerland. But Conclusion there are also exceptions. And, nonetheless, I Against the background of an would never be together with a boyfriend I institutionalised ethnic boundary between don‘t love and I can‘t love somebody who Swiss and Albanians from the former mistreats women whether he is an Albanian or Yugoslavia, we observe that among young whatever. adults in a vocational class the moral idea of Cornelia objects to the homogenous and gender equality is mobilised in order to work reified image about Albanians presented by on that ethnic boundary. The moral imperative Luisa. Despite her affirming gender equality of gender equality becomes a vehicle for the and the importance of women‘s respect in the ethnic majority (Swiss students) to articulate same way, she does not link a behaviour that differences towards migrants from the former is supposed to disrespect women to a Yugoslavia, particularly against Albanians. It particular ethno-religious group. She breaks up serves to assert cultural superiority over the the ethnic boundary by putting weight on ethnic minority and to legitimate exclusion and universal values of women and human rights – dominance. One conclusion is that this being respected as a woman. In other terms, dominant gender discourse is powerful in she emphasises non-ethnic forms of belonging, defining the migrants as ‗culturally different‘ namely, being a woman, a human being, to and in putting them in a subordinated position divert the focus from ethnic belonging. in society. Some efforts to blur the ethnic boundary The study highlights important theoretical can also be observed among the subordinated elements: It demonstrates that neither the
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 K. Dümmler, J. Dahinden, J. Moret boundary work by the majority nor the The stigmatised ethnic group is faced with counter-strategies by the male minority aim to exclusion and there is only little room left for call into question the difference between Swiss them to deploy counter-strategies which could and Albanians. Instead, students take this line shift or blur the boundary and convince others for granted and naturalise it in such a way that that they are not ‗culturally‘ different. Instead, the boundary adopts almost a primordial they engage in counter-strategies that finally character. This goes along with a well contribute to ‗brightening‘ the boundary even established system of domination based on further and which valorises and reinforces their interacting categories of difference. Following ‗cultural difference‘ at the same time. One Alba‘s (2005) typology, this boundary can be might argue that those strategies are the only described as ‗bright‘, meaning that it is clear two remaining options to react toward the on which side of the boundary a person is hierarchy and to keep a kind of dignity and localised (migrant minority or Swiss). ‗Blurred‘ self-respect. boundaries exist when multiple identifications However, these strategies reinforce an (e.g. on both sides of the boundary) are ideology of male superiority over women and allowed. As we have seen, this is hardly the have important consequences for Albanian case in this vocational class. women who are simultaneously subjected to When there are ‗bright boundaries‘ towards two interacting systems of oppression: an minorities in society, visible for instance in ethnic one (being Albanian) and the gender ethno-national politics, re-affirmed in reports one (being an Albanian woman). In theoretical by the media and kept alive by political terms, the male members of the minority agitation of right-wing parties, blurring or mobilise a specific axis of domination (gender) crossing strategies can only occasionally occur in order to respond to the subordination they – even among young people – because their experience in the ethnic axis of oppression arguments rarely find support from other (Klinger and Knapp 2007). social actors and institutions. Our results make We argue that our study shows that power clear that this specific Swiss environment has relations and intersecting systems of established a strong hierarchy between an dominance have not yet received the full underprivileged Albanian migrant minority and attention they deserve within the burgeoning the Swiss privileged majority. boundary-work literature. There have been a This also becomes visible in the kind of number of studies – also in classrooms – counter-strategies of the stigmatised group focusing on the identity and boundary who also use ideas about gender relations to performances of young people (for Germany work on and to modify that boundary. On the see Weissköppel 2001). However, such micro- one hand, we saw that male members of the centred analyses are seldom related to the minority invoked ‗gender inequality‘ as a wider societal context in which they are ‗cultural tradition‘ in order to reaffirm their anchored. We argue that if symbolic self-esteem and to reassess their superior boundaries are widely agreed upon and position as men. On the other hand, these institutionalised through reified ideas about young men tried to assert moral superiority culture, nations, tradition and gender relations, over the dominant group by emphasising the then minority groups have to deal with social moral integrity of migrant women from the boundaries that assume a kind of natural and former Yugoslavia (in comparison with objectified character. This in turn renders it ‗unrespectable‘ Swiss women) and the impossible to blur, cross or shift the importance accorded to family and enduring boundaries. marriages (in contrast to high divorce rates However, our findings were gathered in a among Swiss couples). specific context of one class where ethnic
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Gender Equality as 'Cultural Stuff' DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 boundary work took place between the male Furthermore, we emphasise that the results – members of the minority and mainly the although our analysis was mainly concerned female members of the majority. It would be with ethnic boundary work – confirm and interesting to look closely at the strategies that contribute to studies about gendered Albanian women deploy in their boundary ‗borderwork‘. All of these strategies by young work. Further investigation is needed, for people not only manifest an ethnic boundary, instance, by comparing these findings to but continuously perpetuate a difference boundary work in other classrooms, to find out between the feminine and the masculine, about the strategies adopted specifically by amplifying heteronormativity and fostering female members of the minority, as well as ideologies about the place of man and woman those additionally deployed by the other in society. students in general.
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About the authors Janine Dahinden is professor of Transnational Studies at the Maison d'analyse des processus sociaux (MAPS) at the University of Neuchâtel. Her research interests cover topics regarding mobility, migration, ethnicity, transnationalism, social networks, gender and culture. Her research is transdisciplinary and combines qualitative and quantitative methods. Email: [email protected]
Kerstin Duemmler is a research fellow at the same institute. She has published on different issues related to young adults (e.g. health, civic education) and is currently working on ethnic and religious boundary work. Email: [email protected]
Joëlle Moret is a research associate at the same institute. Her publications and research areas include migration, mobility, transnationalism, and gender. Email: [email protected]
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Official Discourses and Patterns of State Engagement with Muslim Communities in Britain and Russia
Ekaterina Braginskaia (University of Edinburgh)
Abstract The article discusses the institutional complexities and policy discourses of Muslim governance and representation in Britain and Russia in light of the distinct national narratives of state-Muslim relations. Religious governance is not only determined by the patterns of state-religion relations but is also influenced by the level of state involvement. The article focuses on a series of interactions between state officials and Muslim representative institutions to highlight individual patterns and discourses of the two approaches to religious accommodation: ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’. The British horizontal approach focuses on liberal multiculturalism and its communitarian preference for resolving internal tensions within local communities. Russia’s increasingly conservative policy of consolidating Muslim institutions and building strong relations with official Muslim representatives is typical of the vertical approach. Over the last 10 to 15 years, state policies on Muslim integration and representation have revealed a similar desire to promote moderate forms of Islam. This is evident from extended programmes of state-funding for Muslim communities and stronger cooperation with Muslim representative institutions. A close analysis of state engagement with Muslim Councils brings to light the internal dynamics of horizontal and vertical state-Muslim relations in the two countries.
Introduction integration. Although the research agenda has State engagement with Muslim minorities in extended to occasional comparisons with Europe has resulted in a number of fruitful Muslim populations in the United States or discussions on state-Islam relations and studies Australia, the Russian dimension has rarely on accommodating Muslim minorities within the been addressed (Cesari 2006; Minkenberg European settings (see, for example, Bader 2007). Similarly, Russian scholars often avoid 2007; Cesari and McLoughlin 2005; Maussen making comparisons and consider state-Muslim 2007; Soper and Fetzer 2004). Building on the relations in Russia as a distinct, self-contained comparative literature of religious governance, field of research (Hunter 2004; Malashenko state-religion relations, as well as national 2007; Yemelianova 2002). Without diminishing accounts of Muslim integration, the article the value of the existing research, the article presents an attempt to disengage the debate argues for a stronger incorporation of the from its purely European context of Russian agenda into the overall research. church-state relations and patterns of
Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010: 1-3 ISSN 2079-6595 www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol12/issue1/art6 © UNESCO DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Ekaterina Braginskaia
State relations with Muslim minorities in the compare and contrast the ways in which the two countries have been shaped by a number two modes of governance are being of different historical and contextual factors, conceptualised. including the nature of Muslim communities, The cases provide two different represen- institutional mechanisms of minority represen- tations of religious governance: „democratic‟ tation and patterns of state interaction with and „hierarchical‟.1 In an attempt to move away religious leaders (Malashenko 2007; Modood from a politically sensitive nature of the two 2005). However, over the last 10 years, state terms, the paper suggests a more neutral policies on Muslim integration have revealed a wording of „vertical‟ and „horizontal‟ modes of similar desire to engage with moderate engagement which become reinforced through representatives within the increasingly particular communications on local and national securitised patterns of state-Islam relations. levels. The British example of horizontal Recent terrorist activities experienced by the governance focuses on liberal multiculturalism two countries have led to a similar approach of and its communitarian preference for resolving complementing the counter-terrorist agenda internal tensions within the local institutional with attempts to build community resistance to framework. Russia‟s increasingly conservative terrorism from within. Both countries seek to policy of consolidating Muslim institutions and integrate Islam within its institutional building strong relations between Muslim senior framework of state-religion relations, both are representatives and state officials on the engaged in granting Muslim citizens equal national level is exemplary of its vertical religious and cultural rights. And yet, the ways approach. in which the Russian and British authorities The study is largely based on official docu- communicate their agenda are different. The ments, public statements and communications British case illustrates a strong reliance on local between state officials and state-recognised partners and community initiatives, whereas representatives from Muslim organisations, the Russian efforts have largely focused on with a particular emphasis on the institution of encouraging consolidation of previously the Muslim Council.2 The „official‟ nature of the fragmented religious institutions. data offers little evidence of the extent to which The article argues for the need to attach the proposed ideas have been put into practice, greater importance to the political aspect of considering the inherent discrepancy between religious governance in the two countries. It the good intentions and the actual outcomes. discusses policy discourses and a series of However, a close analysis of these official interactions between government officials involved in promoting Muslim integration and 1 See Bader‟s distinction between democratic Muslim community spokespersons engaged in (bottom-up) and hierarchical (top-down) modes representing Muslim interests in the public of governance in V. Bader. 2007. “Regimes of sphere. A common element of the two Governance of Religious Diversity in Europe. approaches lies in state preferences for using Introduction”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33 (6): 871-877, Special Volume, State intermediary institutions to regulate Muslim Governance of Islam in Europe. religious practices. There is a shared 2 The article is based on data collected from determination to promote moderate forms of primary and secondary sources, including analysis Islam to strengthen a sense of national unity of official documents and reports on Muslim representation in Britain and Russia, public and social cohesion. A brief analysis of the speeches and communications between public different discourses of state engagement with officials and the MCB‟s and RCM‟s respective Muslim representative institutions – the Muslim representatives. Additional data on the Russian Council of Britain (MCB) and Russia‟s Council of case is derived form a series of interviews which I conducted with the members of the RCM and Muftis (RCM) – provides a useful framework to Russian Muslim elites in Moscow and Tatarstan .
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Official Discourses DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 communications, public discourses and (Koenig 2005), I suggest extending different interchanges provides an invaluable insight into patterns of state-religion relations by putting a the thinking behind the two approaches of stronger emphasis on the level of state managing religious representation: (1) by involvement. Without neglecting the religious engaging with a number of local-level organi- aspect, the public discourses of state sations in Britain and (2) supporting high-level engagement with society can provide a more centralised Muslim religious institutions in nuanced understanding of the political element. Russia. While the British case provides an illustration of The article is divided into four parts, bringing diversified, community-based interaction, the together contextual differences and discursive Russian approach focuses on an increasingly convergences of the two cases. Part I focuses centralised, top-down approach to commu- on different state approaches to the nicate with Muslim institutions. governance of Islam, while Part II argues that despite their differences, the two states are British perspective engaged in similar policy discourses of Britain‟s approach to integrating Muslim securitising their Muslim agenda. This becomes communities developed as a result of its evident in the shared determination to colonial legacies, local immigration and ethnic accommodate Muslim needs by fostering issues, and a series of re-interpretations of moderate forms of Islam. Part III discusses the liberal multiculturalism as a guiding principle of different character of the Muslim Councils and a ethnic and religious tolerance. It has been very similar intermediary role they play in marked by a strong tendency to decentralise representing Muslim communities before the activities designed to promote social cohesion state. It compares and contrasts their and to provide local solutions to common institutional features and examines them within national problems. State-religion relations in their individual contextual settings. Part IV Britain have been based on the principle of examines the nature of horizontal and vertical cooperation between the state and different engagement through the lens of state-Council religious groups. Although the Anglican Church communication focusing on specific discourses enjoys a privileged position of being the of each approach and its implications. „established‟ religion, other religious commu- nities are not required to be registered or I. Official public discourses on officially recognised. The British engagement state-Muslim relations: extended with Islam envisages provisions to ensure that typologies different Muslim groups have equal access to The following section examines the British community representation. and Russian discourses of accommodating British multiculturalism in its traditional form Muslim socio-religious needs within the distinct has failed to recognise the importance of national contexts. It focuses on general policy religion in defining Muslim identity and has directions and shifts within the policies. done little to address Muslims‟ religious Religious governance is a flexible and requirements. Although practical elements of negotiable process. However, the extent to religious rituals were respected, their spiritual which any changes are being communicated dimension has not been given enough depends on the opportunities and restraints attention. As Lord Parekh noted in 2006, „when offered by the individual settings of state individuals privilege their religious identity … engagement with religion and society. Building they want to be Muslim Britons not British on Soper and Fetzer‟s proposed typologies of Muslims‟ (Parekh 2006). The growing alienation church-state relations (Soper and Fetzer 2004) of practising Muslims, coupled with the threat and Koenig‟s models of political organisation of Islamic radicalisation, prompted the British
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Ekaterina Braginskaia government to change its laissez-faire (Miliband 2009). However, it is also keen to multiculturalism and reconsider its official praise many British Muslims for binding discourse on Islam. Following a series of together the values of liberal democracy with consultations the government has worked their own religious identity (Miliband 2009). In towards modifying its agenda on Muslim its efforts to promote Muslim integration, the integration. British state has put strong emphasis on In the last couple of years, the discursive engaging with a variety of moderate Muslim emphasis has shifted from recognising racial organisations and civil society groups to differences and celebrating cultural diversity to promote British values and build internal promoting the peaceful coexistence of faith resilience to radical Islam. The results of the communities. The government took an active measures designed to prevent extremism have role in formulating a new brand of inclusive been rather mixed (House of Commons multiculturalism, designed to address Muslim Communities and Local Government Committee concerns within a general discourse of shared 2010). British values. Generally low levels of religiosity One of the key criticisms expressed in the among the British population can partly account recent House of Commons Report highlighted for public acceptance of this ideological the risk of reinforcing the Muslim identity transformation of multicultural politics. The idea through its purely religious dimension, without of „common unifying values‟ has been used as a recognising Muslims‟ multiple roles in different persuasive rhetorical device to justify a policy social and cultural situations such as work, shift: from the original cornerstone of recog- family or community (House of Commons nising the communities‟ cultural distinctiveness Communities and Local Government Committee to promoting social cohesion. According to Tony 2010, 21-23). This represents a potential Blair, being British still implied the „right to be discursive shift towards a greater recognition of different‟, however, it now also increasingly Muslim rights as ordinary citizens without demanded the „duty to integrate‟ (Blair 2006). necessarily „essentialising‟ their ethnic or racial In a lecture on multi-faith Britain, former identity (as has been the case in the past) or its Home Secretary David Blunkett has religious dimension, as was advocated by the acknowledged that the „[g]overnment has a current policymakers. The willingness to role to play‟ but has reduced it to the need to undertake a wide-reaching consultation on the „facilitate interaction between the different faith issues of integration, terrorism and Islam with communities, and between them and the wider various Muslim representatives illustrates a community‟ (Blunkett 2003). In an attempt to degree of flexibility of the British approach. isolate radical Islam and ensure that it lacks strong support in Muslim communities, the Russian perspective British government presents itself as a guardian Russia‟s discourse on accommodating Muslim of common values and institutions of minorities has developed within its distinct parliamentary democracy, while beginning to regional, historical and political setting. It has pay more attention to Muslim religious needs. It been strongly influenced by the desire to promises to support the work of its „empowered integrate cultural diversity within the dominant communities‟ by helping them „challenge those religious and ideological framework. The speci- work[ing] against…the shared values‟ (HM ficity of Russia‟s engagement with Muslim Government 2009, 90). communities is based on a mix of There is a small indication that the state „multi-ethnicity‟, „multi-confessionalism‟ and acknowledges that there is no easy assimilation „multi-cultural diversity‟ that escapes any between „the secular liberal and the person familiar label of narrowly defined multicultu- whose faith is inseparable from their politics‟ ralism or assimilation, making it an interesting
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Official Discourses DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 addition to the standard dichotomy between attempt to influence traditional sources of local the two approaches. While the economic and and religious authority. However, in light of the social factors continue to dominate the Muslim renewed counter-terrorist campaign against agenda in big cities, the existence of large, radical Islam and the use of force to boost geographically dispersed Muslim communities regional security, a more interventionist requires the state to differentiate its policies on approach to religious governance seems the regional level. Whereas some integrationist increasingly likely. rhetoric may be at times sufficient to Russia‟s preference for vertical governance accommodate the needs of Russian Muslims in of Muslim communities mirrors the centralising the Volga region, it is often inadequate to dynamics introduced in other parts of social and engage Muslim communities in the North political life. However, some of its current Caucasus. features have also been shaped by the state‟s Russia‟s interaction with Muslim communities previous efforts to engage with Russian has not only involved integrating Muslim Muslims. Historically, accommodation of Muslim migrants, but also Russia‟s own ethnic Muslims interests in Russia has been an integral part of living within its territorial borders. Strong the state‟s approach to integrating its different regional differences provided Muslim peoples, while preserving some of their cultural communities with their particular political and autonomy. Short-lived liberal phases of greater ethnic character, while different schools of respect for Muslim religious institutions have Islam in the Volga region and the North been followed by more authoritarian periods of Caucasus have led to different interpretations suppression of Muslim practices in line with of Islam and interaction with local authorities state security concerns and ideological (on Tatarstan, see Nabiev et al. 2002; on the preoccupations. North Caucasus, see Bobrovnikov 2002; Knysh Official regulation and structuring of Muslim 2007; Zelkina 2000). Tatar Muslims in the Volga representation along hierarchical lines began region have been exposed to religious and under Catherine the Great when she set up first political integration as a result of Russia‟s Muslim Spiritual Boards to guarantee the efforts to impose first Christian and then country‟s internal stability.3 In the nineteenth Socialist values on the predominantly Muslim century, colonial expansion in the North region (Filatov 2002, 93-96; Ro‟i 2000). Despite Caucasus and forced Christianisation of Muslim their strong national aspirations, they represent populations in the Volga Region led to further the most culturally assimilated Muslim consolidation of Russia‟s influence over its community, relatively open to government Muslim populations. The repressive Soviet efforts to centralise regional administration and methods of integrating different ethnic groups religious representation. and fostering a new brand of ideological The North Caucasus, on the other hand, has atheism significantly weakened Muslim elites remained Russia‟s primary security concern, and destroyed many Muslim institutions. The from the days of colonial expansion in the Bolsheviks initially welcomed Muslim aspirations nineteenth century to the Chechen Wars and of equality and recognised a certain affinity the current region-wide instability, with the between Islamic and Communist ideals, latest explosions on the Moscow underground allowing a limited degree of Muslim exacerbating Russia‟s security situation representation through the state-controlled (Sagramoso 2007; Souleimanov 2007). Aware of the volatile character of the North Caucasus and its complex clan system, the state does not 3 aspire to regulate Muslim communities there as The Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly much as it does in the Volga region, nor does it was officially inaugurated in Ufa by the Empress‟ edict of 4 December 1789.
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Muslim organisations, such as the DUMERS.4 range of Muslim civil society organisations. Although this might have provided a degree of Putin‟s (and now Medvedev‟s) agenda of institutional continuity with Muslim institutions transforming Russia into a powerful sovereign today, periods of cooperation were short-lived, nation has been accompanied by the Kremlin‟s with repressive measures inflicting considerable drive to reformulate and re-appropriate the damage on Muslim organisation and edu- discourse on nationalist unity based on Russia‟s cational capacity.5 multifaceted heritage and spiritual values The way the Russian state has envisaged its (Laruelle 2008). 6 Russia‟s interaction with engagement with Muslim communities over the Islam has focused on formulating the most last two decades underwent a series of shifts, suitable approach of engaging Muslim closely following the changes in political and communities within its own particularly social spheres: from more liberal centralised mode of governance. encouragement of Muslim institutions to more conservative consolidation from within. With II. Converging challenges: encouraging the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian policy ‘our national’ Islam has been marked by a continuous The previous section focused on some of the re-assessment of its national ideas on religion key differences in how British and Russian and identity. In the President Yeltsin era of the government institutions and officials 1990s, a positive use of rhetoric focused on conceptualise the governance of Islam and „religious revival‟, „respect for individual engage with Muslim communities. What is identities‟ and „greater autonomy of institutions‟, rarely discussed is the degree of current whereas the actual policies were partly tainted convergence between the two discourses of by extensive corruption and fragmentation of building stronger bridges with the Muslim Muslim institutions. Vladimir Putin‟s successive minorities. Similar security concerns and the governments have been preoccupied with lack of provisions for Muslim citizens to exercise building closer ties with „traditional religions‟, their religious rights encourage government including Islam, to consolidate religious and officials to „nationalise loyal forms of Islam‟ and social institutions and promote multinational engage with moderate Muslim representatives unity. Considering the more privileged role of in a more regulated way. the Orthodox Church and the relative Despite Russia‟s distinct historical experience disadvantage of Muslim minorities, the Russian of state-Muslim relations, the current government felt the need to redress the challenges faced by the post-Soviet elites are imbalance. not dissimilar to those experienced by the A significant development in state-Muslim British authorities. Both countries make relations in the Putin-Medvedev period has attempts to rebuild Muslim infrastructure and been the crystallisation of a new brand of improve the living conditions for Muslim conservatism, exemplified by the vertical citizens. Both share analogous security distribution of power and selective engagement concerns regarding Islamic radicalisation. In with top Muslim officials rather than a wider order to accommodate Muslim minorities within the national interests of the majority, the state 4 DUMERS, the Muslim Spiritual Board for caters for the needs of its Muslim citizens, European Russia and Siberia, later renamed the respects their rights and provides legal Central Spiritual Board (TsDUM), was formed in recognition of moderate Islam. In return, 1944 as the official governing body for the Muslims living in the territory of the Russian Muslim citizens are expected to promote Federation (the RSFSR). 5 For further details on the three dynamics of 6 On Russia‟s unique ideological synthesis of Russia‟s historic engagement with Islam, see spiritual and nationalist values, see Surkov 2008, Braginskaia (forthcoming). 9-27.
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Official Discourses DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 tolerant Islam, in tune with the national civil initiatives. Similarly, Russian officials tend to values. emphasise a policy of non-intervention into Moreover, state efforts to develop a British or religious activities (Putin 2006). However, the Russian brand of Islam present an attempt to state-sponsored programme of support has „appropriate‟ the Islamic faith by disengaging it also included a more systematic patronage and from its foreign roots and fusing it with the monitoring of Islamic scholarship and familiar sets of national values. There is a education. For example, the Fund to Support shared conviction that today‟s tension over Islamic Culture, Science and Education, Islam, and particularly its radical represen- established in 2007 by the joint efforts of state tations, is not linked to „our‟, „home-grown‟ officials and senior Muslim representatives, has Islam, but to its „imported version‟ (Markov been created to selectively channel resources 2009). A report commissioned by Communities for publishing Islamic literature and Muslim and Local Government in 2007 states that educational projects. „British Islam is emerging as a powerful State attempts to develop effective response to radical Islam‟ and that this version mechanisms of engaging Muslim communities is „integrationist and dynamic‟ (Department for have been accompanied by an increasingly Communities and Local Government 2007). conciliatory and inclusive discourse of „shared State efforts to engage with moderate voices values‟ and „national belonging‟. Official from Muslim communities and promote „home‟ statements reveal a desire to find a common versions of Islam demonstrate that both coun- denominator between the allegedly shared civil tries seek to complement their counter-terrorist values and a certain significance of being a policies with a series of „softer‟ measures British or a Russian Muslim. Moreover, there is designed to promote moderate Islam. They are an attempt to limit negative associations accompanied by an increased level of state between Islam as a religion and extremism as a involvement in regulating and funding specific form of violence. For example in Britain, the Muslim institutions whose agenda (or at least discourse has focused on expressing British discourse) is compatible with the official line on values through the notions of democracy, the religious tolerance and moderation. Similar rule of law and mutual tolerance between measures involve state-sponsored programmes different faith communities. Gordon Brown for imam training and Islamic education and talked of the need to „disrupt the promoters of improved provisions for Muslim religious violent extremism … where by emphasising our practices and prayer spaces. shared values across communities we can both In Britain, state initiatives provided funding celebrate and act upon what unites us‟ (Brown to local Muslim projects through the 2009). That same year, guidance on „Community leadership fund‟, with extra counter-terrorism communications stressed the resources being allocated to engage Muslim need to exercise caution and not make any women and youth to participate in community unnecessary links between Islam and terrorism life (Communities and Local Government 2008). (Research, Information and Communications Further funding channelled through the Unit 2007). There is a growing consistency in strategy of Preventing Violent Extremism have the rhetoric from different British government included subsidising and developing imam agencies, which aims to reinforce the same training programmes and materials designed to messages of home-grown, moderate Islam and strengthen the connection between the Islamic its compatibility with the British way of life. faith and British secular values. Although these In Russia, the notion of shared values is measures play a positive role in fostering more conceptualised through the use of patriotic active participation, they are typical of the rhetoric and calls for national unity based on efforts to monitor and regulate Muslim the moral and spiritual capital of Russia‟s
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„traditional religions‟. The official programme of between state and religion and egalitarian the „United Russia Party‟ for 2009 praises Islam accommodation of Muslim minorities facilitated as one of Russia‟s „traditional religions‟, which the creation of such an institution, designed to are „keepers of wisdom and experience passed represent Muslims‟ civic interests before the down through the generations‟ and are state, rather than their religious identities. therefore indispensible to understanding The lack of a similarly strict or reinforced current social problems (Edinaia Rossiia 2009). separation between state and religion in Russia President Dmitrii Medvedev has acknowledged and Britain makes the conceptualisation of the the large contribution „Muslim religious secular governance of Islam more complex, organisations make towards the civil peace and resulting in a more nuanced set of relations spiritual and moral upbringing of generations, between the state and the institution of the fighting against extremism and xenophobia‟ Muslim Council. In Britain, a greater variety of (Medvedev 2009). Interestingly, he also calls on religious organisations has encouraged the the media to be more sensitive and not to use government to develop decentralised patterns the expression of „Islamic extremism‟ because of engaging with Muslim representative „thugs have nothing to do with religion‟ institutions, which has been evident in official (Kommersant 28 August 2009). A clear discourses on Muslim integration. In Russia, the preference for a neutral discourse on security existence of hierarchically structured Muslim issues and the Islamic faith is thus a shared institutions for religious representation and a feature of state policies towards Muslim degree of continuity in relations between communities in Britain and Russia. Muslim religious leaders and government officials have contributed to the ease with III. Muslim representative institutions: which a more centralised dynamic of interaction different organisations, similar functions has developed. A close cooperation between Official endorsement or at least selective Muslim leaders and the government officials engagement with Muslim representative has been equally reinforced by a particular institutions is an integral part of the secular fusion of religious and patriotic rhetoric based institutionalisation of moderate forms of Islam on Russia‟s conceptualisation of its multi-ethnic in Europe. A number of studies on secular and multi-religious identity. management of Muslim representation have Before examining the two different dynamics focused on the processes leading to the of state-Council relations in Britain and Russia, formation of such Muslim representative the following section focuses briefly on the two organisations and their subsequent evolution intermediary institutions, their different cha- into state-endorsed partners, entrusted with racteristics and, what is most interesting, their promoting Muslim integration (Lawrence 2006; similar administrative functions and limitations. Silvestri 2005). 7 State efforts to set up an The MCB and RCM act as auxiliaries to state administrative institution responsible for policies of Muslim integration. By actively regulating Muslim religious practices in the engaging with these organisations, the state public sphere has been particularly evident in attempts to „steer‟ Muslim representation and France, where the Ministry of Interior played an promote moderate forms of Islam. A brief active role in setting up the French Council for analysis of a series of interchanges between the the Muslim Religion (CFCM) to give Islam its Councils‟ leaders and government officials in 8 official status. A clear constitutional separation further comparison between the administrative 7 For a useful overview of studies on represen- functions, internal divisions and the role of the tative Muslim bodies, see Maussen 2007, 30-31. CFCM and the RCM in the constitutionally secular 8 On the creation of the CFCM, see Laurence, and governance of Islam in France and Russia can be Vaïsse 2006, Chapter 5, and Amiraux 2003. A found in Braginskaia (forthcoming).
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Britain and Russia brings to light the two speaks out on the impact of Islamophobia and contrasting patterns of horizontal and vertical anti-terrorist legislations, actively engages in regulation of religious representation. the public life of Muslim citizens and promotes The two Councils are very different inter-faith dialogue. institutions in the way they have developed, The Council‟s leadership is keen to show its their institutional make-up, ethnic and religious community roots and presents the institution as composition, and internal power relations. They „an initiative of the community, led by the are highly contested by other organisations and community, for the service of the community‟ must compete not only for state patronage, but (Research & Documentation Committee of the also for community support. They claim to MCB). Although the Council emphasises its represent the majority of Muslim populations voluntary basis, its creation has been strongly and aspire to be the main „national‟ defender of welcomed by the government. The Council Muslim interests before the state and other gives voice to a number of moderate as well as faith groups. However, they often suffer from radical Islamic figures. Although this provides a internal disputes and a legitimacy deficit. more pluralistic representation of Muslim Very little comparative research has been interests, it hinders the Council‟s ability to work done on these institutions to date (on the MCB, as a coherent actor. Some of its radical Islamic see Birt 2008 and McLoughlin 2005; on the RCM, ideology and the style of community activism see Silant‟ev 2007 and Tulskii 2003). There is a are increasingly challenged by other Muslim tendency to dismiss them as unrepresentative representative bodies, including the British and irrelevant. Some Muslims criticise them for Muslim Forum and the Sufi Council of Britain. being too closely linked to the government, Its over-reliance on the affiliated organisations while some state officials do not like some of undermines its grass-root support, while close the radical elements within these institutions. identification with the government creates a The leaders of the Councils are faced with an problem for engaging with young Muslims. almost irreconcilable task of not upsetting the The Russian Muslim Council is a centralised government while attempting to maintain their religious organisation which consists of the grass-root support. heads of the Muslim Spiritual Boards, under the The MCB was formed in 1997 as an umbrella leadership of Moscow-based mufti, Sheikh Ravil body with over 500 local, regional and national Gainutdin. It was formed in 1996, following a affiliates, following a long process of consul- series of internal clashes within the existing tation with a number of Muslim associations regional structures of Muslim institutions and and organisations. In the aftermath of the was created in direct competition to the controversy surrounding the Rushdie Affair, an long-established institution of the Central independent „National Interim Committee on Spiritual Board (TsDUM). During Soviet times, Muslim Affairs‟ (NICMU) was formed in 1994 to the TsDUM represented Muslim interests within carry out a countrywide consultation on the the Russian Federation (or the RSFSR). The issues affecting the Muslim community. The turbulent 1990s provided new opportunities for questionnaires reconfirmed the need to create a creating new alliances and groupings within the representative umbrella body, which would Muslim Spiritual authorities, with the RCM pave the way for the eventual formation of the gradually emerging as one of the clear MCB. Today the Council consists of different favourites of the government. working committees and a board of counsellors, The Council is currently one of the three with the General Assembly elected from the large coordinated Muslim bodies in Russia. national, regional and local mosques and Unlike its British counterpart with its more affiliated organisations every four years. It democratic form of internal governance, the seeks to represent different Muslim interests, RCM represents a tightly structured,
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Ekaterina Braginskaia hierarchical organisation. While remaining the spiritual and political responsibilities. If they closely linked to the government, it claims to become too religiously focused, they lack the represent the majority of Muslim religious ability to represent non-practicing Muslims organisations in the public sphere and is within the officially secular debates. The British increasingly entrusted with representing Muslim Council never claims to be a reli- Russian Muslims in the international arena. It gious organisation: the accommodation of reli- also has strong connections with the state and gious groups implies „recognition and support Moscow‟s local authorities. There are many of communities rather than… ecclesiastical other organisations that belong to the or spiritual representation‟ (Modood 2009, competing TsDUM, under the regional 183-84). The Russian Council, on the other leadership of Mufti Talgat Tajuddin, while hand, aspires to be a religious body, although Muslim organisations in the North Caucasus are some of its spiritual credentials and the know- largely represented by the Coordinating Centre ledge of Islam are continuously challenged by of Spiritual Boards of Muslims. Over the last few younger, more educated Muslims. years the idea of creating a more unified body Should these councils not be purely admini- to represent Muslim interests has gained wider strative instruments or mechanisms for facili- popularity with the heads of the three tating everyday life of Muslim communities and institutions. Although it is a religious duty of proactively catering for minority interests? If Muslim believers to unite and work together, in the emphasis is on „governance‟ and religion is the Russian case, it is also symptomatic of to be understood in its purely cultural dimen- hierarchical opportunities offered by the state‟s sion, the state is perhaps right to engage with vertical approach to governance. the Councils as institutions representing Muslim Despite their inherent differences, the Coun- interests in promoting the „common good‟ cils share similar priorities, administrative and (Britain) and encouraging „national moral revi- religious responsibilities and play a similar role val‟ (Russia). On the other hand, if the Councils in state governance of Islam. They place the only represent a cultural dimension of the interests of Muslim citizens (practicing or Muslim identity, they face a risk of becoming non-practicing) on an equal footing with other religiously hollow institutions, lacking in spiri- religious groups by facilitating Muslim practices. tual authority and support from practicing They negotiate with public authorities to secure Muslims. They become increasingly vulnerable permissions for religious spaces and the reno- to accusations of being „co-opted‟ by the state vation of places of worship. Both institutions to „manage‟ Muslim communities. Stripping the deal with the issues of imam training and ful- institutions of their religious authority might filling state requirements by incorporating result in an unnecessary friction between the national civic values into the curriculum of Isla- secular and Islamic sources of authority. mic education. Both regulate halal provisions, coordinate the dates of Islamic festivals and IV. State-Council relations: horizontal assist with provisions for the hajj. In other and vertical modes of religious words, the two institutions carry out many governance mundane but crucial functions essential for The Muslim Councils are independent inter- supporting Muslim communities, negotiating mediary actors entrusted with representative with government officials and engaging with and administrative functions over Muslim other religions. minorities. However, their institutional capacity The internal dynamics of religious gover- is influenced by the specific regime of religious nance requires the Councils to be effective governance within which they operate. A administrators. However, their institutional further analysis of the ways each Council legitimacy rests on a delicate balance between interacts with the state brings to light the
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Official Discourses DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 internal dynamics of horizontal and vertical A vast diversity of Muslim groups, patterns of state-Muslim relations. The scope of encouraged by a more liberal framework of this section will be limited to discussing the state-religion cooperation and less invasive opportunities and constraints provided by the policies, allows the British government to be mode of state engagement with the Councils more selective in its choice of partners for and the level of competition from other Muslim governing Islam. The highly competitive organisations. environment of Muslim representation in Britain ensures that the Council is not the only MCB and the British Government: the freedom representative of Muslim interests (Qenawi of engagement 2007). There are no provisions precluding state Over the last 10 years the British government financial assistance to religious organisations has developed a rather complex relationship and the state does not necessarily have to rely with the MCB by not only closely cooperating on a single Muslim institution to engage with but also distancing itself from the institution. In Muslim communities. The British government the late 1990s, the New Labour administration has been free to channel financial resources to welcomed the creation of the MCB as a more specific Muslim organisations, as has been centralised organisation collectively recently demonstrated by its support for the representing Muslim interests in Britain. The Sufi Council and the British Muslim Forum. MCB may not be fully representative of all A key advantage of the British horizontal Muslim opinions in Britain, but its organisational approach is its flexibility. While the government structure is based on democratic principles of is free to distance itself from one of its consultation and internal elections. institutional partners, it is also free to re-instate The Council enjoys good relations with the its relations with the institution, provided a government if it refrains from making any series of conciliatory steps have been made on radical statements and cultivates the idea of both sides. Most of the interactions take place „common good‟ which resonates with the British between the leadership of the MCB and senior values of social cohesion. It is instrumental in officials in the Local Government. Following the reducing community tensions, promoting exchange of letters between the MCB and the moderate forms of Islam and accommodating Department for Communities and Local Muslim interests. However, its refusal to take Government‟s Secretary General earlier this part in the Holocaust Memorial Day in 2006 as year, there is currently a clear improvement in well as its more recent statements about the the state-Council relations. The government situation in Gaza cost it the government‟s has promised „not to be cut off entirely from financial and moral backing. Ruth Kelly openly significant voices in the community‟ as it voiced a clear strategy of „funding … [only] ... welcomed the Council‟s support for British those organisations that are taking a proactive forces abroad and its determination to build leadership role in tackling extremism and better relations with the Jewish community defending … shared values‟ (Kelly 2006). This (Denham 2010). move was strongly criticised by the MCB, which The change in the government‟s position had its funding cut as a result. Dr. Abdul Bari, may also be explained by the growing criticism the former Secretary of the Council, wrote in of the way it distributed financial resources response that the „indication that only those under the Preventing Violent Extremism organisations that agree with your particular programme. The report from the House of strategy as the best way to fight extremism will Commons, mentioned earlier, voiced a growing receive your favours is another way of saying concern that the government‟s involvement in that only those who support your government regulating and funding Muslim activities may can expect to receive public funds‟ (MCB 2006). have reflected its desire to „engineer a
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“moderate” form of Islam, promoting and Highly centralised, vertical structures of funding only those groups which conform to government support have become the norm, so this model‟ (House of Commons Communities much that according to one commentator, „a and Local Government Committee). The specific feature of the Russian state is that strength of the horizontal approach to religious everything is permeated by the state‟.9 Russia‟s governance is its extensive and arguably more vertical arrangement of state-Islam relations democratic engagement with civil society allows the Council to act in the interests of the institutions and a greater capacity for policy state while representing Muslim communities. change. Although in the domestic sphere many Muslims Discursive shifts in formulating the general may resent the Council‟s strong commitment to direction of state policies on Muslim the state, in foreign relations such an representation may not be indicative of the arrangement has proven quite effective. The actual changes in policies themselves but are state benefits from the RCM‟s ties with Muslim representative of the changing dynamic of how institutions abroad to build a stronger these policies are being conceptualised and emotional connection with its Muslim citizens, communicated. A potential danger of the British while a systematic accommodation of its Muslim approach may lie in its over-commitment to communities presents Russia in a better light to Muslim communities and inability to provide the Muslim World. adequate and simultaneous support for a Recent discussions on the unification of variety of Muslim activities. While this approach Muslim regional organisations highlight the does not always result in improving the lives of current drive for greater consolidation of Muslim citizens, it is often accompanied by Muslim institutions within the hierarchical somewhat over-zealous ideological and security principles of religious governance. In 2005 the demands on Muslims to integrate and share idea to create a unified structure of Muslim British values. authorities and elect a single Mufti of Russia was met with certain scepticism by religious RCM and the Russian Government: the leaders and Muslim communities alike institutional consolidation (Kommersant 22 April 2005). By 2010 the Close cooperation between official Muslim renewed discussions on consolidating Muslim figures and state officials is an important representation have been largely welcomed by element of Russia‟s vertical governance of the RCM and other official Muslim organi- Islam. While Muslim leaders draw attention to sations, with Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin suggested „Muslim patriotism‟ and praise the good care the as one of the most likely figures to head the government takes of its Muslim citizens, the new consultative structure. government acknowledges the input of Muslim According to the opinion poll conducted by religious authorities and organisations in the League of Muslim Journalists in March „fighting against extremism and xenophobia‟ 2010, the majority of Muslim leaders support a (Medvedev 2009). The Council‟s spokesmen gradual unification of regional Muslim boards, prefer to emphasise the partnership aspect of although some have stressed the need for their engagement with the state. There is a bottom-up representation and warned against shared understanding that the internal stability the dangers of creating such an organisation and spiritual revival of the nation requires a from the top (Muslim Press, March 2010). consolidation of Muslim structures of admi- Creating a single, unified organisation of Muslim nistration. This arrangement gives a greater representation is beneficial to promoting Islam justification for the state efforts to bring state-Islam relations within its own vertical 9 Interview with senior representative from structures of administration. Islam.Ru, Moscow, 15 October 2008.
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Official Discourses DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 and combating extremism. It reflects a growing organisations reduces the level of institutional readiness to resolve internal leadership transparency and accountability. disputes and overcome the fragmentary nature Another implication of the vertical power of Russia‟s umma (Muslim community). And distribution lies in the asymmetrical yet, it is also symptomatic of hierarchical representation of Muslim interests along ethnic consolidation authority and a centralising and religious lines. Different schools of Islamic dynamic of religious administration. thought which have given a special character to In the Russian context, where unofficial Muslim representation at the regional level may organisations remain relatively weak, this tight have partly contributed to the difficulty of partnership may be viewed as a necessary step forming a single representative organisation in to ensure that Muslim communities are the past. While these tensions are unavoidable, represented at the national level. A more they become a serious issue if one ethnic centralised form of governance is beneficial to community is allowed to dominate the Council consolidating the flow of financial resources and and project its own agenda. This asymmetrical political opportunities needed to improve the distribution of power may lead to a rather Muslim infrastructure. Some commentators skewed institutionalisation of Islam with the suggested that it might be helpful to use the interests and beliefs of one community model of the Orthodox Church to represent promoted as the official version of Islam. Muslim religious interests. Although these ideas For example, Tatar representatives have are difficult to implement because of the traditionally occupied key positions in the RCM. a-hierarchal nature of spiritual authority in They exercise a considerable influence as the Islam, state officials look favourably on the government looks more favourably on their possibility of having one Muslim interlocutor to moderate teachings, namely the Hanafi school engage with. Moreover, there is a widespread of Islam (on the Hanafi teachings, see belief that a single national Muslim organi- Gainutdin 2009). A Tatar brand of Islam has sation, consisting of the key moderate Muslim been considered suitable for the Russian figures loyal to the Kremlin, can provide strong context because of its strong preoccupation opposition to radical Islamic movements, with education and moderation and long particularly in the North Caucasus. tradition of imam training. However, any efforts However, over-reliance on the vertical mode to create a single administrative body of Muslim of engagement has a number of implications for representation will have to take into account the governance of Islam and the representation Russia‟s diverse Islamic traditions and beliefs. of Muslim communities. The first issue is the Finally, the vertical patterns of religious problem of the bureaucratisation of religious governance can become unstable because of figures by close identification with the state. By the built-in rigidity of its pyramid-like structure. bringing Muslim representatives within its It is difficult to imagine the state changing its administrative mechanisms, the state risks set of preferred interlocutors once certain widening the gap between Muslim leaders and bureaucratic provisions are in place without the communities they represent. Close upsetting the entire arrangement. If the cooperation with the state leaves the official relationship between the government and the Muslim figures vulnerable to accusations of RCM, or an even more centralised organisation, channelling down state demands to integrate deteriorates, will it still be possible for the state and root out any manifestations of extremism, to retract its support and disengage as we have rather than voicing up the economic, social or seen in the British case? If this is simply a political needs of Muslim communities. matter of replacing one Muslim official with Moreover, the lack of competition from other another, how independent and representative would such an organisation be? Discrediting the
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Ekaterina Braginskaia credentials of a state-endorsed institution represent the complexity of Muslim religious, cannot but negatively reflect on state-Muslim social and political interests is one of the most relations. challenging aspects of state policies on Islam. The Russian approach of close cooperation Without underestimating the key differences of with specific Muslim figures contains a strong horizontal and vertical patterns of state-Muslim preference for a top-down institutionalisation of relations, the research agenda can particularly Islam. However, the patterns of such a vertical benefit from identifying the level of engagement have not been „locked in place‟. convergence. State efforts to control the There is some limited scope for discussing promotion of moderate forms of Islam have alternative arrangements to improve the lives challenged the established arrangements of Muslims in specific social or educational between state and religion and questioned the domains, provided Muslim unofficial acceptable boundaries of state involvement organisations are given sufficient space within with intermediary institutions. These similarities the public sphere. bring out certain aspects of state paternalism, which has hindered the state engagement with Conclusion Muslim communities through excessive The article addressed the question of prescribing of „acceptable‟ forms of moderate religious governance by comparing state Islam and tighter controls on anything that engagement with Muslim communities in Britain does not „fit‟ the requirements. and Russia. It has tried to expand the existing The article has focused on tracing horizontal state-religion typologies to incorporate a and vertical tendencies of Muslim governance stronger political dimension and differentiate by analysing a series of interactions between between liberal and conservative ways of state officials and Muslim senior representatives. accommodating minority rights. While the It highlighted some of the discursive shifts and factor of state-religion relations is critical to policy reformulations in light of the security understanding the complexities of state-Islam challenges and potentially divisive measures engagement, the political element and the that tend to isolate the religious element of the associated bureaucratic tendencies play an Muslim identity. Political institutionalisation of important role in state policies towards Islam. Islam encourages negotiation and accommo- The securitised approach to accommodating dation not only of Muslim communities to the Muslim needs has resulted in a partial blurring secular management of religion, but also of between the state‟s responsibilities towards its traditional state-religion relations to the pre- Muslim citizens and a strong state involvement sence of Muslim communities. This highlights a in Muslim representation in the public sphere. certain fluidity of secular arrangements and the While in Britain this has been communicated by states‟ willingness to act not only as regulators delegating the authority to the local level, and facilitators of this process but also as Russia has been increasingly involved in cen- supporters of Muslim representative insti- tralising its institutional structures and creating tutions. The official rhetoric on Muslim an overarching discourse of national unity and integration continues to treat „Muslim citizens‟ spiritual revival. Although both approaches as a problematic „category‟, whose „separate‟ have had some successes, they have also rights/needs have to be protected, while its shared a number of criticisms, including asym- „Islamic‟ activities are monitored. And yet, there metrical representation of Muslim interests in is a promising indication that a more neutral Russia and excessive „essentialising‟ of Muslim discourse might lead to more inclusive patterns religious identity in Britain. of engagement, respecting the plurality of Finding „suitable‟ partners within the Muslim Muslim identity, without necessarily securitising communities who are sufficiently qualified to its religious dimension.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Ekaterina Braginskaia
About the author Ekaterina Braginskaia is a PhD Candidate at the University of Edinburgh. She has previously worked as a Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded, university project on Russia and Islam. Her current research focuses on a comparative analysis of Muslim representative institutions in Britain, France and Russia, with a particular emphasis on Muslim Councils. Email: [email protected]
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Immigration and Gentrification –
a case study of cultural restructuring in Flushing, Queens
WEISHAN HUANG (Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen)
Abstract: The aim of this article is to introduce how culture and economics intertwine in urban re-structuring before and after the 1990 recession in New York City by using the case study of Flushing, Queens. My research will bring in a cultural perspective to contribute to the understanding of gentrification as economic, social and cultural restructuring under the impact of international immigration. First, this case of neighbourhood transfiguration was initially triggered by a private immigrant developer, not a cooperation, whose successes were based on factors including Taiwanese immigrants’ residential and housing preferences in the 1980s and 1990s. Ethnic residential preference and cultural tastes are cultural factors which accelerated gentrification during the early 1990s recession. The residential pattern of Asian immigrants in New York has showed the continued concentration of ethnic enclaves since the 1980s. Secondly, there has been diversification in Flushing since the 1980s, which is different from the kind of gentrification which creates a social, economic, and racial hegemony in a neighbourhood. The diversification of races and ethnicities in this neighbourhood has increased since the 1980s through the contribution of post-1965 and later post-Cold War immigrants, especially the settlement of Asian immigrants. We need to distinguish between gentrification that creates homogenous racial or ethnic communities that push immigrants out, and this new form of super-diversity gentrification, based on a transnational flow of capital that fosters diversity and uses diversity as a form of investment capital.
The first aim of this article is to introduce how that the process has changed but provide few culture and economics intertwine in urban summaries of what those changes might be. re-structuring before and after the 1990 My research will bring in a cultural perspective recession in New York City by using the case to contribute to the understanding of study of Flushing, Queens. The early 1990s gentrification as economic, social and cultural recession was a turning point for gentrification restructuring under the impact of international in New York, but this turning point has still not immigration. Second, this study also discovers been satisfactorily explained. Many argue that that there were two waves of diversification gentrification is now fundamentally different taking place in Flushing. The first wave was than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, but caused by post-1965 migration and the second overlook the details of how it works (Lees wave by post-Cold War migration. We need to 2000). Others (Bondi 1999; Ley 1996) hint distinguish between gentrification that creates
Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010: 1-3 ISSN 2079-6595 www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol12/issue1/art6 © UNESCO DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Weishan Huang homogenous racial or ethnic communities that Both Mitchell and Hackworth point out that push immigrants out, and this new form of the idea is not to simply add culture as an super-diversity gentrification, based on the extra autonomous variable in the study of transnational flow of capital that fosters cities. As Mitchell (1993) said, ‗Treating culture diversity and uses diversity as a form of as an explanatory variable in the production of investment capital. landscapes can sometimes downplay the ways Many studies focus on the question of in which culture is deliberately produced by changes in gentrification before and after the economic interests to increase the circulation 1990 recession and argue that the early 1990s of capital.‘ For example, Mitchell‘s study in slowdown was actually a precursor to Vancouver demonstrates how the ethos of accelerated gentrification because baby multiculturalism was deployed and purposely boomers might choose the inner city as a place managed by wealthy Hong Kong real estate of retirement (Lees and Bondi 1995; Ley interests to justify the hyper-valuation of real 1996). This assumption raises another estate markets in Vancouver, British Columbia. question concerning the rationale of what and Her research focused on how the actions of how gentrification takes place in suburban real estate developers increased land value by areas. Indeed, Flushing, located in northern using ethnic culture as a tactic, or what Queens, is a newly gentrified suburban city. Hackworth and Rekers (2005) have called the performance of ‗ethnic packaging‘. Based on Hypotheses, Research Questions and her findings, Mitchell suggests that culture is Research Method neither completely organic nor completely This study examines the interconnection of autonomous in the production of urban space. cultural preference and economic factors in the Hackworth‘s (2002) study on gentrification gentrification of Flushing, New York. points to four fundamental changes in the way Gentrification has been defined as the that gentrification works in New York City. production of urban space for more affluent First, corporate developers are now more users. Most studies on gentrification focus on common initial gentrifiers than before. Second, economic factors. In the past 15 years, there the state, at various levels, is fuelling the have been some debates on both cultural and process more directly than in the past. Third, economic factors in urban studies (Barnes anti-gentrification social movements have been 2003; Ley 1996). The economic school tends marginalised within the urban political sphere. to look at the demand and supply side. Some Finally, the land economics of inner-city argue that the return of gentrification after investment have changed in ways that 1990 represents nothing less than a accelerate certain types of neighbourhood reassertion of economics over culture. Recog- changes. nition of the importance of the cultural factor Many other case studies in New York City slowly appears in cases studies, such as neighbourhoods tend to focus on the Hackworth (2001) and Mitchell (1999). Culture relationship between gentrification and capital has been recognised as a meaningful – rather investment in the inner core of New York. In than a structurally residual – factor in the another study on citywide inner-city real estate production of urban spaces. A wave of urban investment, gentrification, and economic studies has explored the role of culture in the recession in New York City, Hackworth (2001) production of cities during the past decade discovered that suburban areas of eastern (Mitchell 1999). Yet the divide between Queens, southern Staten Island, and the economic or cultural restructuring does not eastern Bronx experienced a milder reduction always provide a complete analytical tool. of sales activity during the recession than the There is no clear division in many case studies. inner core. After the recession, the highest
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Immigration and Gentrification DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 percentage gains in sales activity were Chen, member of the Taiwan Merchant experienced in the inner core, whereas the Association and member of the board of suburban fringe experienced a more limited directors of the Taiwan Center, notes that there rise. New construction activity was relegated was discontent and conflict with old white mostly to the suburban fringe of the city – residents during the increase of the Asian predominately to Staten Island and eastern population in the 1980s and 1990s. Queens. Much of central Queens experienced a ‗Ethnic enclave‘ is a term indicating that an decrease in the number of demolitions during ethnic neighbourhood retains cultural the recession, suggesting that disinvestment distinction from a larger, surrounding area. It there was slowing. Massive immigration also indicates an ethnic business that is run by throughout the 1990s had kept demand for the members of the community. Ethnic housing there strong (Hackworth 2001). enclaves may be formed involuntarily, which is The change of centre/periphery growth is similar to the concept of an ‗ethnic ghetto‘, due different to ethnic concentration in Queens. to housing discrimination or the preference of How do we understand ethnic concentration as religious minorities. What are the initial in the case of Flushing? Is it white flight, an decisions establishing a divided ethnic ethnic enclave or ethnic succession? neighbourhood separate from main-stream Historically, Chinatown has been viewed as an culture and old Chinatown? In this regard, I ethnic ghetto or minority community. Earlier will elaborate on the history of the building of studies consider Chinatowns in North America ‗little Taipei‘ in Flushing later. Community as ‗characterized by a concentration of Chinese business leaders in Flushing may also find people and economic activities in one or more ways to promote ethnic enclaves as tourist city block which forms a unique component of attractions, such as the promotion of the Lunar the urban fabric. It is basically an idiosyncratic New Year Parade. oriental community amidst an occidental urban Could ethnic enclaves trigger gentrification? environment‘ (Lai 1973: 101). New Hackworth and Rekers (2005) argue that some immigrants consider ethnic communities to be of these areas function as abrading a shelter within the host society. They obtain mechanisms to produce nearby residential ethnic social capital by finding documented or gentrification. Some neighbourhood undocumented jobs from co-ethnic employers institutions have recognised this attraction and and also find comfort in enclaves due to the have begun to manufacture a saleable form of limitation of linguistic dependency and ethnic ethnicity to tourists and prospective residents food preferences. alike, called ‗ethnic packaging‘ in reference to As for the decrease of the white population the process of gentrification in Canada. in Flushing, it was partially caused by the old Hackworth and Rekers discovered that ‗[t]hese residents moving out after selling their institutions actively manage and sell an ethnic properties to newcomers for hundreds of identity that is increasingly at odds with nearby thousands of dollars. ‗White flight‘ is a term residential patterns. The commercial areas of indicating the departure of white residents these neighborhoods now function less as from urban communities as the population of areas of identification of the stated group, and minority residents increases. Laura Pulidos more as ways to market each neighborhood‘s believes that the process of suburbanisation residential real estate markets‘ (Hackworth and and urban decentralisation contributed to Rekers 2005: 23). Could packaged ethnicity contemporary environmental racism (Pulido facilitate gentrification? Hackworth and Rekers 2000). The decline of the white population was present several thriving cases in Canada in associated with the increase of the Asian which they explored the relationship between population. In an interview with me, Dr. L. F. produced culture and economics in the
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Weishan Huang gentrification of ethnically defined inner-city Transfiguration of Flushing neighbourhoods (Hackworth and Rekers 2005). Throughout its history, New York has been a While examining social change in Canadian city of immigrants and one of the gateway inner cities since 1970, David Ley (1996) cities to the United States. The flow of hypothesised that the resurgence of the immigrants has changed not only the middle class in downtown areas is linked to the demographics of New York, but has also growth of professional and managerial revitalised some declining neighbourhoods. My employment in service industries and to research has discovered that Flushing is not a favourable government policies. Ley ‗satellite city‘ of the traditional Chinatown documents the emergence of a new middle (Manhattan) as described by sociologist Jan class and the origins of their residential Lin (Lin 1998). This article argues that the rise preferences for downtown neighbourhoods. He of Flushing created a promised land for concludes that neighbourhood movements and Taiwanese entrepreneurs in the 1980s and reform politics have been elitist, mainly serving 1990s and has more recently become a new the interests of the affluent new middle class, centre for ethnic Chinese immigrants after and that reform politics also foundered due to September 11, 2001. the divided interests of the new middle class. From 1880 to 1920, close to a million and a Like Ley, the ‗culture school‘ sees half immigrants arrived and settled in the city, gentrification as spatial expression of a critical so by 1910 fully 41 percent of all New Yorkers class (Caufield 1994; Ley 1996), built on the were foreign-born (Foner 2007). More than notion of consumer dominance in tastes. two and a half million have arrived since 1965. According to this view, neighbourhoods A survey of New York City households taken by gentrify primarily because tastes and the US Census Bureau in 1999 revealed that preferences have changed, including an 40 percent of the city's 7.4 million people are increasingly large segment of society that now foreign-born. 1 The top five groups in rejects the suburbs – because of the distance 1990 - Dominicans, Chinese, Jamaicans, to work, the isolation, the lack of diversity – in Italians, and residents of the former USSR – favour of inner-city living (Ley 1996). In the made up just under 30 percent of all case of Flushing, gentrification involves the post-1965 arrivals there. In 1998, the top five changing tastes of different ethnicities instead groups were Dominicans, immigrants from the of simple social classes. The changing tastes of former Soviet Union, Mexicans, Chinese, and ethnicities refer not only to change in Guyanese.2 consumption, but also to changes in values Asians coming to America, including and beliefs, etc. Chinese, have increasingly settled in Queens, The research used in this study involved a New York. We have witnessed the concen- triangulation of methods, including ethno- tration of Asian residences and the new graphy, GIS analysis, and focus groups. The formation of an Asiantown in Queens. In 2000, ethnography and focus groups were carried half of Asian New Yorkers lived in Queens, out during the Ecology of Learning Project bet- where Asians constituted 19 percent of the ween October 2007 and June 2008. GIS population. 3 According to the 1990 Census, analysis was conducted together with Dr. Norbert Winnige at the Max Planck 1 Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic U.S. Census Bureau 1990, http://www.census. gov/. Diversity in 2010. United States census data 2 U.S. Census Bureau, March 1998, http://www. was used to identify the pattern of ethnic census.gov/. 3 residential preference. Asian American Federation, http://www.aafny. org/default.asp; U.S. Census Bureau 2000, http://www.census.gov/.
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Immigration and Gentrification DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 there were 164,586 Asian Americans living in started by a single Taiwanese immigrant, Queens. Among them, 145,362 were Tommy Huang. One might expect to see the post-1965 arrivals.4 In 1998, the number went involvement of the state in fostering this up to 159,973. 5 Asians comprised nearly a transformation, but, interestingly, the state quarter of the city‘s post-1964 foreign-born was not present in this case. The Flushing population (Foner 2000). Business Improvement District (BID) was not Since the 1980s, Flushing, Queens, has established until September 2003, disregarding been the site of a new and revived commercial the protest from small merchants who were zone. Its prosperity reflects not only the afraid of being marginalised by this transition. successful investment of Taiwanese and The aid of the local government arrived after Korean merchants, but also the formation of a the transfiguration of this neighbourhood. new Asian community with a unique kind of Finally, the anti-gentrification movements were religious pluralism. The 2000 United States initiated by old white residents who had been Census Bureau ranked Queens County as the marginalised and eventually moved out of the ninth most populous county in the United neighbourhood by selling their properties. This States with over 2.2 million residents. 6 is somewhat different from Hackworth‘s According to the Census Bureau, Queens description of gentrification. County experienced an over 14 percent Gentrification in the area can be traced to a increase in population since the 1990 census. Taiwanese developer and the savings he The 2000 Census also reflected the growth of brought with his family from his home country. the Asian population in Queens County with From the 1930s to the 1950s, the over 391,500 people identifying themselves as neighbourhood had been predominantly white Asian Americans. More than half of Flushing‘s Anglo-Saxon Protestant and most churches population is Asian American, and many of the had large, active memberships. In 1981, there neighbourhoods around Flushing also have an were only two restaurants in downtown increasing number of Asian American Flushing; in 1998, this area became the fifth residents. It is also claimed that Flushing has largest shopping area in New York City. How the largest ethnic Chinese community in the did this development take place? One man, New York metropolitan area, surpassing the Tommy Huang, created a real-estate empire in number in Manhattan‘s Chinatown. Queens by constructing hundreds of buildings, a tale begun on Main Street in Flushing. No A Different Kind of Gentrification one could have predicted that the 27-year-old Triggered by a Minority Group Huang would create New York‘s second The initial transfiguration of Flushing took Asiantown in the 1990s. place in early 1981, before the financial There are several reasons for the recession in the late 1980s, and was triggered concentration and investment of Taiwanese by a minority group, Taiwanese American business capital in downtown Flushing. First of immigrants. Similar to Hackworth‘s description, all, starting in the late 1970s, these developers, seeking potential benefit, usually family-oriented type immigrants were initiated changes. The initiative which middle-class people who owned private capital prompted the transfiguration of Flushing was and who emigrated from Taiwan with their fortunes due to the development of Taiwan‘s
economy. This middle-class population lost 4 U.S. Census Bureau 1990, http://www.census. gov/. their old business networks when they 5 U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 and March migrated, but real estate was still a business in 1998. which they prospered. Second, in the 1980s, a 6 U.S Census Bureau 2000, http://www.census. global immigration market where nation-states gov/.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Weishan Huang competed with each other to attract potential dential combination housing, as they did in business immigration emerged. Immigrant Taiwan. Huang designed the three-story visas became ever more available to people buildings mixing street-level stores and second with financial resources who were willing to and third levels of residential housing. Owners invest in the host country (Tseng 1997). The could easily rent the first and second levels to major question became where they would new immigrants and live on the top level. invest in real estate. Why would Taiwanese Many of them might also choose to run small newcomers choose Flushing over Elmhurst, businesses on street-level stores, rent the which was also a main destination for many second floor out, and live on the top floor. This early Taiwanese immigrants in New York? kind of building design reflected the characters Investment in Flushing created one of the few of Taiwanese as conservative investors who alternatives to Manhattan Chinatown for many gained the security of owning real estate. Taiwanese immigrants, including Taiwanese Mixing commercial and residential housing overseas nationalists and individual investors. also provided a financial benefit. Legal However, my interview with Tommy Huang, a restrictions prohibit developers from selling pioneer private developer, unveils the cultural residential buildings before they complete the logics that underlie both residential and whole construction. In contrast, New York investment preferences for early Taiwanese state law was more relaxed on commercial Americans. buildings. Huang could actually start collecting According to the interviews with Tommy 10 percent of the down payment by showing Huang and L. F. Chen, Huang‘s vision brought his floor plans to his buyers, and another 10 him to invest in downtown Flushing, a percent after the developers finished partial declining neighbourhood where more than 50 construction of buildings. Therefore, Huang, as percent of shops were closed in the 1980s. a small developer, could create the Flushing Huang started his first development project on miracle with limited capital within a decade. Main Street between 37th Avenue and 38th Huang‘s innovation in real estate develop- Avenue. He first targeted new Taiwanese ment is based on his careful calculation of the immigrants based on the calculation of cultural cultural habits of new Taiwanese immigrants in and social capital. Due to zoning restrictions, the 1980s and New York State Law. Before the some land Huang purchased in downtown 1980s, most Taiwanese and Asian immigrants Flushing was intended for commercial and light lived in Elmhurst, Queens, an ethnic enclave, industry purposes. For commercial zones, or later, in Long Island for better school dis- office buildings are built and sold for business tricts. Why would Taiwanese and Asians move quickly. More than half of the commercial to Flushing? I argue that it is because of ethnic buildings were built by Huang in the 1980s, residential preference, cultural taste or cultural and later five apartment buildings and one preference. Here I provide two analyses to mall. Yet his first success was with commer- prove this assertion. The first one is a coun- cial-and-residential combination buildings. ter-argument to that of Jan Lin, who regarded How could a small developer with only the transfiguration of Flushing as a satellite $500,000 transfigure the landscape of city of old Chinatown in Manhattan. The downtown Flushing? The economic decline of second is an analysis of residential patterns downtown Flushing may have provided a based on US census data since the 1980s. golden chance of buying inexpensive land, but Lin (1998) argues that the emergence of it was culture factors that helped Huang sell satellite Chinatowns in the outer boroughs of his first building even without actually starting New York City is mainly an outcome of conges- construction. Huang realised that Taiwanese tion in the core Chinatown of Manhattan. As immigrants favoured commercial-and-resi- Lin pointed out, the emergence of a gateway
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Immigration and Gentrification DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 town conforms with an emerging area of pri- were from Taishan, Canton, and Hong Kong. mary settlement for new immigrants to the Lin correctly observed the emergence of a metropolis. Examples of this are Crown satellite, such as the new Chinatown on Eighth Heights for West Indians and ‗little Odessa‘ in Avenue in Brooklyn (or sometimes called Brighton Beach for Russian Jews. These trends Sunset Park Chinatown). This satellite is an contrast with classic urban suppositions that extension of both the lower and upper circuits inner-ring suburbs (such as New York‘s outer of the enclave economy; restaurants and boroughs) would be areas of secondary settle- garment sweatshops can be found in satellite ment for upwardly mobile immigrants (Lin Chinatowns as well as transnational banks and 1998). foreign investors. Lin also stressed that resi- Although Flushing today has become a dential and economic decentralisation on a gateway for new flows of labour and capital fundamental level is determined by ecological that are leapfrogging the core, I disagree with variables of population density, scarcity of hou- Lin‘s claim that Flushing, which he calls a sing, and high land values in the urban core. satellite Chinatown, was initially formed as an Residential out-movers are additionally moti- area of secondary settlement. The investment vated by preferences for privacy and space; in Flushing was based on a developer‘s careful their outward geographic mobility, enabled by calculation that Taiwanese immigrants were household savings, also reflects upward social seeking a politically, socially, and ethnically dif- mobility. Economic out-movers follow some- ferent settlement area than that of ‗traditional what in the path of residential decentralisation; Chinatown‘, where most of the old settlers small enterprises find that labour is available in
Map 1. Asians by track change 1990-2000. Dr. Norbert Winnige and Weishan Huang. .
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Map 2. Asians in New York 1990, Dr. Norbert Winnige and Weishan Huang.
Map 3. Asians in New York 2000. Dr. Norbert Winnige and Weishan Huang.
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Immigration and Gentrification DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 the outer boroughs, and banks similarly find ethnic residential patterns in Flushing (also that residents there have monetary savings to Sunset Park in Brooklyn). Cultural gentryfication deposit and invest (Lin 1998). accelerates and sustains the continued eco- In the late 1990s, Flushing received more nomic gentrification in these neighbourhoods. and more new Chinese immigrants not only According to the US census, in 2006, the from southern China but also from both Chinese population made up 57 percent eastern and northern China. Where do they (63,811) of the entire Asian population in like to live and whom do they like to live with? Community District 7, Flushing. In 2006, Our GIS map tells us that Asians tend to live Flushing residents in CD 7 were composed of with Asians in New York, including in four 57 percent Chinese, 26 percent Korean, 8 Asian concentration neighbourhoods. percent Indian, 4 percent Filipino and 5 On this map, besides the heavy concentra- percent other Asian immigrants.7 tion of Chinese in traditional Chinatown, Man- Chinese immigrants increasingly moved to hattan, Asians tend to choose neighbourhoods Flushing for business and for residence purpo- with a high concentration of Asians. This ses. The building of a ‗Little Taipei‘ in Flushing similar residential pattern of Asians can be faded in the late 1990s as post-Cold War observed in the neighbourhoods of Flushing Chinese new immigrants quickly outnumbered (Queens), Elmhurst (Queens), and Sunset Park Taiwanese immigrants. When post-Cold War (Brooklyn). Chinese immigrants moved into New York, Map 2 and Map 3 illustrate the process of their presence further diversified the already concentration of Asians. US Census data can diverse ethnic communities. Each ethnic only illustrate the special choices for new Asian sub-group tends to form its own social immigrants, but cannot tell us more about who networks for business and later hometown they are and how they make the decisions associations for political identity and solidarity. about residential preference. My previous New York has witnessed an increased process ethnography has discovered that Taiwanese of diversification of cultural and political elites and nationalists tend to choose Flushing, groupings among ethnic Chinese communities Queens, as new settlement because of social, over the last two decades. political, and economic reasons. Taiwanese According to the information from the New elites, many of whom have high educational York City Planning Department, the continued backgrounds, preferred to live in Flushing in trend of neighbourhood gentrification in order separate themselves from the image of Flushing continues. The median rent has traditional working-class immigrants in China- increased from $832 in 2000, to $1095 in 2005 town, Manhattan. Overseas Taiwanese nation- and $1160 in 2006, which is almost a 40 nalists, many of whom were persecuted by the percent increase in six years. The median Kuomingtang (Muo Ming Party) regime and home value has increased from $269,043 in could not return to Taiwan, were busy building 2000, to $496,500 in 2005 to $535,700 in a ‗Little Taipei‘ as a base for political solidarity. 2006, which is almost a 50 percent increase in The examination of the Asian immigrant profile six years.8 in Flushing will continue in the next section. Ethnicity and cultural intimacy among Asian immigrants are the factors accelerating the The Investment in a New Promised gentrification. The capital investment of Land – the Continued Gentrification of the Neighbourhood The gentrification of Flushing did not slow 7 New York City Department of City Planning, down because of the economic recession. We http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html. 8 see the pattern of continued concentration of New York City Department of Planning, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html.
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Figure 1: CD 7 Asian composition 1990-2000. Dr. Norbert Winnige.
Figure 2: CD 7 Foreign-born population 2000. Dr. Norbert Winnige.
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Figure 3: EOL project in 2008.
Taiwanese immigrants in downtown Flushing is United States, and a promised land for a significant element in the commercialisation economic and social well-being. of this area, yet Korean immigrants were also involved in this hot market (Chen 1992). Conclusion Flushing was declining in the 1980s, but in the The above analysis of US census data and eyes of Taiwanese immigrant developers, ethnography aims to bring a cultural expla- Flushing is a place that serves as an important nation to the study of gentrification before and transportation hub in Queens, a location with after the recession of 1990 in Flushing, great potential to realise their dream in the Queens. First, this case of neighbourhood
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Weishan Huang transfiguration was initially triggered by a Hanson referring to Flushing as ‗the most private immigrant developer, not a coope- religiously diverse community in America… ration, whose successes were based on the There are over 200 places of worship in a factors including Taiwanese‘s residential and small urban neighborhood about 2.5 square housing preference in the 1980s and 1990s. miles‘. 9 Today, you can find the Quaker Ethnic residential preference and cultural Meeting House, St. George Episcopal Church, tastes are cultural factors which accelerated the Free Synagogue of Flushing, St. Andrew gentrification during the early 1990s recession. Avellino Roman Catholic Church, St. Nicholas The residential pattern of Asian immigrants in Greek Orthodox Church, existing side-by-side New York has showed the continued with immigrants‘ churches, and Buddhist Hindu concentration of ethnic enclaves since the and Sikh temples in Flushing, which were built 1980s, as Map 1 and Map 2 demonstrated. by diverse new residents. The cultural perspective fills in the gap of our Steven Vertovec has coined the term understanding that gentryfication in Flushing is ‗super-diversity‘ (Vertovec 2007) to describe not just an economic and social restructuring, the extreme pluralisation of minorities which is but that ethnicity and culture are the main increasingly an aspect of European factors generating and accelerating mega-cities. Yet European super-diversity is gentrification. This suggests that there is a still characterised by an increasing pluralisation strong connection between cultural identity of minorities facing relatively homogeneous and gentrification, which may apply in other national majorities. One interesting concept of case studies as well. super-diversity is noting similar changes in This data contradicts Hackworth and Smith‘s urban settings in both North American and (2001) claim that the changing state of European cities and patterns of diversification gentrification indicates the return of heavy among ethnic groups themselves (Fong and state intervention in the process. They argue Shibuya 2005; Vertovec 2007). I have found a that state intervention has returned because, similar story in Flushing. first, continued devolution of federal states has There is a multidimensional diversity that we placed even more pressure on the local have to recognise in the ethnic Chinese government to actively pursue redevelopment community in New York, which includes and gentrification as ways of generating tax linguistic, social-cultural, social-economic, and revenue, and second, the diffusion of social-political diversity. Regarding linguistic gentrification into more remote portions of the diversity, the earlier Chinese immigrants speak urban landscape poses profit risks that are Taishanese and Cantonese while Taiwanese beyond the capacity of individual capitalists to immigrants speak Taiwanese. The newcomers manage. In contrast to this argument, I did include those from Fuzhou, who speak not find the hand of local or federal Fuzhouese, Wenzhou, who speak Wenzhouese, governments in Flushing‘s gentrification. Shanghai, who speak Shanghaiese, and Secondly, there has been diversification in Southeast Asian Chinese immigrants, who Flushing since the 1980s, which is different speak various dialects. Most ethnic Chinese from the kind of gentrification which creates a can communicate in Mandarin. In addition to social, economic, and racial hegemony in a linguistic diversity, ethnic Chinese immigrants neighbourhood. The diversification of races and ethnicities in this neighbourhood has 9 ‗Historian Scott Hanson Discusses Religious increased since the 1980s through the contri- Diversity in America‘. Ask America webchat bution of post-1965 and later post-Cold War transcript, August 19 2008, immigrants, especially the settlement of Asian http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/200 immigrants. This has led to historian Scott 8/August/20080819162731xjsnommis0.5391199. html (accessed 9 September 2010).
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Immigration and Gentrification DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 often have distinctive cultural customs. As for various provinces of China who have socioeconomic diversity, old immigrants and immigrated since the opening of China. Hongkongese have more capital and are As this research revealed, instead of expla- generally middle class. Newcomers, such as nations resting solely on economic or solely on those from Fuzhou, have less capital and are cultural arguments, we need to examine how usually blue collar workers. As for sociopolitical culture and economics intertwine in urban diversity, ethnic Chinese immigrants are from re-structuring. We need to distinguish between everywhere in Asia, hence, they have various gentrification that creates homogenous racial political identities and can build hardly any or ethnic communities that push immigrants solidarity in political action. out, and this new form of super-diversity In ethnic Chinese communities, the pattern gentrification, based on a transnational flow of of diversification has taken place since 1965, capital that fosters diversity and uses diversity adding the new wave of Taiwanese immigrants as a form of investment capital. While to old Cantonese immigrants, a second wave concepts of class are still relevant, this type of of undocumented Fuzhouese immigrants since analysis needs to pay attention to class the late 1980s, and in a more current distinction within immigrant communities. post–Cold War wave, Chinese immigrants from
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BARNES, T. 2003. ―The 90s Show: Culture Leaves HACKWORTH, J. R. 2007. The Neoliberal City: the Farm and Hits the Streets‖. Urban Governance, Ideology, and Development in Geography 24 (6): 479-92. American Urbanism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell BONDI, L. 1999. ―Between the Woof and the University Press. Weft: A Commentary and Prospective View‖. HACKWORTH, J. and SMITH, N. 2001. ―The Urban Geography 14: 95-107. Changing State of Gentrification‖. Tijdschrift CHEN, H.-S. 1992. Chinatown No More: Taiwan voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 92 (4): Immigrants in Contemporary New York. 464-77. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. HACKWORTH, J. R. and REKERS, J. 2005. Ethnic CAULFIELD, J. 1994. City Form and Everyday Identity, Place Marketing, and Gentrification in Life: Toronto‘s Gentrification and Critical Social Toronto. Toronto: Centre for Urban and Practice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Community Studies, University of Toronto. FONER, N. 2007. ―Comparative Perspectives on ———. 1996. The New Chinatown. Rev. ed. New Immigrants in New York - - Across Times and York: Hill and Wang. Space‖. Conference Paper, Weatherhead LAI, C. 1973. ―Socio-economic Structures and the Center, Harvard University. Viability of Chinatown‖. In: C. Forward, ed., ———. 2000. From Ellis Island to JFK: New York's Residential and Neighbourhood Studies, Two Great Waves of Immigration. New Haven: Western Geographical Series, No. 5. Victoria: Yale University Press. University of Victoria, 101-29. FONG, E. and SHIBUYA, K. 2005. ―Multiethnic LEES, L. 2000. ―A Re-appraisal of Gentrification: Cities in North America‖. Annual Review of Toward a ‗Geography of Gentrification‘ ‖. Sociology (31): 285-304. Progress in Human Geography 24: 289-408. HACKWORTH, J. 2001. ―Inner-City Real Estate LEES, L. 2003. ―Super-gentrification: The Case of Investment, Gentrification, and Economic Brooklyn Heights, New York City‖. Urban Recession in New York City‖. Environment and Studies 40 (12): 2487-509. Planning 33: 863-80. ———. 2008. ―Gentrification and Social Mixing: ———. 2002. ―Postrecession Gentrification in New Towards an Inclusive Urban Renaissance‖. York City‖. Urban Affairs Review 37 (6): 815-43. Urban Studies 45 (12): 2449-70.
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LEES, L. and BONDI, L. 1995. ―De-gentrification ———. 1999. ―What's Culture Got To Do With and Economic Recession: The Case of New It?‖. Urban Geography 20 (7): 667-77. York City‖. Urban Geography 16 (3): 234-53. PULIDO, L. 2000. ―Rethinking Environmental LEY, D. 1996. New Middle Class and the Racism: White Privilege and Urban Develop- Remaking of the Central City. New York: ment in Southern California‖. Annals of the Oxford University Press. Association of American Geographers 90 (1) LIN, J. 1998. Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic March: 12-40. Enclave, Global Change, Globalization and TSENG, Y.-F. 1997. ―Commodification of Resi- Community. Vol. 2. Minneapolis: University of dency: An Analysis of Taiwan‘s Business Immi- Minnesota Press. gration Market‖. Taiwanese: A Radical Quar- MITCHELL, K. 1993. ―Multiculturalism, or the terly in Social Studies 27, September: 37-67. United Colors of Capitalism?‖. Antipode 25 (4): VERTOVEC, S. 2007. ―Super-diversity and its 263-94. Implications‖. Ethnic and Racial Studies 29 (6): 1024-54.
About the Author Weishan Huang is a sociologist and a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Her work focuses mainly on migrants, ethnic communities and religious movements.
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Where is China in World Christianity?
DOROTTYA NAGY (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen)
Abstract Recent years have witnessed an articulated attention given to ‘China’ as a rising economic power. Parallel to this economic perspective, a renewed attention to the relationship between China and Christianity has also started to become verbalised in speeches of such prominent persons as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope and the general secretary of the World Council of Churches. China is accentuated on the agenda of missionary organizations. Where do fascination and passion for China come from? How does this China-fever influence certain processes within contemporary World Christianity? Where is China in World Christianity today? The present article aims to contest the oversimplifications exercised in the China question and maps the complexity of trajectories involved in the question of the China-World Christianity nexus. Looking at certain examples of global-local dynamics, the article aims to localise ‘China’ in its relation to World Christianity and vice versa. In doing so, the article focuses on issues such as transnational communities, ecumenical understanding, contextualisation and theological pluralism. The present contribution argues that the ‘where’ question in this case poses the challenge of moving beyond the geographical and numerical mappings. In order to understand the multiple theological connotations of the 'where' questions, the article proposes a new missiological-ecumenical approach which perceives ‘super-diversity’ as a guiding principle for the integrity of World Christianity.
The media rhetoric regarding ‘China’s Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church in the century’ and ‘China’s rise’ of the first decade of People's Republic of China’, which stresses the twenty-first century has found its way into once again the importance given to China and both popular and academic theological especially the official connection to the Vatican language. Recent speeches of prominent of Roman Catholic believers.1 personalities belonging to Christian Similarly, official contacts between the organisations or churches support the Church of England and the Three Self Patriotic argument that China is a major topic of Church in China have been intensified. The consideration within the discourse on contemporary Christianity. In March 2009 the 1 The Pope declared May 24, the Feast of Our Vatican launched a Mandarin-language version Lady, Help of Christians, as an annual ‘day of of its official website. Prior to that, in 2007, prayer for the Church in China’, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/l Pope Benedict XVI had issued the letter ‘To etters/2007/documents/hf_benxvi_ the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated Persons and let_20070527_china_en.html, accessed on 30 May 2010.
Diversities – Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010: 1-3 ISSN 2079-6595 www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol12/issue1/art6 © UNESCO
DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Dorottya Nagy
World Council of Churches, especially during or centred around so-called sino-theology3, the time of Dr Samuel Kobia2 as its general which would mean that the main discourses secretary, has started to pay more and more and subjects of priority on the agenda of world attention to the China issue through seeking Christianity will be set by Chinese people and contacts on different levels with Christian according to Chinese logic. communities in China, through theological, The above section clearly demonstrates social and diaconal projects. Next to these a China fever. Looked at from a Christian point booming business of missionary involvement is of view, this is accompanied by a number of mushrooming for the study field of missiology. conceptual problems. One can see how easily From the so-called tent-makers to 'the China question' and 'the Chinese issue' pseudonymous missionaries, the variety of tend to be lumped together and that there is missionary activities within China is too large little or no awareness that 'China' and to be caught in a few sentences. What is so 'Chinese' might mean different things for phenomenal about the missionary engagement different people. The Christian China-fever and with the China question is that missionaries the celebration of Chinese Christianity arrive in China from all parts of the world, consciously or unconsciously propagate while in their turn missionaries born in China demagogic theological views and go all over the world. oversimplifications of the question at stake. It Parallel to and intermingling with the China is this tendency to oversimplify against which fever of Christians (both from Chinese and the present article brings arguments and builds non-Chinese parties), is a remarkable up a possible alternative, a more realistic view, celebration of what is called Chinese allowing the China-Chinese—World Christianity Christianity both in academic and popular nexus to be looked at, reflected on and taken theological/missiological writings. It is not only as a starting point to build further conceptual the rise of China and the believed rise of frameworks, which could in turn contribute to Christianity within China that is being the improvement of practical, concrete, celebrated, but Chinese Christianity itself. One person-to-person projects. of the most prominent paradigms in this The major argument of this article is that celebration is that referring to the Nestorian the China-Chinese—World Christianity4 nexus roots of Chinese Christianity (Christianity as a cannot be essentialised; in order to avoid any good, old religion), thus demonstrating the essentialisation and essentialism, the article continuity of Christian presence among the introduces the principle of 'super-diversity' as a Chinese all through the ages. The paradigm productive and useful tool to study the reaches its climax when it argues that Chinese
Christianity, or Christianity in China, has 3 The term should not be confused with the become and is becoming more and more homonymous term adopted by a circle of Chinese. The paradigm is grandiosely shaped scholars of in such a way that it fits the Jenkinsian idea of Christianity in the PRC during the last two and a half decades (see Lai 2006). the next Christendom (Jenkins 2002), and 4 The concept of ‗World Christianity‘ within this goes even beyond that, predicting the future nexus also requires a thorough revisiting, yet of worldwide Christianity as one dominated by such an exercise goes beyond the primary scope of this article. It is beyond the aim of this article to elaborate on the concept of ‗World Community‘ as evoked by the concept of ‗World 2 An example of how Kobia‘s first attempts to Christianity‘. See e.g. Baudot 2001, where initiate contact have been evaluated by the mutual learning was one of the accentuated WCC's Chinese counterpart can be seen at attitudes towards diversity. On the earliest http://www.china.org.cn/english/photo/189736.h conceptualisations of world community, see tm (accessed 25 April 2010). Meister 1964.
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Where is China in World Christianity? DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 question at stake. As the actual parameters of Chinese behaves like the interval between 0 the present article require compact and 1; it contains endless elements and formulations, it will remain the task of many components,6 yet it is useful and productive. ‗to be written‘ articles to elaborate more on Every time one touches this interval, one must certain issues and arguments raised within be aware that there are only some these pages. components which can be given immediate attention while all the others remain Where is China? unaddressed. The basic and most crucial conceptual The present article has chosen to approach problem for the China-Chinese—World the China-Chinese interval with an initial Christianity nexus is the so-called China puzzle. question: There is an ever-growing scholarship trying to Where is China? The question implies a settle the issue and trying to find out which specific type of localisation. China goes far are the exact elements which allow a beyond merely a certain geo-political entity, conceptualisation of these terms. What is but it always remains connected to it, whether China? What is Chinese? How do these two or not it has been or will be called by that basic questions relate to each other and what name at certain times in history. The question are the consequences and configurations can be answered on multiple levels, and it is resulting from their interrelatedness? How far exactly this plurality of possible answers which can one force the contents and limits of these already initiates the complexity of the subject concepts? Is it at all possible for scholars to matter. Beyond the ‗made in China‘ experience settle the issue when discourses at grass-roots which accompanies every segment of daily life, level surprise one with ever newer spelling- China is present outside the People‘s Republic outs of China and Chinese? Is there any final of China (PRC) through the most diverse forms authority which can reveal a final thought on of past and present migrations: international these questions? Parallel to this fundamental students, migrant workers, business (wo)men, issue is the problem of translatability, and the high professionals and small traders holding a transposability of concepts produced within the PRC passport, to name but a few. But China is, Chinese languages to English as the lingua even more importantly, present in and through franca of scholarship. the people of older and newer generations of This article argues that, although the China- political refugees and emigrants who are Chinese question might look like a Sisyphean actively engaged in forming an image of China challenge, it is to scholars engaged in the task for non-Chinese through the lens of their life more than merely the perpetual motion of experiences. China becomes real or imagined moving the same stone and getting nowhere. through different sets of experiences, and Explorations of the China-Chinese question do these experiences predict actual reactions to lead scholarship - and therefore also practical China. In this way the answers given to the engagements with the questions - further. The ‗Where is China?‘ question bring with them the most important step, which is still too often questions of ‗When is China?‘ and ‗Who is skipped in reflections on the China-Chinese— China?‘ as well.7 World Christianity nexus, is indeed the awareness of the huge complexity present within it.5 The interval between China and aims to illustrate the huge size of the question in geographical terms. The statement could be extended to the conceptual maximum of the 5 It is common among Chinese scholars to start China-Chinese question. their talks on the subject with sentences such as: 6 The non-Chinese are also part of the interval. ‗Everything you say about China is true, and its 7 The author is thankful to William A. Callahan, opposite is true as well.‘ Often this statement who through his book, although within a
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Chineseness accelerated migration processes emerging The question of 'Chineseness' is another from the PRC8, it can be observed that complex concept evoked by the interval. Mandarin has become a dominating tool to Chineseness is experienced, constructed, negotiate Chineseness on a global scale, yet nurtured and envisioned by different groups, in the Mandarin language is not and probably different places and with different purposes. never will be seen as the essential element of Once again, the vagueness of the term should Chineseness. not make one think that it is an empty one. Chineseness as an adopted identity marker Chineseness, or being Chinese, is a major creates power of a different sort; it creates the identity marker for many people around the sense of a powerful community moving on the world. How this identity marker is spelled out global stage, a community which exercises in lifestyles, world views, individual, communal power at different levels and to which power and corporal practices, in social, political, and others react, either positively or negatively. economic arenas, remains to be investigated. Through such reactions, the China-Chinese— The peculiarity of the nation lies in the fact World Christianity Nexus emerges. that it does invite essentialism. Chineseness is something which should be detectable and The Nexus identifiable; Chineseness should be the force The China-Chinese—World Christianity which creates unity within diversity. ‗Global nexus is a theoretical one, since metaphorically Chinese themselves seem to feel an obligation what is called World Christianity includes and to find Chineseness themselves and translate it is also built up by China (as defined here), and to their children‘ (Wickberg 2007: 178). The it also contains the challenges which go need to capture Chineseness seems to be together with Chineseness. Yet, on the theo- strongest within migration processes, where retical level it is appropriate to talk about a next to the migration experience itself as an nexus, since in contemporary theological/ identity maker, forceful identity markers are missiological discourses there is a tendency to also needed for the maintenance of human segregate and talk about the relationship integrity, both individual and communal. between certain continents, states, ethnic Following this logic, the main differentiation for groups and nationalities and World Christianity constructing Chineseness, connected to life- (e.g. Bays 1996: Viii; Buswell and Lee 2007; experiences, would be the presence or lack of Koschorke and Schjorring 2006). Such talks migration within the process. Here again, one still evoke some remnants of Western-centric has to distinguish among several factors, such theologizing/missionising and the conceptual as internal migration processes within the PRC tools inherited from this. Even when it is itself, migrations from Chinese-dominated functional to adopt this rhetoric, one has to be language settings to other Chinese-dominated cautious to what extent this nexus becomes language settings, and migration from more than theoretical. The danger of Chinese-dominated language settings to non- essentialisation is present also within this Chinese-dominated language settings. These context.9 distinctions to a certain extent suggest the role of languages in finding the essence of being 8 And within missionary involvements, the power Chinese. Yet, one has to bear in mind that position of Taiwanese missionary agencies is also several different Sino-Tibetan languages are a significant and connected phenomenon. 9 One good example of how essentialisation can involved in these processes. Due to the take place is the recently published book by Sebastian and Kirsteen Kim, Christianity as a World Religion (London: Continuum, 2008). An different context, stimulated this new way of outstanding material for educational purposes, looking at China (see Callahan 2010). yet through the very structure adopted, the book
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One of the most valuable contributions of shaping the nexus. While more and more the concept of ‗World Christianity‘ and related attention is being given to the phenomenon of concepts is that its terminology points to the international PRC migrants, theologically world as the context for theology and/or speaking little attention has been given to the missiology. This implies that, similar to PRC‘s internal migrants and their role in ethnographic methodological problems, shaping different forms of Christianity within theological/missiological studies (also carried the PRC. According to some estimates the out with ethnographic methods), should number of internal/domestic migrants in China consider the question of how the area being rivals the total number of international studied (theoretically hermetically sealed) migrants worldwide. China‘s population is relates to the whole, to the rest of what there increasingly mobile11, and this migration is. lifestyle significantly influences the formation The present article argues that the of Christian communities, conversion processes theoretically proposed nexus calls attention to and narratives as well as the development of the complexity of trajectories, connections, theologisation/missionization. At the basis of networks and contexts of interrelatedness. migration is the search for a better life, the Because of the limitations of the present aspiration for that which could not yet be article, in the following the enquiry will be into reached. Therefore, these aspirations and phenomena, dynamics and issues strictly desires are fundamental in constructing related to the PRC.10 Attention given to theologies under the conditions of migration. migration processes within these dynamics is Theologies are connected to lifestyle goals, one way to work with the nexus in a proper which emerge from unique and individual life way. By focusing on migration processes (hi)stories, from specific historical and material internal to the nexus, it will become clear that conditions and are always connected to global within the nexus a huge variety of actors, social transformations and changing interests, theologies, missionary ideas and circumstances (Castles 2008). Internal and practices are present. Then, through the lens international migrations are connected. of migration, the article will consider two other Countless migrants have both internal and perspectives which are crucial in dealing with international migration experiences. This is the the nexus. The first one is the set comprised case for students, labourers, professionals and of culture, ethnicity, nationality, nationalism others. and patriotism, the second one is the issue of Increasing attention is being given to the post-denominationalism. international migrations positioning the PRC within World Christianity. This is also because Migration of the countless missionary organisations As elaborated earlier, both international and situated outside the PRC which aim to internal migrations play a significant role in Christianise China. The process has been spectacularly intensified in the last decades. International migration then implies a two-way chooses to localise World Christianity according to the geographical territorial divisions of continents. This reinforces the danger of 11 Between 1995 and 2005 the proportion of the developing continental narrowness, whereas population on the move in China doubled, and World Christianity studies within the according to some estimates it increases by five contemporary framework of globalisation is million every year (see Fan 2008, especially pp. precisely about ties, networks and trajectories 162-79). Within this process the category of which go beyond any territorial essentialism. peasant migrant plays an important role. The 10 This is done with the awareness that the PRC importance of peasant migrants forming is just one, though a significant, component of theological discourses should not be the China-Chinese interval. underestimated either.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Dorottya Nagy movement: from the PRC elsewhere and from diverse contexts of subgroups, and forms of elsewhere into the PRC. Within these Christian tradition and spirituality. dynamics, PRC students studying abroad are Diversification is natural and unavoidable one of the major vectors for transmitting and but it does not fit into the paradigm of transporting Christianity not only to the PRC ‗Chinese Christianity‘. Yet, that paradigm is still but around the world. artificially sustained and nurtured both by The idea that Chinese overseas students can Chinese and non-Chinese. It seems that the be used in the larger missionization plan of burned–out part of World Christianity needs China has been in existence for a long time.12 Chinese Christianity in all her size, power and There is a peculiar parallel between the triumph in order to imagine the dominance of arguments used in missionisation rhetoric in Christianity on the planet called Earth. In this the early decades of the twentieth century and sense there is indeed a new Christendom that of the contemporary era. Arguments under construction – a Christianity which about the collapse of so-called traditional celebrates numbers, achievements, and Chinese culture (whatever that may be), aspires to a certain power. modernisation, and the exceptionalism of Migration within the nexus helps one grasp Christianity as a highly developed religion were the complexities of the paradigm of ‗Chinese then and still are popular (Hall 2006), and Christianity‘ within the whole of World these go hand in hand with the conviction that Christianity. An essentialised China and Chinese international students - China‘s future Chinese are needed in order to show triumph intellectuals - are the best candidates to solve and victory on the global stage. the spiritual crisis. Missionary involvement among Chinese international students A surplus set: culture, ethnicity, worldwide is very diverse and is rooted in nationality, patriotism, nationalism several different theologies. The argument Naming these terms in a row is playing with about China‘s spiritual vacuum (see Spence (academic) fire. It is obvious that these 1991; Yang 1998), etc., can be only partially concepts can never be handled at once in just sustained, and the usage of the argument to a few sentences. Yet bearing in mind the demonstrate the growth of Christianity in awareness-raising ambition of the present China should be applied with even more article, these concepts are placed next to each caution. The Christianity which travels through other in order to capture the major pillars of the channel of the international student is a the obsession with Chineseness and to avoid very diverse one, sometimes even essentialism. ‗In the habitual obsession with unrecognisable by some Christians as being ―Chineseness‖, what we often encounter is a Christian at all. Every process of conversion is kind of cultural essentialism – in this case, individual and unique, yet it is ‗produced by syncretism – that draws an imaginary many stages of transmission, in the context of boundary between China and the rest of the particular societies and their tradition‘ world‘ (Chow 1998). (Morrison 1992: 5), and beyond that within The events of 1949 have been often interpreted in recent history as the moment when the world, and the Christian world (whatever that might be) in particular, 'lost' 12 One of the earliest examples of realising this China. A continuously developing discourse on idea is the programme initiated in 1911 by John R. Mott and called Committee of Friendly the loss of China intensified during the Cold Relations among Foreign Students, which aimed War period and inquired within economic, to introduce Christians and influence society political, cultural and theological studies as to through their Christian identity (see Wheeler et who was responsible for the loss of China (to al. 1925).
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Where is China in World Christianity? DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 the Communists) and how China could ever statements which might illustrate the become an equal member of ‗our‘ common argument of complexity. humanity and, more specifically, a player on The rhetoric on China‘s minorities, ethnic the stage of World Christianity. With overlaps, groups and the importance of their since the late seventies, China‘s opening up Christianisation is shared by many groups. The and the massive societal and economic China Christian Council (CCC) acknowledges transformation within the PRC, with the need for ethnic/minority church leaders consequences for the rest of the world, have who minister among their own people, and fueled a sense of ‗China re-found‘.13 therefore is engaged in specific training Since the late seventies the concept of programmes for them. The CCC has published ‗greater China‘ (dazhonghua) has also been the Bible and Hymnal in the languages of introduced in popular discourses (newspapers, seven minority groups. The following example magazines) as well as in economic discourse fittingly illustrates the type of rhetoric to be (Harding 1993). As is often the case, the found here: meaning of the concept is not clear; one has China is a unified, multi-ethnic country, with to pay attention to the actual networks to fifty-six nationalities. The Han people account which the concept might refer. Parallel to the for ninety-two percent of the total population economic ties and networks, missionary of the country, leaving eight percent for the networks were also activated and created in other fifty-five ethnic nationalities. The order to spread the Gospel among ‗Chinese‘ principle that guides relationships among people. In this re-discovery of China, ‗even ethnic nationalities is equality, unity and those who have devoted lifetimes to the study common prosperity. The law prohibits of that country are not immune to fantasizing discrimination against and oppression of any or peddling their fantasies to the public at ethnic nationality in China (Wu 2000). large, and there are always Chinese witnesses who, for reasons of their own, are anxious to Taking another example from a different authenticate such fantasies.‘ The celebration of context is the organisation called Asia Harvest. China in these terms is also connected to the The Asia Harvest operates with a missionary fact that intellectuals in diaspora are rewarded vision which accentuates the importance of and praised for their work on minority cultures reaching ethnic groups, minority groups, and they are important in disrupting the nature tribes, in short smaller groups within Asia‘s of knowledge production in the ‗West‘ about nation states.14 Hattaway‘s article (2009) ―The the ‗East‘, in this case China. 14 This article speaks of a 'surplus set', since The organisation describes itself as being ‗an these concepts in theologising and missionising inter-denominational Christian ministry working in China and other nations of Asia, helping with practices are constantly interwoven and it is strategic and life-changing projects, and seeing impossible to draw their boundaries. Where God perform exciting and extraordinary things. does patriotism end and nationalism start? We work alongside Asian church leaders, How do nationality and ethnicity differ? The including house church leaders in China, helping and equipping them to focus on reaching the academic literature on the surplus set is lost. Our main focus is China, Vietnam, Laos, abundant in providing all kinds of theories and Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Bhutan and northern arguments. India. Within these seven countries are At this stage, this article confines itself to approximately 1,000 unreached tribes and ethnic groups', see some examples, some vignettes, and http://www.asiaharvest.org/index.php, accessed on 29 April 2010. One of the peculiarities of the program, however, is that it also propagates the 13 The association with the story of the Prodigal printing of Bibles in the Mandarin language. This Son should not be taken too far. observation needs further investigation.
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Father‘s Heart Reaching Tribes in Remote Chinese state will use power in the same Asia‖ provides a good example of how this responsible way as the United States missionary theology is being verbalised. Here (governed according to Christian principles) once again, diversity is created and maintained (Aikman 2003). primarily through ethnic boundaries defined in China‘s moment of its greatest achievement - hermetic and static identity components and of the most benefit to the rest of the (culture, language, history, history of earlier world-may lie just ahead. That moment may missionisation, etc.). This missionary strategy occur when the Chinese dragon is tamed by uses Matthew 24:14 as one of its core texts the power of the Christian Lamb. The process where in this reading Christ‘s return only may have already started in the hopes and happens when all the nations and tribes have works of China‘s house church leaders heard the Gospel.15 (Aikman 2003: 292). A third example can be taken from the scene of the international migratory setting in The above examples demonstrate the the USA. A recent study demonstrates that interwoven nature of the surplus set. The establishing groups for PRC students at observation developed through looking at the university and college campuses has additional surplus set shows that cultural, ethnic and side-effects, one of which is that they attract national essentialisation lies at the heart of the young people labelled as ‗Chinese American‘. phenomenon. Essentialism and essentialist The study concludes by stating that ‗the desire generalisations concerning the China-Chinese for ethnic seekership leads many Chinese (world) Christianity nexus result in theoretical American young people to join Chinese perspectives, political and Christian student groups on campus. The theological/missiological agendas that efface young people are not interested in Christian the real problems and challenges of this nexus. religion, per se, but because they want to It is within these essentialisations that the make friends with people of similar ethnicity, paradigm of Chinese Christianity is cherished. many find the Chinese aspect of such groups The danger of the paradigm is that it makes appealing‘ (Hall 2006: 145). the ethnic, cultural, and national essentials the The surplus also appears outside major definer of Christian identity. In this theological/missiological writings. David sense the patriotic propaganda within the PRC Aikman‘s (2003) book is a perfect illustration and the nationalist rhetoric including but going of how simplification goes on to create beyond the PRC build up the same kind of theological/missiological dangers. Aikman Christianity: an essentialised one, which easily maintains that China is in the process of leads to what can be called nationalistic becoming Christianised and suggests the idea Christianity or Christian nationalism. The that within a predictable period of time the patriotic propaganda (Kung 2002) so Christian worldview will dominate China‘s concerned with building a real and single political and cultural establishment. Chinese church and the different missionary Christianisation and China‘s becoming a global movements underlining the rise of Chinese power go hand in hand. Aikman goes so far as Christianity and its prophetic vocation for the to suggest that there will be a time when the contemporary global situation all share traces of this sort of nationalistic Christianity.16
15 Paul explains that the New Testament‘s word is intended for nations. Ethne refers to ethnic 16 One of the best examples of nationalism groups and not political countries: ‗God‘s plan is defining a missionary agenda is the development for every ethnic and linguistic representation of of the Back to Jerusalem movement. Similar mankind to be present in heaven‘ (Hattaway types of nationalistic Christianities can be seen in 2009: 6). the African context and in other Asian contexts
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The paradigm of Chinese Christianity draws so called post-denominational church as a sharp boundary between Chinese and non- related to China matters is a myth, artificially Chinese Christianity. The construction of such constructed and sustained by both theologians a boundary helps adherents of both sides to and church leaders within China, by Chinese construct and nourish certain types of theologians outside China and by non-Chinese identities, self-awareness and subjectivities of theologians and church leaders as well. different groups and subgroups of the One of the earliest and clearest formulations ‗authorised‘ categories. In these discourses, of the vision of the so-called post- the notion of ‗difference‘ gains much attention, denominational church in China was offered by in the concrete case ‗the Chinese as the other, Dr. C. Y. Cheng, a delegate from China at the the different one‘. The otherness, the 1910 Edinburgh Conference. ‗Since the Chineseness is seen as a pre-given, real and Chinese Christians long for more and look for unquestionable category or identity marker, yet greater things …we hope to see in the near which consequently only produces and future a united Christian Church without any reproduces the Other as such. denominational distinctions‘ (cited in Gairdner It remains a question for further study to 1910: 184-5). Gu Mengfei, from the Chinese thoroughly examine how Chinese Christian Christian Council, begins his essay (one of six nationalisms created in different times and by winning essays written for the sixtieth different groups relate to each other. The anniversary of the WCC) by quoting Cheng and surplus set makes theologians/ missiologists repeatedly stating that ‗Chinese Christians aware of the dangers of essentialism in regard enjoy united worship, and the churches have to nationalism. This is an obvious lesson of the entered the post-denominational era‘ (Gu nexus, but it is a lesson to be learned for other 2008: 271). Cheng continues, ‗This [the lack of contexts as well. denominational distinctions] may seem somewhat peculiar to some of you, but, Post -denominationalism friends, do not forget to view us from our The question of post-denominationalism is standpoint, and if you fail to do that, the the third and last question the present article Chinese will remain always a mysterious highlights while focusing on the China- people to you‘, and ‗[s]peaking generally, Chinese—World Christianity nexus. Similarly to denominationalism has never interested the the previous section, here too one encounters Chinese mind. He finds no delight in it, but essentialisation. Post-denominalisation is an some times he suffers for it!‘ (ibid: 285). Wing essentialist notion present within theological/ Kwong Lo, from the Lutheran Theological missiological discourses, and even more within University in Hong Kong, prefers to speak the field of ecumenicism. Parallel to essentialist about non-denominationalism as propagated definitions of culture, ethnicity and nation, the by politics and so-called official church politics, post-denominational label detriments many rather than about post-denominationalism. He groups and members of the Christian commu- argues that because of the political situation, a nity. The present article argues that denomi- nationalism as a phenomenon exists in China denomination, denominational, and and that there are countless PRC citizens living denominationalism, yet it is important to bear in outside China who do belong to confessional mind that a theological re-evaluation of the churches.17 Therefore, this article argues, the concepts would be useful to highlight the different connotations of these terms. The primary argument along these lines questions the as well (Korea being another significant example ‗denomination equals division‘ thesis and of this). proposes viewing these concepts (which have 17 The limitations of the present article do not become confusing and loaded) as identity allow detailed discussion on the concepts of markers instead.
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DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 Dorottya Nagy whole generation of Christians grew up who culture is renowned for its ancient history, now did not have the experience of denomi- when we think about Chinese Christians, we nationalism in the sense in which denomina- think about the future, because more and tions were present in China before 1949 (see more Christians are realizing that if we are to Lo 2001). live the prayer of Jesus Christ that all should The refusal to use the concept of be one, then we need to be post- denomination as an identity marker might be denominational in character‘ (WCC 2006).20 partially explained by the argument that, as But post-denominationalism is not the state of with many other terms in religious and affairs in China. The above arguments and theological vocabulary, the concept of illustrations result in the conclusion that the denomination is viewed and labelled by aspiration towards the so-called one Chinese Chinese people as a Western concept. Similarly Church, as an identity marker, functions to the concept of religion, denomination is similarly or identically to the outworking of the believed to be unrecognisable for Chinese concept of ‗denomination‘. people and therefore not functional within the Chinese context.18 Yet the question remains Super-diversity whether the phenomenon itself labelled as Avoiding essentialism means avoiding both denominationalism is really so strange to the the artificial and imaginary construction of the ‗Chinese mind‘. The accentuation in recent Other and the imposition of Sameness in order times of Pentecostal dominance in China might to achieve harmony. Essentialist approaches to be one of the major arguments with which the the China-Chinese – world Christianity nexus post-denominational myth could be pose a particular danger for perceiving questioned.19 Christianity as a World Religion. A useful Yet, the myth is there and the myth is method for resisting oversimplification is the flourishing and it has much to do with the cultivation of a critical stance that continuously dynamics briefly described in the previous revisits the localities of the Chinese-China – section on the surplus set. During his visit to world Christianity nexus, and those of China in 2006, Samuel Kobia, by that time Christianity and other identity markers more general secretary of the WCC, stated among generally. This article is a call to speak up other things that, ‗[t]hough the Chinese against any essentialism which makes one believe in a static picture of World Christianity, 18 The difficulty of such arguments lie not so and, within that picture, in the static category much in the question of translatability but rather and predictable nature of what is labelled in the willingness to recognise and identify Chinese Christianity. Revisiting history, similar human phenomena, patterns of thinking, observing and perceiving contemporary acting and feeling beyond the categories of Chineseness. (In the same way there is a set of phenomena are useful tools in avoiding Chinese concepts about which untranslatability is essentialism. proclaimed; e.g. guanxi). The present study proposes the adoption 19 See Luke Wesley, The Church in China: and conceptualisation of the term ‗super- Persecuted, Pentecostal, and Powerful (Baguio: AJPS Books, 2004). In the foreword of the book, diversity‘ within theological/missiological Walter J. Hollenweger, former Professor of discourses. The term was coined by migration Mission at the University of Birmingham, writes scholar Steven Vertovec in the field of social that he became convinced that ‗Chinese sciences, and within that in the area of Pentecostalism is perhaps the most numerous and probably also the most important Pentecostalism of the world‘ [italics his], (Wesley 20 Statements such as ‗As a post-denominational 2004: X). The author himself does acknowledge church, you are in a class of your own, and we both the complexity of the China question and want to learn more from you‘ were also that of Christianity within it. formulated (WCC 2006).
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Where is China in World Christianity? DIVERSITIES Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 ◦ ISSN: 2079-6595 migration studies; nevertheless the present concept of diversity linked to Christian unity study argues that the term may be adopted within the ecumenical debate is heavily loaded. and productively used within the This is especially the case with Christian theological/missiological discourse and in discourses on the China-Chinese – World ecumenics as well. Vertovec‘s elaboration of Christianity nexus, where the concept of the term begins with a temporal parameter: diversity and the principle of unity in diversity has been linked to Confucian vocabulary, and In the last decade the proliferation and respectively to the building of a harmonious mutually conditioning effects of additional society. Using diversity in this context makes variables shows that it is not enough to see one aware that it is desirable to talk about diversity only in terms of ethnicity, as is China‘s Christianity rather than about Chinese regularly the case both in social science and Christianity or the Chinese Church, yet it does the wider public sphere. Such additional not convincingly liberate the discourse from variables include differential immigration the dominance of a certain group or groups of statuses and their concomitant entitlements Christians who set the tone and shape the and restrictions of rights, divergent labour framework of the discourse. ‗We allow market experiences, discrete gender and age different theologies and liturgies, but do not profiles, patterns of spatial distribution, and permit to rehabilitate the denominational mixed local area responses by service organizations. Our purpose is to establish a full providers and residents. Rarely are these Chinese church‘ (Chen 2005). From such factors described side by side. The interplay of statements the usage and purpose of the these factors is what is meant here, in diversity concept can be interpreted as being a summary fashion, by the notion of ‗super- tool toward constructing the one and single diversity‘ (Vertovec 2007). Chinese church, within which many sorts of Super-diversity used in this sense diversities might be celebrated except the continuously accentuates that diversity is more diversity of what is Chinese. than the awareness of ethnic differences. The concept of super-diversity questions the Vertovec‘s super-diversity calls attention to the legitimacy of aiming for the construction of significant new variables which appear within any ethnicised/nationalised or possibly the intense dynamics of contemporary nationalist church. Because the image of such globalisation.21 The super-diversity principle ethnicised/ nationalised church is in formation also appears in the multiple modernities (this formation being done by Chinese and paradigm (Eisenstadt et al. 2002). non-Chinese adherents) in the case of what is Within the theology-missiology-ecumenics called China and/or Chinese, theologians/ context, Vertovec‘s term recalls the pedigree missiologists are challenged to react to it. of the unity in diversity principle, which is still The principle of super-diversity in this sense a treasured and leading principle within changes the steps of the logic. Whereas the interactions and policy-making aiming towards concepts and principles of diversity or unity in living, confessing and serving together.22 The diversity envision the unity of different theologies and liturgies based on a shared 21 For a thorough elaboration of the author‘s Chineseness, super-diversity goes beyond this perception and conceptualisation of globalisation, and articulates the questionability of artificially see Nagy 2009: 17-74, where the author works constructed national, pan-racial, or pan- with context-symbolism in order to underline that behind all globalisation dynamics the continental identities. Super-diversity does not acknowledgement of active human agents is necessarily connect to the idea of unity. undeniable. Theologically and missiologically it does 22 Super-diversity also recalls the pedigree of acknowledge the one invisible yet existent multicultural theologies.
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Church, yet it does not pretend to become the Christianity, which necessarily makes one take tool to achieve actual visible organisational, the world (the whole world, as one indivisible church diplomatic and structural unity among unit) as the theological and theologising Christians. context. The super-diversity paradigm adopted Super-diversity is a new concept which and applied for theological/missiological teaches one to look at World Christianity with discourses in ecumenic studies makes one new eyes, with a look which takes complexity aware that ‗the gaze which explicitly aims to into account and therefore does not come up describe, rather than unravel, the inherent with ready-made answers and easy solutions complexity24 of its object will never rest for complicated problems. Super-diversity calls contented with a single-factor account, but will attention to the fact that diversity is far more always be on the lookout for additional forces than ethnic or denominational diversity. Within and new angles‘ (Eriksen 2007). This practice the framework of globalisation and ecumenical and way of observing fuel theology/missiology approaches, super-diversity compels theolo- to operate carefully on the edge of the gians/missiologists to reflect on the multiple inclusion/exclusion game. layers of the specific contexts through which ‗Theological judgment has to be exercised in diversification can best be comprehended. It is order to give meaning and structure to the through this approach that the experience of cultural materials that figure in Christian social plural theologies will grow, and it is through practice: those materials are vague and this experience that diversity will be freed from circulate in many versions, with many different the captivity of ethnicity, nationality, nation- potential or actualized associations with other nalism, race, denominations or denomination- cultural materials and particular patterns of like labels. In this way the China and China- social action‘ (Tanner 1997: 160). The related questions of this article also partially principle of super-diversity is a salutary act as a case study which may after exami- reminder that Christians cannot control the nation provide adaptable lessons for similarly- movements of the God they hope to serve. It behaving paradigms (e.g. Korean Christianity, helps them to remain open to the Word by Filipino Christianity, or on a larger level African keeping them from taking their own point of Christianity). view for granted. Super-diversity, then, as a One can see that the paradigm of ‗Chinese guiding principle, helps one to comprehend Christianity‘ is built on the one-sidedness of an diversity as the product of the effort to be a imagined/adopted/constructed ethnicised/ Christian in different cultural, social, ethnic, national category. But different manifestations and other contexts. Super-diversity is an of Christianity can also be perceived and awareness that the development, maintenance looked at as cultures, in the way elaborated by and formation of Christian identity creates Ulf Hannerz. Hannerz talks about three multiple theological/missiological contexts, dimensions of culture: ideas and modes of which relate to the larger context thought, their forms of externalisation (public encompassed in World Christianity. In this communication), and their social distribution sense super-diversity is always bound up with (Hannerz 1992: 6).23 The difficulty and the creation and creativity. challenge lie exactly in the language of World
24 From a theological point of view, N. H. 23 Also see Ulf Hannerz, Transnational Gregersen elaborates on the concept by Connections (London: Routledge, 1996), where distinguishing seven types of complexity he argues that homogenising processes (descriptive, constitutional, organisational, associated with industrial-society nationalism are causal, functional – these are ontological being counteracted by heterogenising categories -, algorithmic, effective – these being globalisation processes. computational categories) (Gregersen 2004).
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NAGY, D. 2009. Migration and Theology: The WESLEY, L. 2004.The Church in China: Perse- Case of Chinese Christian Communities in cuted, Pentecostal, and Powerful. Baguio: Hungary and Romania within the Globali- AJPS Books. sation-Context. Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum. WHEELER, W. R. et al. (eds.) 1925. The Foreign SPENCE, J. D. 1991. The Search for Modern Student in America. New York: Association China. New York: Norton Paperback. Press. TANNER, K. 1997. Theories of Culture: A New WICKBERG, E. 2007. ―Global Chinese Migrants Agenda for Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress and Performing Chineseness‖. Journal of Press. Chinese Overseas 3: 177-219. VERTOVEC, S. 2007. ―Super-Diversity and its WU, M. 2000. ―Ministry to Women, Children and Implications‖. Ethnic and Social Studies 30: Minorities in China‖. Chinese Theological 1024-54. Review 14: 87-90. WCC (World Council of Churches). 2006. " ‗When YANG, F. 1998. ―Chinese Conversion to Evan- we think about Chinese Christians, we think gelical Christianity: The Importance of Social about the future,‘ Kobia says‖, 16 November, and Cultural Contexts‖. Sociology of Religion http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news- 59: 237-57. management/eng/a/browse/75/article/1634/ quotwhen-we-think-about.html, accessed on 7 April 2010.
About the Author Dr. Dorottya Nagy is a theologian and post-doctoral research fellow at the MPI. She is the author of Migration and Theology: The Case of Chinese Christian Communities in Hungary and Romania in the Globalisation-Context (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 2009).
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