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Kabyles in Britain: Negotiating Identities in a Transnational Setting

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Kabyles in Britain: Negotiating Identities in a Transnational Setting University of Southampton Research Repository Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis and, where applicable, any accompanying data are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis and the accompanying data cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content of the thesis and accompanying research data (where applicable) must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder/s. When referring to this thesis and any accompanying data, full bibliographic details must be given, e.g. Thesis: Souhila Belabbas. Full thesis title: Kabyles in Britain: Negotiating Identities in a Transnational Setting PhD Thesis (257 pages) University of Southampton Faculty of Humanities School of Modern Languages Kabyles in Britain: Negotiating Identities in a Transnational Setting by Souhila Belabbas Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2020 University of Southampton Abstract Faculty of Humanities School of Modern Languages Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Kabyles in Britain: Negotiating Identities in a Transnational Setting by Souhila Belabbas This thesis examines the everyday and online practices of identity among Kabyle immigrants in the UK who are simultaneously embedded within a Kabyle transnational social field. The Kabyles are an Amazigh ethnic sub-group indigenous to northern Algeria, many Kabyles have emigrated abroad as a direct consequence of the subjugation of Kabylia by the French colonisation and the social and political instability in post-independent Algeria. While the overwhelming majority moved to France and Canada, their immigration to the UK is relatively recent and small-scale. This provides the context for this thesis. It focuses on a varied group of Kabyles who have settled in the UK over the past few years and examines their engagement with ‘being Kabyle’ in three key sites: The Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London; their everyday encounters with Kabyles and non-Kabyles in different spaces and the participants’ interactions within the digital world. Based on ethnographic and interview research the thesis examines how the Kabyle/Amazigh identity and language which are currently undergoing a degree of recognition and revitalisation in Algeria, are being negotiated both at a public and personal level in a relatively new migratory setting. The study draws on the notion of a transnational social field to include the participants’ orientation towards Algeria and other sites as they engage online as part of expressing and revitalising their everyday ethnicity in the UK. The analysis suggests that the formation of Kabyleness within the transnational social field involves the creation of overlapping and fluid boundaries between and within the social fields caused by the multiple understandings of Kabyle cultural capital. Therefore, by way of mapping the Kabyle immigrants’ activities within the transnational social field, I show their complex, multiple and situational affiliations, where Kabyleness is entangled with gender, age, language, history and/or politics. Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... i Table of Tables ............................................................................................................ vii Table of Figures ............................................................................................................ix List of Acronyms ...........................................................................................................xi Declaration of Authorship ........................................................................................... xiii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... xv General Introduction .................................................................................. 1 Overview of the Study ................................................................................................ 1 Rationale of the Study and Research Questions ........................................................ 1 The Research Sites ...................................................................................................... 4 The Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London ...................................... 4 The Kabyles’ Everydayness ................................................................................. 6 The Online Platforms .......................................................................................... 6 Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................... 8 The Kabyle Cultural Movement ................................................................ 11 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 11 The French Colonial Period and the creation of the Kabyle Myth ........................... 13 Post-Colonial Algeria ................................................................................................ 18 The Berber Spring and the Black Spring ................................................................... 20 Academic Studies on the Kabyle/Amazigh Situation ............................................... 23 Kabyle Migration to the UK ...................................................................................... 25 The British Environment and Immigration ....................................................... 26 Placing the Kabyle Community in a Transnational Setting ...................................... 28 Kabylo-Amazigh Associative Movement .......................................................... 28 Political Movement .......................................................................................... 30 Online Platforms and Outside Supporters ....................................................... 31 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 34 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 37 i Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................. 37 Community, Identity, Culture and Ethnicity ............................................................ 38 Transnational Everyday Ethnicity ............................................................................ 41 Historical Context ........................................................................................................ 42 Socio-Political Context: Secularism versus Religion .................................................... 43 Cultural Context: Performance and Materiality ......................................................... 44 The Transnational Turn in Migration Studies .......................................................... 46 Diaspora ................................................................................................................... 50 Digital Diaspora and Transnational Communities ................................................... 52 Transnational Social Field and Bourdieu’s Notions ................................................. 53 Forms of Capital within the Social Field ........................................................... 57 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 60 Methodology ............................................................................................ 63 Ethnography: within & among the Kabyle Transnational Community .................... 63 Gaining Access ......................................................................................................... 64 Research Methods ................................................................................................... 65 Participant Observation ................................................................................... 65 Fieldnotes ......................................................................................................... 67 Digital Ethnography ......................................................................................... 67 Online Participant Observation ....................................................................... 68 Interviews and Conversations.......................................................................... 70 The Participants ....................................................................................................... 71 Reflexivity and Positionality ..................................................................................... 73 Analytical Framework .............................................................................................. 76 Transcription, Translation, Organisation of Data and Coding ......................... 77 Thematic Analysis ............................................................................................ 79 Narrative Analysis ............................................................................................ 79 Trustworthiness
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