Beyond Belonging? Cultural Dynamics and Transnational Practices in the Context of Islam in Europe

Hertha Firnberg Position T 22 Beyond Belonging? Sabine E. STRASSER 09.03.1999 Belonging becomes central, whenever it seems to be challenged or endangered. Especially in the context of new markets, media revolution, of growing migration and mobility, any assumption of stable commonalities or collective identities comes up against limiting factors. In the countries of the European Union the nation-state becomes less important, internal borders are being dissolved, and the common exterior borders increasingly develop into disputed zones. The uncertainty as to national, ethnic, social, religious, or cultural belonging leads to a persistent discussion of certain rights and of the question of access to the labor market, to social services, citizenship, and territories. At the same time, in particular as a consequence of labor migration as well as of the disintegration of Yougoslavia, Europe has rediscovered Islam. Representing the "signifficant Other" Islam attracts great interest on the part of science, politics, and of the public in general. Especially its understanding of democracy and the relations between the sexes among Muslim immigrants again and again are discussed in the media. Often both subjects are declared to imply an inner threat for Europe. However, ascriptions of ethnic, national, cultural, religious, and sexual identities by oneself and by others do not only form the basis of argument for the construction of the "Others" but also facilitate identification as a basis for collective agency. The present research project is situated in the field of feminist anthropology. It concentrates on different aspects of belonging and their realization in the form of social relations, rights and opportunities of access. The perspective, however, does not remain restricted to female immigrants and their cultural differences, but also takes into account the consequences of various integration and exclusion mechanisms by the receiving society. The basis for this research is antiessentialist, building upon the strategic and positioned argumentation of feminist and postcolonial theories. These innovative contributions, in particular the replacement of "gender" by "multiple differences" and the extension of "culture" by concepts of "deterritorialization" are crucial for the present project. The combination of these approaches, as well as their implementation by empirical surveys are central questions of social and cultural anthropology, for cultural studies and the humanities.

Political activism by migrants and naturalized citizens has increasingly attracted public attention in Austria`s recent history. Mass media have intensified their representation of migrant political claims since the populist right-wing Freedom Party entered the Austrian government in 2000. The four parliamentary parties nominated a total of 29 candidates with migrant background for the national elections 2002. Against this background, my study deals with innovative political strategies among migrant minorities in Austria, bringing together the most diverse experiences made by different anti-racist networks. The dual research focus on the field of transnationalism as well as on multiculturalism and multiple differences contributes to ongoing debates on nation-states in the age of globalization. This study aims at a ciritical assessment of the concepts of national identity, transnationalism, and multiculturalism from a feminist and anthropological perspective. The focus is not only on immigrants and their activities, but also on political, scientific and media discourses in the receiving and sending contexts, which might be either limiting or enabling factors concerning belonging and political strategies. Following the insights of anthropological studies on transnationalism, migrants are challenging the nation-state by their translocal belonging, identification and political actions. While these analyses do not support ideas of postnational memberships, they do reject assumptions of assimilation of migrant minorities and point to new social formations such as "deterritorialized nation-states" or "long distance nationalism". National institutions in Western immigration countries are increasingly confronted with claims for recognition of differences and the diversification of political communities. Apart from unchecked global economies, supranational organizations, international human rights debates, and transnational NGOs, claims for recognition of volatile belongings and transnational political relations further challenge the sovereignty of nation-states. "Beyond Belonging" offers insights into anti-racist networks of three Austrian citizens born in Turkey. They all represent interfaces of three overlapping but different political and social contexts of transnational Islam, laicist cosmopolitism and Kurdish left-wing internationalism. Personal motivations, political strategies and opportunities of intervention of these simultanously transnational and transversal networks as well as their effects on the nation- state are in the center of this theory- based empirical study. Approaches of a "multisited ethnography", as George Marcus suggested for ethnographic studies in the World System, are methodologically re-conceptualized as "translocal ethnography". Constructing a translocal field through personal complexity connects biographical approaches with ethnographic methods. "Biographies of Belonging" lead to "transversal networks" and "strategies of place making" in a challenging historical and societal context.