Contradictions of community: questions of identity for young British Muslim women. Environment and Planning A

Abstract. The author addresses contradictions of community through a case study which explores how young British Muslim women construct and contest their identities. Drawing upon the work of Hall, and others, in their theorisation of 'new ethnicities ' or 'hybrid identities', she examines the possibilities for reworking the idea of community as a dynamic process which has a discursive and political effectivity. Through an examination of the constructions of community negotiated and deployed by young British Muslim women she highlights the ways in which different imaginations of community can be both empowering and constraining. Introduction: multiculturalism and the politics of community In this paper I examine the ways in which discourses of community are negotiated and deployed by young British Muslim women in the construction and contestation of their identities. In developing this analysis I draw upon the reworking of ideas of community suggested by the recent work of Hall (1992; 1996) and Massey (1994). As I argue below