The Avoidance of Love? Rubbing Shoulders in the Secular City
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Abstract
Drawing on ethnographic research with Haredi women in Stamford Hill to explore the limits of the secular vocabularies which dominate sociological diversity discourse, I ask why an assumed Jewish-Muslim enmity became its focus. First my response explores how a political theology of European Christendom, and a particular conjuncture of its race-religion constellation (Topolski 2018) finds expression in a secular concept of conviviality that regulates possibilities for intimacy in Hackney. I develop the claim that rationalist ideals of liberal sociality are in part mobilized to repress and contain violent histories of assimilation and exclusion in the borough. Second, I turn to Haredi women’s expression of an alternative Jewish-Muslim picture through intimacies that diverge from a convivial grammar. This leads me to tentatively explore how a vernacular Hasidic concept of chesed might hold together antinomies of care and violence, and offer alternatives for being-with, and mourning-with the neighbour in violent times.
Topics
Jewish - Muslim Relations Main Topic: Other Care and Welfare Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews Ethnography Jewish Women Multiculturalism
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Series Title
Series Number
13
Page Number / Article Number
211-230
ISBN/ISSN
978-90-04-51432-4
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Link to article (paywalled), The Avoidance of Love? Rubbing Shoulders in the Secular City
PDF (via academia.edu), The Avoidance of Love? Rubbing Shoulders in the Secular City
PDF (via academia.edu), The Avoidance of Love? Rubbing Shoulders in the Secular City
Bibliographic Information
The Avoidance of Love? Rubbing Shoulders in the Secular City. . 2022: 211-230. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-2701
