Introduction: Boundary work in Muslim-Jewish encounters in urban Europe
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Abstract
This special issue, based around the European Encounters project research carried out before October 2023, explores ambivalence and boundary work in Jewish and Muslim encounters across urban European contexts. Drawing on case studies in Frankfurt, London and Paris, it examines intercultural negotiations and identity constructions among minoritised groups. Contributors analyse diverse sites of encounter, from musical collaborations to more formal interfaith initiatives and everyday commercial spaces. Across these settings, the articles highlight complex layers of commonality and difference shaping boundary dynamics between Muslims and Jews. Analytically, this issue deploys central cultural studies concepts like symbolic boundaries, conviviality and superdiversity to elucidate lived realities. Empirically, grounded examination of understudied intercultural encounters advances cultural studies scholarship. The juxtaposition of the cities enables a relational understanding of how national repertoires of discourse shape boundary negotiations differently across contexts. Furthermore, analysis complicates assumptions of conflict, foregrounding marginalised perspectives on identity and power. Key findings demonstrate the ambivalence underpinning most Muslim-Jewish interactions. Structural inequalities, avoidance and indifference more frequently characterise encounters than outright hostility. Yet significations of difference still dominate, as groups navigate uneasy proximities. This special issue challenges essentialist portrayals of immutable intergroup divisions. Its nuanced analysis underscores the need to understand quotidian encounters relationally, as a multi-level interdependency, grounded in their socio-historical contexts across and within groups. This yields multifaceted insights into minority experiences of othering and belonging in Europe’s superdiverse cities.
Topics
Jewish - Muslim Relations Cities and Suburbs Discourse and Discourse Analysis Main Topic: Other National Identity
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
28(1)
Related
Music and dance beyond boundaries? Emphasizing Muslim–Jewish North African commonalities, avoiding politics (Part of same special issue)
Urban renewal, contested memories and the politics of cultural production: The case of Jewish–Muslim encounters in Germany (Part of same special issue)
Eating (with) the other: Jewish-Muslim gastronomic encounters (Part of same special issue)
Jews and Muslims in the 19th district of Paris: Together or apart? (Part of same special issue)
Contestations and cooperation in Muslim–Jewish neighbourhood encounters: A London case study (Part of same special issue)
Urban renewal, contested memories and the politics of cultural production: The case of Jewish–Muslim encounters in Germany (Part of same special issue)
Eating (with) the other: Jewish-Muslim gastronomic encounters (Part of same special issue)
Jews and Muslims in the 19th district of Paris: Together or apart? (Part of same special issue)
Contestations and cooperation in Muslim–Jewish neighbourhood encounters: A London case study (Part of same special issue)
DOI
Link
Link to article including link to pdf, Introduction: Boundary work in Muslim-Jewish encounters in urban Europe
Bibliographic Information
Introduction: Boundary work in Muslim-Jewish encounters in urban Europe. 2025: https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1177/13675494241311107
