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Managing strangerhood: young Sikh men's strategies

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Peter Hopkins

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Abstract

This paper offers a critique of accounts of ‘the stranger’ that lack empirical grounding and are fetishising, suspicious and anxious. Instead, I propose that we should engage with strangers and move towards more relational, emotional and embodied accounts of the place of the stranger in contemporary society. In order to illustrate this argument, I draw upon qualitative research with young Sikh men growing up in urban Scotland to explore the complex strategies enacted by these young men in responding to being placed in the position of the stranger. The strategies employed by the young men include educating others, managing multicultural intimacies, affiliating with the Scottish nation and travelling far to socialise with friends. Overall, this paper offers a relational, embodied and emotional set of insights into young Sikh men’s strategies for managing being cast as strangers and demonstrates the agency and creativity of the young men in doing so.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Hopkins P

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Environment and Planning A

Year: 2014

Volume: 46

Issue: 7

Pages: 1572-1585

Print publication date: 01/07/2014

Online publication date: 01/07/2014

Acceptance date: 01/01/1900

Date deposited: 18/10/2013

ISSN (print): 0308-518X

ISSN (electronic): 1472-3409

Publisher: Pion Ltd.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a46263

DOI: 10.1068/a46263

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