SPUI25 op Locatie: New Perspectives on Muslims in Europe
Book presentation
John R. Bowen (Washington University), Christophe Bertossi (French Institute of International Relations) and Jan Willem Duyvendak (University of Amsterdam) present their new book "European states and their Muslim citizens". Debates concerning Muslims in European states tend to be extremely generalizing. Sweeping statements dominate the debate, regarding both Muslim behavior and their beliefs. The social sciences can improve these modes of analysis – but how? A book presentation at the Doelenzaal (UvA).
Social scientists use encompassing, abstract, and generalizing terms as well. Many of them claim that countries have national ‘models’ of integration (e.g. the Dutch a ‘multicultural model’ and the French a ‘republican model’) that would explain the failures and successes of integration. In their book European States and Their Muslim Citizens. The Impact of Institutions on Perceptions and Boundaries, Bowen, Bertossi and Duyvendak propose a new perspective. Instead of focusing on the national level, they propose to analyze concrete interactions between states and Muslim citizens, in various European countries and in various institutions, ranging from schools, to politics, prisons, courts, and hospitals. This type of analysis, the authors claim, teaches us more about the actual situation of Muslims in Europe, showing similarities across countries within the same institution, and differences within countries among various institutions. What exactly does this method entail? How can it make a difference in the study of Muslims in Europe? And what is its relevance to the Dutch situation? Several authors will shed their light on these questions and discuss the new perspectives this method lays bare. Two discussants, Marcel Maussen and Pooyaan Tamimi Arab, will respond.
About the speakers
John Bowen is Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and studies Islam and society in Indonesia and Europe. His most recent books are A new Anthropology of Islam (2012) and Blaming Islam (2102).
Christophe Bertossi is Director of the Centre for Migrations and Citizenship at the French Institute for International relations in Paris; his research concerns citizenship and the roles of Muslims in the French military, gendarmerie, and hospitals. His most recent publication is As Cruzadas da Integracao na Europa (2012).
Jan Willem Duyvendak is Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and studies questions of belonging, urban sociology and nativism. His latest books are The Politics of Home: Nostalgia and Belonging in Western Europe and the United States (2011) and Crafting Citizenship: Negotiating Tensions in Modern Society (2012), with Menno Hurenkamp and Evelien Tonkens.
Marcel Maussen is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. His research focusses on governance of religious and cultural diversity, Islam in Western Europe, constitutional freedoms, and the theory of democracy. He recently published (with Bader, V. and Moors, A. (eds)(2011) Colonial and post-colonial governance of Islam. Continuities and ruptures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Pooyan Tamimi Arab is a PhD candidate at the Cultural Anthropology department of Utrecht University. He has previously studied Art History and Philosophy in Amsterdam and New York, and is currently writing his dissertation on the use of loudspeakers for the Islamic call to prayer in the Netherlands.
Markha Valenta is an interdisciplinary scholar of the politics of diversity under globalization, with a particular interest in issues of religion, culture, and sexuality. Current research projects include a study of religious contention and neo-liberalization in Amsterdam, New York and Mumbai and of Muslims as a global religious minority in secular democracies since 9/11.
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Location: Doelenzaal, University Library (UvA)
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Universiteitsbibliotheek
Singel 425 | 1012 WP Amsterdam
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+31 (0)20 525 2301
Spui25 in cooperation with the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) and the Amsterdam Center for Contemporary European Studies (ACCESS EUROPE)