Action, creativity, and religious imagination: Muslim experience in Western societies

a research project led by the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London and funded by the Australian Research Council through a grant to the University of Melbourne.

This project aims to explore the dynamism and creativity, as well as the questions and tensions, emerging among different Muslim groups, projects and networks in three countries: the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia.  This is a vast area, so the project is focusing on two areas in particular: Muslim young people and Muslim women.

The focus of this research is not organisations or policy documents, but experiences and personal transformations, involvement in projects and initiatives, groups or networks. What values are most important? What is the place of creativity, from art to music? What sorts of shared experience are people building, from organisations and networks to Facebook and social media ? What sort of world are they trying to create? What types of ethics or images of justice are at stake? What is the place of religious experience and meaning? What challenges are being faced in terms of wider societal responses to Muslims? How important is international solidarity and global action?  The focus of this ethnographic research is on new ways of acting and organising, identifying hopes, aspirations and questions.

This is an international study being undertaken by researchers at four universities:

Goldsmiths, University of London
Complutense University in Madrid
The University of Melbourne
RMIT University in Melbourne

The first phase involves conducting interviews and analysing cultural products, to  explore different forms of practice, action and creativity, ranging from:

• involvement in groups, organisations or public campaigns, virtual worlds and social media, such as Facebook or Youtube
• cultural action, from street art, involvement in cultural centres, film and video making, music and organising events, talks and debates
• rituals, practices and community life, from participation in pilgrimage or experiences of fasting to prayer and involvement in Mosques and other forms of community
• international and global action, from solidarity projects to international aid action or support for refugees or minorities

The interviews will ask people to tell their story, but where appropriate they will focus on exploring the meanings of images, videos, or embodied
experience such a prayer or pilgrimage.

During the second phase, intervention groups, composed of six to eight people, will focus on collective questions, issues and actions.  Initial sessions will consist of discussions, possibly resulting in the production of a cultural object (image, sound or other) or responding to such objects.  The following sessions will take the form of dialogue meetings, where research participants interact with representatives of other social groups.  An analysis of the core questions and issues to emerge through the research will be conducted during the final phase.


Interested in participating or finding out more?  If so, please contact:
Ilyas Mohammad
Department of Sociology
Goldsmiths
University of London
Tel: 07595 505763 or 020 7919 7171
Email: m.ilyas [at] gold.ac.uk