Transnationalism, social capital and gender – young Pakistani Muslim women in Bradford, UK

This work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.This article considers the relationship between transnationalism and social capital amongst young Pakistani Muslim women in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The central aim of the article is to explore how second generation Pakistani Muslim women accrue faith based social capital to negotiate and resist transnational gendered expectations, norms and practices. In particular, they use faith-based social capital that is transnationally informed: to challenge the patriarchal expectations and norms of their families; to gain access to higher/further education and thereby improve their life opportunities; and to resist growing anti-Muslim sentiment. This paper draws on qualitative research (in-depth interviews) conducted in BradfordPostprintPeer reviewe

Young people’s everyday securities: pre-emptive and pro-active strategies toward ontological security in Scotland

This paper uses a framework of ‘ontological security’ to discuss the psycho-social strategies of self-securitization employed by ethnic and religious minority young people in Scotland. We argue that broad discourses of securitization are present in the everyday risks and threats that young people encounter. In response and as resistance young people employ pre-emptive and pro-active strategies to preserve ontological security. Yet, these strategies are fraught with ambivalence and contradiction as young people withdraw from social worlds or revert to essentialist positions when negotiating complex fears and anxieties. Drawing on feminist geographies of security the paper presents a multi-scalar empirical analysis of young people’s everyday securities, connecting debates on youth and intimacy-geopolitics with the social and cultural geographies of young people, specifically work that focuses upon young people’s negotiations of racialized, gendered and religious landscapes

Social Capital, Educational Aspirations and Young Pakistani Muslim Men and Women in Bradford, West Yorkshire

Drawing on research with the Pakistani Muslim ‘community’ in inner-city Bradford, West Yorkshire, this paper critically engages with relevant debates on social capital and educational aspirations. It examines the processes and mechanisms in the accumulation of social capital within the family and the immediate community, to demonstrate how three sets of interpersonal relationships (parent-child, child–child and between co-ethnic peers) facilitate educational aspirations among a group that has traditionally been portrayed as under-achieving

The 'Politics' of Children's Rights and Child Labour in India:A Social Constructionist Perspective

This paper explores the ‘politics’ of the children's rights-child labour debate in India. It argues that Neil Stammers' social constructionist account of human rights and power raises important questions about how rights are being used and how they ought to be used. The paper highlights the ‘voices’ of three Indian NGOs that are committed to children's rights and how they conceptualise the contemporary concern with the child labour issue in India. The paper argues that these NGOs are involved in ‘a struggle on two fronts’: international and national. This paper draws on empirical research conducted by the author in India