Abstract
This chapter offers a discussion of the complex patterns of political engagement among young adults of ethnic and/or religious minority background. Concerns about racism, multiculture and religion propel engagement that operate on different scales, have different audiences and mean different things for different participants. The ideal-typical distinction between identity-based and interest-based engagement guides the discussion. The article draws on and develops arguments on identity-related engagement in transnational migration studies and in social movement studies. Engagement dilemmas are illustrated through three examples of different combinations of interest- and identity-based political engagement among young adults of minority background in Norway.
Fafo (Fafo Institutt for arbeidsliv- og velferdsforskning), the Institute for Labour and Social Research, Oslo.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
OMOD is one out of ten national immigrant organisations which receives public funding from the Norwegian Government. The organisation was established in 1992. They have no members and are not oriented especially towards youngsters. On the other hand, by name, their main focus is on discrimination, a theme highly relevant for young people.
References
Andersson, M. (2005). Urban Multi-culture in Norway: Identity Formation Among Immigrant Youth. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Andersson, M. (2010). The Social Imaginary of First Generation Europeans. Social Identities, 16(1), 3–21.
Andersson, M., Jacobsen, C. M., Rogstad, J., & Vestel, V. (2012). Kritiske hendelser. Nye stemmer. Rasisme, hip hop, kultur og religiøsitet i det flerkulturelle Norge. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Basch, L., Glick Schiller, N., & Blanck Szanton, C. (2003 [1994]). Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation-States. London: Routledge.
Basu, D., & Lemelle, S. J. (2006). The Vinyl Ain’t the Final. Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture. London: Plute Press.
Beck, U., & Sznaider, N. (2006). Unpacking Cosmopolitanism for the Social Sciences: A Research Agenda. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(1), 1–23.
Calhoun, C. (1994). Social Theory and the Politics of Identity. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Social Theory and the Politics of Identity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Calhoun, C. (2000). ‘New Social Movements’ of the Early Nineteenth Century. In K. Nash (Ed.), Readings in Contemporary Political Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (1996). The Power of Identity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Crossley, N. (2002). Making Sense of Social Movements. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Das, V. (1995). Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
della Porta, D. (2005). Multiple Belongings, Tolerant Identities, and the Construction of ‘Another Politics’: Between the European Social Forum and the Local Social Fora. In D. della Porta & S. Tarrow (Eds.), Transnational Protest & Global Activism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
della Porta, D., Andretta, M., Mosca, L., & Reiter, H. (2006). Globalization from Below. Transnational Activists and Protest Networks. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Diani, M. (2000). The Concept of Social Movement. In K. Nash (Ed.), Readings in Contemporary Political Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Dubet, F. (2004). Between a Defence of Society and a Politics of the Subject: The Specificity of Today’s Social Movements. Current Sociology, 52(4), 693–716.
Dubet, F., & Thaler, H. L. (2004). Introduction: The Sociology of Collective Action Reconsidered. Current Sociology, 52(4), 557–574.
Espeland, C. E., & Rogstad, J. (2013). Antiracism and Social Movements in Norway: The Importance of Critical Events. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(1), 125–142.
Goldberg, D. T. (1994). Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gusfield, J. R. (1994). The Reflexivity of Social Movements: Collective Behaviour and Mass Society Theory Revisited. In E. Laraña, H. Johnston, & J. R. Gusfield (Eds.), New Social Movements. From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Jacobsen, C. (2006). Staying on the Straight Path: Religious Identities and Practices Among Young Muslims in Norway. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Social Anthropology. Bergen: University of Bergen.
Jacobsen, C., & Andersson, M. (2012). Gaza in Oslo’: Social Imaginaries in the Political Engagement of Norwegian Minority Youth. Ethnicities, 12(6), 821–842.
Joas, H., & Knöbl, W. (2009). Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, V. (2009). The Status of Identities: Racial Inclusion and Exclusion at West Coast Ports. Social Movement Studies, 8(2), 167–183.
Johnston, H., Laraña, E., & Gusfield, J. R. (1994). Identities, Grievances, and New Social Movements. In E. Laraña, H. Johnston, & J. R. Gusfield (Eds.), New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Khagram, S., & Levitt, P. (2008). Constructing Transnational Studies. In S. Khagram & P. Levitt (Eds.), The Transnational Studies Reader. Intersections & Innovations. New York: Routledge.
Levitt, P. (2007). God Needs no Passport. Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape. New York: The New Press.
Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2008). Conceptualising Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society. International Migration Review, 38(3), 1002–1039.
McDonald, K. (2004). Oneself as Another: From Social Movement to Experience Movement. Current Sociology, 52(4), 575–594.
Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging Codes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Memmi, A. (2009). Racism and Difference. In L. Back & J. Solomos (Eds.), Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Mitchell, T. (Ed.). (2001). Global Noise. Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
O’Toole, T., & Gale, R. (2010). Contemporary Grammars of Political Action Among Ethnic Minority Young Activists. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(1), 126–143.
Olesen, T. (2007). The Porous Public and the Transnational Dialectic. The Muhammed Cartoons Conflict. Acta Sociologica, 50(3), 295–308.
Pleyers, G. (2010). Alter-Globalization. Becoming Actors in the Global Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Portes, A., Guarnizo, L. E., & Landolt, P. (1999). The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(2), 217–237.
Rogstad, J., & Vestel, V. (2011). The Art of Articulation: Political Engagement in the Making Among Young Adults in Multicultural Settings in Norway. Social Movement Studies, 10(3), 243–264.
Sernhede, O. (2011). School, Youth Culture and Territorial Stigmatization in Swedish Metropolitan Districts. Young—Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 19(2), 159–180.
Sicakkan, H. G., & Lithman, Y. (2005). Politics of Identity and Modes of Belonging: Conceptual Challenges. In H. G. Sicakkan & Y. Lithman (Eds.), Changing the Basis of Citizenship in the Modern State: Political Theory and the Politics of Diversity. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Smith, M. P., & Guarnizo, L. E. (2007). Transnationalism from Below. In M. P. Smith (Ed.), Comparative Urban and Community Research. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Sökefeld, M. (2006). Mobilizing in Transnational Space: A Social Movement Approach to the Formation of Diaspora. Global Networks, 6(3), 265–284.
Thaler, H. L. (2004). The Rift in the Subject: A Late Global Modernist Dilemma. Current Sociology, 52(4), 615–632.
Touraine, A. (2004). On the Frontier of Social Movements. Current Sociology, 52(4), 717–726.
Urry, J. (2010). Mobile Sociology. The British Journal of Sociology, 61, 347–366.
Vestel, V. (2004). A Community of Differences. Oslo: Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) Rapport 15/04.
Walgrave, S., & Verhulst, J. (2006). Towards ‘New Emotional Movements’? A Comparative Exploration into a Specific Movement Type. Social Movement Studies, 5(3), 275–304.
Wieviorka, M. (2005). After New Social Movements. Social Movement Studies, 4(1), 1–19.
Wimmer, A., & Schiller, N. G. (2003). Methodological Nationalism, the Social Sciences, and the Study of Migration: An Essay in Historical Epistemology. International Migration Review, 37(3), 576–610.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Andersson, M., Rogstad, J. (2018). Political Engagement Among Young Adults with Minority Backgrounds: Between Identity and Interest. In: Fossum, J., Kastoryano, R., Siim, B. (eds) Diversity and Contestations over Nationalism in Europe and Canada. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58987-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58987-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58986-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58987-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)