Propuesta de un plan de renovación y seguimiento de los compromisos del Código

There is dualism amongst the disciplinary perspectives which describe the process of identity construction in the specific context of minority groups: some scholars approach it in terms of conflict between different dimensions identity while others look at solidarity and negotiation amongst these dimensions leading to new fluid and hybrid identities.

Identity and conflict

A Policy Exchange report ‘Living apart together ’(Mirza et al., 2007) exemplifies quite well conclusions about young British Muslims experiencing a conflict between their secular and religious identity and thus finding themselves amongst two mindsets, western and Islamic. The report was based on findings from a quantitative survey of 1,003 Muslims in the UK conducted between July 2006 and January 2007, followed by semi-structured interviews with younger British-born Muslims (Mirza et al., 2007, p.19). According to findings from the report, many young British Muslims have turned to Islam as a way to distinguish themselves from the mainstream British society. Thus, their religious identity expresses a sense of detachment and exclusion rather than being a marker of positive identification with a set of religious values. Particularly, the report concluded for British Muslim teenagers religion becomes ‘a kick against at the mainstream’ (Mirza et al., 2007, p.87). These findings can be incorporated into the marginalisation theories, which see young Muslims as marginal citizens feeling rejected by the society they grow up in but also are detached from the families they belong to.

85 The idea of an existing cultural conflict is reinforced by the media and general public’s representations of young British Muslims. As Basit (1997) reflected in her ethnographic study about adolescent British Muslim girls, people tend to see Muslim children and young people as ‘trapped between two cultures’ representing ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ values (Basit, 1997). The assumption that young British Muslims are ‘torn between the British and Muslim cultures’ has a number of implications and leads to think that Muslims youths operate a double standard by conforming to the West at schools and to Islamic culture at home (Basit, 1997, p.437).

Identity and negotiation

In the current study, the concept of negotiation is defined as the process of reconciling and bringing back to unity different and multiple dimensions of identity from religious, to national, ethnic and gender including ‘youth as identity’. As such, negotiation is relevant for the understanding of how complex identities and the sense of belonging are constructed.

The idea of a cultural clash as the key determinant of young British Muslim identity has been challenged on different grounds by findings, mainly of a qualitative nature, about young British Muslims combining British and Islamic practices, beliefs and values into fluid and hybrid identities (Dwyer, 2000a). Basit links the idea of fluidity to the concept of negotiation by saying that ‘ethnic minorities are not some primordial stamp, but are fluid and formulated continuously in a process of negotiation with a number of economic and political forces that shift over time and space’ (Ibid). In this context, the study by Dwyer (2000) based on in-depth discussion groups with 49 British South Asian Muslim girls aged 16 to 18 years old, introduced the idea of hybrid identities as a ‘fusion of cultural influences’ (Dwyer, 2000, p.483). Dwyer argues that young British Muslim girls in the study referred to a number of factors, such as gender and social class, as relevant to the formation and development of their sense of identity. They reconcile those factors to create new hybrid identities, which are not exclusively Muslim or British, but rather a fusion of both as apparent in the mixing of South Asian with British clothing (Dwyer, 2000). Tarlo (2010) investigated in more depth the issue of Islamic clothing and fashion and how it is attached to the identity of young Muslim girls in the UK. In her 6 years ethnographic study, which involved observations and

86 interviews with a number of Muslim girls from different ethnic backgrounds, Tarlo looked at how Islamic fashion has been revisited by young women, to fulfil their religious and cultural obligations, while at the same time following the trends set out by British/western fashion trends (Tarlo, 2010). Therefore, Tarlo described how visibly Muslim women in Britain combine high street fashion with items from the Islamic tradition creating ‘eclectic clothing combinations’ mirroring articulated and complex fluid identities (Ibid).

Dwyer (2008), in her study of Pakistani boys aged 16 to 27 identified different paths adopted to negotiate identities. She focused on the theme of gender and how it intertwined with other dimensions of identity, and identified four types of ‘masculinities’ (typologies of male gender identities) (Dwyer et al., 2008a). The first type, the religious masculinity, concerned with participants prioritising their Muslim identities over the others. The second type, middle class masculinity characterised young Pakistani men who were evidently more oriented towards education and career aspirations; the third type involved young men with ‘rebellious masculinity’ displaying a sense of frustration and exclusion, which ended with rebellious behaviours toward those accused of being responsible of their disadvantage. Finally, the fourth type of masculinity identified by Dwyer, ambivalent masculinity, was constructed by merging elements of the other three types. Dwyer explained that the last typology included young men who, similarly to the group of the rebellious masculinity, left school but expressed criticism about their previous lifestyles and behaviour and the willingness to follow alternative career paths.

In summary, the idea of negotiation presupposes the existence of multiple identities, including youth as identity, which are not necessarily exclusive but rather reciprocally reinforcing.

4.5 Structural conditions and identity: citizenship,