This section offers some suggestions for the broader relevance of this thesis. Intersec-tionality has been receiving growing attention within, and beyond, geography. In this the-sis, I have used an encounter framework to emphasise how critical it is to avoid abstract-ing intersectional analyses from broader historical and geographical contexts, to better understand how bodies come together in moments of encounter and negotiate often mul-tiple and intersecting identities. I agree that placing greater emphasis on the specifics of social context and ‘local, regional and national geography’ (Hill Collins and Bilge 2016:
199) is key to provide ‘a more nuanced discussion of global processes’. A critical en-gagement with social context and relationality could thus further work out how people do togetherness, might ‘mess up’ (Curtis 2016: 337) dichotomist discourses of us/them and insider/outsider, and avoid displacing matters of race, racism and racialisation (Hopkins 2017). Social and feminist geographers have critical contributions to make to these de-bates, as they can further contribute to understandings of scale, place or time-space rela-tions, spatial belongings and identities; that way advancing ‘how intersectionality is theo-rized, applied in research and used in practice’ (Hopkins 2017: 6).
Another important contribution to the geographical literature that could be further devel-oped is thinking through intersectionality in terms of embodiment and belonging. Yuval-Davis (2011: 13), amongst others, argues that intersectionality is about much more than multiple identities, as ‘different locations along social and economic axes are often
marked by different embodied signifiers, such as colour of skin, accent, clothing and modes of behaviour’. Considering these ‘embodied signifiers’ (Hopkins 2017: 8) may sug-gest also focusing upon issues of ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, and their intersec-tions, alongside ‘matters of embodiment such as those associated with disposition, habit, recognition and style’ (also Lobo 2014a, 2013; Noble 2009a). This thesis has shown that a re-focus on matters of ‘race’, ethnicity, gender and religion, and their intersections, is justified; more could be done here in terms of exploring sexuality, age, class and other degrees of difference, and intergenerational ties in ethnic and cultural intersectionalities (6.x). As such, considering the politics of encounter and belonging can open up possibili-ties to further study how intersecting identipossibili-ties are lived ‘on the ground’, critical also to ap-preciate the agentic ways in which individuals and groups may ‘compose their own inter-sectional subjectivities’ (Tse 2014: 211).
Beyond this, the thesis points to the significance of studying experiences of care-ing and hope-full encounters (cf. Curtis 2016) alongside wider issues of injustice and inequality.
An exploration of ‘kind words’ and ‘small gestures’ (Horton and Kraftl 2009), and their ef-fects, is surely becoming even more critical within wider political landscapes that are framed by crisis talk around issues of migration, integration and the securitisation of com-munities and nations against ‘others’ imbued with feelings of fear and hate (Neal et al 2018; Pain and Staeheli 2012; Pain 2009; Ahmed 2004). I support the view that thinking about the varied and unexpected ways in which hopeful encounters exist may make a dif-ference in the lives of people trying to ‘re-create a new social world’ (Westoby 2009: 2;
also Wright 2015). This is not meant to discount the injustices, inequalities, prejudices and racisms that continue to exist and shape communities and societies; however, I agree that researchers also have significant contributions to make by emphasising hopeful stories of togetherness and living with others that may feed into gradual social change (Lobo 2014b;
Askins 2015). Feminist geographic research is already doing significant work here, think-ing through the spatial and political implications of emotion (e.g. Wise and Velayutham 2017; Askins 2016; Lobo 2015).
In light of the detailed engagement with contexts across the North and West of Glasgow, I agree that it remains critical to provide in-depth analyses of the experiences of particular social groups, highlighting the ‘overlap, continuities and discontinuities in terms of how racism affects different groups’ (McBride and Liinpää 2018: 214) in Scottish society. While elite political discourses foreground and attempt to put into place an ‘aspirational plural-ism’ (Meer 2015) and a ‘civic’ nationalism in the form of, for example, equality and diversi-ty paradigms (cf. Meer 2016a), Davidson et al (2018) suggest that these actions should not obscure the continuing need of considering the different modalities of racism and the ways in which ‘new’ or ‘cultural’ racism (Taguieff 1990) such as Islamophobia have
be-come central features in much political and media discourses. Here, research could fur-ther explore how multicultural encounters in Scotland are impacted by wider discourses around migration, citizenship, belonging and nationhood, and recent political decision-making such as Brexit.
Emerging research further stresses the significance of exploring more widely processes of misrecognition in Scotland. Exploring experiences of misrecognition among young Sikhs, Hindus and other South Asian young people as well as black and Caribbean youth across Scotland, Hopkins et al (2017: 937), for example, imply that experiences of (mis)recognition have to be taken more seriously, since (mis)recognition is a process that is ‘co-constituted, situational, relational and imbued with power’. As such, being misrec-ognised and misread in different spaces can have ‘significant consequences for people’s ability to live together and share everyday places comfortably’ (ibid: 938; also Taylor 1994), and shape ‘present and future cross-cultural relations’ (Martineau 2012: 162). I agree that exploring the complex ways in which different (intersecting) identities are mis-read and misrecognised in different spaces and encounters, and the varying consequenc-es this might have for those who experiencconsequenc-es this, could provide a deeper understanding of everyday socio-spatial relations in (Scottish) society. That way, exploring experiences of encountering misrecognition can also emphasise the fluid and changing nature of dis-crimination, affecting not only one group (e.g. Islamophobia affecting Muslims) but having a range of effects on different social groups.
In terms of future research practice, this thesis has shown that adopting an embodied methodological approach can open up possibilities to explore in more depth the often em-bodied nature of multicultural and multi-ethnic encounters. Critically, approaching my body as an ‘instrument of research’ (Longhurst et al 2008) has allowed me to experience, feel and become more thoroughly immersed in the life worlds, everyday spaces, embodied practices and activities of the people that I wished to study/understand. At times, this also meant adopting a performative approach, as I was invited to take part in the knitting, cook-ng, eaticook-ng, crafticook-ng, writicook-ng, walking and dancing at various groups meeting at the library and community centres. My involvement in many of these performed practices and activi-ties emerged as the research unfolded; yet, this ‘coming to my senses’ (Curtis 2016: 325, original emphasis; also Lobo 2013) proved crucial to make sense of the diverse aspects of multicultural encounters and moments of micro connection and relation-building that people discussed during interviews and focus groups. Embodied and creative methodolo-gies are increasingly emerging in geography, and I argue that more can be done with ex-ploring research practice that enables researchers to engage in encounters with ‘fleshy bodies, sensory impulses and material objects’ (Lobo 2013: 460) and to develop ‘an
openness […] and ethical questioning that destabilises the relationship between power and knowledge’ (Lobo 2010: 104) not possible with disembodied approaches.
In order to highlight the wider implications of research that takes seriously the role of quo-tidian settings for exploring social relations of everyday multiculture and (ethnic and cul-tural) diversity, I now turn to some tentative policy implications.