This thesis offers an important contribution to scholarly debates on belonging, hybridity and the role of the home through its focus on the connection between home-making practices and interfaith hybrid coupledom. I draw from five feminist case study interviews of couples comprised of British Muslim men who are first or second generation immigrants and women with Christian backgrounds. I explore the way their narratives on home-making practices, including the use of home artefacts, demonstrate fluid, intersectional and multi-scalar belonging within their examples of interfaith hybrid coupledom. The interviewees' nal1"atives have been organised into five themes which relate to coupledom practices. In Chapter Four, I examine the way the interviewees' home artefacts were significant to 'feelings settled' in the house moving process. In Chapter Five: 'Multiple Home Decorating', I argue that the negotiation of decorating styles suggests the intersection of gendered, national and cultural belonging, and that the female interviewees' support their partners' homing desires via home artefacts. In Chapter Six: 'Interfaith Home Decorating', I suggest that the interviewees' narratives around the use or absence of religious home aliefacts express intersectional belonging. In Chapter Seven: 'Gift-Giving', I argue that gift-giving expresses intersectional belonging and connections with close family and friends. In Chapter Eight: 'Cooking and Eating', I explore the shifting of gendered expectations, national belonging and the impact of cultural and religious belonging. The overall key findings include the intersection of gender and religion on home-making discussions, the effect of 'flow' on ordering home artefacts (Cwerner and MetCalfe, 2003), the importance of memories in the home-making process (Jacobson, 2009; Barbey, 1988) and the impact of class-based belonging on home-making (Reed, 2006; Jacobs, 2003; Bourdieu, 1984). Nonetheless, I have asserted that the case study interviewees have revealed how one can merely glimpse into the intersectional belonging (Yuval-Davis, 2006b) within interfaith hybrid coupledom.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:661128 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Hoffman-Hussain, Candace Lynn |
| Publisher | Lancaster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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