Debating civilisations

Over the last two decades, global demand for kosher products has been growing steadily, and many non-religious consumers view kosher as a healthy food option: in the US over 60 per cent of kosher food consumption is linked to non-religious values associated with health and food quality. This book explores the emergence and expansion of global kosher and halal markets with a particular focus on the UK and Denmark. While Kosher is a Hebrew term meaning 'fit' or 'proper', halal is an Arabic word that literally means 'permissible' or 'lawful'. The book discusses the manufacture and production of kosher and halal meat (both red meat and poultry) with specific reference to audits/inspections, legislation, networking, product innovation and certification. It draws on contemporary empirical material to explore kosher and halal comparatively at different levels of the social scale, such as individual consumption, the marketplace, religious organisations and the state. It compares the major markets for kosher/halal in the UK with those in Denmark, where kosher/halal are important to smaller groups of religious consumers. Denmark plays an important role in biotechnology that is compatible with what we call kosher/halal transnational governmentality. The book explores how Jewish and Muslim consumers in the UK and Denmark understand and practice kosher consumption in their everyday lives. It also explores how 'compound practice' links eating with issues such as health and spirituality, for example, and with the influence of secularism and ritual.

Exoticisation Undressed is an innovative ethnography that makes visible the many layers through which our understandings of indigenous cultures are filtered and their inherent power to distort and refract understanding. The book focuses in detail on the clothing practices of the Emberá in Panama, an Amerindian ethnic group, who have gained national and international visibility through their engagement with indigenous tourism. The very act of gaining visibility while wearing indigenous attire has encouraged among some Emberá communities a closer identification with an indigenous identity and a more confident representational awareness. The clothes that the Emberá wear are not simply used to convey messages, but also become constitutive of their intended messages. By wearing indigenous-and-modern clothes, the Emberá—who are often seen by outsiders as shadows of a vanishing world—reclaim their place as citizens of a contemporary nation. The analysis presented in the book makes visible ‘ethnographic nostalgia’, the distorting view that the present seems to emerge through the pages of a previous ethnography—a mirage: for example, the Emberá carrying out their daily chores dressed as their grandparents. Ethnographic nostalgia distorts social reality by superimposing an interpretation of underlying cultural patterns over intentional or purposeful action. Through reflexive engagement, Exoticisation Undressed exposes the workings of ethnographic nostalgia and the Western quest for a singular, primordial authenticity, unravelling instead new layers of complexity that reverse and subvert exoticisation.

This book is a study of two post-war Muslim ethnic minority communities that have been overwhelmingly neglected in the academic literature and public debate on migration to Britain and Germany: those of Newcastle upon Tyne and Bremen. In what is the first work to offer a comparative assessment of Muslim migrant populations at a local level between these two countries, it provides an examination of everyday immigrant experiences and a reassessment of ethnic minority integration on a European scale. It traces the development of Muslim migrants from their arrival to and settlement in these post-industrial societies through to their emergence as fixed attributes on their cities’ landscapes. Through its focus on the employment, housing and education sectors, this study exposes the role played by ethnic minority aspirations and self-determination. Other themes that run throughout include the long-term effects of Britain and Germany’s overarching post-war immigration frameworks; the convergence between local policies and Muslim ethnic minority behaviour in both cities; and the extent to which Islam, the size of migrant communities, and regional identity influence the integration process. The arguments and debates addressed are not only pertinent to Newcastle and Bremen, but have a nation- and Europe-wide relevance, with the conclusions transgressing the immediate field of historical studies. This book is essential reading for academics and students alike with an interest in migration studies, modern Britain and Germany, and the place of Islam in contemporary Europe.