Abstract
In this paper I examine the relationship between masculinities, public space and race in the context of Duisburg-Marxloh, an immigrant neighborhood in Germany. I propose that young Turkish and Kurdish men enact masculinities in relation to young Turkish women, Turkish and Kurdish political groups, and German residents, which shapes public neighborhood space in ways that can be characterized as masculine and exclusionary. These masculinist public spaces are frequently racialized as 'Turkish' by local German residents, politicians, and the media. I argue that these portrayals of 'Turkish' space read gendered spatial practices as racial practices. I conclude that it is necessary to carefully unpack the ways that Kurdish and Turkish men's masculinities are articulated with race, public space, and non-migrants' masculinities in order to better understand the spatial politics of difference in immigrant-receiving societies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 117-133 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Social and Cultural Geography |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2008 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the IMISCOE Workshop in Amsterdam, 26–28 May 2005, at the critical geography mini-conference in Oxford, OH, and as a colloquium in the University of Georgia’s geography department. I thank participants in these venues for their comments and questions that helped further refine the arguments in this paper. Special thanks to Mary E. Thomas and Bruce D’Arcus for their thoughtful and critical engagement with my arguments. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers whose comments were helpful. All remaining errors are, of course, mine. This research was supported by the NSF (BCS-0000282).
Keywords
- Gender
- Generation
- Germany
- Immigration
- Public space
- Race
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- Geography, Planning and Development
