The Asian Gang Revisited: Changing Muslim Masculinities

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In her groundbreaking ethnography The Asian Gang, published in 2000, Claire Alexander explored the creation of Asian Muslim masculinities in South London. Set against the backdrop of the moral panic over Asian gangs in the mid-1990s, and based on 5 years of ethnographic fieldwork, the book explored the idea of the gang, friendships, and the role of brothers in the formation, performance and negotiation of ethnic, religious and gendered identities. The Asian Gang Revisited picks up the story of the Asian gang over the subsequent two decades, examining the changing identities of the original participants as they transition into adulthood in the context of increased public and political concerns over Muslim masculinities, spanning the War on Terror, grooming gangs and knife crime. Building on her ongoing relationships with the men over 25 years, the book explores education, employment, friendship, marriage and fatherhood, and religious identity, and examines both the changes and the continuities that have shaped this group. The book is based on two sets of interviews (in 1996 and 2012) and over 25 years of friendship. It traces the lives of its participants from their teenage years through to their early-mid 40s. A unique longitudinal study of this small, diverse but still close cohort of men, the book offers an intimate, rich and textured account of what it means to be a Muslim man in contemporary Britain.

Author Bio

Claire Alexander is Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity at the University of Manchester, UK. She is the author of The Art of Being Black (1996) and The Asian Gang (2000) and Vice-Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation.