Cosmopolitanism: Religion and kinship among young people in south-western Sydney. (June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Turner, Bryan S.; Halse, Christine; Sriprakash, Arathi
• Is Part Of: Journal of sociology. Volume 50:Number 2(2014:Apr.)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 98
• Publication Date: 2014-06
• Subjects: cosmopolitanism -- family -- multiculturalism -- religion -- youth cultures; Sociology -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Australia -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1440783311419052
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-7833

Abstract

Debates about globalization have been accompanied by considerable critical assessment of the notion of cosmopolitanism. The upsurge in travel, trade, communication, and resettlement among non-elite individuals and groups has raised questions about the nature and form of 'bottom-up' or 'vernacular' cosmopolitanism. This article explores the ways in which the experiences of a group of young people (12–15 years of age) in south-western Sydney contribute to shared practices of membership in a culturally differentiated society. On one level, these young people display a de facto vernacular cosmopolitanism through familial experiences of migration. However, the article shows how these young people often move within socially and culturally bounded communities defined by ethnicity, language, socio-economic status, shaped by desires for safety, support and belonging, and maintained by propinquity, religion and the persistence of traditional expectations and patterns around gender and inter-marriage.