Stranger/Home-land : Muslim practice and spatial negotiation in contemporary Bangkok

• Main Author: Ardrugsa, Winyu
• Published: Open University 2012
• Subjects: 726.209593
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.594846

Since the 1970s, Islamic resurgence and urbanisation have increasingly altered general conceptions of identity and community among Thai Muslims. At the broadest level, this research chal1enges the established essent ialist notion of 'Muslim space'. It aims to problematise the relationship between fonns of subjectivity and spatiality, historically and theoretically. More specifically, the research investigates the relationship currently inscribed and negotiated through the practice of the daily prayers of reformist Muslims in Bangkok. This acknowledges the group as striving to fmd its place within the Muslim community and the larger Thai society, and the prayer practice as a form of urban activity. Drawing on connections between Judith Butler's concept of performativity of 'bodily identities' and notions of , place' proposed by Anne-Marie Fortier, Michel de Certeau and David Sibley, the research examines how the practice unfolds in relation to 'urban' mosques, 'public' prayer rooms, and 'else' -where. Uhimately, the thesis argues for a destabilised body-place of relationships through producing specific conditions of spatial intimacy.