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Stubborn identities and the construction of socio‐spatial boundaries: ultra‐orthodox Jews living in contemporary Britain
Author(s) -
Valins Oliver
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/1475-5661.00085
Subject(s) - orthodoxy , identity (music) , sociology , power (physics) , gender studies , tourism , judaism , geography , ethnology , aesthetics , archaeology , art , physics , quantum mechanics
Despite ultra‐Orthodoxy being the fastest growing component of the British Jewish community (and Jewry worldwide), it has received little academic coverage by geographers. This paper provides an in‐depth examination of a community of ultra‐Orthodox Jews in Broughton Park, Manchester. It maps out the residential concentration of these Jews and, using in‐depth qualitative interviews, discusses the construction of socio‐spatial boundaries that are used to define and mark out ‘them’ from ‘us’. Through this the paper contributes to wider geographic discussions about identity, segregation and religion. It shows how the power of religion to define people's beliefs and everyday practices remains, for certain groups, extremely strong.