‘Turkish/Kurdish’ youth in North London

: ethnic identifications

Abstract

Focussing on a group of adolescents of Turkish and Kurdish descent in a North London secondary school, this thesis shows the ways in which ethnicities are experienced and indirectly signalled through everyday language behaviour and popular cultural engagements in superdiverse London. Data was collected on the adolescents’ ordinary social interactions in and around the vicinity of their school for about one year (May 2013 - June 2014), using ethnographic participant observation, informal interviews and retrospective interviews with 13 focal participants. Extensive audio-recording of their naturally occurring speech and interactions were made and substantial fieldnotes were written. The thesis draws on Stuart Hall’s (1988, 1996) theorisation of ‘new ethnicities’. It also draws on flexible perspectives relating to youth language practices – Hewitt’s (1992, 2003) ‘local multi-ethnic vernacular’, Rampton’s (1995a) ‘crossing’ and Blommaert and Backus’ (2011) ‘linguistic repertoires’. This thesis examines how mundane practices and behaviour are linked to the young people’s ethnic affiliations. The research shows that the ethnic attachments of young Londoners of Turkish and Kurdish descent cannot be studied within the boundaries of the singular and static concept of ‘Turkish Speaking Community’ or with a narrow formulation of ethnicity within London’s superdiversity. It is argued that one way of developing a deep understanding of how ethnicities are implicitly indicated, explicitly expressed and lived out, is to pay attention to actual language and popular cultural practices in the everyday. A close analysis of the adolescents’ routine speech patterns reveals their ambivalent, dynamic and multi-faceted identifications with a working-class-inflected Londonness, Kurdishness and Turkishness in contemporary North London.

Date of Award	1 Dec 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Roxy Harris (Supervisor)