Stuart Hall,the British multicultural question and the case of western jihadi brides

Abstract

This article explores Stuart Hall’s approach to what he calls the ‘multicultural question’. It identifies what we can take forward from Hall’s work by bringing a productive and politically useful form of Cultural Studies to bear on multi-ethnic societies that are riven by problematic and sometimes violent responses to difference. In the light of Hall’s practice of thinking theory in relation to specific social issues and theorizing through case studies, the article looks at how one might approach the question of the appeal of Islamism to young western Muslims, increasing numbers of whom are leaving their homes and communities to pursue jihad or, in the case of women, to marry Islamist jihadi fighters in Syria and Iraq.