Voicing Valerie

Shopping with Allah: Muslim pilgrimage, gender and consumption in a globalised world

“…Assemblage, dimension, salt and pepper, configuration, field, web or net might be alternatives. Yet in the end what counts is not the metaphor but the understanding that categories and practices of identification and the hierarchies they (re-)produce are more connected than separate from one another and to document this in empirical grounding (Thimm 2022). This is an approach distinct to intersectionality.…”

“…These more or less artificial analytical limitations, that are obvious from a holistic viewpoint, do not keep pace with developments in globalisation, transregionalism and transnationalism. Given this, colleagues and I have advocated elsewhere (Mahler et al 2015;Thimm 2022 for applying intersectionality across multiple socio-geographical scales (for example intimate, family, regional, national, transnational) simultaneously. We argue that 'intersectional analyses need to address more intentionally the multiple, related socio-geographic scales in which people live their lives' (Thimm et al 2017: 3).…”

Making diversity visible in often unrecognised family practices

“…It then discusses how she reports experiencing her new home in the UK and finally reflects on her response when directly asked what she considers the impact on her of serial migration to have been. Lizzie's own words are presented at greater length than is often common in qualitative research reports since it is difficult to get a good sense of her narratives in short bursts (Thimm, 2022).…”

John Buchan’s race through life, chased by his only foe—illness

“…Pervading this article about a human being, his illness, his medical treatment, and his professional and private life, is the question of intersectionality. Intersectionality acknowledges that the personal backgrounds and geographical and ethnic origins of individuals instil in them certain ‘expectations and confrontations with social class’ (Thimm 2022, xii), which can involve religion, as was the case with Buchan’s Scottish Presbyterian roots. Questions of ethics and justice, linked with family background and education creating both advantage and disadvantage, also form part of the prism through which this article examines Buchan’s long struggle to meet expectations—his own, his family’s and society’s—while wrestling with ill health.…”

“…Questions of ethics and justice, linked with family background and education creating both advantage and disadvantage, also form part of the prism through which this article examines Buchan’s long struggle to meet expectations—his own, his family’s and society’s—while wrestling with ill health. While these important considerations underlie the article, they will not be raised to the roof, so to speak, so that the discussion, following Viola Thimm’s example in ‘Thimm (2022), can remain jargon-free and at the individual, rather than the ideological abstract level.…”