Cinderella Wears a Hijab

Abstract

This article examines lifeworlds and transformations in multiethnic and multireligious neighborhoods in Germany. The author illustrates how by way of minute everyday interactions and encounters, individuals and groups experience each other and devise new practices that aim to accommodate the cultural and religious needs of all involved. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Stuttgart, this article argues that neighborhood spaces, everyday encounters, and ensuing cultural compromises are of fundamental importance for the construction of multiethnic and multireligious urban futures. The article focuses on the interaction of Muslim and non-Muslim individuals and groups in the context of individual, small group interactions, and larger neighborhood events. The author illustrates how concrete changes are negotiated and have become part of local practices and a distinct neighborhood ethos of cultural understanding and cooperation.