Information Sharing as Embodied Practice in a Context of Conversion to Islam

Abstract

This article works to extend two emerging areas in information scholarship: religious practice and embodiment. By reporting on completed research about information practices among Muslim converts in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area (Guzik 2017), this article reveals how information is shared in the context of religious transitions that take place within a contentious political landscape. Research was guided by ethnography and involved participant observation, semistructured interviews, and timeline drawings (Bagnoli 2009; Sheridan, Chamberlain, and Dupuis 2011). While additional themes related to navigation and authority were identified through the use of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz 2006), this article focuses specifically on how research participants express and exchange information through nonwritten sources such as clothing items, spoken words, and creative products. The article considers the visibility of information when it is carried on the body as religious symbols, and the implications that this visibility has for accessing expertise, places of worship, and secular public spaces. It also highlights how creative pursuits allow Muslim converts to become information producers and publishers, rather than mere consumers. These roles of production may involve written documents (e.g. sacred texts, scholarly articles, blog posts), but they are primarily expressed through physical actions and spoken words.