Arab Muslim Research Articles

Why do they boycott? Withholding consumption among London's Muslim Arabs

Many studies discussed consumers boycott in various contexts but they all agreed that it constitutes an undesirable behaviour from business firms' perspective. Consumer's buying and boycotting behaviour is influenced by various factors. Limited studies focused on consumer boycott from transnational consumers prospective. The current study examines the boycotting behaviour of London Arabs and the factors that influence it. An online survey was used for data collection. Four key measures adapted from the literature were used in this research and multiple regressions were applied to examine the factors influencing boycotting behaviour. The study found that London Arabs boycotting behaviour is characterised by their demographics, religion, transnationality and social capital. This paper offers an empirically tested foundation for understanding the boycotting behaviours of this largely uncharted segment of consumers. It is the first study that examines this transnational segment's boycotting behaviour where transnationality and connectedness are proven to be powerful factors in influencing boycotting behaviour.

Why do they boycott? Withholding consumption among London's Muslim Arabs

Many studies discussed consumers boycott in various contexts but they all agreed that it constitutes an undesirable behaviour from business firms' perspective. Consumer's buying and boycotting behaviour is influenced by various factors. Limited studies focused on consumer boycott from transnational consumers prospective. The current study examines the boycotting behaviour of London Arabs and the factors that influence it. An online survey was used for data collection. Four key measures adapted from the literature were used in this research and multiple regressions were applied to examine the factors influencing boycotting behaviour. The study found that London Arabs boycotting behaviour is characterised by their demographics, religion, transnationality and social capital. This paper offers an empirically tested foundation for understanding the boycotting behaviours of this largely uncharted segment of consumers. It is the first study that examines this transnational segment's boycotting behaviour where transnationality and connectedness are proven to be powerful factors in influencing boycotting behaviour.

Filosof Islam Pertama (Al-Kindi)

This research aims to analyze the first Islamic philosophers (Al-Kindi). Philosophy which developed in the Islamic world is a legacy of Greek philosophy. Many Muslim philosophers took the thoughts of Aristotle, Plato, and Plotinus, so many Greek philosophical theories were taken by Muslim philosophers. It is this influence of Greek philosophy which is the basis of the counter-expression around the problem of philosophy in Islam. The results showed that the birth and development of philosophical thought in Islam was a necessary historical reality because of the interaction that was built between Muslim Arabs with conquered areas (non-Muslim nations), namely the Persians, Indians and especially Greek people. , so Islamic philosophy is said to contain many elements of Hellenism.

Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer: Affect as a Critical Optic

Reviewed by: Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer Alexander Cho (bio) Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer. New York University Press. 2016. $89.00 hardcover; $30.00 paperback; $20.39 e-book. 288 pages. Halfway through anthropologist Su'ad Abdul Khabeer's Muslim Cool, the author tells a first-person story of going to a "girl party" in a Chicago suburb. This is a house party exclusively for Muslim women and girls at which they can "let their hair out (or down), literally and figuratively, in an all-female environment," socialize, and dance.1 As she and her friend get into the groove and belly dance, she slowly realizes that their hostess, a Palestinian Muslim immigrant mother, and the other girls, all Palestinian American Muslims, have stopped dancing and are simply gazing at her and her friend, fascinated by "the 'spectacle' of the two dancing (Black) girls."2 Khabeer, troubled by this sudden atmospheric shift in what is supposed to be a space of equality, quickly exits the dance floor. This gaze of difference informs one of the core projects of Muslim Cool: to interrogate the alterity of Black Islam within the "ethnoreligious hegemony" of contemporary US Muslim identity.3 However, this is only one part of Khabeer's thesis on the exchange and interplay of race, religion, and culture. Her companion observations are, not coincidentally, as follows: Black hip-hop music and culture function as vehicles for young Muslims to realize and own their religious identity; hip-hop music and culture itself came of age vis-à-vis a relationship to Black Islam; and a current stylistic amalgamation of Blackness and Islam, which she calls "Muslim Cool," is the result of this loop, fed back upon itself, a living, breathing instance of agentic resistance to hegemonic pressures via a cultivated style.4 Her project is less to surgically isolate ownership of any particular cultural form and more to map a [End Page 182] complex cultural landscape of power and exchange, following paths and hints where they may lead in fine ethnographic detail. Khabeer's fieldwork is based on multiple years as an observer, organizer, advocate, and activist at Chicago's Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN). As a reflexive anthropologist, Khabeer radically locates herself—Black, Latina, and Muslim—in her observations. She's also a self-proclaimed "hip-hop head," and many of her sites of inquiry involve the Chicago hip-hop scene. Chapters are organized as follows: an introduction to the flows of the argument behind "Muslim Cool"; specific attention to raced and religious musical practices surrounding hip-hop; attention to the radical potential of personal dress for both Black Muslim women (the "'hoodjab") and men (the "Muslim dandy"); and a chapter on the United States' exporting of Muslim Cool as neoliberal state apparatus abroad. The book concludes with an appended discussion of the place of Muslim Cool in the context of #BlackLivesMatter, which she regards as a project cut from the selfsame cloth. She writes: "Muslim Cool is a way of being Muslim that draws on Blackness to contest two overlapping systems of racial norms: the hegemonic ethnoreligious norms of Arab and South Asian US American Muslim communities on the one hand, and White American normativity on the other."5 The work is sound and compelling. Media studies folks—or anyone else interested in the interplay of race, power, and popular culture—will especially find chapter 1, "The Loop of Muslim Cool: Black Islam, Hip Hop, and Knowledge of Self," to be a master class in ethnography, media consumption and production practices, and identity making, all the while hewing tightly to a situatedness in terms of structural oppression and historical context. To call this simply a hip-hop "audience" or "reception" study would be to diminish its heft and scope. It is, rather, a formidable rumination on the evolution and meaning of a cultural form in a specific ethnoreligious context. Thankfully, Khabeer explodes any simple critical application of "appropriation"—that increasingly useless blunt instrument—and instead elegantly charts what she calls the loop of cultural relationships from Islam...

ON THE FUTURE OF THE MUSLIM’S THOUGHT: DISCUSSING ABOUT CARL W. ERNST’S AND M. AL-JABIRI’S WORKS

This paper is devoted to the attempt of comprehension which direction would follow the islamic thought in the future. The author examines main ideas of American scholar Carl W. Ernst and of Moroccan Muslim thinker M.A. al-Jabri. The conclusion show that the Islamic thought (1) become closer to the European and American thought; (2) would pay attention to the history of relations between East and West; (3) must learn its own intellectual roots and local traditions; (4) would revive the humanism of the classical medieval Arab Muslim civilization.

Second Language Learning and the Clash of Civilizations

This research investigates the relationship among second language learning, identity, culture, and motivation in Saudi Arabia (SA). SA’s education system concentrates on teaching, while identity and social aspects have only been given little attention. The researcher seeks to redress this balance by exploring the impact of pupils’ negative views toward the linguistic communities and of themselves as Muslim pupils. It aims to investigate how negative views toward the English language speaking communities could affect or demotivate Arab Muslim female learners to learn the language. The researcher supports the arguments using a qualitative approach and data drawn from pupils’ focus group interviews and one-to-one teachers’ interviews. The current study involves 132 second-year pupils from a secondary public school in Taif city, in SA and three Saudi English language teachers. The findings indicate the impact of various social factors relevant to the Saudi identity and culture on pupils’ English as a second language (ESL) learning in the Saudi context. Participants’ beliefs and practices of ESL appear to be influenced by certain negative views toward the English- speaking communities. Finally, the study recommends extending the setting of the sample for future study to include more than one city in order to compare cultural and social attributes that impact ESL, as cultures and identities vary from one area to another in SA.

From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest by Maged S. A. Mikhail

Reviewed by: From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest by Maged S. A. Mikhail Brian Welter From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest, by Maged S. A. Mikhail, 2016. London/New York: I.B. Taurus. 448 pp., £ 21.99. ISNB: 978-1-78453-481-3 (pbk) California State University professor Maged Mikhail attempts more than simply dismissing the centuries-old lie that seventh-century Islamic armies converted Christian North Africa by the sword. He characterises the Arab Islamic takeover of Egyptian society as slow and piecemeal, taking centuries. The old Byzantine order stayed surprisingly long in many areas, such as with the use of the Diocletian calendar well into the Islamic period. The implication seems to be that Muslim rulers had relatively limited reach into the mostly Christian villages for decades and even centuries. In From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt, Egypt's Christians are portrayed as surprisingly supportive of their rulers, whether Greek-Byzantine or Arab-Islamic. Theological disputes between pro- and anti-Chalcedonian theological traditions in the decades leading up to the Islamic conquest had not destroyed loyalty to Constantinople. The Christians maintained the same attitude towards the new sovereign: whether Christian or Muslim, rulers received their mandate from God. Mikhail points out that this belief "was predicated upon the influence of the New Testament Scriptures, which enabled the Christians of the pre-Constantinian era and those living under Sasanian rule to serve as faithful subjects to non-Christian emperors" (180). The author thus concludes: "Transitioning from Byzantine to Islamic rule did not require the majority of Christians (and presumably Jews) in Egypt to make a radical adjustment to their political ideology" (181). Ample evidence is provided for those still stuck in previous assumptions of Islamic violence. The melding of political power and God's will impacted church life, with the caliph soon taking on the role of choosing the Coptic patriarch. This latter, in turn, claimed authority "from God and the caliph" (185). This did not differ so terribly from imperial Germany or the Sun King's France, where the monarch appointed church leaders. Egypt's hierarchy, similar to those in Europe, did not always accept such meddling, and [End Page 235] found passive ways around it. This is where the author's explicit naming of important individuals and historical accounts to illustrate his arguments becomes helpful. Each case had its own unique characteristics. Whether at the Christian-Muslim or church-state level, relationships were not frozen. The author avoids the kinds of sweeping generalisations that have led to the western "spreading Islam by the sword" view of the Arab conquests of North Africa and the Near East. Islamic persecution of Christians was not the norm. Government-sponsored violence tended to be directed towards both Christians and Muslims. This is reflected in a series of revolts in which the old Coptic population and the newer Arab Muslims fought authority side-by-side. Mikhail argues that these rebellions were not last-ditch attempts by the Christians to regain their country. They were mostly tax-related, affecting farmers of both religions. "Eighth- and ninth-century insurrections," the author claims, "are best interpreted within their socio-political environment without dwelling on the religious or 'ethnic' affiliation of the rioters" (119). The author's wider social science approach frees us from a religious-only view of events which would pit Muslim against Christian. Living in an Islamic state did greatly influence the church, including ecclesiastical government at the highest levels. Perhaps because Islamic government officials wanted only one person to deal with as representative of the Christians, the Coptic patriarch grew in authority by the ninth and later centuries, even as he moved from Alexandria, the ancient seat, to Cairo. Egypt's growing Islamic identity led to greater Christian unity, the author shows. Mikhail never buys the Coptic self-image as the long-suffering victim, emphasising that these Christians had also had good relations with the Byzantine emperors, and had not welcomed the conquering Islamic armies as liberators, as was argued in the eleventh century and after. In fact, Mikhail's linguistic and papyrological knowledge goes a long way here...

The association between religiosity, generalized self-efficacy, mental health, and happiness in Arab college students

Research is rare on the relationship between religiosity and subjective well-being using Arab participants. The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between religiosity, generalized self-efficacy, mental health, and happiness. A sample (N=702) of Muslim Arab college students was recruited. They responded to four scales as follows: the self–rating scale of religiosity, the self–rating scale of happiness, the Arabic Scale of Self–Efficacy, and the Arabic Scale of Mental Health. The results indicated that male students obtained significantly higher mean total scores on self-efficacy and mental health than did their female counterparts. All of the Pearson correlations between the study scales were statistically significant and positive in both men and women. A principal components analysis identified a single component which could labeled “Mental health, well-being and religiosity”. It appears that participants who see themselves as religious are more likely to see themselves as self-efficacious and to have greater levels of mental health and happiness. Because the strongest association was found between self–efficacy and mental health in men and women, enhancing self–efficacy may be a useful intervention to improve mental health.

Are Saudi Girls Motivated to Learn English?

This paper is based on data drawn from Ph.D. research investigating the relationship between language and motivation. It specifically describes the motivating and demotivating factors that influence young female language learners in the Saudi context. This study aims to investigate what factors could motivate female learners of ESL classrooms. Further, the author utilizes sociocultural theory to explore what factors could affect participants’ motivation as female Muslim Arabs. She also supports her arguments using data drawn from classroom observations, pupil focus group interviews and one-to-one teacher interviews. The current study involves 132 second-year pupils from a secondary public school in Taif city and three Saudi English language teachers. The findings indicate the impact of various social factors relevant to the Saudi identity, culture and everyday life on girls’ ESL learning in the Saudi context. Participants’ beliefs and practices of ESL appear to be influenced by certain imaginative views towards their local identities and cultures, their possible selves in the future, and the linguistic communities. In addition, findings regarding autonomy indicate that identity and culture attributes affects teachers’ and learners’ roles in the classroom and their motivation both inside and outside the classroom. Finally, the study recommends extending the setting of the sample for future study to include more than one city in order to compare cultural and social attributes that impact ESL, as cultures and identities vary from one area to another in Saudi Arabia.

A Biallelic Mutation in the Homologous Recombination Repair Gene SPIDR Is Associated With Human Gonadal Dysgenesis.

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is caused by ovarian follicle depletion or follicle dysfunction, characterized by amenorrhea with elevated gonadotropin levels. The disorder presents as absence of normal progression of puberty. To elucidate the cause of ovarian dysfunction in a family with POI. We performed whole-exome sequencing in 2 affected individuals. To evaluate whether DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair activities are altered in biallelic mutation carriers, we applied an enhanced green fluorescent protein-based assay for the detection of specific DSB repair pathways in blood-derived cells. Diagnoses were made at the Pediatric Endocrine Clinic, Clalit Health Services, Sharon-Shomron District, Israel. Genetic counseling and sample collection were performed at the Pediatric Genetics Unit, Schneider Children's Medical Center Israel, Petah Tikva, Israel. Two sisters born to consanguineous parents of Israeli Muslim Arab ancestry presented with a lack of normal progression of puberty, high gonadotropin levels, and hypoplastic or absent ovaries on ultrasound. Blood samples for DNA extraction were obtained from all family members. Exome analysis to elucidate the cause of POI in 2 affected sisters. Analysis revealed a stop-gain homozygous mutation in the SPIDR gene (KIAA0146) c.839G>A, p.W280*. This mutation altered SPIDR activity in homologous recombination, resulting in the accumulation of 53BP1-labeled DSBs postionizing radiation and γH2AX-labeled damage during unperturbed growth. SPIDR is important for ovarian function in humans. A biallelic mutation in this gene may be associated with ovarian dysgenesis in cases of autosomal recessive inheritance.

Spirituality and spiritual care perspectives among baccalaureate nursing students in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundNo study has been undertaken to understand how spirituality and spiritual care is perceived and implemented by Saudi nursing students undergoing training for their future professional roles as nurses. ObjectivesThis study was conducted to investigate the perception of Baccalaureate nursing students toward spirituality and spiritual care. DesignA descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed. Settings and ParticipantsA convenience sample of 338 baccalaureate nursing students in two government-run universities in Saudi Arabia was included in this study. MethodsA self-administered questionnaire, consisting of a demographic and spiritual care background information sheet and the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale Arabic version (SCGS-A), was used for data collection. A multivariate multiple regression analysis and multiple linear regression analyses were performed accordingly. ResultsThe mean value on the SCGS-A was 3.84±1.26. Spiritual perspective received the highest mean (4.14±1.45), followed by attribute for spiritual care (3.96±1.48), spiritual care attitude (3.81±1.47), defining spiritual care (3.71±1.51) and spiritual care values (3.57±1.47). Gender, academic level and learning spiritual care from classroom or clinical discussions showed a statistically significant multivariate effect on the five factors of SCGS-A. ConclusionsEfforts should be done to formally integrate holistic concept including all the facets of spirituality and spiritual care in the nursing curriculum. The current findings can be used to inform the development and testing of holistic nursing conceptual framework in nursing education in Saudi Arabia and other Arab Muslim countries.

Veiling and management

This article explores the motivations of Arab Muslim women managers in Israel who adopt the veil just before or soon after their nomination to management positions. We used narrative research in order to understand this growing phenomenon and its meaning for the women managers in different life spheres. While the research findings stress the different motivations for adopting or rejecting veiling, all the women managers perceived veiling as a phenomenon that has direct consequences for their status in Arab Muslim society and for their ability to function effectively as managers and to introduce far-reaching changes with the support of their community and the staff. The article contributes to our understanding of Muslim women’s visibility in private venues and in the public sphere and reinforces the need for more in-depth comparative cultural studies of veiling perceptions.

Reconstruction and Architecture Art in TAGHLUQ State(720 A.H – 816 A.H \ 1320 A.D- 1413 A.D)

Reconstruction and Architecture Art in TAGHLUQ State(720 A.H – 816 A.H \ 1320 A.D- 1413 A.D)

A syntactico-semantic approach to the translation of conditionals in two English versions of Sahih Muslim

Conditionals in English can traditionally be viewed according to two different perspectives. One is a simplistic approach based on certain ‘cases’; the other is centered on the truth value of the protasis and apodosis. This argument is based on the semantics of the conditional structures, regardless of the syntax involved. In a similar vein, the complexity of conditionals in Arabic stems from the fact that the syntax of the conditional structure does not necessarily point to the semantics involved. This affinity between the two language systems in terms of conditionality is examined within the context of two English translations of the Arabic religious text Sahih Muslim. The present study adopts an approach that focuses on both syntax and semantics to underline the interplay and/or dissociation of the two in practice. The study reveals that Siddiqui’s versions of translating ‘law’ (and its variant ‘law-la’) and ‘inn’ structures into English are mostly inaccurate, where the syntax-semantics interplay and/or dissociation is not duly observed in practice. Khattab’s versions, however, point to a tendency to start from the entrenched premise of literalism, which is stimulated by adopting the simplistic approach to English conditional structures, being akin to documentary translation where awkwardness is common practice.

The Battle for the Galilee: Maronites and the Palestine Village of Jish during the 1948 War

This article explores one of the Galilee battles that took place during the 1948 War. During the Israeli ‘Operation Hiram’ of October 1948 the IDF forces occupied large parts of the central Galilee including the Palestinian Arab village of Jish. Until October 1948 the majority of the population of Jish was Muslim. Today the population is predominantly Maronite Catholic and Melkite Greek Catholic Christians, with a Muslim minority. However, unlike many of the destroyed Palestinian villages in this region, Jish managed to survive the Nakba despite the hard battle of Jish, although many of its Muslim inhabitants were driven out to Lebanon. It is interesting to observe that local Christian leaders successfully coped with a major military operation. The article gives us a new perspective based on original sources on what took place in the Galilee and on the fate of the local Arab (Muslim and Christian) population in this region.

Bedouin Women's Gender Preferences When Choosing Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Patients' preferences in choosing obstetricians/gynecologists are widely investigated, but studies among traditional populations are lacking. Bedouins comprise a traditional Arab Muslim society in the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia), The Levant (Syria, Jordan and Israel) and North Africa (Egypt). Most of the Bedouins in Israel populate several villages, mostly in the southern part of the country. This cross-sectional study compared 200 Bedouin and 200 Jewish women who responded to an anonymous questionnaire. Queried on gender alone, more Bedouin responders preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists (59.5 vs. 33% Jewish responders, p value <0.0001). Bedouin women preferred a female obstetrician/gynecologist for intimate procedures [feeling more comfortable (66.3%) and believing that females were more gentle (50%)]. However, they and the Jewish participants ranked ability, experience and knowledge as the top 3 qualities of an obstetrician/gynecologist, putting reputation in 4th place and gender in 5th place. Bedouin women strongly preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists, although professional skills were an important factor in their choice of caregiver. The ideal obstetrician/gynecologist for Bedouin women would be a skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced female.

Factors influencing the decision to engage in alcohol-impaired driving among Arab-Israeli youths

Alcohol-Impaired Driving (AID) is rarely studied among Arab communities. As contacts between Arab and Western cultures grow, alcohol consumption and safety-related issues are emerging as a major public health concern. This paper examines factors influencing the decision to engage in AID in a sample of young Arab-Israeli bar patrons (n=300, age 17–34), including both Muslims (n=77) and Christians (n=176); alcohol is prohibited for the former, but is normative for the latter. Studies of AID often use agent-oriented models, most notably the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The current study complements this tradition using the structure-oriented Social-Cultural (SC) model. Over 70% of participants reported engaging in AID after consuming 3–4 portions of alcohol. The TPB model proved to have significant explanatory power while most cultural factors, including religion, failed to gain statistical significance. The latter finding is counter-intuitive given the different status of alcohol in the cultures investigated. The TPB variable Personal Behavioral Control (PBC) and a specific sub-component of the subjective norms variable emerged as providing the greatest contribution to the model. The results support the robustness of TPB and demonstrate that beyond identifying idiosyncratic patterns structure-based models can be useful in refuting pre-conceived conceptions. Thus, both approaches should be utilized to inform policymaking. Governmental authorities, particularly in Israel, must consider the neglected issue of AID among Arab communities, including both Christians and Muslims.

Daily hassles, mother-child relationship, and behavior problems in Muslim Arab American adolescents in immigrant families.

This longitudinal study examines reciprocal and dynamic relations among daily hassles, the mother-child relationship, and adolescent behavior problems and whether the relations differed by sociodemographic variables. Three waves of data about adolescent daily hassles, quality of the mother-child relationship, and adolescent behavior problems were collected from 454 Arab Muslim adolescents and their immigrant mothers over a 3-year period. Cross-lagged structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine reciprocal relations among the study variables. Relations between the mother-child relationship and adolescent behavior problems were reciprocal, with a poor mother-child relationship contributing to greater behavior problems and behavior problems contributing to a decline in the quality of the mother-child relationship. Relations involving daily hassles were unidirectional: A better mother-child relationship contributed to fewer daily hassles and behavior problems contributed to more daily hassles but daily hassles did not contribute to more behavior problems. Father's education was the only sociodemographic variable that was significant: Adolescents with more highly educated fathers had a better mother-child relationship and fewer behavioral problems. Findings suggest that Arab American Muslim adolescents with behavior problems are differentially exposed to daily hassles but daily hassles are not the best point of intervention. Bidirectional relations between the mother-child relationship and adolescent behavior problems suggest intervening to improve the mother-child relationship and manage symptoms of adolescent behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record

Watching War Movies in Baghdad: Popular Culture and the Construction of Military Policy in the Iraq War

This article investigates the use of popular culture films by the United States military during the Iraq War. We first examine why the 2003 mission to capture Saddam Hussein was named after Red Dawn, the 1984 film about the Soviet invasion and occupation of the American heartland, and how it helped define U.S. soldiers’ understanding of their mission in Iraq. We then consider how and why in 2006 military planning groups screened films, including Meeting Resistance, whose narrative centers of gravity tilt toward Muslim Arab populations resisting the occupations of Western militaries. We argue that the circulation of these movies encouraged military audiences to critically reconsider their aims and mission in the midst of the unanticipated emergence of an Iraqi insurgency. The broader purpose of these investigations is to demonstrate the ways in which popular culture can shape individuals’ understanding of their political problems and possibilities, even in times of war.

Technologies of Translocality: Vegetables, Meat and Dresses in Arab Muslim Detroit

AbstractThe diversification of US suburbs in terms of race, ethnicity and immigration has created invaluable opportunities for scholars to study technologies of translocality‐in‐the‐making. Translocal landscapes are described as spaces of ‘here' studded with ‘parts of elsewhere' (Allen and Cochrane, )—but which pieces of the landscape count as meaningfully ‘of elsewhere', how do those parts get there, and what range of meanings can they signify? This article is based on qualitative, in‐depth interviews and explores these questions in the context of an Arab Muslim ethnic enclave and retail district in an inner‐ring suburb of Detroit. The findings indicate that ‘parts of elsewhere' are more internally pluralized, multifunctional, multidirectional and aesthetically diverse than commonly recognized. The implications of these findings challenge scholars to develop more robust frameworks to explain how translocal geographies are produced, why they matter, and how they can be recognized.