Asia Institute - Theses
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ItemThe controversial moderate: Tariq Ramadan's vision for Muslim political participation in Europe( 2011)Tariq Ramadan has been a significant figure in the debate on the presence of Muslim populations in Europe since the 1990s. His academic writing tackles the themes of integration, belonging and participation of Muslims in the West, and particularly Europe. Ramadan does not advocate for bringing down western secularism, or waging a Jihad against the West, but argues for active Muslim citizenship, claiming that this does not come in contradiction to Islamic values. Tariq Ramadan is a controversial yet ‘moderate’ Muslim voice on the creation of a viable space for European Muslims to participate as full citizens in their society. Ramadan has faced heavy criticism from academics, neo-liberal journalists and the Muslim community, with many claiming that he hides a more seditious form of Islam under a cloak of moderation and tolerance. Political participation is the avenue that Ramadan believes will allow European Muslims to assert their full rights and responsibilities as citizens. There are limitations in Tariq Ramadan’s approach to presenting a viable future for Muslim political participation in Europe. While Ramadan’s views on the significance of Muslim political participation are fundamental to establishing a viable public space for European Muslims, there are inconsistencies in his approach that stymie his efforts to make a substantial contribution. Ramadan’s views have been shaped by both Western and Islamic scholarship, allowing him to occupy an important space in the discussion on political participation. While there is no evidence to suggest Ramadan is a ‘terrorist in disguise’, academic critics provide important insights on the contradictions within Ramadan’s theoretical approaches to ‘Euro-Islam’. Ramadan’s ability to address the various social, political and legal constraints to citizenship for Muslims in Europe is also limited, due to his risk adverse behaviour in tackling controversial Islamic practices.
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ItemCommunication, narrative and risk: expatriate treatment narratives in Kunming, China( 2011)While studying Chinese in Kunming, China, in 2009, I noticed that anecdotes about experiences in the local biomedical health care system generated a lot of discussion amongst expatriates, and formed the basis for some kind of solidarity between them. This thesis takes a closer look at what I had observed informally, to see what these stories reflected about expatriate perceptions of the Chinese health care system, and what these stories suggest about the nature of being an expatriate. Three central themes emerged from interviews with expatriates about their experiences of seeking medical treatment in Kunming – communication, narrative and risk. Unmet expectations about doctor-patient communication in the medical setting were often associated with unsatisfactory episodes of treatment, and were major elements in expatriates’ perceptions of their health care experiences. Expatriate encounters with the healthcare system were often the foundation for stories, or ‘narratives’, and this thesis looks at how these narratives are formed, and the role they play in the expatriate community for the storyteller and the listener in creating a sense of shared identity and experience. Finally this thesis examines the concept of risk, and how interviewees determine what is risky in an unfamiliar environment. Often these perceived risks are different to what they would be in the interviewees’ home countries. These three elements – communication, narrative and risk – are all interwoven into the ‘treatment narratives’ the expatriates in this thesis offer.