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Making Sense of the Smell of Bangladesh

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Childhood, Youth and Migration

Part of the book series: Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research ((CHIR,volume 12))

Abstract

This paper draws links between the sense of smell, aesthetic choices concerning clothes, ideas about modernity and the aspirations of young British Bangladeshis. In doing so, it highlights the preconscious and conscious factors that inform the identities that British Bangladeshis express. The paper argues that despite its importance for our sense of belonging, the sense of smell has been neglected in accounts of identity. This discussion leads to a critique of Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and illustrates the ways in which the conscious elements of habitus draw upon the unconscious. Dispositions towards the smell of Bangladesh feed into ways in which British Bangladeshis express their identities through aesthetic choices and in turn reveal preferences for different discourses of modernity.

This chapter was originally published in the Journal Childhood (2014), Vol. 21(2) 175–189 and is included here with permission.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All the names of people and places are pseudonyms.

  2. 2.

    Discussion on visits with Shirin, Rafique and Nasrin, in their flat, 28.11.2008.

  3. 3.

    Discussion about visits with Shirin, Rafique, and Nasrin, conducted in their flat, 28.11.2008.

  4. 4.

    Interview with Ishrat, 11, at Poynder Primary School, 12.02.2008.

  5. 5.

    Interview with Seema and Mary conducted at The Education Authority, 23.03.2008.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Benjamin Zeitlyn

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  1. Benjamin Zeitlyn
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Correspondence to Benjamin Zeitlyn .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ISBS, Vechta, Germany

    Christine Hunner-Kreisel

  2. Coordinator of EU-Project “Gender Equality in Research and the Academia” (EGERA), Vechta, Germany

    Sabine Bohne

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Zeitlyn, B. (2016). Making Sense of the Smell of Bangladesh. In: Hunner-Kreisel, C., Bohne, S. (eds) Childhood, Youth and Migration. Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31111-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31111-1_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31109-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31111-1

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