The ‘performativity of scale’ and construction of the Grand Mosque in Strasbourg: Focusing on the actors’ discursive practices

Abstract

Referring to a ‘performativity of scale’ approach, this article aims to describe the way in which scales, as discursive practices, produced substantial effects during the construction process and utilization of the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg, in France. This mosque was established in 2012 by taking advantage of Alsace-Moselle local law allowing religious communities to obtain public financial aid, while located in France, the very soil of laïcité. Based on the constructionist perspective of ‘scale’ developed in human geography, I attempted to analyze, by quoting interview records, how scalar discourses influenced the process of the construction and the material aspects of this mosque, and how scalar discourses were reconstructed throughout utilization of the mosque. The analysis showed that various scales were linked to the distinction of here / elsewhere, and that their borders were continuously contested in the discursive practices of scale.