Gathering knowledge, shaping selves:Ethnographic insights into young arab women's informal-learning experiences in Istanbul

This ethnographic study explores the informal-learning and knowledge-sharing practices among young Arab women in Istanbul and how that helps them build a community. Focusing on women from Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Yaman, Libya, Lebanon, and Egypt, with the shared identity of being Muslim and being Arab. It examines how these gatherings—ranging from religious study circles to book clubs or lectures on politics, history and social issues—serve as critical spaces for education, meaning-making, identity formation, and collective healing in the context of migration and displacement. This ethnographic research is grounded in participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 15 young women who regularly attend these gatherings; on a weekly basis. I also drew on digital ethnography to understand how participants extend their engagement and community-making through WhatsApp, Telegram groups and social media platforms. The gatherings, often held in cultural centres, coffee shops, waqf organizations, homes, mosques, or, parks allow participants to navigate the complexities of migration, religiosity, and gather empirical knowledge from great scholars in the fields of religion, politics, history, social issues and life skills; like self-management, interpersonal communication, cross-cultural adjustment, emotional intelligence, while articulating new forms of belonging and self-understanding. They are building a community that helps them on an external level and an internal level at the same time. Theoretically, the study is informed by Ibn Khaldun's concept of asabiyyah (social solidarity), Bourdieu's theory of social capital, to analyse how these young women form new friendships, build a community and find new opportunities. While also gaining empirical knowledge on topics like religion, politics and self-development or growth. I argue that these learning circles function as both epistemic communities and affective sanctuaries; where participants come together and articulate new forms of belonging, co-create meaning, reshape the terms of their agency, cultivate resilience, create a new sense of home and find visibility within both the host society and their diasporic imaginaries. This study adds to the limited sociological literature on young Arab women's experiences in Istanbul when it comes to informal-learning and community building in migration contexts and highlights the importance of everyday spaces in cultivating resilience and fostering hope, agency and community while also reimagining futures. Keywords: informal-learning, Arab migrants, women's learning circles, ,asabiyyah, social capital.