Religion in urban assemblages: space, law, and power

This contribution explores how religious diversity is governed at the urban level and seeks to explain patterns of regulatory practice. It does so by developing the notion of the urban religious diversity assemblage, by which I mean heterogeneous regulatory apparatuses that are territorially ambiguo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion, state & society state & society, 2019-10, Vol.47 (4-5), p.374-389
Main Author: Burchardt, Marian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambiguity
assemblage
Fieldwork
governance of religion
Infrastructure
Law
materiality
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Power
Realism
Religion
Religiosity
Secularism
Social reality
Space law
Urban areas
Urban space
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This contribution explores how religious diversity is governed at the urban level and seeks to explain patterns of regulatory practice. It does so by developing the notion of the urban religious diversity assemblage, by which I mean heterogeneous regulatory apparatuses that are territorially ambiguous and fluid, change over time, and operate as enabling and constraining conditions for religious expressions in diverse cities. Made up of human actors (both state and non-state, secular and religious), material elements (infrastructures, technologies, and artefacts), laws, and representational tools (e.g. maps), I argue that these urban assemblages produce and configure religious diversity as an urban social reality. I draw on empirical examples from my fieldwork in Quebec to illustrate the arguments. Based on these theoretical concerns, the contribution identifies and elaborates on fields of regulatory practice and shows how they are shaped by law and judicial contestations.
ISSN:0963-7494
1465-3974
DOI:10.1080/09637494.2019.1652020