Religion and the Global City Introduction

by Garbin, David; Strhan, Anna; Eade, John; Soar, Katy; Tremlett, Paul-François

• ISBN13: 9781474272421
• ISBN10: 1474272428
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-07-13
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This is the first book to explore how religious movements and actors shape and are shaped by aspects of global city dynamics. Theoretically grounded and empirically informed, the book advances discussions in the field of urban religion, and establishes future research directions.

The editors bring together a wealth of ethnographically rich and vivid case studies in a diversity of urban settings, in both Global North and Global South contexts. These case studies are drawn from both 'classical' global cities such as New York, London and Paris, and also from large cosmopolitan metropolises - such as Bangalore, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong – which all constitute, in their own terms, powerful sites within the informational, cultural and moral networked economies of contemporary globalization.

The chapters explore some of the most pressing issues of our times: globalization and the role of global neo-liberal regimes; urban change and in particular the dramatic urbanization of Global South countries; and religious politics and religious revivalism associated, for instance, with transnational Islam or global Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity.

Author Biography

David Garbin is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent, UK. His research focuses on the interplay of migration, ethnicity, diaspora, space and religion, in a diversity of ethnographic contexts in Europe, North America, South Asia and Central Africa.

Anna Strhan is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent, UK. Her research explores the interrelations between space, religion, ethics, and values. She is the author of Aliens and Strangers? The Struggle for Coherence in the Everyday Lives of Evangelicals (2015).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Part I: Power, Visibility and the Politics of Space
2. On the Road: Mobility, Visibility, and Anonymity in the Pentecostal Mega-City, Simon Coleman, University of Toronto, Canada, and Manuel Vasquez, University of Florida, USA
3. Pentecostal Political Geographies and the Global City: African Churches in Hong Kong, Benjamin Kirby, University of Leeds, UK
4. Piety and Development in Beirut: Hezbollah's Capital of Resistance as Global City, Fouad Marei, Free University of Berlin, Germany
5. Pentecostal Productions of Locality: Siting Spiritual Security in Cape Town, Marian Burchardt, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany
Part II: Religious Media, Publics and Global Cultural Flows
6. Theorizing Mediatization and Religious Agency in the Global City, David Herbert, Kingston University London, UK and University of Agder, Norway
7. Magic and Meditation in Global Cities: the Case of New York, Paris and Tel Aviv, Lionel Obadia, University of Lyon II, France
8. Riding on the News Wave: Religion And Deregulated Media In 'Global' Bangalore, Sahana Udupa, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany
9. Godless London? Cosmopolitans, Locals and Public Nonreligion in the Global City, Lois Lee, University College London, UK
Part III: Centralities, Peripheries, and Religious Reterritorialization
10. The Everyday Enchantment Of Suburbia: Transnational Religion, Multiculturalism And Suburban Spaces in London And Vancouver, Claire Dwyer, University College London, UK
11. Place And The (Un-)Making Of Religious Peripheries: Wedding Practices Among Kenyan Pentecostals In London, Leslie Fesenmyer, COMPAS, University of Oxford, UK
12. Religious Territorialisation and The Negotiation Of Urban Margins In A Fragmented City: Protestant Churches In The Paris Region, Yannick Fer and Gwendoline Malogne-Fer, CNRS, Paris
Part IV: Global Migration, Everyday Multiculturalism, and Religious Place-Making
13. Religion As 'Urban White Noise' – Material Practices of Everyday Religion at The 'Unquiet Frontiers' of The Global Hyper-Diverse City, Chris Baker, University of Chester, UK
14. At Home in The Multicultural City: Islam And Religious Place-Making In Stuttgart, Germany, Petra Kuppinger, Monmouth College, USA
15. 'Mosque Hopping' In the Global City: Piety And Urban Mobility Among Young Somali Women In Multicultural London, Giulia Liberatore, COMPAS/ISCA, University of Oxford, UK
16. Religion, Migration and The 'Worlding' Of Urban Daily Life. Local And Transnational Pentecostalism In Rio De Janeiro, Gerda Heck, Stephan Lanz, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt, Germany
17. Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index