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Spaces of Modernity: Religion and the Urban in Asia and Africa

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  • MARY HANCOCK
  • SMRITI SRINIVAS

Abstract

This article introduces a symposium on religion and the formation of modern urban space in Asia and Africa. Both the spread of new religious movements and the articulations between religion, globalization and neoliberalism have prompted new analyses of the shifting geographic and social boundaries between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ institutions, practices and discourses, and about the meaning of ‘religion’ itself. We reinscribe work on urban religion within a discussion of ‘modernity’ by dealing with the socio‐spatial mediation of religion and its role in redefining public spaces, practices, norms and discourses in contemporary cities. Individual articles map the spaces engendered by religious imaginaries and the forms of mobility and networks that religion relies on and constitutes, and they identify and analyze the roles played by mass media in religious practice and institution building, as well as the embodied nature of urban religious experience. They demonstrate how urban studies can be ‘pluralized’ and ‘vernacularized’ through analyses of how the urban realm is constituted in part through religious practice and meaning. Our attention to the articulation of religion with cities in Asia and Africa will also help to foster a new theoretical vocabulary within religious studies that is attentive to the historical, cultural and spatial contingencies of religion as a category of analysis. Résumé Cet article présente un symposium sur la religion et la formation de l’espace urbain moderne en Asie et en Afrique. La propagation de mouvements religieux nouveaux, ainsi que les articulations entre religion, mondialisation et néolibéralisme, ont suscité des analyses originales sur le décalage des frontières géographiques et sociales entre les institutions, pratiques et discours “religieux” et “laïcs”, et sur la signification de la religion elle‐même. Nous réinscrivons les travaux sur la religion urbaine dans une discussion sur la “modernité” en abordant la médiation socio‐spatiale de la religion et son rôle dans la redéfinition des pratiques, normes, discours et espaces publics dans les villes contemporaines. Les différents articles recensent les espaces générés par les imaginaires religieux, ainsi que les formes de mobilité et de réseaux que la religion élabore et sur lesquelles elle s’appuie ; de plus, ils identifient et analysent les rôles des médias dans la pratique religieuse et la construction de l’institution, et s’intéressent à la matérialité de l’expérience religieuse urbaine. Ils montrent comment les études urbaines peuvent être “pluralisées” et “vernacularisées” par le biais d’analyses sur la façon dont l’univers urbain se constitue en partie par la pratique et la signification de la religion. De plus, notre intérêt pour l’articulation de la religion avec les villes d’Asie et d’Afrique contribue à alimenter un nouveau lexique théorique pour les études religieuses, qui veille aux contingences historiques, culturelles et spatiales de la religion en tant que catégorie analysée.

Suggested Citation

  • Mary Hancock & Smriti Srinivas, 2008. "Spaces of Modernity: Religion and the Urban in Asia and Africa," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 617-630, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:32:y:2008:i:3:p:617-630
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00800.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Diane E. Davis, 2005. "Cities in Global Context: A Brief Intellectual History," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 92-109, March.
    2. Yasmeen Arif, 2008. "Religion and Rehabilitation: Humanitarian Biopolitics, City Spaces and Acts of Religion," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 671-689, September.
    3. Alexander Henn, 2008. "Crossroads of Religions: Shrines, Mobility and Urban Space in Goa," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 658-670, September.
    4. Scott, Allen J. (ed.), 2001. "Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297994.
    5. Mark Elmore, 2008. "Circuits of Secularity or the Aesthetics of Religion in an Age of Cities and Citations," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 643-657, September.
    6. Ara Wilson, 2008. "The Sacred Geography of Bangkok's Markets," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 631-642, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Stephan Lanz & Martijn Oosterbaan, 2016. "Entrepreneurial Religion in the Age of Neoliberal Urbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 487-506, May.

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