Description:
AlSayyad and Massoumi's text addresses the ways in which religion can affect the city, and indeed how the city can affect religion. International experts in sociology, anthropology, religious studies, urban planning and geography come together to provide thought provoking pieces on whether a fundamentalist city is possible.
Review Quotes:
'In the spirit of resilient exegesis at its best, The Fundamentalist City? mirrors the efforts of most urban residents to locate and use the resourcefulness of city life. In doing so, it seeks to urgently understand how certain residents exude so much faith in their convictions as to deem it nearly impossible to live with others pursuing different paths. In cities where all imaginations may be possible, when does the city come to reflect one dominant imagination, and when does it keep all of them in play?'- AbdouMaliq Simone, Dept of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
'New religious movements are often explained as a response to the challenges of modern urban life. But can religious practice, in turn, transform the city? These essays offer a rich variety of imaginative and insightful explorations of this novel and important question.' - Timothy Mitchell, Professor of Arab Studies, Columbia University, USA
'Modern studies of the city have made much of secularization, and while there has been a quickening of interest in the new role of religion in cities few scholars have ventured onto the much more fraught terrain of religious fundamentalisms with the cross-cultural range and analytic depth of the contributors to this timely volume. The product of a genuinely collaborative project, The Fundamentalist City does not plane away the differences between the contributors but brings them into creative tension to illuminate the cultural and political consequences of different religious fundamentalisms. As provocative as it is sensitive, the result is a compelling account of the intimate connections between fundamentalism, exclusion and the city'- Derek Gregory, Dept of Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada