Abstract
The predominant hypothesis about the secularisation of societies in theGlobal North made religious actors almost invisible to academic and nonacademic observers of contemporary dynamics of urban change. How would
the urban look different from a postsecular comparative perspective? This
thesis studies consequences of gentrification in inner-city areas of London and
Berlin through the perspective of church congregations. It asks, why are people
who move into gentrifying areas, interested in church congregations? How do
the practices of congregations and congregants shape urban spaces? How can
contemporary urbanisation and theories of gentrification be better understood
through these practices?
To answer these questions, this thesis conceptualises church
congregations as neighbourhood organisations and discusses their relevance
in understanding urban change. Through the comparison of six different
cases (growing church congregations) in two urban contexts (London and
Berlin), it develops a theoretical understanding of church congregations as
fields of boundary work in order to scrutinise spaces where pressures of
displacement and church practices collide.
The study shows, that on the one hand, similar to other cultural
phenomena, the presence of church congregations in inner-city
neighbourhoods can be understood as a product of gentrification. The
restructuring of urban spaces and processes of gentrification are the ground on
which churches build their strategies to survive in secularising environments.
The participation of particular groups in church activities can be read as a
desire of the so called ‘gentrifiers’ for belonging to ‘local communities’ and an
expression of solidarity with the diverse surroundings they are part of.
This is the ground on which growing church congregations, on the other
hand, are able to empower people for local, city-wide and national political
issues. Their involvement in local social actions such as food banks shows how
church congregations address social needs and simultaneously produce
spaces of mutuality and solidarity. This creates familiarity and intimacy
between newcomers and long-term residents of inner-city areas. Such vitality
of church congregations can have a strong positive contribution on outcomes
of neighbourhood change.
These empirical results lead to two further contributions to the literature on
gentrification. Firstly, church congregations are not merely a segregating force.
As socially diverse ‘reviving communities’ they also provide a nucleus for the
revitalisation of mutual living in inner-cities. Secondly, by enabling ‘spaces of
possibility’ through ‘theo-ethic’ practices, church congregations create further
possibilities for transformation within processes of urban change. This finding
from within a particular form of neighbourhood organisation, questions the very
core of gentrification creating ‘frontiers’ as boundaries between different
lifeworlds. Instead it shows, that gentrification is better be understood as a
contested passage of urban change, in which neighbourhood organisations are
able to produce ‘micro publics’ as alternative spaces of encounter.
| Date of Award | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Johan Andersson (Supervisor) |