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Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Human Geography
The Political Ecology Of Death: Chinese Religion And The Affective Tensions Of Secularised Burial Rituals In Singapore, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong
The Political Ecology Of Death: Chinese Religion And The Affective Tensions Of Secularised Burial Rituals In Singapore, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper explores the political ecology of death and the affective tensions of secularised burial rituals in Singapore. Although scholars have recently acknowledged the roles of biopower and affect in shaping environmental politics, religion and death as socio-affective forces have not been substantively engaged with by political ecologists. We argue that death is inherently both a spiritual and ecological phenomenon, as it exposes not only the spiritual geographies that structure how people see the natural world, but also the affective tensions and struggles over what counts as a “proper” form of burial in relation to religion and nature. First, we …
Review: Humanist Geography: An Individual's Search For Meaning By Yi‐Fu Tuan, Justin K. H. Tse
Review: Humanist Geography: An Individual's Search For Meaning By Yi‐Fu Tuan, Justin K. H. Tse
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Yi‐Fu Tuan's latest book is a defence of individualism aimed at a wide lay readership, “a book on education that could benefit children everywhere” (p. ix). It is also a fascinating illustration of the relevance of geographies of religion to ongoing interests in humanistic geography. Indeed, one of Tuan's central arguments is that “religious thinking both undergoes and completes humanist thinking” and is therefore not “a relic that humanism has to outgrow,” for that would be a “regrettable” narrowing of the “scope of inquiry” in humanistic geography that “offends the spirit of humanism” (p. 5). It is this latter interest …
Introduction: Religion And Place: Landscape, Politics, And Piety, Elizabeth Olson, Peter Hopkins, Lily Kong
Introduction: Religion And Place: Landscape, Politics, And Piety, Elizabeth Olson, Peter Hopkins, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In 2010, a 14-year-old boy was brutally murdered in a suburb outside of Rio de Janeiro when a group of skinheads observed him at a party and suspected that he might be gay (McLoughlin 2011). This scale of horrific homophobia is not uncommon in Brazil, where rates of violence against gays, lesbians, and transgendered people are reported to be amongst the highest in the world. A study conducted with the support of Grupo Gay da Bahia offers the conservative estimate of 260 gays killed in the country in 2010, indicating that rates doubled in only 5 years. The statistic sits …
Balancing Spirituality And Secularism, Globalism And Nationalism: The Geographies Of Identity, Integration And Citizenship In Schools, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Geographies of education have drawn more research attention in the last decade. The varied motivations for geographical attention to education have led to divergent approaches. First, a macro, political economy or "outward looking" approach has examined educational provision and what it tells us about wider social, economic and political processes. Second, a micro, social-cultural or "inward looking" approach has emphasised social difference within school spaces, and the links between home and educational spaces. This latter approach has also acknowledged the importance of the voices of children and young people in understanding educational experiences. In this paper, l take stock of …
Homo Religiosus? Religion And Immigrant Subjectivities, David Ley, Justin Kh Tse
Homo Religiosus? Religion And Immigrant Subjectivities, David Ley, Justin Kh Tse
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Once ignored in national and international public policy, religion has made a comeback as policymakers have noticed the significance of the resurgence of religion, especially due to migration flows. While laudatory of these developments, this chapter specifies the need for a theological reading of the migrant religious practitioner as homo religiosus. First, we describe the social geographies of immigrant religion in an international context, drawing attention to the vibrancy of religious devotion, especially Christianity from the global south, among migrant groups. Second, we re-conceptualise religious belief through the theoretical work of John Milbank and Charles Taylor as they recuperate a …
The Geographies Of Religious Conversion, Orlando Woods
The Geographies Of Religious Conversion, Orlando Woods
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The paper reviews the corpus of research that attempts to explain the process of religious conversion, and explores the ways in which geographers can add new perspectives to the discourse. It argues that religious conversion is a phenomenon that goes beyond the reorientation of individual belief, and is instead a process of change that involves the (re)definition of self and other. Five conceptual frames are proposed - (1) conversion of space; (2) spaces of conversion; (3) spaces of negotiation; (4) the (im)mobile convert; and (5) the (dis)embodied convert - which are used to help define the geographies of religious conversion.
Global Shifts, Theoretical Shifts: Changing Geographies Of Religion, Lily Kong
Global Shifts, Theoretical Shifts: Changing Geographies Of Religion, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The paper evaluates the burst in geographical research on religion in the last decade. It examines: (1) the relative emphases and silences in analyses of different sites of religious practice, sensuous geographies, population constituents, religions, geographies and scales of analyses; (2) the rise in the discourse of postsecularization; and (3) four contemporary global shifts (growing urbanization and social inequality, deteriorating environments, ageing populations, and increasing human mobilities), the ways in which religion shapes human response to them, and the implications for new research agendas. © 2010 The Author(s).
Religion And Technology: Refiguring Place, Space, Identity And Community, Lily Kong
Religion And Technology: Refiguring Place, Space, Identity And Community, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper reviews the literature on the religion-technology nexus, drawing up a research agenda and offering preliminary empirical insights. Firsts I stress the need to explore the new politics of space as a consequence of technological development, emphasizing questions about the role of religion in effecting a form of religious (neo)imperialism, and uneven access to techno-religious spaces. Second, I highlight the need to examine the politics of identity and community, since cyberspace is not an isotropic surface. Third, I underscore the need to engage with questions about the poetics of religious community as social relations become mediated by technology. Finally, …
Mapping 'New' Geographies Of Religion: Politics And Poetics In Modernity, Lily Kong
Mapping 'New' Geographies Of Religion: Politics And Poetics In Modernity, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article reviews geographical research on religion in the 1990s, and highlights work from neighbouring disciplines where relevant. Contrary to views that the field is incoherent, I suggest that much of the literature pays attention to several key themes, particularly, the politics and poetics of religious place, identity and community. I illustrate the key issues, arguments and conceptualizations in these areas, and suggest various ways forward. These 'new' geographies emphasize different sites of religious practice beyond the 'officially sacred'; different sensuous sacred geographies; different religions in different historical and place-specific contexts; different geographical scales of analysis; different constitutions of population …
Religion And Modernity: Ritual Transformations And The Reconstruction Of Space And Time, Chee Kiong Tong, Lily Kong
Religion And Modernity: Ritual Transformations And The Reconstruction Of Space And Time, Chee Kiong Tong, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, we use the case of Chinese religion in Singapore to examine the relationships between religion and modernity, and between social processes, on the one hand, and spatial conceptions, forms and structures and temporal practices, on the other. Specifically, we look at how traditional Chinese rituals are being modified, reinterpreted and invented to fit with modern living. Such ritual transformations entail reconstructed notions of space and time. Through such transformations, modernity does not simply lead to the demise of religious beliefs and practices but allows for a continued role for religion in providing a meaning system for Chinese …
The Commercial Face Of God: Exploring The Nexus Between The Religious And The Material, Lily Kong
The Commercial Face Of God: Exploring The Nexus Between The Religious And The Material, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper explores the nexus between the cultural and the material by examining the ways in which religion and the economy are integrated in the context of economy-driven Singapore. The mutually constitutive relationships between the cultural and the material are explored through a discussion of the role of the state, capital and religious institutions in pulling together the sacred and the secular. Specifically, the analysis focuses on how the state harnesses religion ideologically in its economic development strategies; how capital harnesses the potential of religion in commercial enterprises in practical terms; and how religious institutions themselves behave as financial institutions. …
Ideological Hegemony And The Political Symbolism Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Ideological Hegemony And The Political Symbolism Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Cultural geographers have for too long ignored the association between the 'religious' and the 'political', concentrating instead on separating the 'religious' from the sociopolitical and economic forces in society. The challenge is taken up in this paper in an analysis of the contemporary meanings and values of religious buildings in Singapore as invested by the state. Attention is paid to the state's conceptions of religion and religious space and the roles it plays in influencing such space. The ways in which, through its various roles, the state in Singapore plays a significant part in influencing context and hence in shaping …
Negotiating Conceptions Of 'Sacred Space': A Case Study Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Negotiating Conceptions Of 'Sacred Space': A Case Study Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, I approach the study of religious place from a re-theorized cultural geographical stance. Using multi-religious Singapore as a case study, I examine the tensions which arise over the meanings and values associated with religious buildings because of the conflict between state hegemony on the one hand and the oppositional meanings and values of religious groups and individuals on the other. I also examine the ways in which individuals negotiate their conceptions of sacred space in order to cope with changes imposed on their religious places by the state. Primarily, my argument is that conflict is avoided because …