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Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Religious Urbanism In Singapore: Competition, Commercialism And Compromise In The Search For Space, Orlando Woods
Religious Urbanism In Singapore: Competition, Commercialism And Compromise In The Search For Space, Orlando Woods
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper explores the recursive relationship between religious praxisand urban environments. It advances the concept of “religious urbanism” to showhow urban environments play an active role in shaping the praxis of religion,and how religious groups adopt secular logics in response to the pressures ofurban environments. Such logics have given rise to new, more pragmatic forms ofspatial reproduction that lead to the desecularisation of space. Desecularisationinvolves religious groups diminishing the secular properties of space, ratherthan attempting to achieve any lasting notion of sacredness. Drawing on therestrictive religio-spatial context of Singapore, I demonstrate howfast-growing religious groups are forced to compete, commercialise, andcompromise …
Spaces Of The Religious Economy: Negotiating The Regulation Of Religious Space In Singapore, Orlando Woods
Spaces Of The Religious Economy: Negotiating The Regulation Of Religious Space In Singapore, Orlando Woods
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Over the past three decades, the theory of religious economy has been established, applied, debated, developed, and rejected. It has proven to be as divisive as any "general theory" of religion should be, and yet its core tenets continue to engage and unite scholars around the world. In response to broader shifts within the sociology of religion, this article reframes religious economy by advancing a spatial approach to its theorization. A spatial approach can help develop new perspectives on the regulation of religion, and the resistant agency of religious groups. With a focus on the "secular monopoly" of Singapore, it …
Difference And The Establishment: An Asian Canadian Senior Pastor's Evangelical Spatiality At Tenth Avenue Alliance Church In Vancouver, Bc, Justin K. H. Tse
Difference And The Establishment: An Asian Canadian Senior Pastor's Evangelical Spatiality At Tenth Avenue Alliance Church In Vancouver, Bc, Justin K. H. Tse
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper explores how the evangelical spatiality of an Asian Canadian senior pastor at a historically Anglo-Saxon congregation has transformed it from an ethnically homogeneous, aging church to a heterogeneously-constituted gathering in an evangelical Protestant tradition. This piece challenges the conventional wisdom of the church growth movement and the new religious economics in the sociology of religion, both of which advise religious groups to construct homogeneity and consensus in efforts for numerical growth over against secularizing forces. The paper argues instead that Pastor Ken Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality from the mid-1990s to the present must be understood as a theological embrace …
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, …
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 …