ABSTRACT
To change life … we must first change space H. Lefebvre1
In 1998-2000 I spent two years in metropolitan Bangkok teaching and researching in a voluntary exile from the Australian academy. This idea of a book on new Thai religiosity, or what I refer to as the religiosity of urban space, started one day after a near miss in a driving accident. Returning home one day I drove into a small lane where I was living to encounter an oncoming Mercedes driving directly towards me. A quick-footed response on my part averted a head-on collision. The middle-aged female driver had both her hands briefly off the steering wheel, paying respects in a two-handed gesture as she passed the housing estate’s newly refurbished locality shrine to the Hindu deity Lord Brahma (Phra Phrom).
