The Contagion of the Sacred and the Right to the City: Modalities of Belonging, Becoming and Participating amongst Diasporic Religious Communities and the Growth of the Post-Secular City

This chapter attempts to combine key urban and sociological theories with empirical evidence to highlight new ways in which one might understand the increasingly important interaction between religious diasporic communities and urban life. It brings together conceptual frameworks and empirical data to construct an emerging understanding of how the religious practices and identities of members of immigrant and ethnic minority communities in Britain help to rescript the idea of the secular city/public space. The focus of the religious and social life is the temple and community centre which first and foremost meets the needs of the local Hindu community but has an intentionally open-door policy to other community groups. The chapter outlines some empirical findings from an extensive research project undertaken by the William Temple Foundation (WTF) on behalf of the Leverhulme Trust into religious and spiritual capital. Finally, it concludes with an agenda for understanding how urban and religious spatialities need to be reconfigured in the future.