ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the role of religious diversity within media portrayals of gentrified urban areas. Drawing on findings from qualitative fieldwork conducted in the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood in Paris and the Raval neighbourhood in Barcelona, this chapter shows that expressions of religious minorities play a complex and multifaceted role in shaping the collective perceptions of these urban areas as propagated by the media. On one hand, the public presence of certain religious minorities, such as Islam, is met with rejection by the dominant social groups, who perceive it as a catalyst for urban decay and incompatible with the presumed secular character of public spaces. Conversely, these same stakeholders strategically employ the concept of religious pluralism to brand the neighbourhood as a “multicultural” and “cosmopolitan” hub.
