In recent years, scholars from a wide variety of disciplines have engaged in the study of urban religion. Taken together, these studies form a paradigm that intertwines (1) the politics of belonging, (2) regimes of space and territoriality, (3) materiality and sensorial power and (4) visibility. We argue that while scholars have conceptualised these aspects in very nuanced ways, there is a need to address in a more rigorous way immaterial dimensions of urban religion. We encapsulate these immaterial dimensions in the notion of 'urban religious aspirations' , meaning the multiple ideational sources that underpin people's religious investments in urban life. We illustrate the relevance of studying aspirations with an ethnographic example of two Hong Kong Christian women and their involvement in the Umbrella Movement. Exploring their narratives demonstrates the need to take immaterial aspects of religious life into account when researching urban religion, especially in contexts where the distinction between the religious and the secular is less clearly defined.
We identify and analyse practices and management regimes around burial and handling of ashes across eight case study towns within six Northern European countries. We analyse management of cemeteries and crematoria gardens, majority practices and provision for minority communities, including various burial types, cremated remains, the re-use of graves, and costs for interments. Comparative data is drawn from analysis of national and local regulations, interviews with stakeholders, and observations at cemeteries and crematoria gardens. The findings show significant variation in national and local regulations and practices for burial and cremation particularly around the re-use of graves, handling of ashes and costs for grave space and cremation. We identify the opportunities and constraints of these variations in terms of accessibility, diversity and equality; and argue for national directions to avoid unequal treatment within nations. Furthermore, we stress the importance of a liberal and inclusive management of European cemeteries and crematoria gardens.
In descriptions of their religion, Hong Kong Catholics tend to emphasize the perceived universal character of the Catholic Church. In this report I explore this emphasis by analyzing what this characteristic means for my informants. I argue that the universality of Catholicism gives Hong Kong Catholics meaning in the world in which they live. As residents of the Hong Kong SAR and citizens of the PRC, "Hongkongers" are faced with an uncertain future. In this uncertain situation, they search for a stable anchor. The universal Catholic Church offers them this, by giving them a sense of belonging to a global family of God. This report thus presents a different understanding of what it means to be a Hong Kong resident in today's world.
This chapter details narratives of individual Hong Kong Buddhists and their motivations for spiritual and/or activist engagement during the 2014 Umbrella Movement. I argue that religion as expressed by Buddhists indicates political engagement to be more about future salvation and personal considerations of how to act as 'good' Buddhists than about the relationship between religion and politics, and. From this main argument follow two observations. First, individual motivations for political engagement are engendered by personal perceptions which are not always compatible with official religious doctrines. Second, by emphasizing the links between various political struggles, events such as the Umbrella Movement take on an extra dimension, in this case reaching beyond the specific context of Hong Kong.
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