Urban Secularism

<p>While French <i>laïcité </i>is often considered something fixed its daily deployment is rather messy. What might we learn if we study the governance of religion from a dynamic bottom-up perspective? Using an ethnographic approach this book examines everyday secularism <i>in the making</i>. How do city actors understand frame and govern religious diversity? Which local factors play a role in those processes? In <i>Urban Secularism: Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe</i> Julia Martínez-Ariño brings the reader closer to the entrails of <i>laïcité</i>. She provides detailed accounts of the ways religious groups city officials municipal employees secularist actors and other civil-society organisations negotiate concrete public expressions of religion.<br>Drawing on rich empirical material the book demonstrates that urban actors draw and (re-)produce dichotomies of inclusion and exclusion and challenge static conceptions of <i>laïcité </i>and the nation. Illustrating how urban national and international contexts interact with one another the book provides researchers with a deeper understanding of the multilevel governance of religious diversity. </p>