“Would Prefer a Trailer Park to a Large [Religious] Structure”: Suburban Responses to Proposals for Religious Buildings

Miller, Brian J.

doi:10.1080/00380253.2018.1547173

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Angela C. in lower Manhattan. To more systematically study building and/or land requests from religious groups, I examined proposals in two different contexts: three suburban government bodies in the western suburbs of Chicago over five years (Miller, 2019) and the New York City region over 26 years with cases reported in the New York Times (Miller, 2020). I found patterns.…”

Section: Notes On Contributormentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Religion and Secularism in Urban Planning

Manouchehrifar¹,

Forester²

2021

Planning Theory & Practice

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Urban planners -whose disciplinary focus is the local, the spatial, and the practical -have been largely indifferent to the significance of religious difference in urban settings and seemingly unable to understand why religious diversity presents both problems and opportunities for the modern city.This Interface examines challenges that urban planners face in managing the complex and morally heterogenous cities of our contemporary secular age -an age in which urban environments are increasingly interconnected economically and yet fractured by religious contestation. We live at a particular socio-historical juncture when conventional notions of the public sphere face constant pressures, not only from the growing public influence of religion, but also from the secular anxieties that emergent religious claims generate. These interdependent forces have cast aside the facile prophecies of secularization theories -supposing that as modernity waxes, religion, in its public manifestation, wanes. Renewed religious and spiritual commitments to tackle social injustices of urban problems have also questioned old conceits that religion must be irrelevant in conventional planning deliberations.The question before us is less about how to avoid spatial manifestations of religious differences in planning, but more about how to rethink the relationship between religious convictions and planning actions in ways that move well beyond presuming the exclusionary stances of religiosity and the dismissive glances of professional planners.As spatial disputes that involve religious-secular entanglements have proliferated, so have urban planners become more involved in the religious and secular lives of the communities they serve. To explore these issues, we asked our Interface contributors to address one or more of these challenges:(1) First, local opposition to locational decisions can come from, or focus upon, claims invoking religion -or its absence. Examples include: opposition to the construction or expansion of religious spaces (e.g. a synagogue, mosque, or church) as well as religious opposition to practices of different faith groups (e.g. building a Muslim cemetery or a pagan temple) or to proposals that some religious groups consider 'places of vice or iniquity' (e.g. a casino or strip club). (2) Second, these spatial disputes often involve competing and parallel views of what counts as 'religious' and what constitutes a 'religious space.' How to practically steer through, not away from, such salient variations for planning purposes? (3) Third, how does one understand a phenomenon that is quietly but incessantly shifting the socio-spatial fabric of our cities, namely the spatial segregation, or voluntary withdrawal, of

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Section: Notes On Contributormentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Religion and Secularism in Urban Planning

Manouchehrifar¹,

Forester²

2021

Planning Theory & Practice

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“…Spatial analysis of conversions would also help us understand what factors play a role in the conversion of a building, as studies like Miller's (2019Miller's ( , 2020 suggest that factors like land-use regulation and neighborhood composition may be important in a developer's or congregation's decision about which buildings to work with. In the same way, while a visual snapshot of a building's façade can speak to the influences of a single building exerted upon a congregation and the congregation's influence on the building, a spatial analysis of conversions could help identify the influence these buildings also exert on their surrounding neighborhoods.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Converted Structures: Exploring Material Expressions of the Sacred and Secular

Hartson

2021

Review of Religious Research

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Background Increasingly across the Western world, traditional religious buildings are being converted for secular use, like housing, restaurants, or performance halls. At the same time, congregations are appearing in formerly secular spaces, adapting old shopping malls, storefronts, and movie theaters for their spaces of worship. Purpose This study employs a novel methodology to identify where these hybrid buildings are located and to explore what these buildings might mean in the context of the American religious landscape. Methods Using a database of addresses identified as potential converted structure candidates, I conduct one of the first known attempts to systematically identify these building conversions. I employed the Google Street View tool to locate these buildings in six mid-sized cities in the United States. Once these buildings had been located, I collected visual data of the exteriors using Google Street View and identified the presence of sacred and secular formal and functional elements present in the buildings. Results Based on the formal and functional elements identified in each conversion, I expanded Hackworth and Gullikson's (2013) typology for converted structures to include eight potential categories of conversion, five of which are represented by cases from my sample. I located 175 secular-to-sacred building conversions and 12 sacred-to-secular building conversions. Of the 175 secular-to-sacred building conversions, 89 buildings fell into the “secular form, mixed function” category, while 86 fell into the “secular form, sacred function” category. Of the 12 sacred-to-secular building conversions, 10 fell into the “sacred form, secular function” category, while 2 fell into the “mixed form, secular function” category. Additionally, while not an initial focus of this study, my sample included 2 building conversions that fell into the “sacred form, sacred function” category, revealing the third direction of building conversion: sacred-to-sacred. Conclusions and Implications While these findings are limited in their scope, I argue that continued exploration of these structures by expansion of this methodology and the addition of ethnographic research foreground the interaction between material objects and human relationships in the construction, deconstruction, and preservation of sacred and secular boundaries.

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Religious Freedom and Local Conflict: Religious Buildings and Zoning Issues in the New York City Region, 1992–2017

Miller

2020

Sociology of Religion

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Religious freedom in the United States is negotiated in local conflicts arising from proposals from religious groups to municipalities in order to use or alter land and buildings. This study examines 116 cases of zoning conflict involving religious buildings in the New York City region between 1992 and 2017 as reported by the New York Times. Jewish and Muslim congregations experienced opposition at higher rates compared to their proportion in the region’s population and to Christians. Proposing to use a single-family home for worship or use a building near residences topped local concerns. Neighbors regularly expressed worries about traffic, parking, and preservation. More zoning controversies occurred in the suburbs. These findings advance our knowledge of religious freedom and pluralism in detailing how local religious land conflicts involving multiple social actors operating at different levels engage larger questions about religious gatherings, ideal land uses, and the character of communities.

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“Would Prefer a Trailer Park to a Large [Religious] Structure”: Suburban Responses to Proposals for Religious Buildings

Cited by 4 publications

References 50 publications

Rethinking Religion and Secularism in Urban Planning

Rethinking Religion and Secularism in Urban Planning

Converted Structures: Exploring Material Expressions of the Sacred and Secular

Religious Freedom and Local Conflict: Religious Buildings and Zoning Issues in the New York City Region, 1992–2017

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