Dynamics of Transcendence and Urbanism: The Latent Mechanisms of Everyday Religious Life and City Spaces (original) (raw)

Housing, Theory and Society

Abstract

This paper examines the negotiated everyday experiences of Jewish Litivish people in London and Jerusalem, exploring ideas of transcendence and immanence in these spaces. By uncovering the relations between religious identity and boundary-making in urban settings, the paper exposes the latent social, organisational, and spatial mechanisms that determine communal demarcation lines in the everyday life of city spaces. We argue that to examine such processes, one must refer to the social system that drives local processes and the values that communities draw their strength from. Empirically, we compare the mechanisms the Haredi (strictly orthodox Jews)-Litvish communities in Jerusalem and London use to delineate areas between immanence and transcendence in city life. The findings point to planners' need to better understand how individuals cooperate and how community leaders are involved in developing urban structure. Introduction: Central to the study of delineation is the process and terminology of bordering, focusing mainly on the dichotomy between 'us' and 'outsiders' in urban spaces (Newman, 2003; Boal, 2008). Despite the importance of determining our multi-layered territorial compartments, the interdisciplinary realm where abstract and spatial notions of borders are introduced in their relationship to both space and identity is still seeking deeper insight into how these boundaries evolve. Our aim in this paper is to examine the relations between religious identity and boundary-making in urban settings and to expose latent social, organisational, and spatial mechanisms that determine these communal boundaries. To do so we seek to understand how immanence and transcendence aspects of religion intermingle with planned, organised, rational aspects of urban life. We ask: How do religious communities that impose strict religious norms on their members transform urban spaces? We uncover this by comparing ultra-Orthodox communities in London and Jerusalem's city spaces.

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