The City as a Continuous Laboratory for Diversity: The Case of Geneva

Christophe Monnot

doi:10.17645/si.v8i3.3057

Abstract

After a long period of interest of religious plurality in the nation-state, the sociology of religion, with the impulse of the sociology of migration, has turned its attention to the city. This local level allows us to understand the issues of diversity governance. This article takes advantage of the literature on the governance of migration to apply it to the governance of religious diversity. Using data from the National Congregations Study and available data on Geneva, this article will first show how past responses to the emergence of diversity determine the path for future decisions. To this top-down regulation of religion responds one or more bottom-up strategies of religious communities to find legitimacy in a constraining environment. Based on the unit of the religious community, this study on Geneva provides a historical case of the evolution of diversity. This historical perspective provides the consistency of the current governance of religious diversity, illuminating the struggle for recognition of the minority groups.

Highlights

The context of the 21st century secular society brings new challenges to the city
Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages 262–272 versity is plural, signifying a diversity within the diversity, with the multiplication of religious groups of traditions with very different histories, roots, and rituals. This complex diversity is described by superdiversity, a concept to be understood as the description of a multiplication of variables that affect the place and the way of life of the city’s residents
Following Hackett (2017), who suggested inserting the “local turn” of the study of migration in historical perspective in order to understand the different local governance between cities, we were able to identify the particular path of Geneva

Summary

Introduction

The context of the 21st century secular society brings new challenges to the city. Secularization relegated a portion of religiosity to the background of urban issues in the latter half of the 20th century. Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages 262–272 versity is plural, signifying a diversity within the diversity, with the multiplication of religious groups of traditions with very different histories, roots, and rituals. This complex diversity is described by superdiversity, a concept to be understood as the description of a multiplication of variables that affect the place and the way of life of the city’s residents. We will underline how these two ways (top-down and bottom-up) of managing diversity are closely linked and respond to each other

City and Religious Diversity

A National Congregations Study

Establishment of Diversity in Geneva

Diversity in Geneva

Findings

Conclusion