A fascinating worldwide comparative study by first class scholars. Their rich and in-depth analysis produces a must read book for anyone interested in contemporary national-religious conflicts.
Professor Menachem Klein, Bar Ilan University Israel
A timely exploration of the critical intersection of religion, conflict and cities. This book brings to bear comparative and inter-disciplinary perspectives on the complex ways in which religious practices and urban forms fuel collective violence. Perhaps more importantly, it also opens up a policy debate about how such religion-infused conflicts might be moderated, managed or possibly even resolved.
Liam ODowd, Queens University Belfast, UK
This valuable collection of wide-ranging, original, interdisciplinary research illuminates the complexity and urgency of better understanding religious flash points involving time, place, and people. This book reveals the uneasy equilibria existing in cities at the interface of politics, religion, and urban form, and the diverse stakeholders who play roles in either disrupting or managing urban-religious co-existence. Policy practitioners at all levels, and academics, will benefit from a close read.
Scott A. Bollens, University of California, Irvine, USA
An impressive and timely volume exploring the urban dimension of religious conflicts through empirically rich global case studies. This book uniquely blends the insights and experience of scholars and practitioners, offering novel analysis and pragmatic solutions, for increasing complex religious confrontations.
Craig Larkin, Kings College London, UK
Contested Holy Cities
Examining contestation and conflict management within holy cities, this book provides both an overview and a range of options available to those concerned with this increasingly urgent phenomenon.
In cities in India, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, we can see examples where religion plays a dominant role in urban development and thus provides a platform for conflict. Powerful religious hierarchies, the generation of often unregulated revenues from donations and endowments, the presence of holy sites and the enactment of ritualistic activities in public spaces combine to create forms of conflicts which are, arguably, more intense and more intractable than other forms of conflicts in cities. The book develops a working definition of the urban dimension of religious conflicts so that the kinds of conflicts exhibited can be contextualised and studied in a more targeted manner. It draws together a series of case studies focusing on specific cities, the kinds of religious conflicts occurring in them and the international structures and mechanisms that have emerged to address such conflicts.
Combining expertise from both academics and practitioners in the policy and military world, this interdisciplinary collection will be of particular relevance to scholars and students researching politics and religion, regional studies, geography and urban studies. It should also prove useful to policymakers in the military and other international organisations.
Michael Dumper is Professor in Middle East Politics, University of Exeter. His research is primarily on the ArabIsraeli conflict, especially future options for Palestinian refugees and the city of Jerusalem, and the politics of archaeology and conservation in the urban Middle East. In addition to his most recent book, Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History and the Future of the Holy City (2014), he is author of The Future of the Palestinian Refugees: Towards Equity and Peace (2007); The Politics of Sacred Space: The Old City of Jerusalem and the Middle East Conflict, 19672000 (2001); and The Politics of Jerusalem since 1967 (1997); and editor of Palestinian Refugee Repatriation: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2006). He is currently holder of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (20152018) comparing religious conflicts in cities and preparing another manuscript for publication in 2019.
Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes
London Metropolitan University, UK
This series aims to publish high-quality works on the topic of the resurgence of political forms of religion in both national and international contexts. This trend has been especially noticeable in the postCold War era (i.e., since the late 1980s). It has affected all the world religions (including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism) in various parts of the world (e.g., the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa).
The series welcomes books that use a variety of approaches to the subject, drawing on scholarship from political science, international relations, security studies and contemporary history.
Books in the series explore these religions, regions and topics both within and beyond the conventional domain of church-state relations to include the impact of religion on politics, conflict and development, including the late Samuel Huntingtons controversial yet influential thesis about clashing civilisations.
In sum, the overall purpose of the book series is to provide a comprehensive survey of what is currently happening in relation to the interaction of religion and politics, both domestically and internationally, in relation to a variety of issues.
The Politics of New Atheism
Stuart McAnulla, Steven Kettell and Marcus Schulzke
Religious NGOs at the United Nations
Polarizers or Mediators?
Edited by Claudia Baumgart-Ochse and Klaus Dieter Wolf
Catholic Mediations in Southern Europe
The Invisible Politics of Religion
Xabier Itaina
Contested Holy Cities
The Urban Dimension of Religious Conflicts
Edited by Michael Dumper
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Religion-and-Politics/book-series/RSRP
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2019 selection and editorial matter, Michael Dumper; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Michael Dumper to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dumper, Michael, editor.
