Abstract
Religious pluralization has transformed the religious configuration of European cities. Such changes have raised challenges for public authorities, also at the municipal level. This chapter presents evidence on the institutional responses of French cities to religious pluralization. Drawing on material from qualitative fieldwork conducted in three French cities, I show the variety of municipal measures and instruments implemented to govern issues of religious diversity. I will argue that, contrary to the widespread vision that France follows the Republican creed of strict separation between church and state and the restriction of expressions of religiosity in the public sphere in a unitary manner, there are a number of policies at the urban level that question this monolithic vision.
This research was funded by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
My own translation from the original in French: “le principe de laïcité dont nous avons hérité doit nécessairement être actualisé pour prendre en compte le nouveau visage de notre société, de nouvelles situations particulières”.
- 2.
My own translation from the original in French: “Lalaïcité, c’est enfin la garantie de la fraternité. Elle n’est pas une négation du fait religieux ou de la spiritualité. La laïcité n’est ni une indifférence, ni une intolérance. Elle est au contraire une exigence de dialogue, d’apaisement, de coexistence harmonieuse”.
- 3.
My own translation from the original in French: liberté, neutralité, vivre-ensemble, tolérance, humanité, loi, fraternité, liberté de conscience, pluralisme, dialogue, enjeu, doctrine, neutralité absolue de l’état, coexistence.
- 4.
- 5.
References
Amiraux, V., & Koussens, D. (2013). From law to narratives unveiling. Contemporary French secularism. RECODE Working Paper Series, 19, 3–15.
Association des Maires de France. (2015). Laïcité. Le vade-mecum de l’AMF. http://www.amf.asso.fr/upload/fichiers/documents/AMF_14082_VADE_MECUM.pdf
Association Petites Villes de France. (2015). Laïcité et Vivre-ensemble dans les petites villes: Un diagnostic. http://www.apvf.asso.fr/files/publications/LB-DEFINITIF-Laicite-et-Vivre-ensemble-dans-les-petites-villes.pdf
Astor, A. (2009). “Mezquita no!”: The origins of mosque oppositions in Spain. GRITIM Working Paper Series, 3.
Barras, A. (2013). Sacred Laïcité and the politics of religious resurgence in France: Whither religious pluralism? Mediterranean Politics, 18(2), 276–293.
Baubérot, J. (2015). Les sept laïcités françaises: le modèle français de laïcité n’existe pas. Paris: Les Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
Bertossi, C. (2012). French republicanism and the problem of normative density. Comparative European Politics, 10(3), 248–265.
Bowen, J. (2007). A view from France on the internal complexity of national models. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(6), 1003–1016.
Brighenti, A. (2007). Visibility: A category for the social sciences. Current Sociology, 55(3), 323–342.
Brubaker, R. (2013). Categories of analysis and categories of practice: A note on the study of Muslims in European countries of immigration. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(1), 1–8.
Cesari, J. (2005). Mosque conflicts in European cities: Introduction. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31(6), 1015–1024.
De Galembert, C. (2003). La gestion publique de l’islam en France et en Allemagne. Revue internationale et stratégique, (52), 67–78.
De Galembert, C. (2006). La construction de l’islam comme ressource d’autorité publique du pouvoir local: La parabole de Mantes-la-Jolie. In B. Jouve & A. G. Gagnon (Eds.), Les métropoles au défi de la diversité culturelle (pp. 69–94). Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.
Dick, E., & Nagel, A. K. (2017). Local interfaith networks in urban integration politics: Religious communities between innovation and cooptation. In V. Hegner & P. J. Margry (Eds.), Spiritualizing the city: Agency and resilience of the urban and urbanesque habitat (pp. 27–45). New York: Routledge.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The Iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160.
Downing, J. (2015). Understanding the (re)definition of nationhood in French cities: A case of multiple states and multiple republics. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 15(2), 336–351.
Fournier, L. (2009). Une gestion publique de l’islam entre rupture et rhétorique. L’Homme et La Société, 4, 41–62.
Fourot, A.-C. (2015). Instruments d’action publique et régulation municipale de l’islam. Gouvernement et Action Publique, 3, 81–102.
Fox, J. (2015). Political secularism, religion, and the state: A time series analysis of worldwide data. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Griera, M. (2012). Public policies, interfaith associations and religious minorities: A new policy paradigm? Evidence from the case of Barcelona. Social Compass, 59(4), 570–587.
Henkel, R. (2014). The changing religious space of large Western European cities. Prace Geograficzne, 137, 7–15.
Kuppinger, P. (2014). Mosques and minarets: Conflict, participation, and visibility in German cities. Anthropological Quarterly, 87(3), 793–818.
Kuru, A. T. (2007). Passive and assertive secularism: Historical conditions, ideological struggles, and state policies toward religion. World Politics, 59(4), 568–594.
Lascoumes, P., & Le Gales, P. (2007). Introduction: Understanding public policy through its instruments—From the nature of instruments to the sociology of public policy instrumentation. Governance, 20(1), 1–21.
Martikainen, T. (2013). Multilevel and pluricentric network governance of religion. In T. Martikainen & F. Gauthier (Eds.), Religion in the neoliberal age (pp. 129–142). Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Martínez-Ariño, J. (2019). Governing Islam in French cities: defining ‘acceptable’ public religiosity through municipal consultative bodies. Religion, State and Society, 47(4–5), 423–439.
Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft power: The means to success in world politics. New York: Public Affairs.
Obadia, L. (2015). Social and spatial visibility of religion in question: The case of Pluricultural and multiconfessional France. In S. D. Brunn (Ed.), The changing world religion map. Sacred places, identities, practices and politics (pp. 1599–1614). Dordrecht: Springer.
Observatoire de la laïcité. (2015). Laïcité et collectivités territoriales.http://www.gouvernement.fr/sites/default/files/contenu/piece-jointe/2015/10/charte_laicite_et_collectivites_locales-octobre2015-v3.pdf
Roy, O. (2013). Secularism and Islam: The theological predicament. The International Spectator, 48(1), 5–19.
Sarcinelli, U. (2008). Symbolic politics: The international encyclopedia of communication. Blackwell Reference Online. http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405131995_chunk_g978140513199524_ss132-1
Scot, J.P. (2007). Liberté-égalité-laïcité. Genèse, caractères et enjeux de la loi de 1905. Cahiers d’histoire. Revue d’histoire critique, (100), 161–183.
Siemiatycki, M. (2005). Contesting sacred urban space: The case of the Eruv. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 6(2), 255–270.
Soper, J. C., & Fetzer, J. S. (2007). Religious institutions, church–state history and Muslim mobilisation in Britain, France and Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(6), 933–944.
Stolz, B. A. (1983). Congress and capital punishment: An exercise in symbolic politics. Law & Policy, 5(2), 157–180.
Torrekens, C. (2012). Concertation et négociation à l’échelle politique locale. Le cas de la gestion locale de l’islam à Bruxelles. Participations, 1, 126–145.
Watson, S. (2005). Symbolic spaces of difference: Contesting the eruv in Barnet, London and Tenafly, New Jersey. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 23(4), 597–613.
Weisse, W. (2016). Religious pluralization and secularization in continental Europe, with focus on France and Germany. Society, 53(1), 32–40.
Young, K., & Connelly, N. (1981). Policy and practice in the multi-racial city. London: Policy Studies Institute.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Martínez-Ariño, J. (2020). Urban Responses to Religious Pluralization in France. In: Körs, A., Weisse, W., Willaime, JP. (eds) Religious Diversity and Interreligious Dialogue. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31856-7_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31856-7_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-31855-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-31856-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)