Concluding Chapter: Imagined Meaning, Embodied Meaning, Contested Meaning

Abstract

This conclusion summarises and develops seven cases studies aiming to shed light on the spatial condition for urban interreligious projects. The characteristic of cooperation may (partly) be contrasted to religious pluralism characterised by competition, conflict and violence. As physical spaces for meeting, rooted in the histories of areas and of communities, the places in question are the sites where visions and perceptions meet material and social realities. We attempt to show that the aim of cooperation is intertwined in relationships originated in both perceptions and visions of places and through interactions in the embodiments related to physical constructions. Linked to vision and embodiment are the negotiations and contestations that are often found to be present when examples of cooperation are analysed regarding how place is enacted and interpreted by the groups and individuals involved. The interreligious activities highlighted in these cases illuminate dilemmatic situations when actors representing and belonging to different religious communities encounter each other with the main purpose to cooperate.