Francisco Colom Gonzalez – författare

With the theory of secularization increasingly contested as a plausible development at a global scale, this book focuses on the changing significance of the religious element within a context of complex diversity. This concept reflects the rationale behind the deep transformations that have taken place in the dynamics of social change, giving way to a recombination of social, political and cultural cleavages that overlap and compete for legitimacy at a national and supranational level. Far from disappearing with modernization, new forms of religious diversity have emerged that continue to demand specific policies from the state, putting pressure on the established practices of religious governance while creating a series of normative dilemmas. European societies have been a testing ground for many of these changes, but for decades Canada has been viewed as a pioneering country in the management of diversity, thus offering some interesting similarities and contrasts with the former. Accordingly, the book deals with the diverging routes that political secularization has followed in Europe and Canada, the patterns of religious governance that can be recognized in each region, and the practices for accommodating the demands of religious minorities concerning their legal regulation, the management of public institutions, and the provision of social services.

With the theory of secularization increasingly contested as a plausible development at a global scale, this book focuses on the changing significance of the religious element within a context of complex diversity. This concept reflects the rationale behind the deep transformations that have taken place in the dynamics of social change, giving way to a recombination of social, political and cultural cleavages that overlap and compete for legitimacy at a national and supranational level. Far from disappearing with modernization, new forms of religious diversity have emerged that continue to demand specific policies from the state, putting pressure on the established practices of religious governance while creating a series of normative dilemmas. European societies have been a testing ground for many of these changes, but for decades Canada has been viewed as a pioneering country in the management of diversity, thus offering some interesting similarities and contrasts with the former. Accordingly, the book deals with the diverging routes that political secularization has followed in Europe and Canada, the patterns of religious governance that can be recognized in each region, and the practices for accommodating the demands of religious minorities concerning their legal regulation, the management of public institutions, and the provision of social services.

This book outlines an interdisciplinary normative framework that makes sense of the historical transformation of cities and helps to assess contemporary urban conditions and policies for the built environment. This normative framework is embedded in what the editor and authors have termed ''urban justice''. As is widely acknowledged, the urban condition has become the inescapable horizon of modern life. Urban relations now permeate the lives of the majority of the world''s population. Even if urbanization as a global process seems to have reached its zenith, there is no end in sight to the growth of cities. This is a fact that political theory must come to terms with when debating justice. To address this, this book is divided into three sections, each dealing with the spatial dimension of social agency, normative ideas about inclusive urban design, and contemporary processes that threaten to erode the urban fabric. In doing so, it helps one to normatively evaluate the spatial materialization of social relations in the city, so the view of urban habitat as a shared good becomes prominent. This book is of interest to scholars of urban studies, social sciences, political theory, and social philosophy, as well as those interested in contemporary urban processes in general.