The Aesthetic Life of Religion and Ethics on Long Street, Cape Town

Bibliographic Data

ID9286708
AuthorsAla Rabiha Alhourani (0000-0001-8108-117X, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume49
Issue3
Pages596-615
Publication date2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jore.12358
OpenAlexW3205751030
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited35

This ethnography explores the aesthetic dimension of religion and the sensational ways in which it contributes to shaping ordinary ethics on Long Street in Cape Town, South Africa. In the context of everyday social life on Long Street, homeless peoples’ claim of an ethical character is denied recognition. Long Street is a public space of conviviality and differences, a hybrid social reality marked with growing urbanization, globalization, and neoliberalism, and overseen by a continuous presence of security units. It is a street saturated with ever‐increasing social problems resulting from a revival of class differences. Ordinary ethics on Long Street is complex, unpredictable, dynamic, and vulnerable, and stands the risk of potential breakdown. Against this backdrop, this ethnography recounts the ways in which aesthetic formations of religion stimulate technologies of imaginations that offer homeless people sensory experiences of refuge, recognition, being, and belonging amidst social exclusion and a harsh lived experience. Aesthetics of religion are ethics made visible in public life

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Economic growth · Environmental ethics · Ethnography · Everyday life · Geography · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political science · Public space · Social science · Sociology · Urbanization · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Engineering · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Religion, Society, and Development

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