Ties that bind: Pentecostal churches, youth gangs, and the management of everyday life in the urban barrio
In this article, I juxtapose Pentecostal churches with youth gangs, two popular barrio institutions that at first glance appear to be irreconcilable but when considered together evince organic parallels that reveal important insights into contemporary life in urban poverty. Reflecting on ethnographi...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Routledge
[2018]
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In: |
Religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 48, Issue: 4, Pages: 616-641 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Dominican Republic
/ Squatter settlements
/ Youth gang
/ Everyday life
/ Ritualization
/ Pentecostal churches
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RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy KBR Latin America KDG Free church |
Further subjects: | B
Pentecostalism
B Poverty B Gangs B anthropology of Christianity B freedom in constraint B Christianity B Conversion B Rules |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Summary: | In this article, I juxtapose Pentecostal churches with youth gangs, two popular barrio institutions that at first glance appear to be irreconcilable but when considered together evince organic parallels that reveal important insights into contemporary life in urban poverty. Reflecting on ethnographic data from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, I argue that due to an analogous ritualization of everyday life - through rigorous rules and clearly defined consequences for breaking them - both Pentecostal churches and youth gangs, despite their ostensible differences, afford a unique kind of freedom in constraint, and by providing reliable spaces of predictability, control, and mastery, have become popular stages for managing the precariousness of barrio life in late modernity. |
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ISSN: | 1096-1151 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2018.1466003 |