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Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines the friction between state-mandated processes of place-making and citizens’ religiously inflected forms of identification and organization, shedding light on the contested and negotiated place of Islam in Dutch governmental landscapes.

Paper Abstract:

Social professionals in Dutch urban contexts aim at designing and doing urban social policies with residents. The neighborhood is envisioned as the scale at which this cooperation with local residents should flourish. Residents may, however, bring different religious values and orientations. What does this mean for making and doing social policies with residents?

In this paper, I focus on an ethnoracially diverse and working-class neighborhood to show how patterns of desiring and problematizing communities run through these processes. Perceptions of religion, more specifically, Islam, play an integral part because it constructs notions of ‘difficult-to-reach-groups’ and ‘closed-off communities’. For social professionals, the assumed closed nature and in-group character of these groups goes against their mission to bolster social cohesion.

I examine this simultaneous process of desiring and problematization community involvement via the role of an active resident in local place-making processes. This resident, who perceives the neighborhood as his home and the Islam as his guidance, takes up an advocacy role through organizing social initiatives that focus on the neighborhood and bring together Islamic residents. His role and stark presence in local place-making processes lead to friction and contestation regarding representation and the relation between religion and state. Other residents accuse him of acting as if the neighborhood merely consists of a ‘Muslim community’, while public officials and social workers question the desirability of Islamic activities. These contestations provide insight into the friction between state-mandated processes of place-making and those of citizens who prioritize religiously inflected forms of identification and organization.