VIVENDO ENTRE DEVOTOS: AS POSSIBILIDADES DO USO DE OBSERVAÇÃO PARTICIPANTE NA PESQUISA GEOGRÁFICA EM SANTUÁRIOS CATÓLICOS

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar possíveis escolhas metodológica para estudos concernentes a problemáticas espaço e religião. Nesse sentido, utilizando de uma metodologia qualitativa e de uma observação participante, construímos possibilidades viáveis na leitura das dinâmicas do sagrado no espaço geográfico. Assim, tomamos como aporte teórico os estudos de Rosendahl (2012), Claval (1999) e Gertz (2014), no qual foi possível perceber que a utilização dessas metodologias para estudo de lugares sagrados nos leva a compreensão do cotidiano de devotos, e na descrição de paisagens e formas culturais de áreas. Palavras-chave: Devoção. Metodologia. Observação participante. Geografia da Religião. ABSTRACTThis article aims to present possible methodological choices for studies concerning problems space and religion. In this sense, using a qualitative methodology and a participant observation, we construct viable possibilities in the reading of the dynamics of the sacred in the geographic space. Thus, we take as theoretical contribution the studies of Rosendahl (2012), Claval (1999) and Gertz (2014), in which it was possible to perceive that the use of these methodologies to the study sacred places lead us to an understanding of the daily life of devotees, in the description of landscapes and cultural forms of areas.Key words: Devotion. Methodology. Participant observation. Geography of Religion. RESUMENEste artículo tiene como objetivo presentar posibles opciones metodológicas para estudios concernientes a las problemáticas espacio y religión. En este sentido, utilizando una metodología cualitativa y de una observación participante, construimos posibilidades viables en la lectura de las dinámicas del sagrado en el espacio geográfico. Así, tomamos como aporte teórico los estudios de Rosendahl (2012), Claval (1999) y Gertz (2014), en el cual fue posible percibir que la utilización de esas metodologías para el estudio de lugares sagrados nos llevan a la comprensión del cotidiano de devotos y en la descripción de paisajes y formas culturales de áreas.Palabras chave: Devoción. Metodología. Observación participante. Geografía de la Religión.

Multi-scaled secularization or postsecular present? Christianity and migrant workers in Shenzhen, China

This article provides a multi-scaled, grounded understanding of how secularization and re-sacralization occur simultaneously in a context of rapid modernization. Recent geographical scholarship in the geography of religion have exhibited deficient reflection over the geo-historical contingencies and complexities of secularization and secularity. This article seeks to re-conceptualize secularization as a multi-scaled, grounded and self-reflective process through an empirical study of the hybrid, contradictory processes of secularization and postsecular religious revival in a ‘gospel village’ in Shenzhen, China. In this rapidly urbanizing village, Christian belief inherited from Western missionary work has gradually lost its hold amidst modernization and urbanization. However, the inflow of rural migrant workers has re-invigorated the church. Christianity has created possibilities for postsecular ethics and resistances, enabling migrant workers to materially, symbolically and emotionally settle in a new socio-economic environment. Also, new situated religiosities arise as theological interpretations are used to negotiate and even legitimize social inequalities and alienation. This article therefore argues that the postsecular turn in human geography needs to consider how the postsecular articulates, and co-evolves with, secular conditions of being in the world. It highlights the hybrid and contested nature of the secularization process, which gives rise not only to disengaged belief and immanent consciousness but also to new aspirations for, and formations of, religiosities.

GIS applications in Human Geography

Human geography is the branch of geography concerned with how and why people organize themselves across space and interact with their environments. Human geographers conduct their research that underpins the subfields of human geography in many social arenas. These subfields range from the geography of religion and regional geographies to political geography and mountain geography, and more. As the largest branch of geography, much research in human geography has been produced that makes use of a geographical information system (GIS). A GIS is a computer program that stores, analyzes, and displays geographic data. Work by human geographers who incorporate GIS into their research tends to fall into one of two categories. First, there is the work that uses GIS as a straightforward tool of spatial analysis, spatial modeling, and geo-visualization. The topics of these research projects span all the subfields of human geography. Second, there is the work that examines the theoretical and philosophical significance of GIS within human geography. Informed from the critical perspectives of feminism, queer studies, Marxism, and others, these studies typically situate GIS within the discipline at fundamental levels of epistemology and ontology. This approach to studying GIS within human geography shifts the focus away from the output of a research project and toward the process of research itself. This article contains sample works from some of the most vibrant subfields of human geography in which GIS is being adopted to increase our knowledge of the human organization of space and human-environment interactions: Urban Geography, Hazards Geography, and Historical Geography. This review also includes sections that summarize key works from Critical GIS, Qualitative GIS, and Public Participation GIS that provide additional vantage points from which to appreciate the multifaceted application of GIS across human geography.

Theography

This paper intervenes in the recent movement in religious geographies to produce more nuanced understandings of the religious subject. By introducing the concept of theography, this paper explores a religious reflexivity that directs subjects towards struggles over the content of theology, its effects on their spatial imagination, and their praxis. Theography advances conversations about praxis in the geography of religion by tying together poststructural scholarship regarding the religious subject’s potential to subvert abstract categorization, geographies concerning the subject’s reframing of theology, and philosophical contributions vis-à-vis praxes that stem from particular understandings of transcendence.