Spectacular Cities

Religion, Landscape, and the Dialectics of Globalization

Ipsita Chatterjee

Sociology: Urban Studies/Development Studies/ Cultural Studies/ Sociology of Religion. Students and scholars of migration studies, diaspora studies; anthropology; social geography; international relations.
The case study parts of the book are an ethnographic exercise on migrant life and landscape in the US and the rejuvenation of religion which will be attractive to readers.
They make an interesting commentary on economy and culture and demonstrate how globalization is a two way process. In this case flowing not only from the US to India, but also back. Very few studies tend to take in this aspect.
"migrant landscapes," "theme park religion," "Mac temple," (a take on McDonalds), "globalization," "US-India cultural interaction," are key words that can be attractive.
The book makes a significant conceptual/theoretical contribution to Marxian ideas of "dialectics."

Spectacular Cities

Religion, Landscape, and the Dialectics of Globalization

Ipsita Chatterjee

Description

Plenty has been written on globalization to understand what it is. However, scholarship on globalization tends to segment it into either economic globalization in the form of flows of capital, investment, and goods; cultural globalization in the form of fast food, Barbie dolls, and migrant landscapes; or political globalization, in the form of erosion of the nation state. This book explores spectacular landscapes of the Akshardham temples in Gandhinagar and Delhi in India, and Atlanta, Dallas, Houston in the U.S.to understand globalization as it unfolds in a culture-economy synthesis. Adopting Marxian dialectical method, this book explores how culture, economy, and spectacular urban landscapes work in tandem to produce globalization through migrant narratives, migrant temple complexes, Vedic boat rides, and theme park religious complexes. The book therefore is as much an exploration of the dialectical stance in social theory and geography, as it is a Marxist feminist critique of the spectacular commodification of the urban form.

Spectacular Cities

Religion, Landscape, and the Dialectics of Globalization

Ipsita Chatterjee

Preface
Acknowledgements
1: Introduction
2: Culture and the Dialectic Approach
3: In the Name of the Father, the Globalization, and the Holy City, Amen!
4: Transcendental Landscapes: Akshardham Temples in the US
5: Mapping the Fantastic: Akshardham Temples in India
6: Subjecting Globalization: The Class and Gender of Globalization
7: Conclusions: Spectacular City as Synthesis
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Spectacular Cities

Religion, Landscape, and the Dialectics of Globalization

Ipsita Chatterjee

Author Information

Ipsita Chatterjee is Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of North Texas.

Spectacular Cities

Religion, Landscape, and the Dialectics of Globalization

Ipsita Chatterjee

From Our Blog

Globalization in India

For many others, globalization has dangerous repercussions in terms of entry of foreign direct investment, and foreign corporations into national markets, thus eroding and eradicating indigenous business'for example, think of the street protest among small traders of Delhi against the entry of retail giant WalMart in India. My frustration with globalization is that the narratives I discovered were too fragmented.

Posted on May 18, 2016

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