Superdiversity in public spaces: urban practices for religious plurality in the contemporary city. The experience of the "Sustainable Religious Tour" project in Torpignattara, Rome.

Abstract

Inspired by this conference track, the paper discusses the relationship between the concept of superdiversity and public urban space, starting from a university-funded engagement project entitled "Sustainable Religious Tour: An Itinerant Path to Discover the Sacred in Tor Pignattara", led by the authors. Tor Pignattara is a neighborhood of Rome characterized by strong religious and cultural diversity due to increasing migration flows. The project aimed to actively engage the local community, schools, businesses and the third sector to enhance the material and immaterial heritage of the neighborhood through free public walks connecting the various 'invisible' places of worship in Tor Pignattara.

A striking body of work in urban planning analyses the multicultural city (Baumann 1996; Sandercock and Lyssiotis, 2003; Fincher and Iveson 2008; Fincher et al. 2014). This paper seeks to add to the debate using the concept of superdiversity (Pemberton, 2022). In particular, the paper focuses on the relevance of co-creating knowledge, intercultural dialogue, and active citizenship in the making of a 'superdiverse' public space.

Public space is a complex system of interactions, practices of use and hybrid material and immaterial spaces. Religious diversity in urban contexts - especially the superdiversity resulting from the increasing mixing of people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds (Vertovec, 2007) - implies that urban dwellers coexist and share space. Thus, public space represents the arena where superdiversity becomes visible through the interplay of religious spatial strategies and urban structures (Becci et al., 2017).

In light of this, the paper analyses the practices promoted by the Sustainable Religious Tour project and their contribution to the creation of an inclusive public space, and offers some ongoing lessons on:

• Disseminating the practice of narration and self-narration as a model for understanding places and intangible heritage,
• Reformulating conventional practices of urban space use to promote social cohesion and negotiation between different types of users,
• To develop a model of social and cultural sustainability.

Finally, the "Sustainable Religious Tour" project is leading to an unplanned outcome: the creation of a collective project proposal for the realization of a "Garden of Religions". The proposal, which is still under development, involves neighborhood committees in the adoption of a green space where a plant/tree symbolizing each religion present in the neighborhood will be planted, thus addressing issues of appropriation, and belonging.