Micro-CityRichard Cimino Hans TokkeLabel: Fordham University PressDescription: An on-the-ground study of how faith communities create belonging and build bridges across one of the most diverse urban landscapes in the worldMicro-City follows congregations clergy and everyday New Yorkers across twelve Queens neighborhoods to show how religious life both shelters difference and connects it in public. Blending theories from urban sociology and the sociology of religion with fieldwork Richard Cimino and Hans Tokke map a borough where no single group is the majority and where people cluster into micro-communities that feel like home yet still meet trade vote and celebrate across lines of ethnicity language and creed.For readers interested in neighborhoods culture and faith it offers a street-level tour of festivals storefront churches temples parades and parks. For scholars students and practitioners in urban studies sociology of religion and American studies it sets out a usable framework for superdiversity grounded in interaction rituals and congregational niches showing how bonding and bridging social capital take shape. Clergy community organizers and planners will find practical insights into how congregations act as specialist and generalist hubs shaping neighborhood belonging civic life and cross-group cooperation.Readers encounter Little Guyana’s Liberty Avenue Greek Astoria Pan-Asian Bayside Holy Hip-Hop in Hollis Jain Buddhist and Hindu temples and hipster Hunters Point. Along the way the authors introduce archetypes such as pastor- and pundit-preneurs civic Catholicism and charismatics Black-clergy groups and show how religious culture influences neighborhood politics and everyday coexistence. The result is a field guide to how plural cities work and how they can work better.
