'Prophets-for-Profits': Redevelopment and the Altering Urban Religious Landscape
- 1 September 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Urban Studies
- Vol. 45 (10), 2143-2161
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098008094877
Abstract
This paper examines the redevelopment activities of religious institutions in the greater New York City area. In recent years, more and more churches have been selling their property and air rights to create either commercial and market-rate housing or affordable housing. Through archival material and interviews with pastors, the purpose of this descriptive paper is to understand why and how religious institutions, primarily churches, decide to alter their function by becoming entrepreneurial and engaging in property development. The changing character of these institutions is explained through the lens of theories of religious ecology and institutional isomorphism. The paper concludes with suggestions for improvement of the development process.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- From Abyssinian to ZionPublished by Columbia University Press ,2004
- Gentrification as Secularization: The Status of Religious Belief in the Post-Industrial CitySocial Compass, 1993
- The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational FieldsAmerican Sociological Review, 1983