Multifaith rooms in the Catalan hospital context: negotiations and tensions in the management of religious diversity

• Main Authors: Anna Clot-Garrell, Mar Griera
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Salud Colectiva, Universidad Nacional de Lanús 2018-07-01
• Series: Salud Colectiva
• Subjects: Diversidad Cultural; Religión; Espiritualidad; Hospitales
• Online Access: http://revistas.unla.edu.ar/saludcolectiva/article/view/1534

Multifaith rooms are an emerging model for the management and accommodation of the religious diversity that proliferates in the health field. This article examines the micropolitics of the design of multireligious spaces in hospital contexts. Drawing on recent empirical evidence and the “material turn” in the study of religion, we focus on the material negotiations that underlie the creation of these religious spaces. The article is based on an ethnographic study carried out between 2013 and 2016 using the strategy of a multiple case study (in three hospitals) in Catalan. Twelve in-depth interviews with religious leaders of different faiths and hospital staff and managers, as well as observations in multifaith spaces, were carried out. The article shows that multifaith rooms are not conciliatory and integrative per se, but rather constitute contexts of tension and contention. We conclude that an inherent conflictual dimension is part of the nature of this type of spaces and should be recognized and integrated into the management of diversity in hospital contexts.