Micro-City

Faith Encounters Super-Diversity in Queens, NY

Richard Cimino, Hans Tokke

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781531513412
  9781531513405
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781531513436
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

An on-the-ground study of how faith communities create belonging and build bridges across one of the most diverse urban landscapes in the world

Micro-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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Editors
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Super-Diversity Inside and Outside of Congregations in Elmhurst
• 2. Astoria’s Religious Enclaves
• 3. Hispanic Nationalism in Microcommunities in Corona and Jackson Heights, Queens Coauthored by Yasmine Rodriguez
• 4. A Tale of Two Parades—and a Divided Queens
• 5. Solidarity and Emerging Diversity in Northeastern Queens
• 6. Pastor-Preneurs and Pandit-Preneurs
• 7. Storefronts, Faith, and Politics in Southeastern Queens
• 8. Reinventing Religious Practice in Gentrifying Long Island City
• Conclusion: Against Diversity, for Diversity
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Contributors
• Image Credits
• Index
• About the Authors
• Series List