Our former team-member Daan Beekers has just published ‘The matter of home: repurposed churches, heritage and belonging in Amsterdam’. This paper, part of a special issue on the future of religious pasts in Cultural Studies, discusses the often contested processes of abandoning and reusing church buildings. Focusing on the Chassé Church in Amsterdam, which has been converted into dance studios and a hotel, Daan describes how several groups involved attributed the site with meaning and value in different ways. He argues that these differences can be understood as distinct constructions of the church building as a ‘home’. Indeed, while the repurposing of the site represents the loss of a home for some, it has been co-opted as an instrument of home-building by others. By tracing such emotions of not only loss and nostalgia, but also attachment and belonging, Daan calls attention to the everyday affective dimension of processes of religious heritage making.

Find the article here.