| dc.description.abstract | The public debate on minority religions is often political, at times hostile – and rarely reflecting experiences and perspectives of people living their everyday, religious lives in Norway. By use of a version of Lefebvre’s spatial triad on the production of space as an analytical framework, this thesis examines practiced and material religion, how religious practice and materiality are formed and limited by dominating discourses, and how religion is given meaning. The analysis builds on observations, document analysis and in-depth interviews with users of a Hindu temple and a mosque in two suburban landscapes of Oslo. Both cases are, or have recently been, in the process of constructing new, purpose-built religious buildings. The thesis seeks to contribute with an understanding of the production of religious space, mainly building on the perspectives of the users of the buildings. The main findings are that religious buildings play an important part in the lives of Hindus and Muslims as enablers of social life, religious practice and as cultural centres, and that materiality and architecture in itself is an important factor. This is part of a religious space, that also exceeds the buildings. The buildings and lived spaces of the users are relational spaces, that are formed by laws and regulations and dominating discourses on Islam and Hinduism, and Norwegian public space. Within these meaning systems, minority religious bodies and buildings are constructed as foreign disturbances, making their existence acts of resistance to the dominating discourse of what Norway “is”. Religious spaces are created within, and formed by, the tension between these discourses and the everyday lives of religious minorities. This tension also challenges the dominating discourses of Norway as a social space, contributing to the creation of a new social space. | eng |