IPSA RC 43 - Religion and Politics

International Workshop: The Future of Religious Pluralism in Europe

Friday, May 17th - Saturday, May 18th 2013

Academic Direction: Volker Heins (KWI), Riem Spielhaus, (EZIRE)

Location: Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI), Gartensaal, Goethestr. 31, 45128 Essen, Germany

Organizer: Research Unit “Interculturality” at the KWI & Erlangen Centre for Islam & Law in Europe (EZIRE)

Recent surveys by the Pew Research Center indicate that globalization and migration are changing the relations between the state and religion, because the world population, with the notable exception of Europeans, is becoming more religious and devout. Through immigration, particularly from Muslim-majority countries, the ramifications of this trend are increasingly felt in Europe too. With regard to Muslims, we are witnessing new combinations of well-known forms of xenophobia and racism with a more subtle and insidious anti-religious impulse of the “enlightened” sections of the population. These new ideological combinations have found expression in recent public controversies about Muslim headscarves, halal/kosher butchering, the ritual circumcision of Jewish and Muslim boys and, more generally, on the place and visibility of religion in European society. Overall, these controversies – and the policies they inspire – have a tendency to restrict the freedom of cultural and religious minorities and to favour a shift from a “passive” or “open” to a more “coercive” or “fundamentalist” type of secularism, in line with the broader European trend away from multiculturalism. However, this trend doesn’t go unchallenged. As forces from both ends of the political spectrum join hands to restrict the space for minorities, other unlikely coalitions are forming to reshape European societies in the light of more inclusive ideals of civil solidarity. While we acknowledge that the “backlash against multiculturalism” is real, we believe that not enough attention has been given to the meaning of the intellectual and political responses and contributions of relevant minorities themselves to the current situation. The forthcoming conference at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) will address this gap. Focusing on Muslim and Jewish communities in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark, the conference will explore various aspects of the triangular relationship between those two paradigmatic minorities and mainstream society. What are the available cultural strategies and spaces to express religious minority identity within late modern Western Europe? What significance does the activism of Muslims and Jews have on their mutual perception as well as on the perception of their situation within society? What strategies are available to groups that are historically perceived in terms of their stigmatized ethno-religious practices or cultural heritage? Are there structural similarities between exclusivist tendencies towards Jews and Muslims (“Islamophobia” and Antisemitism)? Do we see connections between an emergent European identity and new forms of ethno-religious hierarchization of non-European populations within Europe?

Academic Direction: Volker Heins, Senior Fellow and Head of the Research Unit “Interculturality” at the KWI Riem Spielhaus, Research Fellow at the Erlangen Centre for Islam & Law in Europe (EZIRE)

Contributors (et al.): Michal Bodemann (Dept of Sociology, University of Toronto) Gerdien Jonker (Erlangen Centre for Islam & Law in Europe, EZIRE) Riva Kastoryano (CERI, Paris) Brian Klug (Dept of Philosophy, Oxford University) Tariq Modood (Dept of Sociology, University of Bristol) Yasemin Shooman (Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin)

Contact: Volker Heins, Senior Fellow and Head of the Research Unit “Interculturality” at the KWI, volker.heins@kwi.-nrw.de

Please register (until May 10th 2013) at: Maria Klauwer, KWI, Tel. 0201 7204-153, maria.klauwer@kwi-nrw.de

Event-Link: http://www.kulturwissenschaften.de/en/home/event-509.html

New book:

THE DIASPORA OF BRAZILIAN RELIGIONS Cristina Rocha & Manuel A. Vásquez

http://www.brill.com/diaspora-brazilian-religions

The Diaspora of Brazilian Religions explores the global spread of religions originating in Brazil, a country that has emerged as a major pole of religious innovation and production. Through ethnographically-rich case studies throughout the world, ranging from the Americas (Canada, the U.S., Peru, and Argentina) and Europe (the U.K., Portugal, and the Netherlands) to Asia (Japan) and Oceania (Australia), the book examines the conditions, actors, and media that have made possible the worldwide construction, circulation, and consumption of Brazilian religious identities, practices, and lifestyles, including those connected with indigenized forms of Pentecostalism and Catholicism, African-based religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda, as well as diverse expressions of New Age Spiritism such as the John of God Movement, and Ayahuasca-centered neo-shamanism like Vale do Amanhecer and Santo Daime.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Brazil in the New Global Cartography of Religion Manuel A. Vásquez and Cristina Rocha

SECTION I: BRAZILIAN CHRISTIANITY: CATHOLICISM AND PROTESTANTISM

Ch 1: Edir Macedo's Pastoral Project: A Globally Integrated Pentecostal Network Clara Mafra, Claudia Swatowiski, and Camila Sampaio

Ch 2: Brazilian Churches in London: Transnationalism of the Middle Olivia Sheringham

Ch 3: The 'Devil's Egg': The Football Players as New Missionaries of the Diaspora of Brazilian Religions Carmen Rial

Ch 4: Brazilian Pentecostalism in Peru: Affinities between the Social and Cultural Conditions of Andean Migrants and the Religious Worldview of the Pentecostal Church "God is Love" Dario Paulo Barrera Rivera

Ch 5: Catholicism for Export: The Case of Canção Nova Brenda Carranza and Cecília Mariz

SECTION II: AFRO-BRAZILIAN RELIGIONS

Ch 6: Umbanda and Batuque in the Southern Cone: Transnationalization as cross-border religious flow and as social field Alejandro Frigerio

Ch 7: Pretos Velhos across the Atlantic: Afro-Brazilian Religions in Portugal Clara Saraiva

Ch 8: Transnational Authenticity: An Umbanda Temple in Montreal Deirdre Meintel and Annick Hernandez

Ch 9: Japanese Brazilians among Pretos-Velhos, Caboclos, Buddhist Monks and Samurais: An Ethnographic Study of Umbanda in Japan Ushi Arakaki

Ch 10: Mora Iemanja? Axé in Diasporic Capoeira Regional Neil Stephens and Sara Delamont

SECTION III: NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

Ch 11: Building a Transnational Spiritual Community: The John of God Movement in Australia Cristina Rocha

Ch 12: The Valley of Dawn in Atlanta, Georgia: Negotiating Gender Identity and Incorporation in the Diaspora José Cláudio Souza Alves and Manuel A. Vásquez

Ch 13: The Niche Globalization of Projectiology: Cosmology and Internationalization of a Brazilian Parascience Anthony Fischer D'Andrea

Ch 14: Transcultural keys: Humor, Creativity and other Relational Artifacts in the transposition of a Brazilian Ayahuasca Religion to the Netherlands Alberto Groisman

Gender and Power in Contemporary Spirituality

Ethnographic Approaches

Edited by Anna Fedele and Kim Knibbe

Gender and Power in Contemporary Spirituality

This book contains captivating descriptions of the entanglements of gender and power in spiritual practices and detailed analyses of the strategies spiritual practitioners use to attain what to social scientists might seem an impossible goal: creating spiritual communities without creating gendered hierarchies.

Contemporary spiritual practitioners tend to present their own spirituality as non-hierarchical and gender equal, in contrast to ‘established’ religions. Current studies of these movements often reproduce their selfdescription as empowering, while other literature reacts polemically against these movements, describing them as narcissist and irrelevant and/or in league with capitalism. This book moves between these two poles, recognizing that gender and power are always at work in any socio-cultural situation.

What strategies do people within these networks use to attain gender equality and gendered empowerment? How do they try to protect and develop individual freedom? How do gender and power nevertheless play a role?

The contributions collected in this book demonstrate that in order to understand contemporary spirituality the analytical lenses of gender and power are essential. Furthermore, they show that it is not possible to make a clear distinction between established religions and contemporary spirituality:

the two sometimes overlap, at other times spirituality uses religion to play off against while reproducing some of the underlying interpretative frameworks. While recognizing the reflexivity of spiritual practitioners and the reciprocal relationship between spirituality and disciplines such as anthropology, the authors do not take the discourses of spiritual practitioners for granted. Their ethnographic descriptions of lived spirituality span a wide range of countries, from Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands to Mexico and Israel.

“An important and original contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of gender and power in alternative forms of spirituality.” – Sabina Magliocco, California StateUniversity, Northridge, USA

“Central to spirituality is a desire for personal liberation, we hear again and again. Yet this rich collection of ethnographies demonstrates that it is deeply shaped by performances ofgender and power.” – Dick Houtman, Erasmus University, Netherlands

https://genderandpowerincontemporaryspirituality.wordpress.com/

Conference "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia" Goettingen (Germany), June 26-29 2013

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The research network "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia" (http://www.dorisea.de/en) holds its mid-term conference from June 26-29 in Goettingen, Germany.

Conference Outline In global comparison, Southeast Asia stands out as a region marked by a particularly diverse religious landscape. Various "ethnic religions" interact with so-called "world religions", all of the latter - with the exception of Judaism - being represented in the region. While religion has oftentimes been viewed as an antithesis to modernity, scholarship has shown that religion shapes and is intertwined with modernization processes in crucial ways and that its role in contemporary Southeast Asian societies is intensifying. The mid-term conference "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia" will explore this link between "religion" and "modernity" by focusing on three dimensions of religious dynamics, namely mediality, politics and mobility. In the spirit of Southeast Asian studies as a holistic, i.e. trans-disciplinary approach, we selected papers from diverse fields that investigate the peculiar dynamics of religion in times of globalization, and the ways in which these dynamics mediate change and continuity in Southeast Asia.

Conference Keynote Lecture: Robert Hefner, Boston University

Panel 1: Spatial Dynamics of Religion between Modulation and Conversion Panel Keynote: Janet Hoskins, University of Southern California

Panel 2: Secularization of Religion, Sacralization of Politics? The State of Religion in Southeast Asia Panel Keynote: Anthony Reid, ANU

Panel 3: Materializing Religion: on Media, Mediation, Immediacy Panel Keynote: Justin McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania

Please visit the conference website for more information: http://www.dorisea.de/de/node/996.

Universität Göttingen, Center for Modern Indian Studies

Postdoctoral Fellow--Indian Religions

Institution Type: College / University Location: Germany Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow

The Centre for Modern Indian Studies at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen seeks to fill the position of

Post-Doctoral Fellow in Indian Religions

This position will begin on Oct. 1, 2013. The position is full time; regular working hours are 39.8 per week. We offer a two-year fixed-term contract. Remuneration will be according to E13 TV-L (the German public sector pay scale).

Applications from scholars representing all subfields in the study of religions in India are welcome; preference will be given to candidates whose research and writing addresses one or more of the following topics: minority religions, law, conversion, gender, social inequality, religion and empire, and religion and democratic practice. Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant field, such as Religious Studies, History, Anthropology, Sociology, South Asian Studies, or Political Science. In addition to pursuing a postdoctoral research project, the fellow will assist in the design and organization of conferences and workshops on Indian religions, and in the teaching of religion courses at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies. The scholar will be based at the University of Goettingen in Germany, but may spend a portion of the fellowship period conducting field research, in consultation with the Indian Religions research group leader. Applicants from all countries are encouraged to apply. English proficiency is expected; German is not required, but would be welcome.

The University of Göttingen is an equal-opportunity employer and places particular emphasis on fostering career opportunities for women. Qualified women are therefore strongly encouraged to apply as they are underrepresented in this field. Disabled persons with equivalent aptitude will be favoured.

Please send your application with the usual documents (a writing sample, a 1000-word proposal for a postdoctoral research project, and three letters of reference, to be sent directly by the referees). Materials should preferably be sent by email to iris.karakus@cemis.uni-goettingen.de no later than the 25th of April, 2013.

Alternatively you can send your application by post to:

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Centre of Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) Frau Iris Karakuş Waldweg 26 D-37073 Göttingen

If you have any questions, please contact Prof. Rupa Viswanath, e-mail: rviswan@uni-goettingen.de.

For more information on CeMIS and the Indian Religions Research Group please visit: .

Contact: Prof. Rupa Viswanath rviswan@gwdg.de

The standing group on 'Politics and Religion' of the Italian Political Science Society (SISP) organizes several panels at the next annual conference of the association that will be held in Florence (Italy) on 12-14 September 2013.

Conference website: http://www.sisp.it/conference

Deadline: 15 May 2013

To propose a paper, send an abstract of about 200 words to the chairs (see addresses below, for each panel).

LIST OF PANELS:

1) Religious organizations in the local political sphere

Chairs: Xabier Itçaina (x.itcaina@sciencespobordeaux.fr) and Alberta Giorgi (albertagiorgi@ces.uc.pt)

Abstract: The relationships between religion and politics are a topic usually dealt with from a national or international perspective. Nevertheless, the changes in the contemporary political systems, in Europe and abroad, reshaped the hierarchies between the local and the national spheres on a number of policies. Specifically, the processes of devolution and subsidiarization of policies, as well as the cooperation between private and public organizations (especially in the field of social services) under the horizontal governance perspective, increased the importance of local politics. For instance, the local scale is particularly relevant as constituting the arena where public authorities, private actors, religious and secular “third sector” organizations manage – or not - to constitute efficient networks of governance in the welfare field. These local arrangements constitute an implicit form of regulation of public life by religious actors that, in some cases, might not coincide exactly with the sociopolitical preferences of the religious central authorities. In addition, politicized controversies on symbolic issues often take place at the local level –the debates over the localization of mosques in Italy, for example, and, more broadly, the issues dealing with religion in public life. Moreover, grassroots religious organizations and associations have an important and increasing political role – in Italy (movements for public water and against discrimination, renewed engagement of religious associations in politics,…), and abroad (Indignados, Arab Spring…). This panel aims at exploring the political involvement of religious associations and organizations at the local level. Papers’ topics include (but are not limited to): religious associations and political movements, third-sector religious organizations and local policies, interactions between religious and political identities. Papers dealing with empirical cases are more than welcome.

2) Religion in Secular International Contexts: Religious Norm Entrepreneurs and International Institutions

Chair: Gregorio Bettiza (Gregorio.Bettiza@EUI.eu)

Abstract: Over the past decades an exponential growth in religious advocacy and lobbying has occurred towards international institutions that are deeply embedded and anchored to the secular structures of the ‘international liberal order’ (Ikenberry). These institutions range from the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Financial Institutions. This panel theoretically interrogates and empirically investigates the discourses, strategies and mechanisms adopted by transnational religious norm entrepreneurs to advance their concerns within secular international institutions. The panel seeks to address, among others, the some of the following questions. When, under what circumstances, and which religious norm entrepreneurs succeed in their advocacy efforts? Which type of religious norms have, and have had, the greatest chances of being diffused and why? In which ways and how have international institutions changed, if al all, to accommodate religious norm entrepreneurs? What distinguishes international institutions that are more accommodating to the claims of religious actors from those who are less?

3) Religion and democracy in Italy’s ‘second republic’

Chairs: Luca Ozzano (luca.ozzano@unito.it) and Marco Marzano (marco.marzano@unibg.it)

Abstract: Italy is a very interesting case in terms of relation between religion and democracy, both because of the presence in Rome of the Vatican (which has always implied peculiar relations between the Catholic Church and the Italian state) and for the decades-long rule of the Christian Democracy (DC) party. In the latest decades, however, the role of religion in the Italian political system has experienced changes that have been only partially acknowledged by the literature: both as a consequence of wider socio-economic processes, such as secularization and migration flows (which have turned the country from predominantly Catholic to increasingly pluralistic); and as a consequence of the demise, at the beginning of the 1990s, of the old party system (including DC) because of a wide bribery scandal. With the collapse of the party, and the fragmentation of Catholics in left-wing and right-wing factions and parties, a new era seemed to start. To begin with, the Catholic Church started to play a direct role in politics through the so-called ‘cultural project’ of the CEI, the organization of the Italian bishops. On the other hand, new political actors, both from the left and from the right wing of the political spectrum, started to exploit religious and moral issues (albeit with different frames) in order to garner the votes of the Catholic constituency. Several moral issues, from the presence of the crucifix in public offices, to gay unions, have thus become points of contention in the Italian public debate. The panel will take into account these subjects, in order to cast a new light on the role of religion and religious issues in Italian democracy after the beginning of the so-called ‘second republic’. Qualitative as well as quantitative empirical studies are welcome, as well as comparative ones, both written in English and in Italian.

4) Islamism in the Arab world: between elections, street politics and armed struggle

Chairs: Francesco Cavatorta (Francesco.cavatorta@dcu.ie)

Abstract: The Arab Spring has once again led analysts and policy-makers to focus their attention of Islamist movements and parties, which have become the main beneficiaries of the changes of the last two years in the region. However, different groups have responded differently to the new opportunity structures that the Arab Spring opened up. The purpose of this panel is to examine the theoretical and comparative perspectives on the ways in which Islamist groups acted in the wake of the Arab Spring and what explains their specific strategy and choices. How have some movements come to the decision to participate in elections? Conversely how have other movements in a similar setting decide to continue with street protests, refusing to engage with the new institutions being built? What explains the choice of military struggle as in Syria? Was it the inevitable response to regime’s repression or did other factors come into play?

The next ECPR General Conference will take place in Bordeaux, France, 4-7 September, 2013. The Religion and Politics SG is organising a section of six panels. The title of the section is: Regulating Private and Public: Between Religion and Secularism. The section is co-chaired by Guy Ben Porat (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and Jeffrey Haynes (London Metropolitan University).

Section theme:

Panels in this section will examine, theoretically and comparatively: the role of religion in public and private lives, regulation of religion by states, and religioussecular struggles over rights and obligations. The modern state has taken control from religious institutions not only the regulation of education and welfare but also services like marriage and burial. Secularisation has implied a new division of labour between political and religious authorities, where the modern state has official authority while religion provides moral guidance for individuals and, in some cases, legitimacy for the political system. Consequently, in many modern and seemingly secular states religion has different roles in private and public lives and different divisions of labour between religious institutions and the state exist.

Differing arrangements face different challenges, either by traditional, or religious, proponents that reclaim the definition of the common good, or by those that find the common good too close to religion. Specifically, some religious actors believe that modern, western individualism is contrary to the common good, while some secular actors believe that individual choice must be expanded. Consequently, questions like the recognition of gay marriage, abortion, polygamy and religious slaughter of animals are often politically salient as states contend with conflicting demands of groups unsatisfied with existing rules or fighting against change. In many democracies, therefore, previous agreements are being re-negotiated between religious and secular actors.

This section seeks to engage with both regulation of and competition in private and public life involving both religious and secular authorities. The specific questions include: How do various societies, in Europe and elsewhere, deal with these new and unexpected demands? To what extent is it possible for either the state or religious authorities to regulate private lives? In this regard, which models of accommodation have been successful unsuccessful?

Details of the individual panels that make up the section are located at:

http://www.ecpr.eu/Events/PanelList.aspx?EventID=5&SectionID=66

The SG will hold its next meeting at the conference; details to follow. Jeffrey Haynes has chaired the SG since its inception in February 2006. It is now time, perhaps, to have an elected executive for the SG, with members electing the chair and other posts, including membership coordination, information dissemination, events, etc.

This issue will be discussed in Bordeaux, and a decision made about the future organisational structure of the SG. Please make every effort to attend the meeting.

Second Crossroads Asia Conference: "Mobilising Religion: Networks and Mobility", Department of Islamic Studies, University of Bonn, 18-19 July 2013

This conference aims to assess forms of social, spatial and mental mobility and networks from the perspective of different disciplines as well as to work out the role religion plays in these in the region covered by Crossroads Asia's research activities:

Religion as a mobilizing factor in conflicts
Religious elements as symbolic capital in exchange processes in networks/figurations
Islamic institutions/networks as part of translocal figurations
Religious aspects in the cognitive concepts of "migration", "belonging" and "home".

Deadline for proposals 15 April 2013. Information: http://crossroads-asia.de/fileadmin/user_upload/news/CfP_Mobilizing_Religion_July_2013.pdf

Call for applications for the 2013 UCSIA summer school on "Religion, Culture and Society". This summer school is a one-week course taking place from Sunday 25th of August until Sunday 1st of September (dates of arrival and departure). This year the programme will focus on the topic of Religion, Reform and the Challenge of Plurality.

Topic:

We will research processes of change that arise in the interaction between religions and societies in contexts of plurality - especially and also in a global world. Where a diversity of religions and societal perspectives are present, identity-claims are problematised, and the understanding of citizenship is evolving. What role can religions play in shaping such societies? How do plural societies affect religions towards changing their own attitudes towards one another and revising their role in society? How do religious convictions and perspectives on citizenship relate to one another? Can one 'belong' to various cultures and religions? These challenges can be studied in various areas: changes in the perception and self-image of religions and faith-based organizations (so-called 'identity-issues"), education, public health management, welfare programs, the relevance of voluntary work, attitudes towards (im)migration, gender and race issues, culture, politics, involvement in the public sphere, etc.

Guest lecturers are José Casanova (Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Georgetown University, Washington DC), Robert W. Hefner (Boston University), John Hutchinson (London School of Economics) and Louise Ryan (Social Policy Research Centre, Middlesex University, London).

Practical details:

Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge. Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.

You can submit your application via the electronic submission on the summer school website. The completed file as well as all other required application documents must be submitted to the UCSIA Selection Committee not later than Sunday 18 April 2013.

For further information regarding the programme and application procedure, please have a look at our website: http://www.ucsia.org/summerschool.

Please help us to distribute this call for application among PhD students and postdoctoral scholars who might be interested in applying for this summer school.

For all further information, do not hesitate to contact us on the address below.

Sara Mels

Project coordinator

UCSIA vzw Prinsstraat 14 B-2000 Antwerp T | +32 (0)3 265 45 99 F | +32 (0)3 707 09 31 E | sara.mels@ua.ac.be