Edited Book project – contributions needed for specific chapters:

Resistance versus promotion of globalization: contrasting roles of religious activism in the global economy

The study of religion in international relations has focused on the relationship between religion and modernity, the impact of religion on the secular state system, on both religious and secular violence, and on the role of religious actors in world politics. There is however an absence of inquiry into how religious social movements relate to global capitalism. This is surprising given that politics of austerity, flexibility and economic liberalisation have spread throughout the world further entrenching a global economy. The book will discuss the relationship of religion to global capitalism by taking a novel approach to the study of religious actors. Instead of taking an essentialist definition of religion as its starting point, the authors in the book utilise the close study of specific religious movements and investigate how they see neoliberal globalization. The book will thus show that religion is not an explanatory variable since there are religious social movements that promote and resist neoliberal globalization. Instead the book promotes a constructivist approach to the study of religion and employs concepts from the study of global social movements to study how religious activists frame global political economy questions.

For this book project to be more representative – I need a chapter on prosperity religion, if possible on the African continent, a study of the Hindutva movement, specifically its economic success in Gujarat (alongside its authoritarianism), and a study of indigenous thought developing on the American continent with notions such as buen vivir and a completely different conceptualisation of the role of an ‘economy’.

So far we have covered the Gülen movement, Ennahda in Tunisia, AKP in Turkey, the Interfaith initiative in Tanzania against mining regulations, US evangelical groups activism to prevent global climate change, religious groups in the occupy movement and World Social Forum. Interestingly enough, the Christian movements we covered are all opposing neoliberal globalization whereas the Islamic activists are promoting further integration into the global economy. But I do not want to have another chapter on the anti-capitalist Muslims in Turkey, they will be integrated in the general discussion of the Turkey/AKP chapter. The list also shows that we utilize a broad understanding of social movements.

We have received an informal expression of interest from a publisher but need a stronger proposal to actually submit this to a preliminary review. Your commitment would only be finalised once we have a positive feedback from the publisher. If this works out, a first, rough, draft of the chapter would have to be submitted within 9 months.

Please contact Sabine Dreher, Department of International Studies, Glendon College, sdreher@yorku.ca if you are interested in contributing to this project.