Special Issue “Religion & Globalization”
A special issue of Religions<http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/> http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/religion_globalization/

Call for Papers
Whether globalization is considered as a worldwide structured system of interstate relationships (Friedmann, 1998) or as a world “in motion” (Tomlinson, 1999) crossed by human and cultural flows (Appadurai, 1998), it refers indisputably to a new set of environmental conditions for religions. Globalization is creating new dynamics of change including transnational expansions of traditions (Csordas, 2007), deterritorialized sites, cultic areas (even parishes), virtualized and networked “communities” of believers, electronic and mediatized gods (Stolow, 2010), the universalization of cosmopolitan values and the localization of universalized beliefs (Robertson, 1992). Also shifting religious geographies (for example, Christianity turning “southern” and “black”, Islam turning “Asian”, Buddhism turning “white” and “western”) have contributed to a reshaping of global geopolitics (Huntington, 1993), an “ecological” turn in religious beliefs (Taylor, 2005), a worldwide standardization of religious systems (Beyer, 1994, 1998, 1999) and re-enchantment on a global scale (Csordas, 2007). Migrations have been – and still are – major forces for the geographic redistribution of beliefs and cults, while the world is also becoming ‘proselytized’. This does not clarify the very specific modes by which each process of mobility affects the various ways different religions are acted upon by global forces in their specific contexts. Neither does it take into account the fact that global religious changes may have nothing to do with mobility (Friedmann, 1998) but rather with global systems (Beyer, 1994). A global perspective on religious changes and adaptations in the contemporary world requires a prudent examination of different case-studies as not all religions are subjected to the same forces and engaged with similar processes of changes. Indeed, the “great” historical religions do not face global changes like new expanding religious cults or sects do. Analysis must cautiously distinguish between globalizing religions in global conditions, the impact of globalization on religions, and the role of religions in the rise and the shaping of global (economic, political or ideological) forces. This special issue aims at gathering papers in which scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds (religious studies, anthropology, sociology, political sciences, history, political economy or others) can explore, on an empirical basis and in clearly identified geographic, historical and cultural contexts, the effects of religion on globalization or of globalization on religions.

Please contact Prof. Lionel Obadia, anthropologist, University Lyon 2 at:
Lionel.obadia@univlyon2.fr<mailto:Lionel.obadia@univ-lyon2.fr>

Keywords: Globalization, Global and globalizing religions, spiritual transnationalism, migration and missionary activism, mediatization of religions, religion and the Internet, deterritorialization and new geographies of religions.

Expected deadline: September 30, 2012.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Donner institute will arrange a Symposium
13-15 June 2012 in Åbo / Turku, Finland
Digital religion

Place: Åbo Akademi University
Asa Fänriksgatan 3 / Vänrikinkatu 3
Åbo / Turku/
Finland

The theme we have chosen for the Donner Institute 23rd Symposium is Digital Religion. The conference “Digital Religion” aims to explore the complex relationship between religion and digital technologies of communication. Digital religion encompasses a myriad of connections between religion and digital technologies of communication and the goal of the conference is to approach the subject from multiple perspectives.

Developments in digital technologies are having a noticeably growing impact on the very character and nature of contemporary religious life and practice across the globe. Digital technologies of communication – epitomized in the continuing development and proliferation of the Internet and online modes of communication – are providing religious communities of virtually all strands with new means, environments and arenas within and through which to interact, express, and communicate their message in ways unknown to previous generations.

For many religious communities, this development has undoubtedly brought a whole host of challenges. Many religious communities today find themselves struggling with how to come to terms with a rapidly expanding Internet-based communications environment that challenges traditional understandings of religious mediation and religious authority.
Nevertheless, there are also religious communities that have faced the challenges head on and come to thrive thanks to the new technologies or whose very existence is dependent on e.g. the Internet.

From a scholarly perspective, this development is intimately connected to ongoing debates about the impact of accelerating processes of mediatization and digitalization on contemporary religious life and practice. Though religion has colonized many different forms of digital media, it has also doubtlessly been altered by the media. This process is, however, complex and moves in several directions. Though digital technologies no doubt transform religion and the contemporary religious landscape, religion too can be argued to have an impact on the digital world.

Subjects for papers include but are not limited to the following:

– Theoretical, methodological and historical approaches to “digital religion”
– Empirical studies of “religion on line”, “online religion”, and the relation between “online” and “offline” religion
– New media and transnational religious networks
– Challenges and/or opportunities for religions by digital media
– The Internet as an arena for religious/spiritual community
– Authority and legitimacy in digital religion
– Technological development and religious change
– Religion and digital media: appropriations, configurations, impacts
– Digital religion: generational, demographic, and geographical aspects
– Religious communicational strategies and digital technologies

Keynote speakers:
Ass. Prof. Heidi Campbell, Texas A & M University, Texas
Prof. Mia Lövheim, Uppsala University, Sweden
Prof. Jolyon Mitchell, University of Edinburg, UK
Dr. Marcus Moberg, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Dr. Alexander Ornella, University of Hull, UK
Prof. Michael Pye, Phillips-Universität Marburg, Germany
Dr. Sofia Sjö, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Application:

Please send your application to give a paper, with a short abstract included, to the Donner Institute no later than February 15 2012.

20 minutes will be reserved for your lecture followed by 10 minutes for discussion.

Finally, we would like to inform you that the lectures will be published, in English, French or German, in volume 25 of the Donner Institute series Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. The published version of your lecture may be longer than the one you present at the symposium. We will be happy to receive a digital and publishable version of your lecture already at the symposium but no later than October 31 2012.

Registration:

The registration fee is 150 €. (75 € for accompanying person)

The fee should be paid by the end of April 2012.
Account number: Nordea FI 12 20571800020055  NDEAFIHH
Name of the accountholder: Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi (Foundation of Åbo Akademi University)

The registration fee includes an excursion and a banquet organised in connection with the symposium.

Please indicate in your registration whether you wish to participate in the excursion and the banquet.

Address:

Donner institute
PB 70
FIN-20501 Åbo / Turku
Finland
E-mail: donner.institute@abo.fi
Tel.: +358 20 786 1450

                                 
WELCOME

Tore Ahlbäck, Joakim Alander, Björn Dahla,
Ruth Illman and Anna Nyman

CALL FOR PAPERS SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION
NOVEMBER 9 – 11, 2012
Hyatt Regency, PHOENIX, AZ

“Religion, Race, and National Identity”

For much of human history, religion has been tightly connected to peoplehood and to territory – to blood and land.  Collective identity was a blending of faith with deep relational ties, in today’s terms, religion and race/ethnicity. To be a part of a people was to be located in a particular geographic place and social space, and bound by one’s god(s). While the rise of universalist monotheisms, and then modern society, challenged some aspects of these overlapping social realities, the rise of the nation-state did not disrupt it completely, as the existence of state churches and communalist national identities in Europe testify. Even in – perhaps especially in – our globalized, post-industrial society – ethno-religious connections form deep national identities that have produced social conflicts, wars, and even genocide in such disparate places as South Asia, the Balkans, the Horn of Africa, and the Nordic countries. These connections also can foster a deep sense of belonging in a world often seen as spinning out of control.

One story about the U.S. posits that the “first new nation” rejected these ascribed bases for national belonging, and was open to all ethnicities, cultures, and religions.  As the story goes, American identity is an idea and an ideal to which one assented, not a tribe into which one was born.  And yet an enduring issue in American life has been race. From the founding of the U.S. republic and the Constitution’s 3/5th clause, to the Civil War, to Martin Luther King’s “beloved community,” to the election of President Barack Obama and recent debates over immigration, race has been a structural fact and a cultural controversy in American life. And from John Winthrop’s “city on a hill,” to Great Awakenings, to millions of immigrating Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, to debates over school prayer, evolution, and claims as to whether the U.S. is a “Christian Nation,” religion has been an integral part of our national consensus even as it is often a source of deep conflict.  These two staples of social life, race and religion, have been consistent axes around which American identity has revolved, as much in the 21st century as in the 18th.

Arizona has recently been at the center of a number of political issues surrounding issues of race, immigration, and American national identity. Many call recent Arizona policies implicitly racist, while others argue that the state is acting in the best interests of American territorial and cultural integrity. Clearly, issues of blood and land remain salient in American life and politics. As such, Phoenix becomes a setting in which we can confront the relations among religion, race, and national identity with the perspectives of social science.

Papers and discussions are invited on a broad range of topics in the social scientific study of religion relating to the meeting theme, including, but not limited to:

* Religion and the politics of immigration
* The ‘culture wars’ and religious commitments
* Religion and American political culture
* Religion and global migration
* Race and religious practices
* Multiracial churches and efforts at diversity
* Religious justifications of and challenges to racial inequality
* Theories of religion and social power
* Religion and multiple arenas of social conflict
* Religion and the election season of 2012

As always, we seek an inclusive mix of substantive, theoretical, and methodological approaches. Therefore, proposals for sessions and papers that fall outside the formal theme are also welcome.

All session and paper proposals must be submitted via the on-line submission system that will be available on the SSSR’s web site, www.sssrweb.org, beginning January 15, 2012. In addition to the session proposer’s full contact information, a session proposal requires a session title and an abstract of not more than 150 words describing the goal of the session and how the proposer expects the session to contribute to scientific knowledge about religion. Paper proposals require the name(s) of the author(s), first author’s full contact information, an abstract of not more than 150 words that succinctly describes the question(s) motivating the research, the data and methods used, and what the paper contributes or expects to contribute to the knowledge or understanding of religion. The submission deadline is March 1, 2012.

Submissions Open: January 15, 2012 (see http://www.sssrweb.org)
Submissions Close: March 1, 2012
Decision Notification: April 5, 2012

Please direct questions to:
Ryan T. Cragun, Program Chair
University of Tampa
401 W Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33603
(813) 434-1458
rcragun@ut.edu; ryantcragun@gmail.com

Michael Cieslak and Pierre Hegy invite you to present a paper in sessions dedicated to Catholic research. Michael will again sponsor several sessions in the Catholic Research Forum, with special focus on applied research. Pierre would like to organize a session on Catholic decline and renewal.

Michael Cislak: MCieslak@RockfordDiocese.org
Pierre Hegy: Pierre.Hegy@gmail.com

The Religious Research Association (RRA) is now accepting session and paper proposals for its 2012 meetings in Phoenix, Arizona. The call for papers can be found at http://rra.hartsem.edu/call2012.pdf. Recall that the deadline for all proposals is March 31. The RRA submission link can be accessed through the following website: http://www.sssrweb.org

As you may recall, we hold our meetings jointly with the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and share a submission portal with them. So, when you click on the link listed above and navigate to the session proposal or paper proposal website, the primary point to remember is to click the ***RRA radial button*** immediately above the title of your session or paper proposal. Clicking this radial button will ensure that your paper is routed to the RRA program chair.

Questions about the meetings can be directed to me at john.bartkowski@utsa.edu
Questions about the formation and organization of the RRA program can be directed to our Program Chair, Joseph Baker, at bakerjo@etsu.edu.

**************************
Dr. John P. Bartkowski
Department of Sociology
University of Texas at San Antonio
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249
john.bartkowski@utsa.edu<mailto:john.bartkowski@utsa.edu>
Office: (210) 458-6007
Cell: (210) 508-2530
Fax: (210) 458-4619