Faith, Politics & Social Justice: The General Election and Beyond

An event organised by the Faith & Peaceful Relations Research Cluster at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University.

Tuesday 3^rd February 2015, 12.00-3.45pm (lunch provided)

Taking place three months before the General Election, the event will explore the current and likely future relationship between religion and politics in the UK. High-profile speakers from across the political and religious spectrum – including faith- based organisations, the voluntary and third sector, think tanks, policy makers and academics – will reflect on the role faith and faith groups play in politics, and specifically in the forthcoming election. They will discuss how electoral politics is engaging and affecting faith groups. Confirmed speakers include: Sughra Ahmed (Islamic Society of Britain), David Barclay (Contextual Theology Centre), Mike Battcock (Department for International Development), Revd Canon Paul Hackwood (Church Urban Fund & Near Neighbours), Lucinda Hasell (Mothers’ Union), Sister Jayanti (Brahma Kumaris), Fiyaz Mughal (Tell MAMA & Faith Matters), Philip Rosenberg (Board of Deputies of British Jews), Stephen Shashoua (Three Faiths Forum) and Daniel Singleton (Faith Action).

To register for this free event, please visit the following website address: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/faithpoliticsandsocialjustice  Places are limited and registrations will close by 30th January 2015.

We are very pleased to announce that a Coventry University lecture by the Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, will directly follow the event (4.15-5.15pm). He will speak on ‘How can we build communities of peace and trust?’ Please indicate whether you wish to attend this lecture when you register.

We look forward to welcoming you at this event. Please direct any queries to Mandeep Singh Sehmi (PhD researcher and Research Assistant) on sehmim2@uni.coventry.ac.uk

The post Event: “Faith, Politics & Social Justice: The General Election and Beyond” appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

The University of Western Sydney’s Religion and Society Research Centre invites you to attend a Public Lecture:

‘Socializing  Influences on Young People’s Attitudes to Religion and Religious Diversity: Findings from a Nation-Wise Project in the UK’

Speaker: Dr Elisabeth Arweck, University of Warwick

Date:  Monday, 09 February 2015

Time:  11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Venue: UWS Bankstown Campus, Building 23, Room G.40

RSVP: SSAP-Travel@uws.edu.au by 02 February 2015 (for catering purposes)

This is an open and free event.

Abstract

The presentation will draw on data from a three-year project (2009–2012) in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick, which explored the attitudes of 13–16 year-old pupils across the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland) towards religious diversity. The project was funded by the Religion and Society Programme of two major funding bodies in the UK: the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project took a mixed method approach, combining qualitative with quantitative data: focus group discussions with, and a survey by questionnaire of, young people in secondary schools.

The post Public Lecture: ‘Socializing Influences on Young People’s Attitudes to Religion and Religious Diversity: Findings from a Nation-Wise Project in the UK’ appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

The Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney invites you to attend a Public Lecture:

‘Reasonable Non-Invasiveness’ and Law’s Contribution to Religion as Culture

Speaker: Prof Lori Beaman, University of Ottawa

Date:  Monday, 08 December 2014

Time:  11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Venue: UWS Bankstown Campus, Building 3, Room G.55, Sydney

RSVP: J.Fishman@uws.edu.au by 02 December 2014 (for catering purposes)

Abstract

This talk will consider the development of a legal and public rhetoric that shifts religious practice and symbols into a framing as culture and heritage.

Drawing on the Lautsi decision from the European Court of Human Rights and the Saguenay case in Quebec (now before the Canadian Supreme Court), the talk explores the notion that these practices represent universal values and as such should be accepted by all.

The post Public Lecture: Prof. Lori Beaman on ‘The Law’s Contribution to Religion as Culture’ (Dec 8, 2014) appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Public Lecture by Prof. Adam Possamai: “POST-SECULARISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM: TOWARDS THE I-SATION OF SOCIETY?”

When: 4 PM – 20.11.14

Where: Conference Room – NATSEM Building 24, University Drive,
University of Canberra, Bruce (ACT)

BELIEF AND SOCIETY SEMINAR SERIES

Abstract:

By post-secularism, Habermas refers to the process of the de-privatization of religion, and to the current dialogue about managing the presence of religious groups within secular frameworks in the public sphere. This dialogue is currently affected by what I call the i-sation of society. In Jameson’s classic work, the end of the 20th century was claimed to face the third phase of capitalism, that of late capitalism, the world space of multinational capital. Around the same time, Ritzer wrote about the McDonaldisation of Society which refers to the permeability of (what Weber made reference to as) rational bureaucracy into our everyday life. This paper argues that we are now in a fourth stage of capitalism, the cyber space of ‘deterritorialised’ capitalism, and that with the help of new i-technologies, this penetration of rational bureaucracy has filtered further from everyday life to our personal biographies. Linking these two theories, this paper presents the argument that we are going through a process of i-sation of society (1) in which capitalism is not only dominating our outer life (e.g. global capitalism) but our inner life as well through its expansion on the Internet facilitated by various i-technological applications and (2) in which the McDonaldisation process has now been normalised and religion has been standardised. This process greatly affects the communicative action that religions were supposed to follow in our post-secular times. I will conclude that they have, paradoxically, been colonised or McDonaldised.

Adam Possamai is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Religion and Society Research Centre, University of Western Sydney. He is the former President of the RC22 on the Sociology of Religion from the International Sociological Association. His latest books are Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples: the Making of Religious Identities (with H. Onnudottir and B. Turner, Ashgate, 2013) and The Handbook of Hyper-Real Religions (as editor, Brill, 2012).

The post Public Lecture: “POST-SECULARISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM: TOWARDS THE I-SATION OF SOCIETY?”, Prof. Adam Possamai appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.