Call for papers: “The Marketization of Religion / La néolibéralisation du religieux”

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The 33rd SISR/ISSR conference, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), from 2-5 July 2015

Call for papers for the session (STS 55): The Marketization of Religion / La néolibéralisation du religieux

François GAUTHIER, Université de Fribourg (Suisse)
francois.gauthier@unifr.ch

Tuomas MARTIKAINEN, Abo Akademi, University of Turku (Finland)
tuomas.martikainen@abo.fi

An emerging trend in the social scientific study of religion is to consider the multivarious effects of marketization on the shaping of religion today. Supplying a perspective distanced from secularization, Rational Choice and post-secularity, the marketization approach highlights the ever-growing influence of economics on societies and cultures worldwide. This panel follows on work initiated by the organizers on the effects of neoliberalism, market ideologies and consumerism as a dominant social and cultural ethos on religion and connected spheres such as politics. This panel is more specifically devoted to the theme of market strategies and consumer orientation in religious institutions and religious phenomena at large, as they further intersect with hypermediatization and globalization. A global focus distanced from the limitations of methodological nationalism is welcome, as are particularly welcome proposals concerned with theses processes in the Global South: Asia, Africa, Near-East, Ex-Soviet Bloc, South America, and the First Nations.

Une tendance en émergence au sein de la sociologie du religieux est de tâcher de comprendre les effets complexes et variés des idéologies et des pratiques économiques sur le religieux. Ouvrant une perspective nouvelle par rapport aux « paradigmes » de la sécularisation, du choix rationnel et du post-sécularisme, l’approche vise à saisir les dynamiques et mutations récentes du religieux à partir de leur structuration par les logiques économiques tant néolibérales que consuméristes. Poursuivant dans la lignée des travaux effectués par les organisateurs, ce panel en appelle à des contributions s’intéressant aux diverses manières dont la nouvelle domination de l’économique sur la vie sociale contribue à structurer et modeler le religieux et les sphères connexes comme le politique. Ce panel est tout particulièrement voué aux manières dont les institutions religieuses et le religieux au sens large sont modelés par les stratégies de mise en marché et les principes de l’orientation-client issus du marketing et de la gestion, ainsi que la manière dont ces processus se combinent et recoupent ceux de l’hypermédiatisation et de la globalisation. Les contributions qui prennent leurs distances par rapport aux limitations du nationalisme méthodologique sont les bienvenues, en particulier celles qui s’intéressent à ces processus dans le monde non-occidental, notamment l’Asie, l’Afrique, le Moyen-Orient, le bloc post-soviétique, l’Amérique du Sud et les Premières nations.

To submit your paper: http://www.sisr-issr.org/English/Conferences/Conferences.htm

Deadline: December 15, 2014

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New book: “NEUTRALITÉ ET FAITS RELIGIEUX”

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NEUTRALITÉ ET FAITS RELIGIEUX

ACTUALITÉ SOCIALE ET POLITIQUE RELIGIONSOCIOLOGIE EUROPE

Luan Abedinaj, Laurence Blésin, Dominique Cabiaux, Françoise Wibrin

La question du port de signes religieux dans les services publics se rencontre partout. L’équilibre historique atteint dans les sociétés d’Europe continentale entre institutions publiques et religion est aujourd’hui bousculé. Il devient souvent objet de conflit. Ce volume réunit les contributions de spécialistes – sociologues, philosophes, juristes, politologues – qui interrogent de manière critique la notion de « neutralité », ainsi que des analyses de situations concrètes du monde du travail.

EAN : 9782806101563 • 224 pages
Prix éditeur : 19,5 €
Voir la fiche de ce livre

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Call for Papers, ‘Making all things new?’ Evangelii Gaudium and Ecumenical Mission

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St John’s College, Cambridge, 29 June – 1 July 2015

Organised by Duncan Dormor (St John’s, Cambridge) and Alana Harris (Lincoln, Oxford)

Pope Francis’ first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, (The Joy of the Gospel) was released in December 2013. Striking in both tone and content it is a watershed document that heralds a new style of engagement on the part of the Papacy. Written in clear and often robust language, the text exhorts every Christian to a rediscovery of the joy of the Gospel. It challenges Christians to focus on their relationship  with Christ, and to take the ‘economics of exclusion and inequality’ seriously as well as criticising the excessive centralization of the Roman Catholic Church, and its sense of priorities. Unsurprisingly it has been reprinted five times and has sold more than twice the number of any previous papal document.

This conference seeks to evaluate the significance of Evangelii Gaudium in the life of the Roman Catholic Church today, but also ecumenically; to interrogate the enthusiastic popular reception given to this lengthy, complex text; and, to explore its implications for the evangelization and missionary strategies of those within the Roman Catholic Church and beyond. Heralded as inaugurating a ‘new chapter’ of joyful evangelization, this conference asks what Christians from diverse theological and church traditions might find within Evangelii Gaudium to aid and inspire their renewed efforts to become ‘missionary disciples’ in our rapidly evolving and uncertain world.

Examining Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation from an open and explicitly ecumenical perspective, the conference will use multidisciplinary methodologies derived from receptive ecumenism and ecclesiology, biblical studies, anthropology, the sociology of religion, and religious history. Confirmed speakers for the conference include:

  • Professor Tina Beattie (Roehampton);
  • Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta (Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and St John’s College, Cambridge);
  • Professor Massimo Fagglioli (St Thomas, Minnesota);
  • Professor Paul Murray (Director, Centre for Catholic Studies Durham)
  • the Right Revd Rowan Williams (Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge)

Alongside these plenary papers, we plan to run a number of parallel sessions on a variety of themes. The organizers therefore welcome innovative and interdisciplinary papers on theoretical and practical issues arising from the document, including:

  • The central role given to scripture and biblical exegesis;
  • Theological framings, including Trinitarian emphases and the language of mercy;
  • Pope Francis’ theological anthropology in historical context;
  • Socio-economic and political interpretations, referenced against church traditions of social justice (e.g. Catholic Social Teaching etc.);
  • Missionary praxis – the parish, preaching and practical ecumenical initiatives;

Abstracts of 250 words, accompanied by a one-page CV, should be sent to d.dormor@joh.cam.ac.uk and alana.harris@lincoln.ox.ac.uk by 18 February 2015. Decisions about selected abstracted will be communicated by 16 March 2015. All participants will be expected to submit full papers of no more than 8,000 words (including references) by 29 May 2015. A collective volume, issuing from the conference proceedings, is planned.

Dr Alana Harris
Darby Fellow in History
Lincoln College, Oxford
(01865) (2)79790
alana.harris@lincoln.ox.ac.uk

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Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership PhD Studentships in the Arts and Humanities

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Closing Date: 26 January 2015

The Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership invites top-calibre applicants to apply to its doctoral studentships competition 2015. More than fifty fully-funded doctoral studentships are available across the full range of arts and humanities subjects, including all areas of theology and religion.

Northern Bridge is an exciting, AHRC-funded collaboration between Newcastle University, Durham University and Queen’s University Belfast.  Our aim is to deliver outstanding doctoral education in the arts and humanities, and successful applicants will join a thriving cohort of almost fifty Northern Bridge PhD students recruited through last year’s studentship competition. Northern Bridge offers exceptional supervision by academic staff researching at the cutting edge of their disciplines, vibrant research environments that promote interdisciplinary enquiry, and research training and career development opportunities tailored to the needs of twenty-first century researchers.

Northern Bridge students benefit from our close partnerships with prestigious local and national organisations in the cultural, heritage, broadcasting, and government sectors. Our partners provide a wide range of placement, research, and training opportunities, and currently comprise: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art; BBC Northern Ireland; Belfast City Council; Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure NI; Durham Cathedral; National Media Museum; New Writing North; Newcastle City Council; Sage Gateshead; Seven Stories National Centre for Children’s Books; The Bowes Museum; Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums; and Wordsworth Trust.

We provide a comprehensive and attractive package of financial support over the duration of study, which incorporates:

  • fees and maintenance at the UK Research Councils’ national rate
  • a research training support grant (RTSG) to fund the costs of study abroad, conference attendance and fieldwork
  • financial support to attend our cohort-building events
  • financial support to incorporate short-term placements, international study visits and specialist training events in order to develop your skills.

For further details, please see the Northern Bridge website:
http://www.northernbridge.ac.uk/

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Call for Papers: Session on “Divide and Rule? Interfaith Initiatives and the Governance of Religious Diversity”

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Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium – July 2-5, 2915

 

Dear Colleagues:

We would very much appreciate your paper proposal for a thematic session (STS 41) entitled “Divide and Rule? Interfaith Initiatives and the Governance of Religious Diversity”, which is scheduled for next year´s ISSR conference in Leuven. The session focuses on the rather specific question of political and administrative actors making use of interfaith initiatives on the local or regional level in order to govern religious diversity. We particularly welcome empirical works on specific local or regional contexts.

For a more detailed description of the session please see below or have a look at the conference website:   http://www.sisr-issr.org/English/Conferences/Complete%20Session%20List%202015%20-%20revised%202014-11-27.docx

To propose a paper, click: http://sisr-issr.org/Program/

Thank you,
Alexander-Kenneth NAGEL
Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany)
alexander-kenneth.nagel@rub.de

 

Session Description:

During the last decades European immigration societies have experienced a significant increase of religious diversity as a result of labor and refugee migration as well as missionary religious movements. At the same time, these processes of religious pluralization have long gone unnoticed as migration policy was overshadowed by economic concerns. Only when religion returned powerfully to public awareness after the fall of the Iron Curtain and—despite incentives—immigrants showed no sign of returning to their countries of origin, religious and cultural diversity came up as factors, which could no longer be overlooked by local and regional policy makers. Given the lack of experience, expertise and competency to deal with religious matters political authorities subsequently looked for partners to help them govern the heterogeneous religious field and found them in interfaith bodies and initiatives. While some of these initiatives have started at the very grassroots of civic engagement in order to promote religious understanding on the local level, others were formed as regional platforms to prevent interreligious conflict and grant ‘religion’ a public voice. Despite their differences in size, scope and orientation have been increasingly addressed, invited or even initiated by political decision makers and thus become instruments of diversity governance.

The thematic session is to comparatively examine the role of interfaith initiatives in the local and regional governance of religious diversity. It brings together empirical studies from different localities and seeks to provide new insights on a) the variety of public-private arrangements in which interfaith bodies cooperate with state actors, b) the role political and administrative actors play in interfaith activities, and c) the potential impact of these public-private partnerships on the involved initiatives. With particular regard to the framework topic of senses the session will also address d) the staging of religious harmony in public interfaith ceremonies and installations, and finally, e) how political authorities literally ‘make sense’ of religion and religious diversity according to their inner notions of and experiences with religion.

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University of Montréal Postdoctoral Fellowship

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University of Montréal Postdoctoral Fellowship

Beginning Winter/Spring 2015

 

 

Competition opening for a postdoctoral fellowship financed by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI), Religion and Diversity Project (Director Lori Beaman, University of Ottawa), at the University of Montreal’s Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, with Solange Lefebvre, Chaire religion, culture et société.

The amount of the fellowship is $35,000 for one year, to start between February and August 2015 (+ $10,000 in research contracts) = Total $ 45,000

The recipient must meet the following conditions:

  • have completed a PhD that is linked to religion in the public sphere;
  • be fluent in either English or French (oral and written) and proficient in the second language (English or French); a test will be administered;
  • provide a CV (with a minimum of two scientific conferences and two accepted scientific publications) and academic transcripts (excellent grade point average);
  • have mastered field study methods and demonstrate experience researching within a team;
  • will focus on addressing the theme of religion and education. Using Quebec as a case study, it will explore the developments around education and religion in Quebec to ask broader comparative questions in the rest of Canada. The postdoctoral fellow will draw on research already completed by Dr. Solange Lefebvre, as well as by other researchers in the Religion and Diversity Project (MCRI), focusing on addressing gaps in knowledge about Quebec as well as further develop a data base of information about religion and education in the rest of Canada. In addition, the postdoctoral fellow will be expected to explore the theme of education and religion on a broader comparative basis through research that draws on four ‘diversity’ reports and related documents from Belgium, Quebec, Great-Britain and France. This project is led by Dr. Lefebvre. The successful candidate is expected to develop her/his own related research questions under the broad theme of religion and education, within a Canadian perspective.
  • submit an application for a postdoctoral fellowship to large funding agencies in the fall 2015, on one of those projects.

Please submit a complete application before January 15, 2015 that includes academic transcripts; a complete CV; a one-page letter in English and in French explaining the applicant’s qualifications to work on the suggested research themes and coordinate the involved projects; a copy of two articles (accepted or published); and two letters of recommendation (one being from the thesis supervisor).

Incomplete or poorly presented applications will not be considered. If the application is satisfactory, we will proceed to an interview with the candidate (in person or on Skype). Please submit a copy of your application to Tess Campeau, Information Officer, by email at info@religionanddiversity.ca

Version in French is attached below:

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Reminder: SISR/ISSR 2015 Conference Proposal Deadline

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The 33rd ISSR conference will be held in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), from 2-5 July 2015. 

The deadline for proposing papers is December 15th, 2014. 

Please submit your proposals at the SISR/ISSR website: http://sisr-issr.org/Program/

The theme of the conference will be “Sensing Religion“:

 

Religions are not just a matter of belief, of practice, and of social organization. They more broadly also involve experience, perception, and the expression and representation of such ‘sensing of the religious’. Experiences may be sensory, as with the sights, sounds, and smells of religious rituals; and they may be communal and emotional, as various scholars have theorized through concepts such as ‘collective effervescence’, ‘communitas’, and ‘collective emotional regimes’. The sensible and the senses in religion has been a recurring theme in sociology and anthropology since the beginning of these disciplines. It unfolds in multiple directions and poses a whole host of interconnected questions.

What are the locations for sensing religion and how do the individual body and the communal temple interrelate as such locations? How are deities and spiritual entities represented and how does that representation articulate with bodily and communal religious practice? How is religious experience involved and how does that manifest and articulate with sensory perception and representation?

How do contemporary religious groups use sensory and other experiences to gather and serve their adherents – from mega-church audio-visuals to congregational art, music, and dance?  What is the role of images, music, and dance as producers of the religious and not just religious productions?

The audio-visual dimension is involved in various ways with media, including through television, radio, religious art, the Internet and the world of gaming – how do religious people understand the experiences that they increasingly claim are central to their religious lives?  How do such matters vary across the world’s different religious traditions, and what can we learn from this variety? 

How are experiences – sensory, emotional, or inward – expressed in varying religious discourses? What is the role of religious language in this sensory and emotional context? What are the emotional characteristics of religious language? How do we understand, in this context, the success of various charismatic movements?

How do people sense religion in daily life? To what extent and how do people feel religion as, for instance, a source of meaning, identity, guilt, health or obligation in their day to day existence?

And from a reflexive perspective, what do we as sociologists and anthropologists ‘sense’ as the religious? Why and how? Does the importance in our discipline of the questions just outlined signal transformations in this observation of the religious?

These questions, and others like them, will be the focus of our 2015 conference.  We welcome sessions and papers on these and other topics of interest to the social sciences of religion.

You can find a list of sessions at http://www.sisr-issr.org/Documents/SISR-ISSR_2015_Conference_Sessions.pdf

We invite all members in good standing (for 2014-2015) to submit proposals for papers. The deadline for is 15 December 2014. Each participant may give only one paper at the conference. In addition, a participant my be an author or critic in an Author Meets Critics (AMC) session.

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p align=”left”>If you have any questions, please write our Program Chair, Dr. Jasjit Singh (2015program_chair@sisr-issr.org) or our General Secretary, Dr. Siniša Zrinščak (General_Secretary@sisr-issr.org)

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SOCREL Conference: Sociology of Religion: Foundations and Futures

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Sociology of Religion Study Group (Socrel) Annual Conference

www.socrel.org.uk

Tuesday 7 – Thursday 9 July 2015 hosted by Kingston University London 

High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, UK

http://www.cct.org.uk/high-leigh/introduction

Keynote Speakers:

  • Professor Nancy T. Ammerman (Boston University)
  • Professor James Beckford (University of Warwick)
  • Professor Grace Davie (University of Exeter)
  • Professor David Martin (London School of Economics)
  • Professor Linda Woodhead (Lancaster University)

Since its foundation in 1975, the Sociology of Religion Study Group has become one of the largest in the British Sociological Association (BSA). Its membership includes educators and researchers from across the UK and internationally, and in 2015 the Sociology of Religion Study Group will be celebrating 40 years!

Given this occasion, it is an opportune moment to reflect on religion in society, and religion in sociology. From its foundation, Socrel has foregrounded research on secularisation, gender, spiritualities, embodied and lived accounts, materiality, generational innovations, atheism, social difference, migration, institutions, politicised expressions and methodologies in the study of religion. While this list does not account for all the many ways scholars have been investigating religion in social life – its various forms, intersections and spaces – it does speak to how religions continue to be important subjective and collective experiences that are stable and continuous, resistant and shifting. This conference will bring together scholars who have shaped and are shaping the discipline. It will be an opportunity to pay heed, not only to the Study Group’s and discipline’s accomplishments, but also an opportunity to address questions that are emerging to inform future agendas and areas of concern and study, such as:

  • - What are the key points of continuity and innovation in theorising religion?
  • - How are methodologies emerging and informing research on religion?
  • - How are new approaches adapting and transforming old practices?
  • - What are the key controversies that will occupy sociologists of religion?
  • - What are the pedagogical challenges and innovations in teaching the sociology of religion?
  • We invite you to celebrate with us by engaging in the conference questions from your particular area of research in the Sociology of Religion.

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HIGHLIGHTS:

  • -David Martin will be in conversation with Linda Woodhead about his career and recent books, ‘The Education of David Martin: The Making of an Unlikely Sociologist’, and ‘Religion and Power: No Logos without Mythos’.
  • -Grace Davie will be addressing the religious situation in twenty-first century Britain, drawing from her new book, ‘Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox’ (February 2015). This builds on her highly successful ‘Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging’, now 20 years in print.
  • -Nancy Ammerman, James Beckford and Linda Woodhead will be bringing important reflections on the status of religion in sociology, and in society.

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Abstracts for individual papers (250 words max.) and panels (500 words max.) are invited by 5 January 2015. Panels may take a standard 20-minute paper format or take alternative modes such as pre-circulated papers/work in progress/or ‘points of view’ that are 10-minutes long. Submissions should be made in Word format and include in the following order: Name, institutional affiliation, email address and paper title.

**All presenters must be members of Socrel.

Abstracts will be subject to peer review. Please note, presenters will be limited to one paper per person at the conference, but you may also organise a panel. 

  • -Abstract submissions open: 1 September 2014
  • -Early bird registration opens: 1 September 2014
  • -Abstract submissions close: 5 January 2015
  • -Decision notification: 15 January 2015
  • -Presenter registration closes: 16 March 2015
  • -Draft programme online: 16 April 2015
  • -Early bird registration closes:  11 May 2015
  • -Registration closes: 15 June 2015

Please send abstracts to the attention of the conference organisers:

  • Dr Sylvie Collins-Mayo (Kingston University London) and
  • Dr Sonya Sharma (Kingston University London) at: socrel2015@gmail.com

Should you have other questions about the conference please also contact the conference organisers at the above email address.

Online Registration: http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10391

A limited number of bursaries are available to support postgraduate, early career, low income or unwaged Socrel members to present at the conference. Please visit www.socrel.org.ukfor instructions, and to download an application form, and submit your bursary application along with your abstract by 5 January 2015.

Socrel is the British Sociological Association’s study group on Religion. For more details about the study group and conference please visit www.socrel.org.uk.

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Journal Announcement: New Issue of “Sociology of Islam”

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Sociology of Islam
Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 2014    
ISSN: 2213-140X     E-ISSN: 2213-1418

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22131418/2/1-2/ 

  1. A Genealogy of Muslims Dying in France

  1. Toward a Theory of “Islamist Movements”

  1. G. Banna’s and A. Fadlallah’s Views on Dancing

  1. Book Review: Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom Beyond America, written by Sohail Daulatzai

  1. Book Review: Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent, written by Burjor Avari

  1. Book Review: Living Out Islam: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims, written by Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle

  1. Book Review: Why the West Fears Islam: An Exploration of Muslims in Liberal Democracies, written by Jocelyne Cesari

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Public Lecture: Prof. Lori Beaman on ‘The Law’s Contribution to Religion as Culture’ (Dec 8, 2014)

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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.

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