ESA 2015 - Call for Papers - 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association — Prague, Czech Republic, 25 – 28 August 2015

ESA - RN 34 Sociology of Religion

Religion, Social Inequalities, Differences, and Sociological Imagination

Coordinator: PD Dr. Heidemarie Winkel, Technical University of Dresden
heidemarie.winkel@mailbox.tu-dresden.de

After decades of critical discussion, the social significance of religion in Europe is an accepted and empirically grounded fact today. Whether it concerns political attitudes, economic orientation or other social fields of life like education, culture and the media or the private sphere, manifold empirical studies demonstrate the sustaining influence of religion on preferences, practices and identity formation. At large, it is undisputed that (structural) secularization does not diminish, but rather nourishes religious pluralization as well as the development of new spiritualities and popular forms of
religion in Europe.

This development is – among other things – a consequence of global dynamics; they accelerate social, cultural and economic transformations, and more recently radical political changes. This raises questions about how religion is involved and affected by these changes in the neo-liberal era (whether on the local, the national or the supranational level) and how religion reacts to these all-encompassing transformations and turmoil.

A particular interest concerns religion’s social forms of organization and practice that respond to the increase of social inequalities and asymmetries; the latter are often trapped in power relations like in the case of neo-liberal economics and politics.

Another concern is how religion is acting on the various forms of social difference and discrimination that are recently unfolding with new life. For example Islamophobia is one of the new ways in which racism is expressed in contemporary Europe next to older forms of discrimination like anti-semitism, sexism and the growth of right-wing extremism. This finally leads to the question how religion itself has become a (constant) source of social friction and exclusion, whether on a macro or on a micro scale, for example regarding access to political, economic and civil rights. This is intertwined with an interest in the social practices of religious actors and the ways they strive to strengthen their agency in European societies under the conditions of growing inequality and social discrimination.

All these questions concern politically and morally contested issues. This additionally centers the focus of interest towards how religious groups, organizations and individuals are included in civic debates about social discrimination and inequality, i.e. poverty and inequality of income, unemployment, the cutback of the welfare system.

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Authors are invited to submit their abstract either to the general session or any specific session. Please submit only to one session. After abstract evaluation, coordinators will have the chance to transfer papers between sessions where applicable.

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. Each paper session will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally sessions will include 4 papers.

Abstracts must be submitted online to the submission platform, see below. Abstracts sent by email cannot be accepted. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation by the Research Network; the letter of notification will be sent by the conference software system in
early April 2015.

Abstract submission deadline: 1st February 2015
Abstract submission platform: www.esa12thconference.eu

If you have further questions on the conference, please visit the conference website. For
further information on the Research Network, please visit www.europeansociology.org

33e Conférence SISR: “Éprouver le religieux”
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique, 2-5 juillet 2015
https://www.sisr-issr.org/

Appel à communication
ST 29 : “Les écoles confessionnelles face à la diversité : transformations, stratégies et résistances”

Organisatrices de la session :

Sara Teinturier, GSRL (EPHE-CNRS), Paris, sara.teinturier@ephe.sorbonne.fr
Julia Martinez-Arino, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity,martineza@mmg.mpg.de
Sabrina Pastorelli, GSRL (EPHE-CNRS), Paris, pastorelli.sabrina@gmail.com

Résumé

Depuis le milieu du XXe siècle, les sociétés démocratiques sont marquées par la diversité culturelle et religieuse. Or, les écoles confessionnelles se construisent généralement autour d’une tradition religieuse principale. Quelles transformations et défis cette situation a-t-elle engendrées ? Plusieurs niveaux d’analyse peuvent être retenus pour en prendre la mesure : observe-t-on dans ces établissements une ouverture aux autres confessions (accueil d’élèves de diverses confessions religieuses, enseignement inter-religieux, accommodement des pratiques religieuses … ) ? Au contraire, est-ce l’occasion de l’affirmation d’une identité religieuse forte pouvant être l’expression d’une résistance à la pluralisation du corps social ? Comment les enseignants et les directions des établissements prennent-ils en compte cette nouvelle situation dans leurs pratiques pédagogiques et la mise en oeuvre des activités scolaires ? Lorsque des fédérations scolaires existent au niveau national, des réflexions sont-elles menées autour de ces questions ? D’autres acteurs – syndicats, autorités religieuses, parents d’élèves… – peuvent également proposer leurs propres interprétations et solutions : que manifestent-elles ? Cette section thématique ambitionne d’approfondir les questions soulevées par Robert Jackson dès 2004 (RethinkingReligious Education and Plurality), en se limitant aux seules écoles confessionnelles et en privilégiant les stratégies et les pratiques des acteurs. Sans se restreindre à l’étude d’une seule situation nationale, elle entend proposer des perspectives comparatives et mieux comprendre les liens à l’oeuvre entre éducation, religion et identité.

Soumission de votre proposition : Les propositions de communication doivent être soumises en ligne(https://sisr-issr.org/Program/), avec un titre et un résumé (350 mots maximum), avant le 15 décembre 2014.

Pour toute information sur cette session thématique, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter aux adresses électroniques indiquées ci-dessus.

33rd ISSR Conference: “Sensing Religion”
Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), 2-5th July, 2015
https://www.sisr-issr.org/

Call for papers – in either English or French
TS 29: “Faith based Schools facing diversity: Transformations, Strategies, and Resistances”

Session organisers:
Sara Teinturier, GSRL (EPHE-CNRS), Paris,sara.teinturier@ephe.sorbonne.fr
Julia Martinez-Arino, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, martineza@mmg.mpg.de
Sabrina Pastorelli, GSRL (EPHE-CNRS), Paris,pastorelli.sabrina@gmail.com

Abstract:

Democratic societies are characterised in the last decades by cultural and religious diversity. However, faith-based schools are usually structured around a particular religious tradition. What transformations and challenges does this plural situation generate for such institutions? Different analytical levels can be considered in order to better understand the implications. Do we witness an openness of these schools to other faiths (reception of students from different religious backgrounds, interfaith teaching of religion, accommodation of religious practices…)? Or do we, in contrast, observe the affirmation of a strong religious identity as an expression of the resistance to the pluralisation of society? How do teachers and school boards take into account this new situation in their pedagogical practices and the implementation of school activities? Are school federations at the national level reflecting upon these issues? What are the interpretations and solutions provided by other actors involved, such as trade unions, religious authorities, and parents? The objective of this thematic session is to deepen the questions raised by Robert Jackson in 2004, limiting the scope to faith-based schools and giving priority to the strategies and practices of the actors. With the aim of better understanding the links between education, religion and identity, both national studies as well as comparative perspectives are welcomed in this session.

Deadline: Please use the online form (https://sisr-issr.org/Program/) to submit your paper proposals (title and abstract, 350 words max) by December 15, 2014.

For any information about this thematic session, do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail.

La 33e conférence de la SISR aura lieu à Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgique), du 2 au 5 Juillet 2015.

Nous invitons maintenant la soumission de propositions de communication. Pour qu’une proposition puisse être acceptée, il faut être membre en règle de la SISR pour la période 2014-2015.

Le formulaire de soumission en ligne pour les propositions de communication pour la Conférence de 2015 est maintenant disponible. La date limite des soumissions est le 15 décembre 2014. Les propositions de communication devront être soumises en ligne. Pour ce faire, veuillez aller à https://sisr-issr.org/program et suivre les consignes. De plus, veuillez prendre note de l’Appel à proposition atelier SISR sur le site web. La SISR vous invite à soumettre des propositions pour les ateliers internationaux sur des sujets de recherches novateurs dans le domaine, et qui se dérouleraient en 2015.

Pour des plus amples renseignements, veuillez contacter le president du programme pour la conference, M. Jasjit Singh (2015pres_programme@sisr-issr.org).

Le thème de la conférence sera Éprouver le religieux

Penser le religieux implique plus que la croyance, la pratique et l’organisation sociale. C’est aussi plus largement l’intrication du sensible, de l’expression et de la représentation, dans ce sens « éprouver le religieux ». L’expérience peut être sensorielle telle que les images, les sons et les odeurs des rites religieux. Elle peut aussi être communautaire et émotionnelle, des dimensions que plusieurs chercheurs ont théorisées sous des titres comme “effervescence collective”, “communitas” et les “régimes collectifs d’émotion”. Le sensible et les sens dans le religieux sont des thèmes récurrents en sociologie et en anthropologie depuis le début de ces disciplines. Ils se déploient dans de multiples directions et posent toute une série des questions reliées :

• Quels sont les lieux pour éprouver le religieux et comment s’articulent le corps-temple, le temple privé et le temple communautaire ? Comment les déités et les multiples figures d’esprits peuvent-elles être représentées ? En quoi et comment leur représentation intervient dans les pratiques religieuses corporelle et communautaire ? Comment l’expérience religieuse est-elle impliquée et comment cela se manifeste et s’articule à la perception et à la représentation sensorielle ?
• Comment les groupes religieux contemporains utilisent-ils des expériences sensorielles et d’autres expériences pour recueillir et pour servir leurs adhérents – de la production audiovisuelle à l’art, à la musique et à la danse? Quel est le rôle des images, de la musique et de la danse dans la production du religieux et non pas simplement en tant que productions religieuses ?
• La dimension audiovisuelle et les médias s’impliquent des manières différentes, y compris à travers la télévision, la radio, l’art religieux, l’Internet et le monde du jeu. Comment les gens religieux comprennent-ils les expériences qui selon eux et elles sont au cœur de leurs vies religieuses ?  Comment ces questions varient-elles selon les différentes traditions religieuses du monde, et que peut-on apprendre de cette variété ?
• Comment les expériences - sensorielles, émotionnelles ou de l’intérieur – s’expriment-elles dans les divers discours religieux ? Quel est le rôle du langage religieux dans ce contexte sensoriel et émotionnel ? Quelles sont les caractéristiques émotionnelles de la langue religieuse ? Comment peut-on comprendre dans ce contexte le succès de divers mouvements charismatiques ?
• Comment les gens perçoivent-ils la religion dans la vie quotidienne ? Dans quelle mesure et comment les gens éprouvent le religieux, par exemple, en tant que source du sens, de l’identité, de la culpabilité, de la santé ou de l’obligation dans le contexte de leurs vies quotidiennes ?
• Et dans une perspective réflexive, qu’éprouvons-nous en tant que sociologues et anthropologues comme le religieux ? Pourquoi et comment ? Est-ce que l’importance dans notre discipline des questions posées ici signale des transformations dans cette observation du religieux ?

Ces questions et d’autres semblables feront l’objet de notre conférence de 2015. Nous invitons des  communications sur ces questions et d’autres sujets d’intérêt pour les sciences sociales de la religion.

Call for Papers:      Sociology of Islam – Reflection, Revision & Reconceptualization

Conference of the Section on Sociology of Religion, German Sociological Association (DGS) in cooperation with the Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr-University Bochum

25 – 27 June 2015

Conference Venue: Ruhr-University Bochum

From the 1980s onwards, sociological research has paid increased attention to Islam. While focussing on selected countries from the Middle East in an earlier stage, the interest has gradually shifted to Europe where Muslims have become a rapidly growing minority in many countries due to labour migration. Since then, research on Islam is steadily increasing and generates substantial empirical research results. Parallel, a political and normative discourse about Islam and Muslim immigrants can be observed in many host countries that has been intensified by the events of 9/11 and that extends into the academic realm.

We consider this situation as the starting point for a reflection on the theoretical framework. Initially, a sociology of Islam has to question the traditional foundations of Western humanities and the social sciences, e.g. its inherent orientalism. We want to face this challenge in the planned conference. Beyond the daily political problematisation of Islam, we want to deal with its social foundations and its various forms of social appearance, not only in Europe but also worldwide. The reflection of sociological concepts and theories will take centre stage. Outdated theories that have already been criticized many times, shall be reviewed – whether they are Eurocentric, based on modernisation theory or on a homogenizing cultural understanding, as all of them lead to an asymmetric consideration.

A reflected sociology of Islam also needs to reconstruct everyday life of Muslims from an empirical perspective, while examining social practices, institutions, and knowledge systems. Following Weber’s concept of sociology, a particular approach could be to explore the conduct of life and the social forms of Muslim sociality.

Finally, a global, transnational and historical perspective is analytically indispensable, simply due to migration processes. However, this leads to a series of challenges: On the one hand, it is important to look at mutual and inner entanglements of knowledge, culture and power instead of following the idea of self-contained and homogenous Western or Islamic civilisations. On the other hand, a change of perspectives is intended: scientific observation should not any longer prioritise the focus on the effects of Islam for European societies. It should rather deepen the analysis of Muslim’s particular lifeworlds as well as the social arrangements of negotiation processes in their societies of origin and the host societies (e.g. from a legal standpoint or with regards to normative orders, the public-private relation, gender relations etc.). This includes questions of how the cultural contact changes Muslim life and everyday practices and how this takes place in other world regions, e.g., in Asia. In other words, a global perspective that includes intertwined histories and various paths of transformation is essential.

Against this background, the Section for the Sociology of Religion of the German Sociological Association cordially invites to submit abstracts on the reflection about the sociology of Islam. We equally welcome theoretically and empirically based contributions, which allow further theoretical and methodological reflection.

Contributions on the following topics are particularly welcome:

• Papers on Muslim everyday reality as well as on the social appearance of Islam in European and non-European contexts (concerning religious identity and institutions as well as faith, everyday practices, and conduct of life)
• Papers which examine how knowledge systems, cultural codes, and institutions of power are shaped by Muslim actors and how they affect them
• Papers about the patterns of sociality, solidarity, and civility in the countries of origin and their alteration as a result of migration
• Papers concerning the sphere of political action, especially questions of political integration, religious education and citizenship
• Papers on Muslim practice in the public and in legislation; especially about the effects of Islam’s public perception from a perspective of visibility and “public observation”. What does this mean for Muslims, for their everyday life, identity processes, practice of religion, right to privacy, and religious freedom, anti-discrimination, and gender equality?
• Papers examining Islamic based gender orders, their linkage with power and institutions and their renegotiation in the process of migration as well as the impact of Western gender specific stereotypes and ethnic discrimination

Confirmed keynote speakers: Bryan Turner and Georg Stauth.

Deadline: Please submit abstracts by 30 January 2015 to all organizers. The abstracts should not exceed one page.

ORGANIZERS:

Christel Gärtner: cgaertner@uni-muenster.de

Levent Tezcan: levent.tezcan@rub.de

Heidemarie Winkel: heidemarie.winkel@mailbox.tu-dresden.de