Author: Josh

Leave a comment Posted on September 21, 2016September 21, 2016 by Josh Event Report, NSRN Blog

[Event Report] SocRel 2016 – Construction and Disruption

The 2016 Sociology of Religion Study Group (SocRel) conference was hosted by Lancaster University, 12^th-14^th of July. The conference theme of ‘Construction and Disruption: The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere’ offered a wide range of entry points for considering the visibility and role of religion in contemporary society. Papers explored religion in relation to such public realms as education, culture, state and gender and conflict. Of particular interest to me is how different constructions of the concept of religion impact on the concomitant question of what then constitutes non-religion, and how the concepts interact. The papers outlined below offered opportunities to reflect on this.

Religion, the Public Sphere and Law: Construction, Disruption and Reconstitution

Lori Beaman’s keynote set the tone by considering interactions between the law and the concept of religion. Her examination of legal cases explored how the concept of religion is constructed by different people in different contexts, and how distance between state and religion is legally constructed. Beaman’s interest is less in answering the vexed question of what is and what is not religious than in the complexities that are revealed when the question is debated within particular contexts.

She considered three cases in detail: The first, from the USA, involved a school district sued for allowing students to be taught yoga in what was argued to be a breach of the US Constitutional requirement forbidding the establishment of religion. The second, brought by a French citizen to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), involved a niqab-wearing woman challenging the 2010 ban on wearing, in public places, garments that cover the face. She argued that the ban breached several articles of the European Declaration on Human Rights including article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion), and article 10 (protecting freedom of expression). The third case was Canadian, and centred on the question of whether opening municipal council meeting with public prayer is an inappropriate interference with the freedom of practice and conscience of attendees.

Each case demonstrates how a given phenomenon can be constructed as religious in nature by some, and as non-religious, cultural or secular by others without any material change in the circumstances under consideration. Although each occurred in different social, cultural and legal contexts, Beaman argued convincingly for a shared relevance located in an examination of the ways in which the different courts involved constructed and transformed the concepts of religion and culture. These processes resulted in yoga being legally determined as non-religious in nature, because its practice is mainstream in contemporary America. Quebec’s court of appeal accepted the same type of reasoning, judging that the use of public prayer reflected a shared cultural heritage rather than an explicitly religious practice (the Supreme Court later over-turned this ruling). While the ECHR concluded that the need to live together in a social/cultural context which understands facial visibility as an aid to social interaction outweighs the individual’s right to express themselves by covering their face. Each decision thus demonstrates the complexity and contested nature of concepts of religious and non-religious, and problematizes the idea of an absolute division between the two concepts.

Existential Cultures in Steiner Schools

Katie Aston and Dan Whisker reported on the initial stages of their research into interactions of non-religious parents and faith schools. The work to date had all taken place in Steiner schools, which base their ethos on Anthroposophy (a spiritual philosophy with roots in theosophy) . Steiner schools engage in ritual as a school community but actively avoid teaching doctrine. Education is individually focussed, with the intention of nurturing the spirit of the child. The schools are non-competitive and emphasise play as a means of learning.

The research involves surveys and interviews with parents, children and teachers. From this data Aston and Whisker identified that none of the parents with whom they spoke were either anthroposophists, or affiliated to any other religious tradition. All identified as either non-religious or spiritual. Most had also been dissatisfied with their own mainstream schooling, and this contributed to their approval of Steiner educational values and their choice of schools for their children.

Aston and Whisker have identified several preliminary avenues of analysis regarding the value of faith schools to non-religious parents. These include the development of existential cultures, processes of sacralising childhood, and distinctions between verbalised meaning and shared experience. For me this offer a chance to explore the practical distinctions between concepts of religion, non-religion and spirituality for self-described non-religious parents, actively seeking education with a spiritual component for their children and choosing a religious school to provide this. The conceptual constructions at play here suggest the complexity and ambiguity of these terms and the ways they interact in a real-world context.

Pluralist Publics and the Scientific Study of Non-Religion

This panel began with an outline of the multi-disciplinary ‘Understanding Unbelief’ project and the sociological shifts underlying academic interest in non-religion before considering some current approaches in the field.

One area being developed by Lois Lee is the emergence of ‘unbelief’ as an analytic term. She represented this as a deliberate shift away from a sole focus on the issue of deity. The term thus has several aspects – relative, indicating unbelief in specific theological claims; positive, relating to alternative existential/metaphysical beliefs; and negative, describing a general absence of metaphysical beliefs. Areas of interest include the distinct cognitive and social phenomena captured by the term, and ways in which ‘unbeliefs’ manifest in/from people’s lives. For me this shift challenges the idea of religion and non-religion as binary, suggesting perhaps either term can be applicable to a given example via the same constructive processes that Beaman’s legal cases employed.

These examples are drawn from rich and diverse range of papers, many of which touched upon non-religion and secularity in similar ways. There are many opportunities to develop the field further in relation to the academic, cultural and personal conceptual constructions of its critical terms , as well as the multivalent complexity of the religious/non-religious spectrum.

Alison Robertson is in the final stages of her PhD with the Open University. Her thesis is
on BDSM as a lived practice of religioning and her research interests include religion and spirituality in relation to self-inflicted pain, trauma and well-being, personalised religious practices, paganisms any other area where the boundaries between what is and is not deemed ‘religion’ become fuzzy. Alison has recently taken over as the Post-Graduate and Early-Careers Liaison Office for the Sociology of Religion (SocRel) research group.

1 Comment Posted on September 6, 2016September 7, 2016 by Josh NSRN Blog

[Blog Series] What’s in a name? …

In this blog post Lois Lee and Stephen Bullivant address the need for a common set of accessible and rigorous terms for the study and wider discussion of atheism, nonreligion, secularity et al.. They explain how their new project, The Oxford Dictionary of Atheism, will address this need and introduce a glossary of key terms excerpted from the Dictionary that are already available for use.

As a n emerging field of enquiry, a fully developed and centralised body of conceptual and methodological work is not yet available to support new research. However, today, the issue is not the same as it was for researchers a decade ago – pioneering new empirical projects and trying to get to grips with long taken-for-granted concepts like ‘atheism’ and ‘irreligion’ in order to do so. For new scholars, the challenge is accessing all that these earlier scholars have learned – and ensuring that they don’t have to repeat the same conceptual explorations, or wander up the blind alleys that others have already realised are dead-ends.

Today, the issue is much more about having a centralised body of work to turn to, a point of access to a resource setting out, simply and clearly, what others have already learned. To date, there has been a lack of standardization, not only across disciplines but within them, leading either to uncertainty about a concept’s meaning or crossed-wires. What is more, lacking a centralised conceptual resource limits scholars opportunities to scrutinise and develop core concepts in light of new knowledge, to build more nuanced models, and to triangulate and accumulate knowledge.

Simply put, it would make a lot of people’s lives (not least our own!) a great deal easier if there are a more standardized set of rigorous, well-understood (and thus easily understandable), and useful core terms and concepts for our nascent field. That doesn’t, in itself, mean that all scholars must always use terms in precisely the same ways, especially given the diversity of disciplines which intersect in ‘nonreligious/secular studies’, and given the fact that certain terms fit less comfortably when applied in, say, non-western religious contexts. But even then, having a more standardized set of terminology against which to define a different sense of particular term for a particular purpose would itself be beneficial.

It is with this in mind that we offer the following three-point plan for researchers and students attempting to traverse this terrain:

Firstly, a simple point but an important one: it is helpful just to be aware that single terms are used to mean a variety of different things. What is more, the differences are often very subtle, making them all the harder to detect and more pernicious as a consequence.

For example, for British sociologist, Linda Woodhead, ‘secular’ tends to mean something like a committed and confirmed Dawkinsian Atheist with anti-theist leanings; it means something similar for US sociologist Christel Manning. Yet for the British sociologists Steve Bruce and David Voas, these same phenomenon are precisely and significantly non-secular: instead, strong ‘atheist’ identities and movements is, for them, a sign that religion is thriving, whilst the ‘secular’ entails something much more like indifference to religion. As Bruce writes in 2002’s God is Dead:

In so far as I can imagine an endpoint [to European secularization], it would not be conscious irreligion; you have to care too much about religion to be irreligious. It would be widespread indifference… (p. 42)

Secondly, and related to the first, there is significant international variation in how terms are understood. Inconsistent use of terms would be a lot more obvious if it was about individual variety, but actually there are local norms that mean that some understandings are taken-for-granted and assumed to be universal. For example, using ‘secular’ to mean impassioned and committed non-theists is more common in US (where authors talk about a ‘secular movement’ for example), whilst the ‘past caring’ sense of the ‘secular’ is more common in UK, though the term ‘secularist‘ is sometimes used in these settings to indicate those of strong non-theist conviction.

The effect is not a blanket one. Consider that Woodhead is from the UK and Manning from the US but use the term ‘secular’ in the same, US-favoured way. This means that we can’t say, ‘secular means x in place A and means y in place B’ – nothing so neat and tidy as that. Rather, writers need to be explicit about the senses that they use terms in, and not assume that others are using them in the same way.

Finally, even if there is no consistent pattern between ‘signifieds’ and ‘signifiers’, the number of similar-sounding signifiers – ‘secular’, ‘atheist’, ‘nonreligious’ – does in fact represent a real variety of signifieds. We do not have a profusion of terms for the same things. Rather, there are subtly different phenomenon, the disentangling of which is in fact significant for understanding the field, and will help us navigate its heterogeneity. These distinctions matter, and are essential if we are to chart the complexities of the groups and phenomena that this multitude of similar-sounding terms are seeking to describe.

For all of these reasons, we were delighted to be invited by Oxford University Press to write The Oxford Dictionary of Atheism, to form part of their online Quick Reference suite, the ODA (as all the coolest cats will no doubt be calling it) is intended to,

document key understandings of terms;
point to multiple, often contradictory senses of terms (several of which are not yet documented in the OED itself); and,
to provide a centralized, standardized reference point to help researchers make decisions about terminology in their projects.

It also allows us to offer entries on new terms frequently encountered in this field (‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’, ‘Atheism +’, even ‘nonreligion’ itself) for which one would struggle to find clearly, concisely, and handily defined and explained anywhere else.

The ODA itself is due to go live later on in this year, but we’re able – and proud – to share a select set of terms on the Understanding Unbelief website, as part of a dedicated Glossary. We hope that these will be of wide interest and use, including but not limited.

Lois Lee is Research Associate at the Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, PI on the Scientific Study of Nonreligious Belief project (John Templeton Foundation) and Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network co-director. Recent publications include Recognizing the Non-Religious: Reimagining the Secular (OUP, 2015) and Negotiating Religion: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches (Routledge, in press).

Stephen Bullivant is a Senior Lecturer at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Among other books, he co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Atheism (OUP, 2013; with M. Ruse) and Secularity and Non-Religion (Routledge, 2013; with L. Lee and E. Arweck), and is currently writing The Oxford Dictionary of Atheism (OUP) with Lois Lee.

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Josh Calls for Papers, News, News and Events

The European Conference on Ethics, Religion & Philosophy 2016

The Waterfront Hotel, Brighton, United Kingdom

Monday, July 4 – Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Abstract Submission Deadline: March 1, 2016

Registration Deadline for Presenters: June 1, 2016

Conference Theme and Streams

Conference Theme: “Justice”

The conference theme for ECERP2016 is “Justice”, and the organisers encourage submissions that approach this theme from a variety of perspectives. However, the submission of other topics for consideration is welcome and we also encourage sessions across a variety of interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives.

Submissions are organised into the following thematic streams:

Philosophy – Philosophy and Religion
Philosophy – Philosophy and the Arts
Philosophy – Philosophy and Public Policy
Philosophy – Philosophy and Technology
Philosophy – Philosophy and Culture
Philosophy – Philosophy and Education
Philosophy – Philosophy and Peace Studies
Philosophy – Comparative Philosophy
Philosophy – Linguistics, Language and Philosophy
Ethics – Medical Ethics
Ethics – Business and Management Ethics
Ethics – Ethics in Education
Ethics – Ethics, Law, and Justice
Ethics – Ethics and Globalization
Ethics – Ethics and Science
Ethics – Comparative Ethics
Ethics – Linguistics, Language and Ethics
Religion – Theism and Atheism
Religion – Feminism and Religious Traditions
Religion – Religion and Education
Religion – Religion and Peace Studies
Religion – Mysticism, Faith, and Scientific Culture
Religion – Interfaith Dialogue
Religion – Comparative Religion
Religion – Linguistics, Language and Religion
Interdisciplinary – Conflict Resolution and Mediation Studies

How to Submit

Register with our online submission system.
Create your account. Your email address will be used as your username and you will be asked to submit a password.
Submit your abstract of no more than 250 words, choosing from the presentation formats listed below (Individual, Poster or Virtual).
Submit well before the submission deadline in order to benefit from Early Bird rates.
Your proposal will normally be reviewed within two to three weeks after undergoing a double blind peer review. Those who submit near the extended deadline will usually receive results by March 15, 2016.
If your proposal is accepted you will be invited to register for the conference. Upon payment of the registration fee, you will be sent a confirmation email receipt.

Posted on January 26, 2016January 26, 2016 by Josh Calls for Papers, News, News and Events

CFP: Sociology of Religion Group

Call for Papers

Sociology of Religion Group

American Academy of Religion

San Antonio, Texas

November 19-22, 2016

Statement of Purpose:

The Sociology of Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion serves as a bridge between religious studies and the subdiscipline of sociology of religion. It functions as a two-way conduit not only to import sociological research into religious studies but also to export the research of religious studies into both the subdiscipline and the broader field of sociology. Only through a cross-fertilization transgressing departmental boundaries can there be breakthroughs in research in both fields. The group has a wide conception of sociology of religion. It is open to a multiplicity of paradigms and methodologies utilized in the subfield and sociology more broadly: theoretical as well as empirical, quantitative, qualitative, and comparative-historical. By liaising with other Program Units, the Sociology of Religion Group is able to bring the rich diversity of critical and analytical perspectives that are housed in the American Academy of Religion into mainstream sociology of religion. Conversely, it aims to provide scholars of the study of religion with a deeper understanding of the landscape of sociology of religion.

Theory, Method, and their Application:

Sociology of Religion as part of a larger discipline is marked by a canonization of its theory and its division by paradigms and methodologies–whether these be the classics (Weber and Durkheim), the old paradigm (functionalism and social constructionism), or the new paradigm (rational choice) on the one hand or quantitative, qualitative, or historical-comparative sociology on the other. As it intersects with sociology of religion, the study of religion has drawn from theories and methodologies in conversation with sociology, anthropology, critical theory, psychology, history, and other related disciplines. We are interested both in papers that utilize the methods and theories in the study of religion and bring them into the sociological canon as well as those that help religious studies gain a better grasp of the sociological theory of religion. We encourage papers that exploit both the theory and methodology of sociology of religion and religious studies and use them as frames for analysis of concrete cases. In particular, we request papers that touch upon social divisions examining race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, region, age, etc.

Internationalism and Diversity:

Critics of sociology of religion have pointed out that the field is dominated by North Americans scholars primarily interested in Protestantism. The discipline of religious studies provides a clear antidote to these perceived limitations. Therefore, we encourage contributions from academics who study the various religious traditions around the world as well as those studying North American religious communities. In particular, we would like submissions from scholars from all academic ranks across the lines of nationality, region, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Call for Papers:

The Sociology of Religion Group (SOR) invites both panel and paper proposals across a wide range of topics of interest to both the sociology of religion and religious studies and are particularly interested in papers, which speak to both thereby encouraging increased dialogue between them. In particular, this year’s CFP expresses interest in the following topics:

• Following the theme of AAR’s 2016 annual meetings, the Sociology of Religion Group invites papers that address the multi-dimensions of “Revolutionary Love.” This includes but is not limited to love communism (or the communism of love), brotherly/sisterly love, or love as an impulse for social change. Conversely, it could include the inverse hypothesis – where love is not revolutionary at all but is egoistic or narcissistic (self-love), where revolutions are not based on love but on hate, where love is harmful and tears down dreams rather than build them up. Finally, papers could contain a synthesis addressing the contradictory impulses of revolutionary love – e.g. paradoxical reflections of the religious adage to love thy enemy.

• Social and Religious Movements and/or Social Movements Theory and Religious Movements Theory

• Competing Canons within the Sociology of Religion and Religious Studies

• Theory and Methodology including issues of reproducibility, validity, and empiricism

• Religion and the Public Sphere

• Religion and Education including but not limited to “Religion and Education in Pluralistic Societies” or “Religion and Education in the Postsecular Age.”

• In a co-sponsored paper session, the Quaker Studies Group and Sociology of Religion Group invite proposals on normative religious identity and notions of the ‘true Church.’ We are interested in papers that utilize sociological theories and methods in the analysis of this topic. We are particularly interested in the following questions: What mechanisms do religious groups use to establish normative identities, particularly against deviants or schismatics within their own group? How is ‘membership’ and ‘authenticity’ counted and measured? What types of authority are used to sustain particular identities and how are these operationalized within the group? How are notions of ‘the world’ constructed and sustained, and how are these notions adapted when they no longer serve their original purpose (for example during the processes of denominationalization or internal secularization)?

• The topics mentioned above are meant merely as suggestions. We encourage submissions of all papers that utilize sociological theories, methods, and questions in their analysis of religion. We are particularly interested in papers that address issues of inequalities of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or those that utilize critical paradigms including but not limited to critical theory, Marxism, feminism, queer theory, post-colonialism, post-structuralism, and environmentalism.

Publication:

The Sociology of Religion Group of AAR regularly co-sponsors panels with the peer-reviewed print and online journal Critical Research on Religion (CRR) (http://crr.sagepub.com). Published by SAGE Publications, over 2600 libraries worldwide have subscriptions to the journal. Presenters of promising papers in SOR panels will be invited to turn their papers into articles and submit them for peer review to CRR.

Deadline for Submissions: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Leadership:

Co-Chairs:

Rebekka King (Middle Tennessee State University) rebekka.king@mtsu.edu

Warren S. Goldstein (Harvard University) goldstein@criticaltheoryofreligion.org

Steering Committee:

Afe Adogame (Princeton University)

Courtney Bender (Columbia University)

David Feltmate (Auburn University)

Volkhard Krech (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Katja Rakow (Universiteit Utrecht)

Randy Reed (Appalachian State University)

For questions or support, email: support@aarweb.org

1 Comment Posted on October 15, 2015October 15, 2015 by Josh News, News and Events

Workshop for PhD candidates at the University of Zurich

The Emmy Noether-project “The Diversity of Nonreligion” is organizing a workshop for PhD candidates at the Department of Social Anthropology & Cultural Studies (ISEK) at the University of Zurich. The Workshop will take place on the 13th and 14th of November, right after the NSRN lecture of Jörg Stolz, ‘Outline of a Theory of Religious-Secular Competition‘, on the 12th of November.
The participants of the workshop are PhD students in the fields of social anthropology, sociology, and religious studies, who all study nonreligious, secular and religious phenomena and their entanglements. The PhD projects include studies with a regional focus on China, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden, and the United States.

Posted on September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 by Josh Calls for Papers, News, News and Events

SocRel Response Day 2015: The Future of Learning about Religion and Belief

SocRel Response Day 2015: The Future of Learning about Religion and Belief

Thursday 5th November 2015, 10 a.m. -4 p.m.

BSA Meeting Room, Imperial Wharf, London

The 2015 SocRel Response Study Day will explore the future of learning about religion and belief. The symposium is organised by SocRel, the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group.

For registration please click HERE.

Speakers include: Professor Robert Jackson (Warwick University), Dr Matthew Francis (Lancaster University), Martha Shaw (Goldsmiths). More speakers will be announced soon.

In light of the continued focus on learning about religion, not just in schools but also in wider society, the SocRel response day will explore the future of learning about religion and belief from a variety of perspectives, reflecting not only on what the future might hold, but also considering what knowledge we need for encountering religion in the modern world today.

Despite the long held assumption that we live in an increasingly secular society, the continued presence and visibility of religion in both the public and private sphere means that religion is still as significant and important as ever. As we encounter religion in everyday spaces and places throughout our lives, understanding and awareness about faith traditions is necessary for all sorts of professions, sectors and organisations. However, after decades of silence on the subject, many are lacking this essential knowledge. This coupled with suspicion and anxiety about religion, fuelled by media outlets and political agendas, means that we are increasingly ill-equipped to talk about religion comfortably and confidently in our daily lives.

In an increasingly diverse and multi faith society, it is vital that we have the necessary knowledge to understand the various faiths and religious practices in our world. Religion permeates most if not all areas of life and cannot be simply syphoned out or compartmentalised. As such we need to have insight and awareness about religion for everyday life situations and this learning should not start and finish in schools; we need a continued education. But what expertise do we need and how should we learn about this? Would a social worker need to know the same as a lawyer? Is ‘religious talk’ the same in politics as it is in business? And if we are to have different levels or types of ‘religious literacy’, how do we ensure accuracy and consistency within such learning schemes?

The SocRel response day aims to consider this through a series of presentations and plenary discussions, covering a range of topics related to the future of learning about religion and belief. The day will be highly participative and engaged. The symposium will be organised as a single stream so that the day is as much about discussion as it is about presentation.

Costs: BSA Member £36; SocRel Member £41; Non-member £46; BSA concessionary £15; SocRel concessionary £20; Non-member concessionary £25

Lunch is provided

Should you have any queries about the day, please do not hesitate to contact the event organisers, Professor Adam Dinham a.dinham@goldsmiths.ac.uk or Rachael Shillitoe r.shillitoe@worc.ac.uk

Rachael

SocRel Conference and Events Officer

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: ISORECEA 2016 Conference

International Study of Religion in Eastern and Central Europe Association and European Sociological Association Research Network 34 (Sociology of Religion) in cooperation with Department of Sociology University of Zadar and Croatian Sociological Association

CALL FOR PAPERS

12th ISORECEA conference & ESA RN34 mid-term conference

RELIGION AND NON-RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES

Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Challenges for Research in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond

Zadar, Croatia, April 21-24, 2016

Both religion and non-religion are subjected to remarkable changes in today’s world. Interplay between historical, cultural, and political occurrences and religion and non-religion challenge theoretical considerations of ongoing processes. Faced with different empirical data around the world secularisation theses have been contested for decades; theoretical debates about religious changes have occupied sociologists of religion. They have sought to better and more accurately understand and explain religious changes in different parts of the globe contemporary. Their points of view differ: privatization thesis, de-privatization thesis, religious economies thesis, religious bricolage, multiple secularities thesis. One angle, non-religion as religious counterpart, has been neglected in sociological research. Indeed, until the end of the 20th century, it was only Campbell (1971) who gave a comprehensive insight into the sociology of non-religion, while many scholars wrote and published within the strand of the sociology of religion.

Non-religion started to occupy attention of sociologists since the beginning of this century especially in UK and USA influenced by different appearances in Western world: the rise of declared non-religious people, the appearance of so-called a New atheism movement (inspired by books by R. Dawkins, S. Harris, D. Dennett, and C. Hitchens), numerous organizations and associations of non-religious people and their enhanced activities as an alternative to religious conservativism, growing influence of religion in public sphere and fundamentalist expressions of religion connected to terrorism. Researchers mostly based their work on theories of subcultural identities, identity politics and new social movements; yet, some authors also drew on the theory of religious economies. In spite of this strands, non-religion remains theoretically underdeveloped and under-researched. Interesting is the fact that this particularly refers to former communist countries where atheism was enforced as part of the official ideology; more research would have been expected on non-religiosity and atheism there. Independently of the exact geopolitical context, non-religion and in particular the interplay between religion and non-religion in different dimensions seem to be a key for understanding contemporary religious changes.

This international conference would like to encourage scholars from various parts of the world to share their theoretical, empirical and methodological considerations on religion and non-religion and take part in discussion on different related topics, like:

Social theory of religion and non-religion
Comparative empirical data on religion and non-religion
Methodological challenges of research on religion and non-religion
Historical development of religion and non-religion
Non/religious minority and majority
Human rights, religion and non-religion
Religion, non-religion and State
Religion, non-religion and social inclusion/exclusion
Religion and non-religion in the intersectional perspective (involving gender, age, socio-economic aspects, etc.)
Religion and non-religion in everyday life
Religious and non-religious activism

Please submit a 200-300 words abstract of your presentation by e-mail to: isorecea2016@idi.hr by November 15, 2015.

If you are interested in a specific topic related to the study of religion and/or non-religion, we encourage you to organize a session/panel. In this case, please submit a 300-400 words proposal with full session details (names and affiliation of contributors, titles of their presentations) by November 15, 2015 to the same email address.

Key dates

Submission of paper and session/panel proposals – November 15, 2015.
Notification of acceptance and opening of the registration – December 15, 2015.
The final date of the registration for the conference – January 31, 2016.

Final program – February 20, 2016.

Fees
Membership fees

Please note that in order to present a paper you need to be a member of ISORECEA for the years 2016-2017 or a member of ESA in the year 2016.

The conference fees are as follows (in EURO):

For members of ISORECEA

List of Countries*	A	B	C
Regular members	80	60	40
Students and unemployed	30	18	12
Retired	40	30	20

* This is according to the Table of Economies used by the International Sociological Association:
http://www.isa-sociology.org/table_c.htm

For members of ESA

List of countries*	Band 1	Band 2
List of countries*	Band 1	Country falling under A or Bcategory of ISA**	Country falling under Ccategory of ISA**
Regular members	80	60	40
Early career scholars***	60	60	40
Students and unemployed	30	18	12
Retired	40	30	20

* Band 1 and Band 2 are defined by ESA at: http://www.europeansociology.org/member/

** This is according to the Table of Economies used by the International Sociological Association:
http://www.isa-sociology.org/table_c.htm

*** As defined by ESA at: http://www.europeansociology.org/membership.html

For those who are not members of ISORECEA or ESA*

List of Countries**	A	B	C
Regular participants	160	120	80
Students and unemployed	80	60	40
Retired	80	60	40
Conference fee paid on the spot	25% higher (each category)

* Only those who do not present a paper can participate in the conference as non-members.

** This is according to the Table of Economies used by the International Sociological Association:
http://www.isa-sociology.org/table_c.htm

Those accepted for the conference will be asked to pay their fees through the PayPal system at the ISORECEA website. For the information on how to become a member of ISORECEA or ESA, or renew the membership, please visit these organisations’ websites: http://isorecea.net/ orhttp://www.europeansociology.org/. The information about accommodation and the conference venue will be given in the second half of December 2015. In case of any earlier questions, please send an email to: isorecea2016@idi.hr.

Miklós Tomka Award

The ISORECEA Board has established the Miklós Tomka Award to honour Miklós Tomka, the internationally acknowledged and widely esteemed scholar of religion specializing in the Central and Eastern European region, who died unexpectedly in 2010.

The Award is granted based on a competitive basis for the best conference paper submitted to the award committee. The paper should refer to the conference theme. The competition is open to early career scholars, with a special focus on PhD students. The Award comprises:

– The publication of the paper in the ISORECEA on-line journal Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe;

– Exemption from the conference fee;

– Covering accommodation costs at the conference.

Early career scholars interested in entering the competition are invited to submit their full papers to the email address isorecea2016@idi.hr by January 10, 2016. The winner will be announced by January 31, 2016, which is the final date for registration for being on the program of the conference.

Papers submitted for the Award should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words long and should strictly follow the rules applying to papers submitted to the ISORECEA journal Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe. For details see:http://www.rascee.net/index.php/rascee/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

We are looking forward to receiving your papers!

ISORCEA President ESA RN34 Vice-President President of the Local Committee

Dinka Marinović Jerolimov Roberta Ricucci Siniša Zrinščak

Posted on September 4, 2015September 4, 2015 by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: BSA SOCREL Annual Conference 2016

Call for Papers: BSA SOCREL Annual Conference 2016 – Global Societies: Fragmenting and Connecting

Aston University, April 6-8 2016

This year’s BSA Annual Conference explores the changes and transformations that have taken place across the globe, from the financial crisis to political upheavals. This conference is an opportunity for sociologists to question how we best understand such developments and what opportunities sociology has to contribute to policy making and public discussion on such subjects.

Call for Papers – Sociology of Religion Stream

The religion stream will focus the contribution that the sociology of religion can make to this discussion, through addressing the connections and disconnections between sociology and the sociology of religion. An ever-increasing number of areas within the field of sociology are discussing religion, each with their own vocabularies, terms of reference and conceptual frameworks. As such, we would like to explore how best we can connect these discussions and what opportunities lay ahead for bridging such gaps.

Possible topics could include (but are not limited to) the following:

The role of religion in times of social transition
The changing place of religion in society
Methods in sociology and the sociology of religion
Epistemological challenges
Religion and politics
Religion and education
Religion and global change

How to submit
All paper abstracts and proposals for other events can be submitted online HERE.

If you would like your abstract to be considered within the Sociology of Religion stream, please type SOCREL in capital letters at the top of your abstract.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 16 October 2015.

For further information contact the Sociology of Religion stream coordinator:
Rachel Shillitoe. Email: r.shillitoe@worc.ac.uk
Alternatively, contact the BSA Events Team. Email: events@britsoc.org.uk

Posted on September 4, 2015September 4, 2015 by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: EASR 2016 Conference

EASR 2016 Conference

Relocating Religion

Helsinki 28 June – 1 July 2016

Annual conference of the EASR

Special conference of the IAHR

Welcome to the annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) that will be held from 28 June – 1 July 2016, at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The theme of the conference is Relocating religion.

Religion has always been a moving concept. Throughout history, it has changed place, shape, function and content; conceptions of religion have been dependent on theoretical or political interests and strategies. Religion can be framed as a means of identity-work, world-building and well-being, but it can also be perceived as a consumer good or a security threat. Due to the open, fragile, and inherently negotiable nature of the category of ‘religion’, rigid definitions produce simplistic and distorted representations of the complexities involved in the formation of religious phenomena. At the same time, attempts to define and redefine religion in various contexts are themselves an important topic of research. All of this requires interdisciplinary scholarly imagination and critical new approaches.

In recent scholarship, religious change has been conceptualized from a variety of theoretical perspectives. When focusing on the modern period, some scholars speak about the vitalization of religions, secularization and post-secularity, while others refer to re-sacralization and re-enchantment. Concurrently, the need for more knowledge and understanding not only of religion, but also of secularization, secular positions and non-religion has been underlined. Many of these perspectives highlight the significance of religious change as a cultural and social phenomenon. Such perspectives are, however, equally applicable to the study of religious transformations in other contexts than the modern period. The conference will offer the opportunity to explore changes and continuities in the forms, practices and implications of religion at all levels of societies and cultures, in the past as well as in the present.

Language of the conference is English.

The keynote speakers are:

Giovanni Filoramo, University of Turin
Anne-Marie Korte, University of Utrecht
James R. Lewis, University of Tromsø
Linda Woodhead, University of Lancaster

CALL FOR PAPERS

Call for session proposals:

1 September to 30 October 2015

We invite proposals for closed sessions (with a fixed chair and speakers) and open sessions (with a chair and a theme).

Notification of acceptance: 15 November 2016 at the latest

Call for individual papers:

15 November to 31 December 2015

Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2016 at the latest

Registration: 15 February to 1 May 2016

Organizers: The conference will be organized by the Study of Religions at the University of Helsinki in collaboration with the Finnish Society for the Study of Religion, Comparative Religion at the Åbo Akademi University and the Donner Institute, Turku.

Welcome: On behalf of the organizing committee, cordially welcome to Helsinki,

Tuula Sakaranaho, President of the conference

Heidi Rautalahti, Conference secretary

For further information, please, contact: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/easr-2016/

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion 2016

Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion 2016 | 17. – 19.8. 2016 Helsinki, Finland

We are pleased to invite you to the 23^rd Nordic conference for the Sociology of Religion. The conference will be held on the 17^th–19^th of August in 2016 at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

The theme of the conference is: Wellbeing, leadership and the lifespan – Current trends in the sociology of religion

The subjective turn has made the individual the centre of attention in debates on current religious and spiritual change. The customisation of religious belief, ritual and thought often centres around individual wellbeing. At the same time, religious organisations are redrafting their management and leadership strategies and have shifted their attention from classic teaching and worship to new forms of individualised and experience-centred formats. Individuals and their lifespan have increasingly become the centre of focus in religion. These changes also tend to raise tensions in religious organisations, and the polarisation between extremes seems to be increasing. The changes are linked to changes in society at large, including demographic changes, generational changes, changes in the role of the media and changes in the role of religious authority. Religion is increasingly a matter of personal choice and is given no automatic authority at any level.

The 23^rd Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion seeks more understanding, both theoretically and empirically, on the changes in the religious field and their meaning for the individual, for religious and secular organisations, and for society at large. Contributions addressing these developments and changes at different levels and broadening the understanding of the role of religion in society today are warmly welcome. Other current topics within the sociology of religion will also be discussed. We encourage proposals for both sessions and individual papers.

The dead line for session proposals is Nov 31, 2015.
The dead line for paper proposals is March 15, 2016.

NSRN Online

NSRN Online

Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network

Author: Josh

[Event Report] SocRel 2016 – Construction and Disruption

Religion, the Public Sphere and Law: Construction, Disruption and Reconstitution

Existential Cultures in Steiner Schools

Pluralist Publics and the Scientific Study of Non-Religion

[Blog Series] What’s in a name? …

The European Conference on Ethics, Religion & Philosophy 2016

The European Conference on Ethics, Religion & Philosophy 2016

The Waterfront Hotel, Brighton, United Kingdom

Monday, July 4 – Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Conference Theme and Streams

Conference Theme: “Justice”

How to Submit

CFP: Sociology of Religion Group

Workshop for PhD candidates at the University of Zurich

SocRel Response Day 2015: The Future of Learning about Religion and Belief

CFP: ISORECEA 2016 Conference

CFP: BSA SOCREL Annual Conference 2016

Call for Papers: BSA SOCREL Annual Conference 2016 – Global Societies: Fragmenting and Connecting

Aston University, April 6-8 2016

CFP: EASR 2016 Conference

Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion 2016