UK/BRIC - Practices and Processes of Religious Diversity (PPRD) Network

The proliferation of academic engagement with religious diversity does much to identify and understand many of the most important themes at play and to heighten awareness of their political-legal and socio-cultural significance for society at large. There remain, however, three deficiencies in academic treatments of religious diversity which the proposed network is designed to rectify. These three deficiencies comprise a lack of attention to the experience of the BRIC nations (i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China), a dearth of transnational theorisation and an overly static concern with the structuring-institutional-patterned profile of national contexts. Involving throughout comparison and contrast with the UK context, the network aims to rectify these deficiencies by: i) taking seriously the experience of religious diversity as it unfolds in the BRIC nations; ii) employing a transnational interpretative framework within which participants will reflect upon inter-contextual commonalities, differences and variations in respect of religious diversity at both national and international levels; and, iii) including an explicitly dynamic focus upon the processes and mechanisms through which religious diversity is engendered, sustained, restricted or diminished in the macro-structural, mid-range institutional and micro-social dimensions of modern society.

Combining to stimulate new debate and advance understanding of religious diversity, the threefold contribution of the network will be articulated by the organising principle of 'globalising modernity'. In so being, the kinds and levels of religious diversity currently in evidence within the respective national contexts engaged will be explicated as typically modern phenomena engendered by the contemporary confluence of characteristically transnational dynamics and processes. Religious diversity will thereby be studied as intimately associated with the networks and flows of contemporary globalisation and exemplary of the differences, similarities and variations currently in existence across the variegated landscape of multifaceted modernity. Working against the backdrop of globalising modernity, the proposed network will explore the continuities and disjunctions of religious diversity as they pertain to comparisons and contrasts made between UK and non-western (i.e. BRIC) contexts. At the same time, the structures, institutions and patterns of particular national contexts will be engaged in respect of the manner and extent to which they manifest and mediate characteristically modern processes and dynamics such as, for example, rapid and wide-spread societal transformation, detraditionalisation, individualisation, globalisation and marketisation.

To best achieve its objectives, the proposed network draws upon: i) an international, multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team of five scholars whose academic engagement with religion involves a range of thematic concerns; and, ii) relevant stakeholders involved in formulating, enacting or working within policies, laws and programmes pertaining to religious diversity. Through face-to-face events and virtually mediated interactions, the network will allow its academic and stakeholder participants to engage in discussions which cross boundaries and stimulate new thinking, to exchange novel ideas and new research papers, and to reflect individually and collectively upon existing enactments of religious diversity. In addition to rectifying the three deficiencies in knowledge and understanding identified above, the network aims both to inform non-academic organisations and communities with immediate interests in religious diversity and to provide a springboard for strong and lasting international collaborations, particularly between the two UK institutions (Lancaster University and King's College London) involved and those of the other three key participants in Brazil, India and Taiwan.

Referenced elsewhere by way of James Beckford, the issue of religious diversity overlaps with a range of political, legal and socio-cultural matters from 'human rights' through 'social cohesion' to 'plural jurisdictions' (see Case for Support). Indeed, only last month (June, 2013), the EU Foreign Affairs Council released further guidance responding to issues engendered by Europe's ongoing religious diversification ('EU Guidelines on the Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Religion and Belief'). Not least in view of modern society's progressive diversification at both structural and social levels, the political-juridical and socio-cultural implications of religious diversity furnish its scholarly engagement with a relevance that goes far beyond the academic community. In respect of traditional and mainstream religions, for example, these implications pertain to private (e.g. business) and public (e.g. hospitals, prisons and schools) provisions relating to cultural, dietary, educational, medical and ritual expectations and exemptions. The claims made and protections sought by alternative and nonmainstream religionists are likewise laden with political-juridical and socio-cultural implications. Within the last year, for example, the Druid Network has threatened legal action against the government funded Inter-Faith Network in view of the latter's refusal to grant full membership, the Brazilian diaspora religion of Santo Daime has been involved in court proceedings relating to its use of a psychotropic 'sacrament' (i.e. ayahuasca) and the Church of Scientology has sought juridical intervention in pursuit of licensing its London chapel for the consecration of marriages.

Detailed further in the 'Pathways to Impact' statement, the proposed network has impact potential for two principal constituencies beyond those identified by the 'Academic Beneficiaries' document.

First, the network has immediate relevance for stakeholders involved in formulating, enacting or working within policies, laws and programmes pertaining to religious diversity. As evidenced by recent debates concerning multiculturalism and ongoing discussions in respect of securitisation, for example, law, policies and programmes regarding religious diversity are formed and enacted relative to overarching paradigms which, intentionally and indirectly, shape both institutional practices and organisational values impacting the lives and behaviour of individuals and communities across the UK. By engaging with and reflecting upon the experiences of religious diversity within the BRIC nations (compared and contrasted with the UK context), the international networking opportunities undertaken by the proposed project will furnish a broader perspective upon and enhanced appreciation of the character, contributions and limitations of UK laws, policies and programmes relating to religious diversity. Network impact is optimised in this respect through the participation of key stakeholders drawn from relevant organisations and interest groups (examples are listed in 'Pathways to Impact').

Second, the academic institutions involved in the network will benefit from the establishment of strong and long-term collaborative relationships outlasting the funded period of the proposed project. Through the collaborative relationships established during the network project, for example, UK-based academic staff and students will benefit from the professional and skill-enhancing opportunities furnished by way of exchanges with and placements at the foreign universities (not least, IIT Guwahati and its sister institutions across India) participating in the proposed network. At the same time, the institutional connections forged through network collaborations will be used to enhance the recruitment of both undergraduate and postgraduate international students by UK-based participating universities (i.e. Lancaster University and King's College London).