Globalization and Religion: Identity and Power
INAES (Institute for North American and European Studies), University of Tehran
15-16 November 2005
You can read a workshop overview and abstracts of contributions online, or you can download this information as an rft file (114 KB - this should open with most word processing packages).
Introduction:
The organizers of this conference are happy to welcome all to this event. The great relevance and timeliness of this forum, and its theme, hardly needs to be stated: nothing is of greater importance at present than the necessity of keeping rigorous and constructive debate and dialogue between ideologically and geopolitically differently located scholars and intellectuals alive. The organizers are convinced that much of the ongoing and steadily exacerbating discord in national and international affairs arises from an unwillingness to communicate and bridge gaps in understanding, especially where issues of religion and globalization are concerned.
The collaborating organizations in this instance are devoted to facilitating such dialogue and debate. The Institute for North American & European Studies-University of Tehran together with The Globalization, Identity Politics and Social Conflict (GIPSC) Project which is part of Open University-UK as well as The Organization of Culture and Islamic Relation are launching this conference on very critical and timely issue of ‘globalization and Religion’ in relation to Identity and Power.
The present conference was conceived to examine the following contentions. To a significant degree globalization has entailed increased interpenetration across different sorts of boundaries and increased cross-boundary access, particularly as a result of simultaneous communication; space is now located amidst ‘deterritorialized’ channels of communication facilitated by developments in ICT and capitalised on by individuals, groups and institutions, which may and do enable more transnational encounters and networks to develop than was the case till fairly recently. These developments naturally impinge upon the religious convictions and practices of individuals, groups and institutions, and gives rise to both political and theological opportunities and challenges. Arguably, the globe has now become the real frame and field of operation for religious movements of all kinds, in contrast to the regional and local definitions of religious values and approaches that have conventionally dominated.
Some of the themes that participants were encouraged to consider in this conference were described in the call-for-papers as follows:
1. Globalization, Power and Religion: Here the relationship between globalization, politics and religion will be examined. Presentations addressing this theme may focus on perceptions of a decentralization of political power attached to ‘nation-state boundaries’; a new recentralization of the power based on a ‘transnational religious factor’ together with ethnic and cultural forces; a reorientation of political institutions both within nation-states and at supranational levels in response to changing relationships between space and religion; etc.. The impact of 9/11 as an accelerative factor in these developments, and especially in the creation of specific geopolitical hegemonies, is likely to figure in a significant fashion here.
2. Globalization, Islam and Religious Identity: The globalization of culture is often thought of as a widespread convergence on a consumerist ethic. This is sometimes regarded, on the one hand, as one of the most significant threats to religious identity. Such arguments maintain that this results in the fragmentation of religious identity at local, regional and global levels, and in the emergence of hybrid and undetermined forms of cultural identity. E.g., it may therefore be argued that the fundamental relationship of Islamic values to a sense of belonging to a material community and homeland is becoming diluted through globalization. On the other hand, it can also been argued that religious identity has never been a stable and homogenised matter: religious affiliations have often gone through transformations and redefinitions; religion has historically often been an area of fragmentation and conflict; and religious identity often breaks down into distinct and even contradictory shades in practice. In following this line of thinking through it might be maintained that the larger spatial embrace that globalization has allowed empowers and extends the scope of religious identity. Those examining this possibility often look at evidence of religious groups and institutions which are extending their operations and networks beyond traditional boundaries by embracing the increasingly global access of communication, and by reorienting their sense of religious identity accordingly. E.g., this may result in the emergence of an all-the-stronger Islamic identity which lays allegiance to a virtual Islamic homeland embracing the globe. Such arguments will be taken up in this conference, with especial — but not exclusive — attention being given to Islamic contexts.
3. Virtual Religion: Simultaneous communication industry is a master force for emergence of new world called ‘virtual world’. Virtualization of reality reinforced religion in a new space — virtual space. Virtualization of religion in variety of forms such as virtual worship, virtual mass, virtual praying and virtual presentation of religious text are considered as a new capacity for globalization or religion. In this conference some of the paper will examine different aspects of ‘virtual religion’.
4. Global Shift, Iran and Islam: The conference will provide an opportunity to debate the role of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in changing the ‘secular political discourse’ of the global arena into a ‘religion-oriented discourse’. It may be argued that by the emergence of the IRI, ideas to do with “dialogue among civilization”; a “clash of civilizations” or “an international policy to promote the new global order” have been impelled to the forefront of social, political and cultural debates. In other words, the conference will provide a forum to address the implications of the larger issues mentioned in the previous points in the light of the specific historical and ongoing experience of Iran.
5. Globalization, Nostalgia, and Religion: Some contributions in the conference will also deal with the consequences of globalization on self and religious values, and examine concepts such as “nostalgia” and “self-alienation” as important aspects of both modernization and globalization. In identifying this theme, it is not intended that familiar concepts such as “nostalgia” and “self-alienation” should be accepted uncritically as negative effects of globalization — the emphasis here is on examining such concepts with a view to either affirming or questioning their efficacy. Many regard nostalgia to be one of the major problems that religious identity has to face in the present time, on the assumption that the current situation is a disturbing departure from various local or regional ideal pasts. Nostalgia and the consequent dislocation of self and identity (self-alienation) are thereby regarded as symptoms of a socio-cultural malaise which has been brought about by the forces of globalization. However, whether such ideal pasts really existed or are constructed with certain political and cultural exigencies and interests in mind is worth examining. Equally open to question, as mentioned already, is the notion of a unitary and stable religious identity.
6. Dichotomization of Religion — Secularization/De-secularization and hybridity of identities: Some contributions will address the dichotomization of religious identity and religious environment, and of the power of religion, as outcomes of the globalization of space and time. This refers particularly to the processes whereby analysis in this area tends to get resolved into (often questionable) binaristic polarities such as secularism v. fundamentalism, universal human rights v. religious communal rights, etc. To a significant extent, taking up this theme involves self-examination of the analytical discourse and research methods that researchers and scholars in this area use.
The abstracts that have been received for presentations in this conference, and that are available in the following pages, promise to address a large number of these concerns with suitable rigour and in an in-depth fashion. Most of the papers understandably address the Iranian context from a range of theoretical and socio-historical perspectives. Some delve into other contexts, such as the Malaysian or the North American. Irrespective of contextual placement, each paper is informed by theoretical concepts and models to do with the theme of this conference that are of general import, and have larger than contextual relevance.