Religion and Secularism

Description

Conveners:

David Lehmann (SPS, Cambridge)
Humeira Iqtidar (Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge)
Emile Perreau Saussine (SPS, Cambridge)
John Barber (Department of Politics, Cambridge)

The workshop was  part of the programme of activities of the Religion and Secularism Network, funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme. Its purpose was to analyse  the concept of the secular both theoretically and by exploring the diversity of regimes of religious regulation, with special reference to the UK, France and Russia. All three countries have been through changes in the relationship between the state and religion, due largely to the presence of Muslim diasporas in the UK and France, and to the transition to a post-Communist system in Russia. The results, which are still in flux, illustrate the diversity of ways in which states and religious institutions manage their mutual relationships.

There were papers on theoretical, comparative and philosophical topics as well as others giving accounts, for example, of religious sects in Russia, of the UK government's programme to prevent extremism among Muslims, of the institutionalization of 'community' affiliation in Northern Ireland's new institutions, and of institutional changes in laïcité.

 

 

                                           

 

The Religion and Secularism Network
Religion and Society