Coordination: Steffen Dix; Vice-coordination: José Pereira Coutinho
Presentation

During the 20TH century, Western sociology was characterized by a narrative of secularization that predicted a disappearance of religion in a modernizing world. In the early years of the 21ST CENTURY, however, revisiting this prevailing narrative led to the confirmation that religion remains an intrinsic and important part of world culture. It was asserted that religion remains an influential factor in public space and is not only affected by globalization. First and foremost, an awareness has emerged that religions should also be seen as powerful actors that decisively influence and co-determine the globalization processes. In other words, a study of the activities, contexts and specific language of religions – or, in general, of religious dynamics – has become indispensable for understanding the functioning and development of world society and culture. In this Research Group we seek to understand, on the one hand, the interdependence between religious attitudes and globalization processes and, on the other hand, the effects of local dynamics on different religious interpretations of the world.

Objectives

• Understand the contemporary role of religions in confronting complex global challenges (issues of migration, refugees, environment or racism, inequality of economic development, conflicts between global and local politics, etc.).
• Study the function of religions in the construction of worldviews, norms and values in a globalized world; understand the religious mechanisms in the social integration of individuals in multicultural societies.
• Analyse and understand the coexistence particularities and various contactsm between members of different cultures and beliefs in a global and local environment (glocalization).
• Study Catholicism as the largest and oldest transnational protagonist.
• Analyse the relationships and connections between religion, the arts, and the media (religion in the digital age).

Projects and initiatives

“Global Catholicism” Project – In this project we intend to understand – in historical and contemporary terms – the way Catholicism can be seen as one of the most important actors in globalization. One intends to thoroughly investigate the historical establishment of cultural connections between West and East, driven by the Catholic Church (and especially by the Jesuits and other religious orders). With regard to current times, globalization, secularity, nationalist movements, the religious market and neoliberalism have generated a particular dynamic that has led the Catholic Church to a more pronounced position in defence of universal human rights, the dignity of life and a more egalitarian world. That is to say, being one of the most important actors in globalization, the Catholic Church must also be understood as a protest factor that seeks alternatives to the current trends of globalization. In this project we intend to elucidate the parallelism between being an important agent in globalization and protesting against the negative effects of a neo-liberal globalization.

“Religion, Arts and Media” Project – Religion, arts and media are involved in a reciprocal relationship. Religion decisively influences how individuals conceive their worldviews or how they define their role in society. This process, however, is increasingly subject to global infrastructures and new technologies. On the one hand, religions work with texts – and nowadays especially with images – that can be reproduced indefinitely and disseminated easily through electronic devices. In other words, after being located mainly in the private space, religions have recovered the public space, especially through these electronic reproductions and dissemination. On the other hand, electronic facilities have allowed a certain “democratization” of religion insofar as they offer enormous freedom to know and to express individual opinions about the most diverse religious movements. This freedom is used primarily by artists, who are thus able to critically interpret religious beliefs and principles. Taking this reciprocity into consideration, the project intends to analyse – within the urban space of Lisbon – how individual religious experiences and institutional attitudes of official religions are transmitted through electronic media and/or artistically represented.

“‘Global-local religion’ in Mouraria” Project – The cultural, ethnic and religious density of the Lisbon neighbourhood of Mouraria is a clear manifestation of how the global can be found within the local. This neighbourhood represents a multiplicity of global religious orientations within a particular site, characterized by a specific historical tradition. Using the expression “Global-local religion”, this project intends to carry out empirical studies in one of the most emblematic neighbourhoods in Lisbon, with the main goal of exploring the effects of a close coexistence of globally different (or distant) religious traditions. More specifically, we intend to analyse the different aspects of the “Global-local religion”, such as the (peaceful or conflictive) ways of intercultural communication or the eventuality of a hybridisation between different national, ethnic and religious particularities.

“Multiplicity of people ‘without religion’: identities, behaviour and social attitudes” – specifically, the main objective consists of an attempt to qualitatively describe the individuals “without religion”, distinguishing them into four groups: atheists, agnostics, indifferent and believers “without religion”. In an inner and outer comparison (with the group of Catholics), it is intended to particularly study: (A) the identities and behaviours; (B) the norms, attitudes and social values of people “without religion”; and (C) the zones for possible cultural conflicts. Project already submitted to the FCT funding program.

• Organization of an international exhibition and conference under the title Religion, Arts and Media, in 2022;
• Organization of a biannual meeting of a group of researchers, gathered under the title “RELIGION, GLOBALIZATION AND LOCAL DYNAMICS”, in order to present the most recent researches or projects, starting in 2023.