Call for Abstracts

Submission Deadline: July 15, 2017

This is a Call for Abstracts to contribute to the Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society (target publication: 2018).  We are particularly interested in contributions from early career scholars from around the world.

The study of religion is at a turning point, along with religion itself. This book will capitalize on the emergence of a new paradigm, which considers religion in the 21^st century as globally interconnected and mediated by new geopolitical and market logics.

This volume will showcase new approaches to religion, which work across boundaries of religious tradition, academic discipline, and region.

Please consider the following rationale for your proposed papers.

You may send your proposed title, abstract (no more than 500 words), name, and affiliation to Jayeel Cornelio (jcornelio@ateneo.edu) by July 15, 2017.

RATIONALE

The volume understands changes in religion since the 1980s as shaped by wider socio-political-cultural changes of the period.  The shift is from one dominated by modernist national-statist formations and alliances to one in which forces, institutions and ideologies of neoliberalism, consumerism, migration, and mediatization have become major structuring vectors.  But at the same time we also see a pushback from anti-globalization movements of right and left and a return to the nation and/or more locally based identities. Growing environmental concern and the concept of the Anthropocene add an additional element.

This is how the handbook characterizes the contemporary state of global society.  As a result, ‘soft power’, including religion and competing forms of secularity and ‘no religion’, come to be central in new geopolitical configurations and contestations of power.  Recognizing these new configurations, this handbook will interrogate the past, present and futures of religion in global society.

The handbook welcomes contributions approaching religion at different levels of society (whether local, regional, national, transnational) — the macro, meso and micro.  For example, chapters can focus on internal transformations that occur within religious institutions; on the changing nature of practices, belief, adherence, piety and devotion among individuals; or the changing role of religious organizations with respect to politics, the economy and other social institutions.  Some contributions may discuss how religious movements are taking on global issues. Others will take a theoretical perspective and try to make sense of the current situation, even when this requires rethinking existing theories and concepts.

The handbook is multidisciplinary in approach and organized according to the following themes.  We invite contributions from scholars around the world, particularly those who are in their early careers.  Our aim is to make this handbook the first to go beyond Western-centric appraisals, and present a truly global portrait. Contributions dealing with dynamics around the world are therefore solicited.

The following topics are indicative only, and will change in response to submissions.

A.  CONTEXT

1.  Introduction: a new approach

2.  Theorizing religion in a global context

3.  Global demographics of religion

4.  Globalization and the national

5.  Rethinking religious traditions

6.  Authority and individualization

B.  INDIVIDUALS, IDENTITY, and INTIMACIES

7.  Generations

8.  Religion, sex, family and gender

9.  Intimacy

10.  Global classes

11.  Religion and identities

C.  MARKETS, MEDIA, and CULTURES

12.  Branding religion

13.  Merchandising religion

14.  Digital religion

15.  Popular culture

16.  Religion and fashion

D.  MOBILITY AND MIGRATION

13.  International migration and mobility

14.  Missionaries and traveling gurus

15.  Transnationalism and diasporas

16.  Migrant religious settlements

17.  Pilgrimage and religious tourism

E.  COMMUNITIES and MOVEMENTS

18.  Moderates versus fundamentalists

19.  The shape of religious organizations

20.  Networks and virtual communities

21. Religious spectacle, pilgrimage and festivals

22.  Global subcultures

23.  Religion and science

Source: The Center for Global Christianity & Mission