New Diversities an Online Journal Published by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
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NEW DIVERSITIES An online journal published by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Volume 18, No. 1, 2016 Religion and Superdiversity Guest Editors: Irene Becci (University of Lausanne) Marian Burchardt (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen) Religion and Superdiversity: An Introduction 1 by Marian Burchardt (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen) and Irene Becci (University of Lausanne) Enhancing Spiritual Security in Berlin’s Asian Bazaars 9 by Gertrud Hüwelmeier (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) Religion, Conviviality and Complex Diversity 23 by Deirdre Meintel (Université de Montréal) Multi-Religiosity: Expanding Research on Ties to Multiple Faiths in the 21st Century 37 by Liza G. Steele (State University of New York at Purchase) Mobility and Religious Diversity in Indigenousness-Seeking Movements: A Comparative Case Study between France and Mexico 53 by Manéli Farahmand (University of Lausanne / University of Ottawa) and Sybille Rouiller (University of Lausanne) When Homogeneity Calls for Super-Diversity: Rome as a Religious Global City 73 by Valeria Fabretti (University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’) and Piero Vereni (University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’) Editor: Marian BURchardt Guest Editors: Irene BEccI Marian BURchardt Language Editor: Sarah Blanton Layout and Design: Birgitt SIPPEL Past Issues in 2008-2015: “The Infrastructures of Diversity: Materiality and Culture in Urban Space”, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2015 “Engaging with the Other: Religion, Identity, and Politics in the Mediterranean”, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2015 “Migration and Development: Rethinking Recruitment, Remittances, Diaspora Support and Return”, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2014 “Social Mobility and Identity Formation”, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014 “Diversity and Small Town Spaces: Twenty Years into Post-Apartheid South African Democracy ”, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2013 “Female Migration Outcomes II”, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2013 “Language and Superdiversities II”, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2012 “Skilled Migration and the Brain Drain”, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2012 “Language and Superdiversities”, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2011 “Female Migration Outcomes: Human Rights Perspectives”, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2011 “Depicting Diversities”, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010 “Turks Abroad: Settlers, Citizens, Transnationals”, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2009 “The Human Rights of Migrants”, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2009 “The Conditions of Modern Return Migrants”, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2008 “Citizenship Tests in a Post-National Era”, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2008 © MPI MMG (2016) ISSN-Print 2199-8108 ISSN-Internet 2199-8116 Published by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Hermann-Föge-Weg 11 D-37073 Göttingen, Germany Available online at www.newdiversities.mmg.mpg.de Religion and Superdiversity: An Introduction by Marian Burchardt (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen) and Irene Becci (University of Lausanne) Introduction undermined in the eyes of the believer the cred- About 10 years ago, Steven Vertovec (2007) ibility of all of them. Theorists of religious econ- coined the notion of superdiversity in order to omies (Stark and Finke 2000), on the contrary, describe a scenario in which a rapidly grow- saw religious diversity in open market situations ing number of migrants remained outside the as a condition of religious vitality. Second, and existing social, economic and cultural categories subsequently, theories and accounts of new reli- that are routinely used to describe migration gious movements (Barker 1999) were primarily flows, and to pinpoint the increasing complex- interested in the cause and consequences of reli- ity of variables describing the social status and gious heterodoxy, which they linked to changes everyday lives of migrants in Britain. Since then, in the very institutional form of religion and its the term has been taken up across the social far-reaching deinstitutionalization (Luckmann sciences and has more generally been used to 1967). Third, more contemporary approaches describe social dynamics in societies character- are primarily animated by the increasing pres- ized by high levels of immigration and population ence of migrant religions and centrally interested mobility (Meissner and Vertovec 2015; Meissner in how they are accommodated in the institu- 2015). While religion was initially not very cen- tional frameworks of the nation-state and in how tral to debates around migration-driven diver- their presence challenges dominant regimes of sity, this has changed dramatically over recent citizenship and secularism. years (Becci, Burchardt and Giorda 2016). In this We suggest that today, there is a need to bet- special issue, we explore the multiplication and ter understand how, in contemporary societ- dynamics of religious differences and the extent ies, religious diversity is afforded visibility, how to which the notion of “religious superdiversity” it is spatially arranged and emplaced, and how suggests a fruitful avenue to guide research and religious diversity becomes a category whereby theorization. ordinary people render their social worlds leg- Before the term superdiversity appeared, the ible (Stringer 2013, Wessendorf 2014). The term concept of religious diversity was employed in a superdiversity opens up new perspectives in number of ways. We suggest that there are three this regard. We propose that the relationships main sociological discourses in which it served between religion and superdiversity needs to different purposes. First, in earlier secularization be elaborated and suggest that there are two theory, religious diversity was chiefly understood majorly distinct ways to do so. First, there are against the backdrop of post-Reformation chris- important questions about “religion in the con- tian diversity and seen as a factor that either text of superdiversity,” which address the rela- favored or hindered religious belief and participa- tionships between religion and other status cate- tion. Peter L. Berger (1967) famously suggested gories in contexts of migration-driven diversifica- that the visible existence of different religions tion such as race, ethnicity, legal status, age, and NEW DIVERSITIES Vol. 18, No. 1, 2016 ISSN ISSN-Print 2199-8108 ▪ ISSN-Internet 2199-8116 New Diversities 18 (1), 2016 Marian Burchardt and Irene Becci gender. And second, we emphasize the emer- open new conceptual spaces for considering the gence, parallel development and mutual consti- location of religion. tution of different kinds of religious differences, While such work is underway (Becci, Burchardt in other words: the interactions of different and Giorda 2016; Stringer 2013), important shifts religious diversities which gives rise to what we on the ground point to the real urgency of taking call religious superdiversity. However, as we will religion more seriously in theory development: also show, both perspectives cannot be isolated First, many scholars pointed to the more cen- from one another. Research into diversity in con- tral place of religion in debates over recognition. temporary immigration societies must take up Grillo (2010) and Eade (2011) have observed how the challenge not only to conceptualize religion the object of recognition in Britain has shifted as a marker of difference but also to recognize from “race to faith” while D’Amato (2015) has the internal diversity of practices, identities and explored the political construction in Switzerland epistemologies that are grouped under the label of a “homo islamicus” within a “total discourse” of religion. In what follows, we analyze each homogenizing Muslim identity (Behloul 2009). of these issues in some detail, scrutinize socio- Second, we note the increasing importance of logical and anthropological approaches to them the law and court-based decision-making in and highlight the ways in which the articles in shaping immigrant integration. This process as this special issue further our understanding well has led to a rise in salience of religion in of them. framing claims of recognition (Koenig 2010). This is particularly important as there has been simul- Religion in the Context of Superdiversity taneously and across Europe a “Multiculturalism As mentioned above, religion did not play a Backlash” (Vertovec and Wessendorf 2010) and major role in earlier scholarly debates on migra- retreat from it (Joppke 2004). While some saw tion. This situation has changed drastically and this retreat as rather rhetorical (Poppelaars and social scientists now view religion as central Scholten 2008) others insisted that it did have a to understanding immigrants’ choices, migra- real political and legal substrate (Joppke 2012). tion trajectories and social integration (Levitt Burchardt and Michalowski (2015) showed in a 2007, Kivisto 2015, connor 2014, Banchoff 2007, comparative analysis of 10 European countries Burchardt 2016). Similarly, we note that religion that while the cultural rights of immigrants have used to play a minor or simplified role within been curtailed in the context of the mentioned scholarly and normative debates on societal multiculturalism backlash, their religious rights paradigms that emerged from political theories have actually expanded during the same period around migration. Dominant during the 1980s in most countries (with the exception of Swit- and 1990s, the paradigm of multiculturalism was zerland). Religion thus emerged as a new arena geared towards emphasizing the recognition of for contestations