Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

Religions and Political Systems: Old Dilemmas and New Challenges

Workshop organizzato da Università di Torino - Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società - Laboratorio CRAFT, Università di Perugia - Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche - progetto RE-PUBLIC, SISP - Standing group Politics and Religion 

Invio abstract entro il 31 ottobre 2024 a valeria.resta@unimi.it e susanna.pagiotti@unipg.it

22 novembre 2024 
Torino, CLE, Aula 3D440

Program of the initiative
Workshop: 9.30-12.45
Lunch: 12:45-13:45
Round Table: 14:00-16.00

Description and scope of the workshop
The debate upon the role of religion has started to catalyze increasing attention within the scholarly debate. In fact, the heightened sense of uncertainty characterizing the historical moment we are experiencing—marked by both new and ongoing wars, populist movements, and renewed ethical debates—seems to have revitalized discussions about the role of religion within the various mechanisms of the political system.
The instrumental use of religious symbols and rhetoric by authorities, increasingly evident in public discourse, is accompanied by a conflict concerning the meanings attributed to the secularism of regimes and the secularization of political communities.
The workshop, organized by the Italian Society of Political Science (SISP) Standing Group on Politics and Religion, aims to stimulate a discussion among scholars from diverse disciplines dealing with the role religion has played and plays in the transformation of contemporary political systems from an international and comparative perspective.
The call for contribution is open to ongoing research projects addressing the role of religion within the different political institutions regulating all the various aspects of mobilization, representation and the exercise of power in both democratic and non-democratic systems.
Within this broad framework, the workshop invites the submission of proposals that explore and critically examine the relationship between religion and politics, focusing on one or more of the research topics from the following non-exhaustive list:
- Public role of religions
- Use of religious symbols/discourses in politics
- Religion and populism
- Religion and political parties
- Religion and gender
- Religious pluralism and democratization or authoritarian backsliding
- Religion, rights and freedoms
- Transnational religious movements
- Religion and international politics
- Religious mobilization and authority between war and peace
- Religious extremism, radicalization and de-radicalization

Contributions may be submitted in either Italian or English and can be of a theoretical or empirical nature. Methodologically, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches as well as contributions based on mixed-methods research designs and comparative perspectives are welcomed.

Short abstracts (500 words max) may be submitted by October 31 to valeria.resta@unimi.it and susanna.pagiotti@unipg.it