Project acronym PrivatePieties
Project Private Pieties, Mundane Islam and New Forms of Muslim Religiosity: Impact on Contemporary Social and Political Dynamics
Researcher (PI) Roman LOIMEIER
Host Institution (HI) GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAT GOTTINGENSTIFTUNG OFFENTLICHEN RECHTS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Muslim societies have been impacted since the 19th century by far-reaching processes of social and economic change as well as the development of an array of both Islamist and counter-Islamist movements. The present research project proposes to focus on Muslims whose ideas of piety are characterized by their private and individualistic character: they maintain that their piety is not subject to scrutiny by Islamist movements which value public religion as a means of societal control. Insistence on privacy (and individuality) may appear as rather a-political stance, yet, forms an eminently political position as it challenges claims to hegemony of interpretation of both established religious (and political) authorities as well as the leaders of Islamist movements. The present project asks which social and political consequences the movement towards private piety has and what private piety actually means for the social development of Muslim societies, for the development of Islamist movements and their ability to mobilize Muslims for political aims: what happens to politics in such a case? How do Islamist groups react that have to fear most from such a social movement? How also can we assess the role of women in patriarchal societies who appear to gain most from the move towards private piety? The project will approach these questions in the form of a comparative study of social and political contexts in Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan as well as Muslim (Senegalese, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc.) diasporic communities in Europe. Our trans-regional comparative perspective will enable us to identify the social dynamics linked with the movement towards private piety and will be central to respond to the question whether such dynamics of change impact on processes of democratization in the countries chosen as case studies by our research group.
Summary
Muslim societies have been impacted since the 19th century by far-reaching processes of social and economic change as well as the development of an array of both Islamist and counter-Islamist movements. The present research project proposes to focus on Muslims whose ideas of piety are characterized by their private and individualistic character: they maintain that their piety is not subject to scrutiny by Islamist movements which value public religion as a means of societal control. Insistence on privacy (and individuality) may appear as rather a-political stance, yet, forms an eminently political position as it challenges claims to hegemony of interpretation of both established religious (and political) authorities as well as the leaders of Islamist movements. The present project asks which social and political consequences the movement towards private piety has and what private piety actually means for the social development of Muslim societies, for the development of Islamist movements and their ability to mobilize Muslims for political aims: what happens to politics in such a case? How do Islamist groups react that have to fear most from such a social movement? How also can we assess the role of women in patriarchal societies who appear to gain most from the move towards private piety? The project will approach these questions in the form of a comparative study of social and political contexts in Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan as well as Muslim (Senegalese, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc.) diasporic communities in Europe. Our trans-regional comparative perspective will enable us to identify the social dynamics linked with the movement towards private piety and will be central to respond to the question whether such dynamics of change impact on processes of democratization in the countries chosen as case studies by our research group.
Max ERC Funding
2 494 455 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
Project acronym TARICA
Project PoliTical And socioinstitutional change in NoRth AfrICA: competition of models and diversity of national trajectories
Researcher (PI) Alia GANA
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary While the “Arab spring” has been often analyzed as the sign of the world-wide expansion of the model of liberal democracy, almost five years after the Tunisian “revolution”, the geopolitical picture of North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt) shows very different configurations. The wave of protests and in some cases the collapse of authoritarian regimes have produced various outcomes and conducted to different political choices: « negotiated » political change in Morocco, containment of social unrest in Algeria, « national dialogue » and success of electoral processes in Tunisia, authoritarian restoration in Egypt and civil war in Libya. These varied situations have close links with the mobilizations of actors drawing on unequal resources and differentiated logics of action. Analyzing ongoing change in North Africa as part of the process of dissemination, confrontation and hybridization of various political and societal models, and as resulting from their appropriation and reinterpretation by social actors, this project aims at identifying the complex processes, which contribute to the diversity of the trajectories followed by the region in the aftermath of the “Arab revolts”. Our objective is to grasp how various actors position themselves in the space opened up by the collapse or the calling into question of authoritarian regimes and to analyze their strategies in connection with the reference models and normative repertoires, which guide their actions. Our purpose is to identify the factors and processes that make it possible (or prevent) the setting up of institutional arrangements able to manage social diversity, pluralism and conflicts, so as to avoid authoritarian restoration or civil war. Mobilizing a multidisciplinary team of 8 core researchers and a comparative approach centered on the actors, we will explore these processes through three thematic entrees: political regulation, management of the past and transitional justice, social injustice and development.
Summary
While the “Arab spring” has been often analyzed as the sign of the world-wide expansion of the model of liberal democracy, almost five years after the Tunisian “revolution”, the geopolitical picture of North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt) shows very different configurations. The wave of protests and in some cases the collapse of authoritarian regimes have produced various outcomes and conducted to different political choices: « negotiated » political change in Morocco, containment of social unrest in Algeria, « national dialogue » and success of electoral processes in Tunisia, authoritarian restoration in Egypt and civil war in Libya. These varied situations have close links with the mobilizations of actors drawing on unequal resources and differentiated logics of action. Analyzing ongoing change in North Africa as part of the process of dissemination, confrontation and hybridization of various political and societal models, and as resulting from their appropriation and reinterpretation by social actors, this project aims at identifying the complex processes, which contribute to the diversity of the trajectories followed by the region in the aftermath of the “Arab revolts”. Our objective is to grasp how various actors position themselves in the space opened up by the collapse or the calling into question of authoritarian regimes and to analyze their strategies in connection with the reference models and normative repertoires, which guide their actions. Our purpose is to identify the factors and processes that make it possible (or prevent) the setting up of institutional arrangements able to manage social diversity, pluralism and conflicts, so as to avoid authoritarian restoration or civil war. Mobilizing a multidisciplinary team of 8 core researchers and a comparative approach centered on the actors, we will explore these processes through three thematic entrees: political regulation, management of the past and transitional justice, social injustice and development.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 470 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym urban-rev politics
Project The Urban Revolution and the Political
Researcher (PI) Ozan Karaman
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2015-STG
Summary This project is a transnational and comparative study of the political implications of the contemporary ‘urban revolution,’ namely the sweeping socio-cultural, economic, and territorial transformations through which the urban becomes the predominant mode of existence of societies across the world. Across the social sciences and as well as journalistic literatures, there has been a remarkable proliferation of debates around the social and ecological implications of contemporary urbanization.
What is largely missing in these timely debates, however, is any systematic and in-depth engagement with the political significance of the ongoing ‘urban revolution.’ This is due to a lack of systematic research and theoretical engagement regarding the unprecedented prominence of accumulation regimes based on the speculative production, trade and consumption of space. Similarly, extant theoretical tools of urban political analysis fall short of conceptualizing the increasingly planetary nature of privatization and exploitation of the urban and their intricate links to global finance. In addressing these gaps the project advances two overarching goals: 1. to develop conceptual tools for and comparative insights into the increasingly dominant urban-based accumulation regimes, and 2. to advance the politicization of academic and public discourses on the planetary urban condition.
I propose three relational levels (extended moments) of analysis, which respectively focus on the finance/real-estate/state nexus, the exploitation of the urban, and the emerging spaces of the political. These correspond to three subprojects that focus on transnational, everyday, and political dimensions of the urban revolution. The methodological approach will be multi-sited global ethnography, which will combine ethnographies of place-based relations and transnational networks. Filmmaking will be used not only as a research method but also as a storytelling medium.
Summary
This project is a transnational and comparative study of the political implications of the contemporary ‘urban revolution,’ namely the sweeping socio-cultural, economic, and territorial transformations through which the urban becomes the predominant mode of existence of societies across the world. Across the social sciences and as well as journalistic literatures, there has been a remarkable proliferation of debates around the social and ecological implications of contemporary urbanization.
What is largely missing in these timely debates, however, is any systematic and in-depth engagement with the political significance of the ongoing ‘urban revolution.’ This is due to a lack of systematic research and theoretical engagement regarding the unprecedented prominence of accumulation regimes based on the speculative production, trade and consumption of space. Similarly, extant theoretical tools of urban political analysis fall short of conceptualizing the increasingly planetary nature of privatization and exploitation of the urban and their intricate links to global finance. In addressing these gaps the project advances two overarching goals: 1. to develop conceptual tools for and comparative insights into the increasingly dominant urban-based accumulation regimes, and 2. to advance the politicization of academic and public discourses on the planetary urban condition.
I propose three relational levels (extended moments) of analysis, which respectively focus on the finance/real-estate/state nexus, the exploitation of the urban, and the emerging spaces of the political. These correspond to three subprojects that focus on transnational, everyday, and political dimensions of the urban revolution. The methodological approach will be multi-sited global ethnography, which will combine ethnographies of place-based relations and transnational networks. Filmmaking will be used not only as a research method but also as a storytelling medium.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 940 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31
