GRK 2706:  Transformative Religion: Religion as Situated Knowledge in Processes of Social Transformation

• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies ; Theology
• Term: since 2022
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441943577

The German–South African International Research Training Group (IRTG) investigates the impact of religion on processes of social transformation and the impact of these transformations on religion in contemporary global societies. It seeks to contribute to recent academic research and public debates on the complex relationship between religion and society. In the Global North, respective discourses often show the influence of theories according to which processes of social transformation cause a decrease in the social significance of religion in ‘modern’ societies (‘secularisation’). Accordingly, functional (scientific, technological etc.) knowledge is strictly differentiated as a socially relevant factor from religion that appears as marginalised in its epistemic validity and social relevance. In other contexts, particularly in the Global South, however, a different tendency can be observed. Religious concepts, discourses and practices are perceived as significant, if contested and ambiguous, resources of social transformation and introduced into new descriptions of the relationship between religion and society that are no longer oriented by the secularisation narrative. Against the backdrop of these discursive and hierarchical differences in perceiving and positioning religion in the field of knowledge, this IRTG aims at a critical epistemology through which the situatedness of religious knowledge production and reception in processes of social transformation can be made the subject of research. In case studies from contexts in the Global South and North, the IRTG seeks to investigate religion as specifically situated knowledge functioning as a resource and as a site of social transformation. It engages scholars from two continents and a variety of disciplines to go beyond conventional research approaches. The IRTG’s studies are conducted within four thematic fields in which the relationship of religion and social transformation is approached empirically: national identity, development, migration and healing. The IRTG has been integrating structures of cooperation between researchers from four institutions for more than 15 years. Its qualification programme has been jointly developed with respect to the specific requirements of doctoral qualification in Germany and South Africa. Transcontinental joint supervision and evaluation procedures, as well as transdisciplinary theoretical, methodological and professional training, will be part of an overall strategy that promotes innovative research and excellent qualification of young researchers as well as equal opportunity at all levels.

• DFG Programme: International Research Training Groups
• International Connection: South Africa
• Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• IRTG-Partner Institution: University of KwaZulu-Natal; Universiteit Stellenbosch; University of the Western Cape
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Torsten Meireis
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Andreas Feldtkeller; Professorin Dr. Naika Foroutan; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Kluge; Professor Baz Lecocq, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Regina Römhild; Professor Dr. Henrik Simojoki
• IRTG-Partner: Spokesperson: Professor Jeremy Punt