Abstract
In recent years religious pluralization has become a significant policy issue in Western societies as a result of a new awareness of religion and of religious minorities articulating themselves and becoming more visible. The article explores the variety of social and political reactions to religious diversity in urban areas and in doing so it brings together theoretical concepts of political and cultural sociology. The notion of diversity governance as joint endeavour of state and societal actors managing societies is linked to the notion of boundary work as interplay of state and/or societal actors maintaining or modifying boundaries between religious traditions. Based on two case studies the article illustrates two idealtypical settings of diversity governance: The first case from the German Ruhr Area stands for a bottom-up approach which is based on civic self-organization of interreligious activities whereas the second case from the Swiss canton of Lucerne exhibits a model of top-down governance based on state interventions in religious instruction at schools. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and participant observation the authors show how different governance settings shape the construction and blurring of boundaries in the religious field. Both approaches operate differently when incorporating religious diversity and rendering former homogenous notions of we-groups more heterogeneous. Despite of the approaches initial aim of inclusion, patterns of exclusion are equally reproduced since the idea of ‘legitimate religion’ rooted in Christian majority culture is present.
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Notes
This led to the modern Swiss state in 1848 with state neutrality towards religion inscribed in the constitution (Pfaff-Czarnecka 2009). Nevertheless, Switzerland does not know a strict separation between the church and the state, decisive on this issue are cantonal arrangements (altogether 26) (Cattacin et al. 2003).
Judaism is an exception and recognized under public law in Germany and parts of Switzerland (e.g. Zurich).
The project (entitled ‘Religion and Ethnicity: What identities, practices, and boundaries?—a study with young people’) was directed by Prof. Janine Dahinden (University of Neuchâtel) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the research program 58 ‘Religion, state and society’. The relevant data here was collected by Kerstin Duemmler and Joanna Menet.
The Junior Research Group “Networking Religion” started in autumn 2009 and is funded by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia. Comprising of a post-doctoral group leader and six doctoral students the group uses a network analytical approach to investigate how religious migrant communities establish networks of support within and how they are embedded in local communities.
This subproject is conducted by Alexander K. Nagel and assisted by Mehmet Kalender, who conducted the in-depth interviews.
In the Ruhr-Area these groups are underrepresented in interreligious activities for two reasons: First, as noted by a New Apostolic representative, there may be inner resistance against religious collaboration beyond ecumenism, sometimes even to the point of resentments against Islam. Second, the equal participation of all Christian denominations would be at odds with the general mode of representation: one representative for one faith-tradition.
The group comprises pastors of the two established churches, an Imam of the nearby DITIB-mosque and members of several smaller Christian denominations.
The participation of Bahai (there are some active communities in the Ruhr-Area) remains contested: while the Bahai regard themselves as the youngest child of the Abrahamic family (marked by universal monotheism and strong ethics of solidarity), some Muslim representatives feel uncomfortable with acknowledging Bahai as a genuine Abrahamic tradition.
See also del MarGriera and Forteza (2001: 122).
The French-speaking cantons Neuchâtel and Geneva are exceptions. They institutionalised a stricter separation between the state und the church even before the Kulturkampf during the 19th century.
Islamic education is provided in two municipalities who have participated in a pilot project (Scherl-Hüsler 2003). In addition, the government of Lucerne is currently working on the basic law in order to officially recognise Islam as a religious congregation.
No substitute lesson was provided as it has been often the case for Germany introducing lessons in ethics.
Teachers used the term ‘religious sect’ without specifying what congregations are concerned with this categorization; however, negative aspects of religion (e.g. social pressure) were projected. We use this term here as an ‘emic’ category that marks a bright boundary between new religious movements (e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses) and established dominant religions.
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Duemmler, K., Nagel, AK. Duemmler, Kerstin; Nagel, Alexander-Kenneth: Governing Religious Diversity: Top-down and bottom-up initiatives in Germany and Switzerland. Integr. psych. behav. 47, 265–283 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-012-9226-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-012-9226-7