Religion in Fortress Europe: Perspectives on Belief, Citizenship and Identity in a Time of Polarized Politics
Ebook
How does religion maintain or challenge discourses on national identity? What are the roles that religion plays on all sides – from Islamophobia of the radical right to the Christian alliances on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Islamic beliefs and practices of European citizens as well as migrant communities – in the constitution of Fortress Europe? Are there any alliances shaping between belief and unbelief on either side of the battle for the future of Europe?
These questions and more motivate the chapters in this timely interdisciplinary collection, with contributions focusing on diverse contexts throughout Europe involving a broad range of religious identifications and actors.
A critical and interdisciplinary exploration of the entanglement of discourses on (anti)multiculturalism, (anti)migration, and national identity with discourses of religion and non-religion in Europe.
A timely exploration of the entanglement of religion and non-religion with the climate of reactionary politics, and waves of anti-multiculturalism, anti-immigration, and nationalism sweeping contemporary Europe.
A broad range of case studies focusing on the UK and on Europe - including Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland and Finland.
An interdisciplinary collection, featuring scholars in political science, sociology, religious studies, history, and social anthropology.
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
I. Introduction
1. Introduction: Religion in Fortress Europe, Morteza Hashemi (University of Nottingham, UK) and Christopher R. Cotter (The Open University, UK)
II. Setting the Scene
2. Fortress Europe: Developments of a Concept Since the 1990s, Mike Slaven (University of Lincoln, UK)
III. Case Studies
3. Multicultural Anxieties in England: Schooling Liberalism and the Problem of Religious Expression, John Holmwood (University of Nottingham, UK)
4. Philanthropic Hyphenated Identity: Shia Pakistani-Scottish Health Activism in Scotland, Morteza Hashemi (University of Nottingham, UK)
5. An Embedded Minority: Young Alevis in Germany and Their Search for Identity, Martina Loth (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany)
6. 'Christian Culture' and its Others: Culturalised Religion, Islam and Confessional Christianity in the Netherlands, Daan Beekers (University of Edinburgh, UK)
7. Shaken identities: A Refused Handshake and its Politicization in Switzerland, Martin Bürgin (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Philipp Hetmanczyk (University of Toronto, Canada)
8. Debating Irish Identity: Religion, Race, and Nation and the Construction of Irishness, Hazel O'Brien (Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland)
9. Anti-Islam Politics, Christianity and Identity in the Finnish Public Sphere, Tuomas Äystö (University of Turku, Finland)
IV. Comparative Perspectives
10. Misrecognizing Muslim consciousness in Europe, Nasar Meer (University of Edinburgh, UK)
11. Afterword, Grace Davie (University of Exeter, UK)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A rich and insightful volume that sheds light on religious marginalization and its various stakeholders in 21st-century Europe, urging introspection into the national identities, cultural assumptions and social infrastructures that allow for perpetuated othering and exclusion in liberal democracies.
This timely collection gives the field a rich account of the lived experience of believers and religious community members across contemporary Europe. Insight is provided by detailed case studies covering the British, Swiss, Finnish, Dutch and German contexts among others. These are used to generate theories crucial for our understanding of current controversies, and the struggles and achievements of those within marginalized religious communities across Europe. At a time when migration policies are increasingly exclusive or punitive towards particular minority groups, this work will be compulsory reading for scholars and students studying political religion, ethnicity and migration and sociology of religion. Expertly woven together by emerging leaders in the study of religion and secularity, this is an important and valuable collection.
- Title: Religion in Fortress Europe: Perspectives on Belief, Citizenship and Identity in a Time of Polarized Politics
- Authors: Christopher R. Cotter, Morteza Hashemi
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350341128, 9781350341104, 135034110X, 1350341126
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350341128
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-09T08:30:15Z
Morteza Hashemi is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Christopher R. Cotter is Staff Tutor (Lecturer) in Sociology and Religious Studies at the Open University, UK.