Thinking Beyond Multiple Secularities
Saturday, 14 October, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Beyond the Concept. Research Agenda Based on the Heuristic Potential of Multiple Secularities
Juan Cruz Esquivel (CONICET / Universidad de Buenos Aires)
From Multiple Secularities to Social Welfare - Beyond the West, and Beyond Modernities
André Laliberté (University of Ottawa)
Possible Futures for Multiple Secularities Research
Jason Josephson Storm (Williams College)
Chair: N.N.
Beyond the Concept. Research Agenda Based on the Heuristic Potential of Multiple Secularities
Juan Cruz Esquivel (CONICET / Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Multiple secularities, more than a theoretical concept, implies an epistemological, theoretical and analytical perspective to understand the relations between the religious and the secular in the contemporary world. This approach, which enables a field of research to analyze the singularities of the historical contexts of various social configurations, at the same time stimulates systematic and comparative analyses. In this sense, the research was oriented primarily to identify the particularities of the secularization process in the Western world and in Eastern countries. Much less have they focused on unraveling the dissimilar paths within the West, taking into account the different historical ways of resolving the tensions derived from the processes of institutional differentiation. Considering the heuristic potential of this theoretical-analytical tool, it would be opportune, on the one hand, to advance in the construction of a system of typologies worldwide that systematizes the multiple secularities. On the other hand, to reflect on the challenges of the concept today, in light of the renewed religious presences in the public space and their incidence in the dynamics of institutional differentiation. The management of religious diversity as a gravitating element in government agendas is processed in various formats, depending on the imprints of the predominant religious institutions, the political culture of the ruling class and the levels of secularization of society itself. To what extent are the processes of institutional differentiation being transformed is a research question that would contribute to revising the scope of the conceptual framework of multiple secularities in its interpretive capacity of the contemporary dynamics.
From Multiple Secularities to Social Welfare - Beyond the West, and Beyond Modernities
André Laliberté (University of Ottawa)
I would like to celebrate the meaningful contribution of the project Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West and Beyond Modernities to the field of political science especially with the issue of decolonization and the realities of deep diversity. A key problem that the discipline will have to wrestle with for years to come is the risk that legitimate concerns for contextualization and methodological humility can be misconstrued as the advocacy of irreconcilable differences and boundaries between fixed and incommensurable traditions. The balance that the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences has maintained throughout the years has managed to avoid that trap and given reasons for hope because it has shown empirically that these aspirations are shared by colleagues the world over. The concept of multiple secularities has provided me with a germane framework to disentangle the paradox of China: A society that remains deeply religious but nevertheless has to bear governance by political rulers who profess atheism but at the same time have never embraced one of its constitutive ideas of freedom of conscience; and therefore, disqualifying them to define their regime as a secular state. The reliance on comparative historical sociology that has guided the principal investigators and the team working with them proved to be a salutary methodology because it has reminded us that culture is not destiny and that people who claim a Chinese heritage can look to other options than the model of pseudo-secularism enforced by the Chinese Communist Party: they can look to Taiwan for a very different way in which the legacy of Chinese religions and philosophy have nurtured the resilience of a prosperous democracy with its distinctive characteristics. I shall reflect on how the methodology that inspired the whole research program of multiple secularities beyond the West and beyond modernity could possibly be extended to nourish a research program on welfare, mutuality, and social justice that would aim as well to reach a global comparative scope.
Possible Futures for Multiple Secularities Research
Jason Josephson Storm (Williams College)
The exploration of multiple secularities has been a remarkable endeavor in understanding the diverse forms of social and discursive differentiation across various cultures, contexts, and historical periods. While I harbor reservations about the applicability of the multiple secularities model to cultures that lack a distinct category of “religion,” I must acknowledge the project's exceptional ability to track and analyze important themes and cultural conjunctures. Building upon this foundation, I propose the consideration of alternative forms of social and intellectual differentiation that are closely intertwined with the concept of secularity (such as the binary differentiations between science/superstition, science/magic, religion/magic and/or the secular conceptions of temporality and history). In summary, this talk will reflect on the way my thinking has evolved from conversations with the group, but it will mainly aim to inspire and suggest possible future research endeavors along different paths and uncharted territories.
