Second special section on religion and territorial politics in southern Europe

ABSTRACT

The three articles included in this second special section devoted to the interactions between religion and territorial politics in southern Europe continue the underlying research questions about the multiscalar interactions between religious mobilisation and policymaking, focusing on different denominations and scales of observations. The three articles point out three relevant elements for the analysis of religion and local politics. First, they show how contextualised exogenous factors influence the structures of opportunities for religions in the public and the political spheres. Second, they inchoately reveal the weakness of simplistic readings of the secularisation thesis. Third, they evidence the importance of a local and localised approach in analysing the relationships between religion and politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion
• politics
• third sector
• southern Europe
• local politics

With this issue of Religion, State & Society, we present the second special section devoted to the interactions between religion and territorial politics in Southern Europe. The two articles published in the previous special section (in Religion, State & Society, 43 (2), June 2015) focused on Catholic organisations in Spain and Italy and their multiscalar interactions with the state apparatuses (Giorgi and Polizzi 2015; Itçaina 2015). The three articles included in this section continue and expand the underlying research questions about the multiscalar interactions between religious mobilisation and policymaking, focusing on different denominations and scales of observation.

Mar Griera’s contribution virtually connects the first and the current section by highlighting the relevant role of regions in religion–politics relationships, addressed by the first two articles, and exploring the role of exogenous (political) factors in defining the role of religion in the public and political sphere. Griera addresses the connections between national identity and religion in the case of a stateless nation, Catalonia. The article observes how a national minority such as the Catalan one is dealing with religious diversity. As a research question, in conjunction with recent research carried out in other Spanish regions (Shershneva 2015), Griera wonders whether the stateless nations are characterised by a distinct approach to religious diversity issues. Does the Catalan political aspiration to self-government influence the nature of the regional politics of religion? Griera shows evidence that the design and the implementation of a territorial regulation of religious diversity was used by Catalan nationalist movements in their political struggle with the Spanish central government. The autonomous government played a pioneer role in Spain in developing a policy programme addressing religions and religious diversity, with the creation in 2000 of a Catalan Secretariat for Relations with Religious Confessions. From then on, different nationalist parties were in charge of the Secretariat, and they all played a central role in the definition and implementation of the new governance model of religious diversity in Catalonia. The Catalan government promoted political agreements with religious communities. These agreements contended that the regional government would foster the accommodation of religious minorities in public institutions by facilitating pastoral care and places of worship and fostering an atmosphere of respect and inclusiveness. Clearly, the aim was to fill the lacuna left by the Spanish government in this field. For their part, religious leaders and organisations were asked to learn and promote the use of the Catalan language among their members. These agreements were meant to offer an image of the Catalan government as being more tolerant and more open towards religious minorities than the Spanish state. By doing so, Catalan nationalists also framed the role of religion in contributing to the pragmatic and symbolic governance of immigration, bearing in mind the electoral role played by immigrants. In that respect, the publication of this article takes on special meaning given the uncertainties surrounding the political becoming of Catalonia after the Catalonian Parliament voted on 9 November 2015 to formally begin the independence process.

Lina Molokotos–Liederman’s contribution explores the impact of the economic crisis and its aftermaths on the Orthodox Church of Greece (OCG), and its relations with national identity and the Greek state. The OCG was a highly relevant actor in Greek welfare far before the eruption of the economic crisis; nonetheless, the dramatic increase in the economic difficulties and the failure of the Greek state gave new visibility to the welfare work of the OCG, which indeed played a crucial role as welfare provider. When state welfare services proved to be an insufficient safety net for the people in need, and the economic pressures on the families became excessive, the OCG became a critical resource and ended up assuming the role of a ‘second family’. On the other hand, the OCG itself was critically affected by the crisis, as a result of its institutional relations with the Greek state apparatus. The OCG tried to compensate for the decreasing public resources by developing its real estate assets, in order to maximise its revenue. Interestingly, it also called upon the support of the Greek diaspora and the transnational Orthodox networks. As a backlash effect, though, as was the case in Spain and Italy, the crisis also brought to the fore a public controversy about the church’s property and finances. Moreover, concerns were raised about the opportunity, for the OCG, to be active in the public sphere and welfare services provision instead of dealing exclusively with pastoral care. Paradoxically, the crisis simultaneously increased the social role of the OCG while challenging its legitimacy and its relation with the Greek national identity. The current situation, the author argues, can be a window of opportunity for both the OCG and the Greek state to assess their role and redefine their relationships. By exploring this ambivalent reaction of the OCG to the crisis, Molokotos–Liederman contributes here to an ‘ethnography of austerity’ (Knight and Stewart 2016) which is more than necessary in southern European territories.

The observation scale becomes more local with Angelo Scotto’s contribution. Scotto addresses the role of nonprofit organisations in immigration policymaking in southern Italy, with a case study on the role of two third-sector organisations assisting migrants in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region. The article analyses the social work and the advocacy role of the two organisations. The first, the Scalabrinians, is a Catholic religious order which has been working with migrants since the end of the nineteenth century. The second is the Libera association, whose main purpose is the promotion of legality and the struggle against the Mafias. Although independent, nonconfessional and related to left-wing social movements, Libera was nonetheless founded by a priest, and shares many values with those sectors of the Catholic Church more committed in social issues. In Foggia, both associations have had to face a situation of immigrant ghettoes controlled by the gangmaster system (caporalato) acting as illegal intermediaries in the local job market. The nonprofit organisations were confronted with a dilemma: should they assist immigrants within the ghettoes, thus reinforcing indirectly the very existence of these ghettoes, or rather should they commit themselves in the fight against the gangmaster system, alongside the unions, the state and other actors? Scotto shows that the two organisations made different choices in that respect, with different articulations between their charitable mission and their transformative mission.

The three articles point out three relevant elements for the analysis of religion and local politics in southern Europe.

First, they show how contextualised exogenous factors influence the structures of opportunity for religions in the public and the political spheres. The gangmaster system in Foggia, which fosters ghettoisation of migrants, poses an ethical dilemma to local religious and religion-related organisations dealing with migrants, influencing the development of specific local strategies. The economic crisis in Greece, far more dramatic than elsewhere in the European Union, impacts upon the specific church-state regime and the role of Orthodox religion in Greek national identity, potentially triggering relevant changes. Finally, the political struggle for Catalan autonomy crucially influences the regional governance of religions built in contrast to the national norms.

Second, they inchoately reveal the weakness of simplistic readings of the secularisation thesis. In Catalonia, policy innovation supporting religious diversity has taken place in one of the most secularised regions of Spain (Pérez-Agote 2012), and the governance of religion might potentially become a distinctive trait of Catalonia’s struggle for autonomy. In Italy and in Greece, despite the progressive weakening of the traditional indicators of religiosity, religious actors are clearly embedded in state welfare provisions and policymaking in the fields of welfare and migration. Especially in times of emergency, they prove to play a crucial role in supporting the disadvantaged population – even though research shows evidence of constant tensions within religious institutions between emergency action and long-term strategic vision. Moreover, in Greece, the aftermaths of the economic crisis, and its backlashes, may trigger a modification of the role of the church with respect to the Greek state, and of Orthodox religion as a distinctive character of national identity.

Third, the articles show the importance of a local (or localised) approach in analysing the relationships between religion and politics. Indeed, in the Catalan case, the interplay of regional and national governments is relevant to the understanding of the role of religion in this region. In Scotto’s paper, the particular situation of immigrants in Foggia configures a specific constellation of actors and opportunities. Moreover, the analysis highlights internal differences in Catholicism. Finally, in the case of Greece, the increased role of religion in public services in the aftermaths of the economic crisis, which is common to other southern European countries, is filtered by the specific role of Orthodox religion in Greek national identity, which of course interacts with the economic failure of the Greek state.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alberta Giorgi

Alberta Giorgi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centro de Estudos Sociais, University of Coimbra and an associated member of GSRL (CNRS), and collaborates with the project GRASSROOTSMOBILISE. Her research interests include political secularism and secularisation, religious associations and political participation. Her recent publications include European Culture Wars and the Italian Case: Which Side Are You On? with L. Ozzano (Routledge 2015) and ‘Ahab and the White Whale: The Contemporary Debate around the Forms of Catholic Political Commitment in Italy’, Democratization 20(5), 2013. She was a guest editor (with E. Polizzi) of the special issue ‘Paths of Research in Religion and Politics’ of the open journal of sociopolitical studies Partecipazione e Conflitto 7(1), 2014.

Xabier Itçaina

Xabier Itçaina is a CNRS research fellow at Sciences Po Bordeaux and a former Marie Curie Fellow (2012–2013) at the European University Institute, Florence. His research interests are Catholicism and territorial politics in southern Europe, the territorial dynamics of social economy and identity politics. Among his publications are: ‘Between Logics of Deliberation and Appropriateness: The Discourse and Practices of the Catholic Church over the Basque Issue’, Critical Policy Studies, 7(3) (2013); ‘Between Hospitality and Competition: The Catholic Church and Immigration in Spain’ (with F. Burchianti), in A. Hennig and J. Haynes (eds.), Religious Actors in the Public Sphere (Routledge, 2011); and Politics of Religion in Western Europe: Modernities in Conflict? (edited with F. Foret) (Routledge, 2011).