Religion and local politics in Southern Europe: a research agenda

ABSTRACT

This article brings to a conclusion the series of three special sections published in 2015 and 2016 by Religion, State and Society on ‘Religion and local politics in southern Europe’. We set up a research agenda on the interactions between religion and local politics in Southern Europe. In doing so, we focus on the localisation of religion, including religious debates, and on the impact of the recent economic crisis. More specifically, we address the local as a contested concept, the multilevel governance of religion as a scalar opportunity structure – in relation to the transnational dimension of religious actors – the effects of such changes in the welfare landscape and the impact of the economic crisis on the activities and strategies of religious actors in Southern Europe. Our research agenda focuses on the interactions between two main dimensions: the territorial impact of political and economic changes, and the multiscalar schemes of territorial governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion
• politics
• Southern Europe
• governance
• religious diversity

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Philip Walters and Lina Molokotos-Liederman for coordinating the series of special issues and for their work in language editing. The authors would also like to thank all the anonymous referees for their invaluable comments. Alberta wishes to thank the research group GRASSROOTSMOBILISE, http://grassrootsmobilise.eu/.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The series includes the following articles: Religion, State and Society 43(2): X. Itçaina, ‘The crisis as a constrained opportunity? Catholic organisations and territorial welfare in the Basque Country and Emilia-Romagna.’ (118–132); A. Giorgi and E. Polizzi ‘Communion and Liberation: A Catholic movement in a multilevel governance perspective.’ (133–149); Religion, State and Society 44(1): M. Griera ‘The governance of religious diversity in stateless nations: The case of Catalonia’ (13–31); L. Molokotos-Liederman ‘The impact of the crisis on the Orthodox Church of Greece: A moment of challenge and opportunity?’ (32–50); and A. Scotto ‘Focusing on the emergencies or on their roots? The role of nonprofit organisations in immigration policymaking in Italy.’ (51–64). Religion, State and Society 44(3) (in this issue): B. Conti ‘Islam as a new social actor in Italian cities: Between inclusion and separation’; and C. Maritato, ‘Reassessing Women, Religion and the Turkish Secular State in the light of the Professional Female Preachers (Vaizeler)’s Everyday Activities in Istanbul’.

2. On the concept of ‘governance of religious diversity’ and its difference from the ‘government’ and ‘management’ of religious diversity, see Bader (2009).

3. Koenig argues that the institutionalisation of the governance of religious diversity at the European level also has the almost paradoxical effect of enhancing national models of governance of religions/religious diversity (Koenig 2007).

4. ‘Social innovation: La sfida di Brescia: saremo la prima città “zero bandi”’ [Social innovation: The challenge of Brescia: we will be the first city with ‘zero public tenders’] Vita, October 2013 <http://www.assifero.org/oggetti/5271.pdf> (our translation).

5. ‘Progetto pilota. Siria: Arrivati a Roma 93 profughi’ [Pilot project. Syria: 93 refugees arrive in Rome], L’Avvenire, May 13, 2016.

6. See the forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Religion on ‘Majority Churches and the Crisis in Southern Europe’, coordinated by Lina Molokotos-Liederman.

7. ‘Declaración ante la crisis moral y económica’ [A declaration on the moral and economic crisis], XCIV Asamblea Plenaria de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, Madrid, November 27, 2009. p. 1. Translated from Spanish.

8. The Guardian, ‘Brexit would jeopardise peace in Europe, warn religious leaders’, Toby Helm and Mark Townsend, May 29, 2016.

Additional information

Funding

Alberta Giorgi’s work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under Grant SFRH/BPD/77552/2011. Xabier Itçaina benefitted from the support of the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (2012–2013), European Commission.

Notes on contributors

Alberta Giorgi

Alberta Giorgi is a researcher at the Centro de Estudos Sociais, University of Coimbra and an associate member of GSRL (CNRS). She also 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 2016; and the guest editorship of the special issue ‘Gendering the Secular: Interventions in Politics, Philosophy and Movements’, Religion and Gender, 5(2), with T. Toldy.

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. His publications include: ‘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? (co-edited with F. Foret) (Routledge, 2011).