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- Convenors:
-
Emma Tomalin
(University of Leeds)
Olivia Wilkinson (Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities)
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- Chair:
-
Emma Tomalin
(University of Leeds)
- Discussants:
-
Matthew Mabefam
(University of Melbourne)
Anneke Newman (Ghent University)
Selina Palm (Stellenbosch University)
- Format:
- Roundtable
- Stream:
- Rethinking development
- Location:
- Palmer 1.06
- Sessions:
- Thursday 29 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
It is now over 20 years since religions and development-specific publications, conferences, and research projects started emerging. This roundtable asks scholars to debate the state of our field as a whole and interrogate where we should consolidate work or branch into new territory.
Long Abstract:
It is now over 20 years since religions and development-specific publications, conferences, and research projects started emerging and collating into a research area. The Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities recently published its State of the Evidence in Religions and Development report, a flagship publication set to be published every two years to review the state of the art in our field. The report aims to act as a bridge from research to practice by acting as a go-to document that briefly summarises the state of the evidence in areas relevant for religions and development. This roundtable asks scholars to debate the state of our field as a whole and interrogate where we should consolidate work or branch into new territory:
What is the state-of-the-art in our field? What is the most cutting edge research?
What topics in Religions and Development have seen the most significant growth and improvement over the last five years?
What topics in Religions and Development are underdeveloped and need more research in the next five years?
Does Religions and Development have enough research and researchers working in the area to count as its own field or discipline?
How do we represent the "evidence base" in religions and development to policy makers and practitioners? Where have people got the "right" message about the evidence and where do inconsistencies and misconceptions lie?
In a future version of the State of the Evidence in Religions and Development report, which other topics should be included?
Accepted contributions:
Session 1 Thursday 29 June, 2023, -Olivia Wilkinson (Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities)
Contribution short abstract:
This paper argues that some of the common arguments in religions and development research are due for an update and instead proposes new avenues of analysis and research that the field should endeavour to explore more thoroughly.
Contribution long abstract:
Religions and development research over the last twenty years has centered around some major common themes: that religions matter but are side-lined or ignored; that there are surges of interest in religions from international development policymakers and practitioners but that these can lead to instrumentalization and unfair co-option of religious assets; and multiple definitions and categorizations of faith-based organizations. While these major themes have advanced the field previously, new and recent emerging themes update and re-frame these previously dominant debates. The analysis in this article finds that the new emerging themes push for engaging with the complexity and contextuality of religions, working with a fuller diversity of religious actors, and using a range of research methods. Ultimately, the article finds that researchers in religions and development can move beyond questions of “added value” of religions to development, and instead focus on the nuance of religions for development goals in contextually specific ways.
Matthew Mabefam (University of Melbourne)
Contribution short abstract:
Once framed as antithetical to development, religion and development resurfaced as a field within development studies, reconfiguring mainstream understandings of development as a secular economic and social modernisation
Contribution long abstract:
During the era of enlightenment, religion was once framed as antithetical to development. Yet a few decades now, religion and development has emerged as a distinct sub-genre within development studies, reconfiguring mainstream understandings of development as a secular project of economic and social modernisation. What changed? In this presentation, I aim to sketch the discursive shift towards religion within development studies, highlighting the plurality of conceptual frameworks, empirical research goals, and development practice orientations. Against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding and multifaceted religion and development discourse, I invoke the case of the very popular Pentecostal prosperity gospel doctrine, a “religious policy” on poverty alleviation that promises material wealth and health to all believers through faith and monetary offerings to God (church). I examine the shifting development approaches and local imagination of poverty, the moral agency of pursuing wealth in the market economy, and the ethics and apologetics of the doctrine’s material costs. I conclude by inviting development stakeholders and researchers to take religion more seriously in the conversation on development and poverty alleviation in Africa.
Selina Palm (Stellenbosch University) Olivia Wilkinson (Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities)
Contribution short abstract:
This presentation discusses the state of the evidence on faith actors and violence against children (VAC) over the past two decades.
Contribution long abstract:
Violence against children (VAC) is a global problem, with at least one billion children (defined as those under the age of 18) experiencing violence every year worldwide. Faith communities can play a crucial role in ending VAC. For example, many individuals across different countries draw their beliefs around child rearing from religious sources. In the last two decades, increased documentation has emerged around the role of faith actors in relation to the task of ending VAC. Much has focused on the practical work of faith-based organizations (often large international organizations). Expert practitioners suggest however that there may be a gap between global narratives and the local realities of many faith communities whose work with children often remains informal and undocumented. Evidence shows that all religions contain protective elements for children and can offer important contributions to ending VAC due to their often-trusted position in communities. However, in the last five years, revelations around child sexual abuse in faith settings and diverse views around corporal punishment have raised questions about this role. More local research is needed to both amplify their positive potential as well as engage explicitly with harmful beliefs.
Anneke Newman (Ghent University)
Contribution short abstract:
I will bring a decolonial and postsecular approach to the question of how academics could research 'religion and development' going forward. I critique how the very framing of 'religion and development' risks reproducing problematic binaries, ontological injustice, and 'coloniality of secularity'.
Contribution long abstract:
In 2011, Jones and Petersen argued that much academic research on 'religion and development' was "instrumental, narrow and normative" because it was largely informed by the agendas of donor agencies and organisations working within a secular framework, who sought concrete recommendations for engaging faith-based actors. In this proposal, I argue that, 12 years later, not much has changed. It is not a problem that academics produce knowledge of practical use to 'secular' organisations - that is part and parcel of development studies. However, an academic field should not be defined by these parameters, which risks being the case for 'religion and development' scholarship. Research which is ultimately framed by the question of 'what can religion do for development?' fails to engage with recent calls by scholar-activists that we decolonise the study of religion. It reproduces a Manichean binary between 'secular' and 'religious' worldviews/organisations, a binary which is the product of secular onto-epistemology which dominates in Western/Northern social science. Furthermore, putting the focus on 'religion' and development conveniently places secular onto-epistemology - and its violences, described by critical scholars as 'ontological violence' or 'coloniality of secularity' - outside of the analytical frame. It also implicitly frames 'religious ontology' as the Other to the secular norm or ideal, which side-lines the lived realities, struggles, and theoretical contributions of individuals, activists, or academics speaking from non-secular ontological perspectives. I illustrate the impact and limitations of coloniality of secularity through an analysis of academic and policy discourses on Islamic education in West Africa.