Welfare and Values in Europe

Transitions related to Religion, Minorities and Gender

 

Research Conference at Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden), 26-28 March 2009

This conference aims to provide a forum for debate on values and welfare, focusing on values leading to cohesion or conflict and the extent to which these dynamics are related to religion, minorities or gender. Exploring these three major and inter-connected dimensions of social change through the prism of welfare provides an approach through which the intangible concept of ‘values' can be grasped. With increased mobility and diversity in Europe comes a need for reflection and discussion on the influence of religious diversity on patterns of welfare provision, changes in society(ies) and the emergence of European identities. The function of religion as a bearer of values of solidarity and social cohesion, or as a source of tension and exclusion merits particular attention. Also of critical importance is the role given to religion in welfare provision within various models of church-state relations.

These issues bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines whose work relates to welfare, values and religion, or to the intersections between them. This enables a show-casing of research taking place in this field as well as stimulation of theoretical, empirical and methodological developments.

The first day of the conference is devoted to thepresentation of material from the project Welfare and Values in Europe (WaVE). The second and third days include plenary sessions, panel discussions and parallel sessions to accommodate the papers accepted for this conference. The conference language is English.

Among the main speakers are:

• Professor Nancy Ammerman (Professor of Sociology of Religion, Boston University, USA)
• Professor Anders Bäckström (Professor of Sociology of Religion, Uppsala University,
• Sweden)
• Professor Grace Davie (Professor of Sociology of Religion, Exeter University, UK)
• Professor Yilmaz Esmer (Professor Political Science, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey)
• Professor Philip Manow (Professor of Politics and Management, University of Constance, Germany)
• Professor Göran Therborn (Professor of Sociology, Cambridge University, UK )

Call for papers

Submissions to present papers on the conference themes are welcome. Deadline for the submission of abstracts (max 200 words): 1 December 2008

The following subthemes are of particular interest:

• The study of values per se
• The intersections of welfare and religion in late modern societies
• Methodological issues for work in these fields
• The gender dimensions to the study of welfare, minorities and values
• The role of religious and other minorities in the welfare debate (as both providers and recipients).
• Policy implications at local, national and European levels.
• A global perspective on welfare and religion in Europe (including migration)
• Pan-European comparisons and Nordic perspectives
• The challenges of comparative and interdisciplinary research

The conference is hosted by The Centre for Studies of Religion and Society at Uppsala University and is organised in collaboration with:

• The WaVE project funded by the Framework 6 Programme of the European Commission
• The project Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective (WREP) funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary foundation.
• The project Welfare and Religion in a Global Perspective (WRIGP) funded by SIDA and the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

Contact the organisation committee at waveconference@crs.uu.se

Further details including programme, registration, abstract format and venue information will be made available here in late spring 2008.

 

(Updated 22/04/2008)