About the project
Project manager
Åsa Trulsson
Timetable
2018–2020
Subject
Cultural sociology, Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
More about the project
Religion, religious sentiments, and motivations have been recurrent themes in the public debate on integration and multiculturalism in Sweden. Often, controversies concern the intersection between religion and education, as evident in discussions around religiously motivated clothing, the status of confessional schools, and the proposed responsibility of schools to counter radicalisation. It hence becomes relevant to consider the philosophical and moral tensions that religion engender with regards to education in secularised liberal democracies. Previous research also indicates that the very understanding of religion is essential in determining who belongs to the community of values in the Swedish school system and who does not. Further, it also raises questions about how religious sentiments and drives are negotiated and disciplined in the school environment.
The project concerns religious young people's creation, negotiation and experience of religion, religiosity and religious identity in relation to a non-confessional educational system and everyday school interactions. The departure is the narratives of young religious students. Being religious is here interpreted broadly, in an effort not to stipulate what counts as religion proper or exclude religious drives and behaviour that do not fit in theological or scholarly models. Within the project, questions concerning the possibility for education to recognise particular identities and effect "civil repair" (Alexander 2006) is discussed.
The project should be seen in relation to a study on professionals', primarily teachers', narrated negotiations of religious sentiments religious identities and religious freedom within the educational system.
