Organization

Workshop organized by Laurence Roulleau-Berger’s International Associated Laboratory (LIA) CNRS/ENS Lyon, Triangle - Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Peking) Post-Western Sociologies in France and in China

Programm

• 9h00 : Introduction by Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Research Director at CNRS, Co-Director of the LIA, Triangle : Post-Western sociologies and religion

• 9h15-10h : Lionel Obadia, Professor of Anthropology, University Lyon 2 : Critical approaches to religions in modern and global settings. Some aspects of classical and multi-sited ethnographies of changing / moving and not-so-changing/moving religions
  This communication is about the anthropological approach to religion in the context of Globalization. Globalization studies have indeed injected new perspectives and methods in the study of cultures and religion, more or less responsible of changes in the ways sociology and anthropology used to study them. My own fieldworks have been directed to religions “on the move”, the corresponding changing structures, shifting locations, and reorganization of beliefs and practices. Buddhism (mainly Tibetan), shamanism, witchcraft, popular beliefs, Judaism and genuine unexpected fake e-cults range among the subject-matters of these studies that also question the broader religious and culture transfers in between East and West. A series of salient epistemological issues that have risen from these studies : do models of transformation of religion in the West apply to other (Asian) realities ? How can anthropology take into account non-Western models of religious change ? Further, to what extent “modernization” and “globalization” are responsible for changes in religions ? What is the depth of such changes – in other words, are these religious forms and dynamics really “new” and accountable of “change” ?
  Lionel Obadia, is Professor in anthropology at the University of Lyon 2, France, research fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies of Strasbourg, France. He is specialized in religious studies, anthropology and sociology of religion. After a Ph-D on Buddhism in France and in the West, he has studied Buddhism, shamanism and witchcraft in Asia, mainly Nepal, India, Sri Lanka. He has recently conducted research on Jewish Messianic movement in Europe, US and Israel, and football (soccer) in a religious perspective in France. He has also examined epistemological and methodological issues in religious studies. He is the author of ten books (Marchandisation de Dieu, 2013, Anthropologie des religions, 2007, translated in Greek and Portuguese, reedited 2012, Religion, 2004, translated in Korean and Turkish, Sorcellerie, 2004, Le bouddhisme en Occident, 2007, translated in Italian, and others in English like The Economics of Religion with Donald Wood, Emerald, 2011, and more than one hundred chapters and articles in French, English, Spanish, Chinese and German…

• 10h-10h45 : Zheng’ ai Liu, Professor and Director at the department of religion culture of The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology , Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Peking) : The religion in the ordinary life in China
  Are forms of religion in different societies the same ? Does non-institutional religion suggest a weak religious consciousness ? Are there different understanding of the notion of religion between the East and the West ? Based on the field research in China for many years, I will display the forms of religion in people’s daily life and their impact on people’s life. This will demonstrate how religion is involved in people’s daily life. There might be difference in forms of religion between the east and the west. Compared to China, institutional religion is attached more importance in the west. In addition to institutional religion, religious activities in China are more often manifested in the details of daily life, and the characteristics of Chinese religion, is diffused religion or folk religion. Meanwhile, forms of religion in the west are also in change. It is therefore difficult to measure religion belief with a fixed standard. The resulting reflection is that With What Method that We Measure Religion Belief ?
  Liu Zheng’ai is Professor and vice director at the department of religion culture of The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology , China Academy of Social Sciences. She received a BA from Wuhan university and a MA degree from Tokyo University and a Ph. D. from Tokyo Metropolitan University, the Japan. Liu’s research interests include Ethnic identity and folk religion in China. Her recent publications see blow : “Historical Anthropology of Ethnic Formation : Manchus, Banner People, Manzu”, Tokyo, Fukyosha, 2006- “From ‘Watch’ To ‘Being Watched ’ : Overseas Ethnographies in Chinese Anthropology, China : Social and Culture(, ed. Tokyo University, No.25, 2010, pp285-301- “Anthropological Others and Colonialism : A study of Japanese Anthropology”, Shijie Minzu世界民族(World’s Nation), No.5, 2010, pp.44-53- Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Liu Zhengai ，“La théorie de la religion de Durkheim et la sociologie chinoise”, Archives de sciences sociales des religions 159, 2012,pp. 135-151- “Who’s culture, Who’s Identity : The recognition Predicament and Rational thinking in the Protection Movement of intangible cultural heritage, ”Minsu Yanjiu民俗研究(Folklore Studies),No.1, 2013, pp.10-19.

• 10h45-11h : break

• 11h-11h45 : Chérif Ferjani, Professor at University Lyon 2 and Director of GREMMO : Islam in French context : between here and elsewhere
  In France we have to think the progressive implantation of Islam with the first wave of immigration during from 1950 till 1970. So Islam is not really new. If the Islam of the first generation was quite discrete, it is not the case for the second and third generations of Franco-Maghrebien born in France. Islam in France became Islam from France during the nineties. So we will try to answer to different questions : how to explain the transformation from an « islam of fathers » to an « islam of sons » ? How to explain a tension’s regime between an islam from here and an islam from elsewhere ? How public policies do interpret and do manage the Muslim’s fact in France ?
  Chérif Ferjani, Professor at University Lyon 2 and Director of GREMMO, Groupe de Recherche et d’Etudes sur la Méditerranée et le Moyen Orient (GREMMO) at Maison of l’Orient Méditerranéen, CNRS-University Lyon 2. He has done a lot about secularism, human rights and Muslim facts ; he as published many papers and books like "Islamisme, laïcité et droits de l’Homme", (Harmattan, Paris, 1991), "Les voies de l’islam, approche laïque des faits islamiques" (CRDP de Franche Comté et CERF, 1996)

• 11h45-12h45 : Discussion and conclusion by Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Research Director at CNRS, Co-Director of the LIA, Triangle : What about the concept of religion between the « East » and the « West » ?