Events

A NUS-USPC Collaborative Project on Religious Networks in Asia.

The concept of mobility is emerging as an innovative framework that challenges the sedentary and territorial precepts of 20th century social sciences (Urry 2006; Sheller 2011; Chu 2010; Basu & Coleman 2008). From a traditional social scientific perspective, travel has largely operated as a black box, a neutral set of technologies that enable other forms of economic, social and political life. This approach suggests that mobility itself is a phenomenon of marginal importance, with limited implications for the study of cultural and political dynamics. The emerging literature in Mobilities challenges this model by focusing on how material and human circulation interact with the technologies that make it possible, having a definite impact on the shape that new social formations adopt. A focus on mobility therefore problematizes models that see stability and place as the ‘natural’, anchored state of things and mobility as the exception.

With this workshop, we intend to examine in which ways can concepts of ‘mobility’ and ‘networks’ offer new insights for the study of contemporary and historical religious circulation across Asia. As a premise, we emphasize the importance of exploring the material dynamics of religious networks, and stress the interplay between the technological, economic and political dimensions of circulation and the changing shapes of religious networks (Vasquez 2011). Intersecting mobilities produce new patterns of interaction where networks redefine arrangements of economic, social and religious life. As John Urry remarked, there is no increase in mobility without extensive systems of immobility. Airports, roads and factories are preeminent examples of this, but so are temples, monasteries and pilgrimage routes. Furthermore, immobility is not only a technical requirement of contemporary networks, but also a consequence of global political dynamics.

We invite participants in this workshop to reflect on different types of movements that are constitutive of diasporic religions and transnational religious traditions: e.g. the circulation of ritual specialists, ritual objects, deities, foods, medicine, educators, literature, missionaries, activists, finance/informal economies. Likewise, we hope to examine the role played by immobile ‘nodes’ in channeling flows of people, distributing goods and services, and concentrating intellectual resources arriving from diverse points of origin.

REGISTRATION

Participation in the closed-door workshop is limited and by invitation only.

CONTACT DETAILS

Convenors

Dr Bernardo BROWN, International Christian University, Japan
E | bbernardo@icu.ac.jp

Dr Kaori HATSUMI, Nagasaki University, Japan
E | khatsumi@nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Professor Kenneth DEAN, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | aridek@nus.edu.sg