2018 General Conference, Hamburg

The 2018 General Conference will be held at Universität Hamburg in northern Germany. Hamburg, or to give it its official name, Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg), is Germany’s second largest city. The Speicherstadt (city of warehouses) has recently been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status and, with more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined, it could just be the perfect place to build and strengthen links between all areas of the political science discipline.

ECPR’s General Conference remains Europe’s largest annual gathering of political scientists, often attracting more than 2,000 scholars from throughout the world and at all stages of their career. With nearly 500 Panels taking place across 68 Sections, the academic programme covers the breadth of political science, creating the platform for lively discussion, exchange of ideas and the best thinking in the discipline.

The academic content is complemented by a stimulating plenary programme, including Roundtables addressing topical or contentious themes and a Plenary Lecture delivered by a high profile member of the profession. The timetable is completed by a carefully planned social programme, offering many opportunities to meet with old friends and new colleagues.

Call for panels and papers

The ECPR Standing group on Religion and Politics invites you to submit individual papers and panel proposals for the section
Revisiting Religion and Politics Research: Achievements, Critique, Future Questions
The section will be organized within the ECPR General Conference in Hamburg, 22-25th August 2018. Section Chairs: Anja Hennig (ahennig@europa-uni.de) and Luca Ozzano (luca.ozzano@unito.it).
Deadline for submitting individual papers and panel proposals: FEBRUARY 5th 2018.
Panels include 3-5 papers.
Panel proposals with max. 500 words and up to 5 keywords.
Please note: To participate in the ECPR conference you must be registered at MyECPR: https://ecpr.eu/Login.aspx (please consider conference fees for members and non-members). Individual Papers and Complete Panels proposals should be uploaded directly on the ECPR website. The procedure for proposing a panel or a paper proposal can be found here: https://ecpr.eu/Events/EventDetails.aspx?EventID=115
Section Description:
Despite an established research tradition on religion and politics that cuts across several sub-disciplines of political science as well as neighboring disciplines (or even constitutes a genuine sub-discipline), there is very little reflection today about the state of the art of this research. As religion regained prominence in the public and political spheres since the 1970s and 1980s, a major concern among scholars was to question the prevailing secularization paradigm. The empirical study of religious actors, and their interaction with political forces, brought evidence to the fact that neither religion and politics are totally separated nor is religiosity fading away as modernization and secularization theories had assumed. A vibrant academic debate joining comparative politics and political theory emerged. In recent years, the debate in Europe and the US gained in relevance through the salience of public debates brought by the rise in immigration from religious diverse backgrounds, and by new developments in relation to family patterns, reproduction techniques, genetic engineering and euthanasia. Editorial projects abound. Several new handbooks on religion and politics (e.g. Jeff Haynes (2009/2016) or the Oxford Dictionary of Religion and Politics in the United States (2009), books and edited volumes have been published and new journals (e.g. APSA “Religion and Politics”) have been created. The disciplinary fragmentation and, thus, the sometimes isolated analysis of similar phenomena, however, leads to some conceptual confusion, and debate on the challenging questions in empirical and theoretical terms could be of use. Against this background the Section invites scholars revisiting religion and politics research by reflecting perspectives, methods, pre-assumptions, general achievements and debating future questions. It is envisioned to publish a collection of papers selected from this section as a handbook. Following the key questions or perspectives about achievements, critique and future challenges of religion and politics research, Panels could be organized in three ways: 1. According to sub-fields, which discuss only “achievements”, or “critique” or “future questions” 2. According to sub-fields, which integrate “achievements”, “critique” and “future questions” in one Panel 3. According to “achievements” or “critique” or “future questions”, integrating various sub-fields in one Panel.
Examples of sub-fields are:
Political Theory and Religion/Political Theology
(Comparative) Public Policy/Political Decision Making and Religion
Morality Policy
Governance of Religious Diversity
Religion and Political Behaviour
Religious Voting
Religious Actors and Politics
Political Parties and Religion
Transnational Religious Movements
Religious Institutions and the State
Religion and Democratization
IR and Religion
Conflict (resolution) and Religion
Transnational Agency and Religion
Possible examples for critique are:
Western centrism in religion and politics research
Secularization and other contested concepts and paradigms
The conceptualization of religion for religion and politics research
Examples for Future questions and challenges are:
Relevance of “old” questions or new challenges?
Secularization (Paradigm)
Religion and Nationalism
Radical Religion
Religion and Gender Equality Policy
Religion and Illiberal Politics

We encourage Panel organizers to think about thought provoking questions and topics also in order to foster the dialogue between the generations of growing numbers of scholars involved.

PANELS CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR PAPERS:

Religion and Politics Research in Dispute: How Western/Eurocentric is its Agenda? (Anja Hennig)

On Religion and Politics: Post- and Decolonial Interventions (Zubair Ahmad)

Moral authority of churches in secular times: Religious actors and their engagement in policy implementation (Irina Ciornei and Eva-Maria Euchner)

Religion and Political Parties in Contemporary Democracies (Luca Ozzano)

New Challenges for Politology of Religion (Miroljub Jevtic)

Transcending the secular-religious dichotomy: The AKP and the blurred edges of politics and religion in Turkey (Chiara Maritato and Bilge Yabanci)