10-12 June 2015
Sala Europa, Villa Schifanoia
The European University Institute conference entitled ‘The Governance of Religious Diversity More or Less Secularism?’ examined four main research questions: Is the best way to deal with religious diversity to accept more religion in public life for both majorities and minorities or to move towards radical secularism? Is there a principled, normative answer to this question or is it a matter of context and issues at hand? Thus, under some conditions more religion is desirable and in others more secularism must apply and our decisions shall be framed differently depending on whether we discuss gender relations or blasphemy/freedom of expression laws? What can we learn from policies and practices in the Middle East and Asia where religious plurality has for long periods been the norm rather than the exception? Since religion can neither be wholly privatised nor allowed to dominate political life, what are the best ways of accommodating it in a democratic society? What are the “battlefields” of religious diversity in the years to come?
Principle Investigator Effie Fokas participated in the roundtable discussion on ‘Identifying Battlefields for the Next Decade’.
For more information about this conference, please see here.
