Researching Global Religious Landscapes - A Methodology between Universalism and Particularism - Peter Nynäs

Researching Global Religious Landscapes - A Methodology between Universalism and Particularism - Peter Nynäs

Multiple Identifications: Growing Diversity and Complexity in Religious and Secular Worldviews

Researching Global Religious Landscapes - A Methodology between Universalism and Particularism - Peter Nynäs

Ruth Illman [+-]
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
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Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Peter Nynäs [+-]
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of "the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
Nurit Novis-Deutsch [+-]
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch's research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.

Description

Many young adults today seem to express multiple religious identifications as part of their life-views. Yet it remains unclear how we should comprehend and conceptualise this phenomenon. Observations about multiple religious identifications offer an impetus to better capture the heterogeneity, complexity and fluidity with regard to how religion is currently reconfigured and structured owing, for example, to religious change and globalisation. It also implies a need to further investigate the diversification of secular and religious identities. The aim of this chapter is to explore forms of multiple identifications as part of a larger discussion on contemporary diversity and pluralism. We assess several recent contributions to understanding multiple identifications from a cross-disciplinary perspective, including how diversity as a social process of change has been contested in more general terms. Analyses of diverse mixed-method data from thirteen countries contribute empirical observations regarding both overarching patterns of identifications and individual life narratives.

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Citation

Illman, Ruth; Nynäs, Peter; Novis-Deutsch, Nurit. Multiple Identifications: Growing Diversity and Complexity in Religious and Secular Worldviews. Researching Global Religious Landscapes - A Methodology between Universalism and Particularism. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 197-224 Apr 2024. ISBN 9781800503915. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44301. Date accessed: 18 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44301. Apr 2024

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