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European Network on the Investigation of Religious Pluralism

Project leader: Professor Volkhard Krech, Ruhr University Bochum (Germany)

The capacity-building programme headed by Professor Kretch was concerned with building strong European researcher networks in the field of religious pluralisation and the construction of a website for informing researchers and the wider public of developments in the mapping of religious pluralisation across Europe and beyond.

Its declared aim was to provide a focus for crossprojects link-up within the NORFACE Religion Programme, focusing in particular on the quantitative aspects of studying religious pluralism and on the social consequences of religious pluralism. The project established links with programmes on related topics that were funded from sources other than NORFACE (the Danish Pluralism Project, the Religions in Finland Project, the UK Community Religions Project, and the Religions in Switzerland project).

Four activities were reported as having been organized under the aegis of this capacity-building project:

  • A conference on “Religious Pluralisation in Europe” (Bochum, 8-10 October 2009). This conference also included a session on religion and policy.
  • The launch of  a website www.plureligion.net
  • A five-day summer school (Bochum, July 2010) on the subject of “Religions Pluralisation and Migration” was initiated. This had a strong methodological as well as comparative theoretical orientation. 21 PhD candidates were involved.
  • To launch a proposal for ERC Advanced Investigator Grant on “Local religious pluralism” (submitted April 2011).