Multiple Modernities and Postsecular Societies

Engaging with the idea that the world reveals not one, but many routes to modernity, this volume explores the role of religion in the emergence of multiple forms of modernity, which evolve according to specific cultural conditions and interpretations of the 'modern project'. It draws upon case study material from Africa, The Middle East, Russia and South America to examine the question of whether modernity, democracy and secularism are universalistic concepts or are, on the contrary, unique to Western civilization, whilst considering the relationship of postsecularism to the varied paths of modern development. Drawing together work from leading social theorists, this critical theoretical contribution to current debates will appeal to sociologists, social theorists and political scientists, with interests in religion, secularization and postsecularization theory and transitions to modernity in the contemporary globalized world.

Massimo Rosati is Director of the Centre for the Study and Documentation of Religions and Political Institutions in Post-Secular Society and teaches sociology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. He is author of Ritual and the Sacred and co-editor of Suffering and Evil. Kristina Stoeckl is APART Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Vienna and author of Community after Totalitarianism.

Introduction, Massimo Rosati, Kristina Stoeckl; Chapter 1 From Multiple Modernities to Multiple Democracies, Alessandro Ferrara; Chapter 2 Multifaceted or Fragmented Public Spheres in Turkey and Iran, U?ur Kömeço?lu; Chapter 3 The Turkish Laboratory: Local Modernity and the Postsecular in Turkey, Massimo Rosati; Chapter 4 Russia's 'Cursed Issues', Post-Soviet Religion, and the Endurance of Secular Modernity, Alexander Agadjanian; Chapter 5 European Integration and Russian Orthodoxy: Two Multiple Modernities Perspectives, Kristina Stoeckl; Chapter 6 A State Goddess in the New Secular Nepal: Reflections on the Kumari Case at the Supreme Court, Chiara Letizia; Chapter 7 Big Man of the Big God: Nigeria as a Laboratory for Multiple Modernities, Enzo Pace; Chapter 8 The Modernity of New Societies: South Africa, Brazil and the Prospect of a World-Sociology, Peter Wagner;