Religion and Displacement in Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 290-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lauterbach

This article is about the role of religion in contexts of displacement. The article looks at the role churches and church leaders play in the lives of refugees and more particularly the assistance that these actors provide. The analytical approach is to take into consideration both religious ideas and experiences as well as the everyday practices of people and the socio-economic structures within which they live. The empirical focus is on Congolese Christian congregations in Kampala, Uganda that for the most are founded and attended by refugees. I analyse the forms of assistance that are provided to refugees, how this is conceptualised as well as the practices in a perspective that includes the intersection between religious ideas (compassion and sacrifice) and ideas around social relationships, gift-giving and reciprocity.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Dew ◽  
P Norris ◽  
J Gabe ◽  
K Chamberlain ◽  
D Hodgetts

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This article extends our understanding of the everyday practices of pharmaceuticalisation through an examination of moral concerns over medication practices in the household. Moral concerns of responsibility and discipline in relation to pharmaceutical consumption have been identified, such as passive or active medication practices, and adherence to orthodox or unorthodox accounts. This paper further delineates dimensions of the moral evaluations of pharmaceuticals. In 2010 and 2011 data were collected from 55 households across New Zealand and data collection techniques, such as photo- and diary-elicitation interviews, allowed the participants to develop and articulate reflective stories of the moral meaning of pharmaceuticals. Four repertoires were identified: a disordering society repertoire where pharmaceuticals evoke a society in an unnatural state; a disordering self repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify a moral failing of the individual; a disordering substances repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify a threat to one's physical or mental equilibrium; a re-ordering substances repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify the restoration of function. The research demonstrated that the dichotomies of orthodox/unorthodox and compliance/resistance do not adequately capture how medications are used and understood in everyday practice. Attitudes change according to why pharmaceuticals are taken and who is taking them, their impacts on social relationships, and different views on the social or natural production of disease, the power of the pharmaceutical industry, and the role of health experts. Pharmaceuticals are tied to our identity, what we want to show of ourselves, and what sort of world we see ourselves living in. The ordering and disordering understandings of pharmaceuticals intersect with forms of pharmaceuticalised governance, where conduct is governed through pharmaceutical routines, and where self-responsibility entails following the prescription of other agents. Pharmaceuticals symbolise forms of governance with different sets of roles and responsibilities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Dew ◽  
P Norris ◽  
J Gabe ◽  
K Chamberlain ◽  
D Hodgetts

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This article extends our understanding of the everyday practices of pharmaceuticalisation through an examination of moral concerns over medication practices in the household. Moral concerns of responsibility and discipline in relation to pharmaceutical consumption have been identified, such as passive or active medication practices, and adherence to orthodox or unorthodox accounts. This paper further delineates dimensions of the moral evaluations of pharmaceuticals. In 2010 and 2011 data were collected from 55 households across New Zealand and data collection techniques, such as photo- and diary-elicitation interviews, allowed the participants to develop and articulate reflective stories of the moral meaning of pharmaceuticals. Four repertoires were identified: a disordering society repertoire where pharmaceuticals evoke a society in an unnatural state; a disordering self repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify a moral failing of the individual; a disordering substances repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify a threat to one's physical or mental equilibrium; a re-ordering substances repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify the restoration of function. The research demonstrated that the dichotomies of orthodox/unorthodox and compliance/resistance do not adequately capture how medications are used and understood in everyday practice. Attitudes change according to why pharmaceuticals are taken and who is taking them, their impacts on social relationships, and different views on the social or natural production of disease, the power of the pharmaceutical industry, and the role of health experts. Pharmaceuticals are tied to our identity, what we want to show of ourselves, and what sort of world we see ourselves living in. The ordering and disordering understandings of pharmaceuticals intersect with forms of pharmaceuticalised governance, where conduct is governed through pharmaceutical routines, and where self-responsibility entails following the prescription of other agents. Pharmaceuticals symbolise forms of governance with different sets of roles and responsibilities.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey L Dunoff ◽  
Mark A Pollack

This chapter discusses the inner working of ICs, such as the drafting of judicial opinions; practices concerning separate opinions; the role of language and translation; and the roles of third parties. It also presents a preliminary effort to identify and examine the everyday practices of international judges. In undertaking this task, the authors draw selectively upon a large literature on ‘practice theory’ that has only rarely been applied to international law in general or to international courts in particular. A typology and synoptic overview of practices is presented.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-338
Author(s):  
Moh. Dahlan

This paper by using the ijtihad paradigm of maqâshid al-syarî’ah of Jasser Audah and the descriptive-analytical approach, would like to emphasize that the role of religion and economic welfare are two things that cannot be separated. Although in practice these two things often face obstacles, especially in the matter of diversity in religious life because of the superficial ijtihad paradigm of Islamic law. Based on the contemporary paradigm that seeks to provide new criteria in the conception of qath’i al-dlilalah and dlanni al-dlilalah, it can be stated that the contemporary Islamic law paradigm that needs to be built must be based on (a) the development of citizens’ welfare Muslims, but also must be the same as non-Muslims because of that we need to carry out financial and economic reforms (al-ishlâh al-mâlî wa al-iqtishâdî); (b) protection of freedom of thought (hurriyah al-tafkîr) and freedom of religion (hurriyah al-i’tiqâd) is an important aspect that must be maintained to guarantee the peace and harmony of the nation’s life in the territory of Indonesia. Therefore, the religious and economic aspects must be prioritized for their protection and safety.


Author(s):  
Afe Adogame

Religion and development are two ambiguous phenomena, yet we can map their creative interaction and intricate interconnectedness. In public discourse, ideas about development generally undermine the complex role of religion, or it is assumed that religion would be relegated to a matter of private belief in Africa, as secular states burgeoned, or even saw religion as an obstacle to development. Development was largely conceived of primarily in economic terms or as economic development. In contemporary era, the concept of human development has come into vogue, accentuating aspects of people’s lives that go beyond the economic dimension. There is no gainsaying in the fact that religion has been a dynamic entity and remains a growing force in public life in Africa. This article critiques vague definitions of religion and development and contends that human development should be understood as including the religious and spiritual dimension of life. Drawing upon concrete examples from my religious ethnography, the article seeks to explore the ambivalent role of religion in Africa’s development, and Africa’s development within the purview of the everyday lived religious and spiritual dimensions of life.


2019 ◽  
pp. 195-224
Author(s):  
Roxana Barbulescu ◽  
Irina Ciornei ◽  
Albert Varela

This chapter investigates the everyday practices of cross-border mobility of Romanian citizens in the light of the concept of ‘space-set’ (Recchi 2013 and 2015). Using mixed methods, we distinguish between stayers, movers and returnees and examine the role of frequency, reason for travel, destinations and personal significance. Findings show that Romanians’ long-term mobility, motivated especially by work, is amplified by more short-term mobility in the form of holidays, trips or visits to friends and families abroad. However, not all benefit from the rise in international mobility: two thirds of the stayers did not cross the border in the past two years. This finding suggests that first, mobile Romanians are pioneers of everyday European integration (Recchi and Favell 2009) and, second, long-term mobility has a ‘sticky’ nature and predicts short-term mobility irrespective of individual socio-economic resources. These insights counter stereotypes of Romanians, and also question what we call the ‘migratisation of mobilities’ where all forms of mobility are assimilated to a migration paradigm.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1741-1765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Daskalaki ◽  
Marianna Fotaki ◽  
Irene Sotiropoulou

This article discusses solidarity economy initiatives as instances of grassroots organizing, and explores how ‘values practices’ are performed collectively during times of crisis. In focusing on how power, discourse and subjectivities are negotiated in the everyday practices of grassroots exchange networks (GENs) in crisis-stricken Greece, the study unveils and discusses three performances of values practices, namely mobilization of values, re-articulation of social relations, and sustainable living. Based on these findings, and informed by theoretical analyses of performativity, we propose a framework for studying the production and reproduction of values in the context of GENs, and the role of values in organizing alternatives.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatek Abebe

Although the idea that children are social actors is well-recognised within childhood studies, the structural contexts shaping child agency and the everyday practices that manifest in children’s social relationships with other generations are not fully elucidated. This article identifies and discusses multiple and often contradictory concepts of agency as well as a framework for re-conceptualizing it as a continuum, and as interdependent. The central argument I make is that there is a need to go beyond the recognition that children are social actors to reveal the contexts and relational processes within which their everyday agency unfolds. It is also vital to ask what kind of agency children have, how they come by and exercise it, and how their agency relates them to their families, communities, and others. The article draws on research and ongoing debates on the life worlds of children in diverse African contexts in order to critically demonstrate how their agency is intersected by experience, societal expectations, gender, geography, stage of childhood, and social maturity. In so doing, the contextualized discussions and reflections have implications to rethink childhood and child agency elsewhere.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 381-399
Author(s):  
D. D. Amogolonova

Using the example of Buddhism in Buryatia, the article examines the problem of the post-Soviet return of religion from the periphery to the center of socio-cultural processes. It is noted that this means their secularization in the sense of the active participation of the clergy in a variety of secular practices, including the spheres of economics, politics and ideology. The author pays attention to the identification role of religion, based on the definition of Buddhism as the main cultural marker of the region, contributing to the formation of a territorial cultural text, the involvement in which is felt by all residents of the republic, regardless of the declared religiosity. Based on many years of research, the author analyzes the qualitative changes in the activities of the Buddhist traditional Sangha of Russia, aimed at protecting the Buryat culture and traditional economy, which makes it enter into both dialogue and confrontation with the secular authorities of the republic. It is shown that in the conditions of high secularization of social and individual consciousness, the Khambo Lama and other clergymen see their task in the spiritualization of everyday practices through the preservation of the social basis of Buddhism, represented by rural Buryats.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Furlong ◽  
Denisse Roca-Servat ◽  
Tatiana Acevedo-Guerrero ◽  
María Botero-Mesa

In this article, we explore elements of the literature on practices and the everyday to provide reference points for water researchers. We cast a wide net in recognition of the complex and multifaceted nature of human relationships to water that cannot be reduced to a single perspective. The article begins with the work of prominent French theorists including Foucault, Lefebvre, Bourdieu and de Certeau. Each grapples with the interrelationship between wider socio-political processes and practice in different ways. This leads us to pragmatism and non-representational theory in the second section, which argue that to understand socio-political processes, one must begin from practices. In the third section, we engage with work on practices in conditions of instability and precarity, which are widespread under contemporary conditions of post-colonial neoliberalism, and the role of “care” in mitigating their effects. In section four, we discuss the scholarship and practice of Silvia Rivera-Cusicanqui, who explores and extends many of the approaches elaborated above. The article concludes with a reflection on what this means for engaging with the multiple realities and ways of living with water.


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