The biannual Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion gathers both Nordic and international scholars. "Beyond Tradition? Religions in a Changing World" was the main theme of this year's successful conference.
FAITHED researchers Hildegunn Valen Kleive (Volda University College) and Anders Aschim (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences) chaired a double session on religion, teaching and learning. There were also two presentations by researchers from the project.
In "Tactics and friction in fostering faith-based togetherness", Marta Bivand Erdal (PRIO Peace Research Institute Oslo) and Marianne Friisberg Larssen (PRIO/INN, now a PhD student at the University of Oslo) analyzed data from interviews and observations of catechesis in four Norwegian Catholic parishes, settings characterized by migration-related diversity.
Hildegunn Valen Kleive presented the paper "Within/Between Spaces: Space as a (limited) resource in non-formal faith education", co-authored with Lars Julius Halvorsen (also Volda University College) and Anders Aschim. Building on observations of teaching in mosques and Catholic parishes, she demonstrated how furnishing and use of localities change through a day of teaching activities, and she asked what this may mean for learning outcomes.
Other scholars from Norway, Sweden, Germany and France also participated in the sessions.
 |
 |
Anders and Marta also participated in two other sessions with some overlap with the FAITHED project. In "Global Catholicism and Social Theory" they compared Catholic religious education in four European countries under the title "Learning to be a Catholic? Church strategies in the face of secularization and migration-related diversity in Europe". Marta also presented the paper "Global lived Catholicism and migration-related diversity: Theorizing from the margins". Furher, they had a joint presentation, "Facilitating conviviality, managing difference: Catholic Corpus Christi processions in Norwegian cities", based on data from earlier fieldwork in Norwegian Catholic parishes.. The session "Challenges and Opportunities: Christian Migration and Christian Minorities in Europe" aimed at developing chapters for a forthcoming book on Christian migrants in Northern Europe.