Collaborative Research: The Role of Religion in Public Life

宗教在世界范围内的政治和公共生活中发挥着越来越重要的作用。今天，许多社会必须适应宗教在全球事务、国家政治辩论和宗教多元化存在的城市日常公共空间中日益增长的相关性。尽管宗教声音在全球的影响力越来越大，但对于人们对宗教不断变化的作用的态度可能有何不同、是谁在推动这些变化，以及这些变化对不同社会中的多元化可能产生何种影响，在知识方面仍然存在重大差距。这个研究项目将通过研究有关宗教在公共生活中角色转变的态度和做法，帮助填补这一关键空白。如何在多元化的公众中容纳不同的道德体系和生活方式？宗教在公共生活中的新角色对世俗主义和多元主义意味着什么，对穆斯林世界尤其重要，因为伊斯兰教在公共生活中的角色在不断演变。在许多穆斯林社会中，有一种明显的趋势，即远离建立一个伊斯兰国家，转而加强公共生活中的伊斯兰价值观和做法。本项目将评估伊斯兰教在社会中重新发挥的作用如何构成穆斯林民主国家的多元化问题。其结果也将对伊斯兰世界以外的国家产生影响。该项目将有助于对宗教、多元主义和公共生活的地理方面的基本理解，并为有关世俗主义不断变化的性质和宗教在世界范围内的政治作用的讨论提供新的信息和见解。该项目将通过对土耳其伊斯兰教公共角色的不同实践和态度的实证调查，深入了解宗教和世俗主义在世界范围内的公共角色。调查人员将评估土耳其社会对伊斯兰教和世俗主义重组的态度有何不同，他们将评估占土耳其人口一半的虔诚的逊尼派穆斯林是如何参与这一重组的。他们将进行一项全国范围的调查，以确定和评估公众生活中对伊斯兰教和世俗主义不断变化的动态的各种态度和做法。调查人员将在两个具有代表性的土耳其城市进行深入的定性研究，使用焦点小组和对中度至高度虔诚的个人进行访谈，以获得对社会中具有政治和文化影响力的虔诚部门的价值观和日常实践的新见解。因此，该项目将评估土耳其社会的内部变异性，以及这种变异性对伊斯兰教在土耳其和其他穆斯林国家公共生活中不断变化的角色意味着什么。由于土耳其是美国的重要盟友，也是中东和中亚地区有影响力的政治和经济参与者，在美国和其他国家寻求理解并更有效地与穆斯林国家互动之际，该项目将提供有益的知识，这些国家正在设想和制定一个多元化的公共领域，在这个公共领域中，宗教和世俗价值观和生活方式都有一席之地

Religion is increasingly playing an important role in politics and public life worldwide. Many societies today have to adjust to the growing relevance of religion in global affairs, national political debates, and the everyday public spaces of cities within which religious plurality exists. Despite the increasing influence of religious voices globally, there remains a critical gap in knowledge regarding how attitudes towards the changing role of religion may vary, who drives these changes, and what implications they may have for pluralism in diverse societies. This research project will help to fill this crucial gap by examining attitudes and practices concerning the shifting role of religion in public life. How can different moral systems and lifestyles be accommodated within a pluralistic public? What the renewed role of religion in public life means for secularism and pluralism is especially crucial for the Muslim world, where the role of Islam in public life is continuously evolving. In many Muslim societies, there is a notable trend away from the establishment of an Islamic state towards intensifying Islamic values and practices in public life. This project will assess how the renewed role of Islam in society formulates the problem of pluralism in Muslim democracies. The results will have implications beyond the Islamic world as well. The project will contribute basic understanding with respect to the geographies of religion, pluralism, and public life and offer new information and insights for discussions regarding the changing nature of secularism and the political role of religion worldwide.This project will provide insight into the public role of religion and secularism worldwide through an empirical investigation of the varying practices and attitudes concerning the public role of Islam in Turkey. The investigators will assess how attitudes regarding the reconfiguration of Islam and secularism vary across Turkish society, and they will evaluate how the devout Sunni Muslim sector, which constitutes about half of the Turkish population, is participating in this reconfiguration. They will conduct a nationwide survey to identify and assess the spectrum of attitudes towards and practices of the shifting dynamics of Islam and secularism in public life. The investigators will conduct in-depth qualitative research using focus groups and interviews with moderately to highly devout individuals in two representative Turkish cities to obtain new insights into the values and everyday practices of the politically and culturally influential devout sector of society. This project thereby will provide assessments of Turkish society's internal variability and what this variability means for the changing role of Islam in public life in Turkey and other Muslim nations. Because Turkey is a key U.S. ally and an influential political and economic player in the Middle East and Central Asia, this project will contribute beneficial knowledge as the U.S. and other nations seek to understand and more effectively interact with Muslim nations that are envisioning and enacting a pluralistic public sphere within which both religious and secular values and lifestyles have a place