Theme

Crisis or opportunities?

In the discussion of the question whether it may be true that the so-called resurgence of religion may be interpreted as a form of critique on both western-type modernizationand development processes, during the conference, three main issues will be addressed:

• Assumptions and general observations that form appropriate points of departure for the description and evaluation of the role of religion in actual processes of development.

• The role that actual religious practices, spiritualities, beliefs and ideas play in processes of development.

• The attitude that discourses and practice of international development cooperation take towards religion in ‘developing regions’ (neglect, ignorance, ‘militant secularism/rationalism’, instrumentalization, promotion etc.). And is it possible to establish a connection between such discourses and notions of efficiency and effectiveness in development practice?

The conference will be divided into three sessions (that correspond with these three debate topics), consisting of a plenary key-note lecture, followed by two parallel working groups. Each working group will start with the presentation of a position paper. See conference programme for further details.