Trento, Italy – November 19th-21st, 2018: Conference “Religion in the Innovation Landscape”

Final Conference of the 2018 FBK-ISR Series “Religion and Innovation”

Organizer:

Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Centre for Religious Studies (ISR)

Location: 

Fondazione Bruno Kessler – Polo delle Scienze Umane e Sociali, Aula Piccola
Via Santa Croce 77, I-38122 Trento

November 19^th, 2018
9.30 – 12.45     Session 1 | The Emergence of European Islam

November 20^th, 2018
16.00 – 17.45    Session 2 | Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Religion and Spirituality

November 21^st, 2018
9.00 – 13.20     Session 3 | Religion and Innovation beyond the Public/Private Divide

The FBK-ISR conference Religion in the Innovation Landscape concludes the 2018 series Religion and Innovation. Developing the action research work pursued by the Center since the adoption of the mission on religion and innovation in 2016, the final conference will continue to engage scholars of religion in a sustained dialogue with innovation researchers and practitioners. The conference, which will be held in English, is open to the public.

Against the backdrop of the three-dimensional model of religion in innovation – innovation in religion – religion of innovation introduced in FBK-ISR’s mission statement, the aim of the final conference is to consolidate the exploration of the manifold interactions between religion and innovation in contemporary societies, as well as to envisage novel perspectives for future research:

• Innovation in religion: how is innovation understood, experienced and practised within religious traditions and communities of faith or belief (new religious movements, novel interpretations of sacred texts, novel forms of organising religious practices, new forms of religious leadership)?
• Religion in Innovation: how do religious traditions and communities of faith or belief contribute to innovation in the areas of culture and society, science and technology, politics and the law (religious communities as agents and drivers of innovation processes, religiously grounded values and beliefs as motivating factors of cultural and social innovation, the role of religious actors in shaping research and development in the field of science and technology)?
• Religion of innovation: has the vocabulary of innovation itself become a vehicle for (quasi-) religious discourses? Has innovation itself turned into a belief system and become a sort of religion (religious or quasi-religious attitudes and practices in relation to new technologies and technological progress)?

In a multi-disciplinary spirit, three conference sections will explore the emergence of European Islam (innovation in religion), the relation between religion and spirituality on the one hand, Post- and Transhumanism on the other (religion of innovation and innovation in religion), and the role of religious communities in questioning and reshaping consolidated understandings of democracy, the public sphere, and the distinction between public and private law (religion in innovation).

The program, information about the speakers and abstracts are available at this link.

Contacts: 

fabretti@fbk.eu

raehme@fbk.eu

segreteria.isr@fbk.eu