The aim of this thesis is to analyse and discuss the ways in which the world religions are presented in Swedish upper secondary Religious education [RE] textbooks. The result of the study is the following: The RE textbooks have similar ways of presenting the different world religions. Nevertheless, Christianity is offered more space in the books, and is also more personally presented that the other world religions. This implies that upper secondary students may not be given opportunity, through these RE textbooks, to depict and to understand all world religions in an equal way. The result is being discussed through two theoretical concepts: religious pluralism and an agentic perspective. Taken together, the theoretical interpretation of the result stresses an ‘outside’ secular perspective, grounded in descriptions of religious life and experiences from an outside perspective of the world religions. While a perspective from inside or from within the world religions is rare, and if at all most prevailing in the RE textbooks’ presentations of Christianity. This may have didactical consequences for the upper secondary RE teachers, in terms of which textbooks to use in the subject matter teaching, when religious diversity as knowledge content and objective is at the fore of the RE subject in the Swedish syllabus for upper secondary RE. A religiously diverse and agentic RE teaching, it is assumed, needs to balance the didactical space through choices of RE textbooks that convey equally distributed perspectives from both an outside and an inside depiction of every world religion.

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Germany is presently transforming into a modern immigration state, leaving behind its image of a “guest worker” country. Parallely, it is confronted with growing religious plurality and rising religious conflicts. Moreover, religious labeling of groups other than the Christian or undenominational majority population becomes more significant. Against this background, the paper discusses the views of the population in Germany towards religious plurality, practices of religious minorities as well as attitudes towards members of different religious groups. The results reveal a considerable amount of negative attitudes towards foreign religious groups in Germany. More specifically, Islam and Muslims are mostly viewed as negative by the German population. Structural equation models with manifest variables show that, in particular, the frequency of contacts have positive impacts on attitudes towards people of different religious affiliations.

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Au Royaume-Uni, les politiques d’intégration ont fait l’objet de redéfinitions successives depuis les émeutes urbaines de 2001 en Angleterre. Ces événements et les attaques terroristes de Londres de 2005, qui ont largement été décrits comme les résultats de la ségrégation ethnique de la société britannique, ont conduit à une remise en question des politiques multiculturalistes mises en œuvre depuis les années 1980, et à un réexamen des politiques d’intégration. L’objet de cette recherche est de déterminer les ruptures et les continuités dans les nouvelles définitions des politiques d’intégration, tant au niveau du discours politique que dans les modalités de mise en œuvre des politiques publiques, et de déterminer dans quelle mesure une véritable rupture avec le multiculturalisme s’est opérée entre 2001 et 2014. L’analyse des discours, des rapports officiels ainsi que notre enquête de terrain sur les réformes et les nouvelles modalités de la procédure de naturalisation ont abouti à plusieurs conclusions : d’un côté, on observe la cristallisation progressive d’une approche assimilationniste de l’intégration, particulièrement visible avec l’arrivée des conservateurs au pouvoir depuis 2010 ; de l’autre, on s’aperçoit que le discours et les politiques multiculturalistes persistent sous diverses formes. Ainsi, une vision nouvelle de l’intégration comme la « community cohesion » peut être interprétée comme ayant reconduit ce paradigme sous diverses formes. Quant à la reconnaissance continue du pluralisme religieux dans l’action publique, elle procède de ce que nous pouvons appeler une « confessionnalisation » du multiculturalisme britannique. / In the United Kingdom, integration policies have undergone a constant process of redefinition since the urban riots in northern England in 2001. These events, and the London bombings of 2005, which were widely described as resulting from the ethnic segregation of British society, have led to a questioning of the multiculturalist policies implemented since the 1980s and to a review of integration policies. The objective of this research is to determine the ruptures and the continuities in the new political definitions of integration, both at the level of political discourse and of the actual implementation of policy guidelines, and to determine whether there has been indeed a break with multiculturalism between 2001 and 2014. Analysis of speeches and official reports, as well as a field survey on the reforms and on the new arrangements for naturalization lead to several conclusions: On the one hand, it is possible to observe the gradual crystallization of an assimilationist approach to integration that has become more visible since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. On the other hand, however, multiculturalist discourses and policies subsist in various guises; in fact, innovative visions of integration such as ‘community cohesion’ can be understood to have renewed this paradigm in new ways. Likewise, the increasing recognition of religious pluralism in public action suggests what we call a ‘confessionalisation’ of British multiculturalism.

Cette thèse met en lumière la confiance dans les nouvelles relations entre un subordonné et sa hiérarchie qui s’établissent après une fusion-acquisition (fusac) dans un pays émergent multiculturel. Un grand nombre de chercheurs s’est intéressé à la question du taux d’échec de plus de 50% des fusac. De nombreuses difficultés caractérisent le processus d’intégration d’une entreprise après son acquisition, y compris pour les employés. L’établissement de la confiance est un facteur clé du succès. S’appuyant sur des travaux effectués sous l’angle culturel des fusacs, ces trois essais traitent d’une lacune dans la connaissance de la dynamique de confiance et de la dynamique culturelle lors de l’intégration d’entreprises dont le personnel est multiculturel. L'essai 1 développe un cadre théorique pour l’étude de la confiance d’un subordonné issu d’une entreprise multiculturelle acquise envers la direction des acquéreurs étrangers, sur la base de la similitude ethnique ou religieuse. L’essai 2 teste plusieurs hypothèses sur la (dis)similitude religieuse et la confiance à partir du cadre théorique élaboré, modérées par trois facteurs spécifiques à l’acquisition. L’essai 3 examine la dynamique culturelle et la dynamique de confiance au travers de deux études de cas : une acquisition malaisienne locale comparée à l’acquisition d’une entreprise malaisienne par une entreprise sud-africaine. L’analyse par abduction de 35 interviews d’employés des entreprises acquéreuses et acquises met en évidence que la perméabilisation des frontières managériales a facilité le développement de la confiance entre les subordonnés et leur direction. / This dissertation illuminates trust in new subordinate—leader relationships arising from mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in multicultural emerging economies. A large body of researchers has probed the notorious M&A failure rate of over 50%. Complexity and uncertainty characterize post-acquisition integration including for the personnel. Trust is a key success factor. Building on research into the cultural perspective of M&As, three related essays address a knowledge gap in trust and cultural dynamics when integrating firms with multicultural personnel. Essay 1 develops a theoretical framework of multicultural acquired-firm subordinate trust in foreign acquirer leaders, based on ethnic or religious similarity. The M&A concept of multiculturalism is combined with self-categorization and similarity-attraction theories to explicate how subordinates alleviate integration uncertainty to develop trust. Essay 2 tests religious (dis)similarity—trust hypotheses from this framework, moderated by three acquisition-specific factors. Policy-capturing data from 411 multifaith Malaysian personnel demonstrates the nuanced role of religion as a catalyst (constraint) of trust in cross-border M&As. Essay 3 examines the cultural and trust dynamics in two case studies, comparing a domestic Malaysian acquisition and a South African—Malaysian acquisition. Abductive analysis of 35 interviews of acquirer and acquired-firm personnel reveals that managerial boundary spanning facilitated subordinate—leader trust development. Paradoxically, integrating the domestic rather than cross-border acquisition was more complex when within-country religious diversity and linguistic diversity are considered.

This dissertation evaluates the recent academic consensus on liberal multiculturalism. I argue that this apparent consensus, by subsuming religious experience under the general category of culture, has rested upon undefended and contestable conceptions of modern religious life. In the liberal multicultural literature, cultures are primarily identified as sharing certain ethnic, linguistic, or geographic attributes, which is to say morally arbitrary particulars that can be defended without raising the possibility of conflict over metaphysical beliefs. In such theories, the possibility of conflict due to diverse religious principles or claims to the transcendent is either steadfastly ignored or, more typically, explained away as the expression of perverted religious faith. I argue that this conception of the relation between culture and religion fails to provide an account of liberal multiculturalism that is persuasive to religious believers on their own terms. To illustrate this failing, I begin with an examination of the Canadian policy of official multiculturalism and the constitutional design of Pierre Trudeau. I argue that the resistance of Québécois nationalists to liberal multiculturalism, as well as the conflict between the Québécois and minority religious groups within Quebec, has been animated by religious and quasi-religious claims to the transcendent. I maintain that to truly confront this basic problem of religious difference, one must articulate and defend the substantive visions of religious life that are implicit in liberal multicultural theory. To this end, I contrast the portrait of religious life and secularization that is implicit in Will Kymlicka’s liberal theory of minority rights with the recent account of modern religious life presented by Charles Taylor. I conclude by suggesting that Kymlicka’s and Taylor’s contrasting conceptions of religious difference—which are fundamentally at odds regarding the relation of the right to the good, and the diversity and nature of genuine religious belief—underline the extent to which liberal multicultural theory has reached an academic consensus only by ignoring the reality of religious diversity. / text

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-03-02T13:26:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 analuziacaixeiro.pdf: 3299896 bytes, checksum: 3619e3fa331f347bd57b661a0a5d5a70 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-03-03T14:50:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 analuziacaixeiro.pdf: 3299896 bytes, checksum: 3619e3fa331f347bd57b661a0a5d5a70 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-03T14:50:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 analuziacaixeiro.pdf: 3299896 bytes, checksum: 3619e3fa331f347bd57b661a0a5d5a70 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-29 / Este trabalho tem como foco o estudo da Fraternidade Cósmica Universal, um grupo sediado na cidade de Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. O grupo realiza encontros entre segmentos religiosos e não religiosos, promovendo o conhecimento, a interação e o diálogo entre as diversas tradições. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi compreender essa dinâmica. Para sua execução foram realizadas visitas ao grupo, observações, participações em suas atividades e entrevistas com seus membros efetivos e visitantes. O resultado encontra-se organizado em três capítulos. No primeiro capítulo serão abordados o diálogo inter-religioso no atual contexto do pluralismo, a questão da identidade, da busca pelo sentido e as novas configurações religiosas. No segundo capítulo serão apresentados a criação e o histórico do grupo, as atividades desenvolvidas pela casa, a dinâmica dos encontros e os espaços físicos onde ocorrem. O terceiro capítulo apresentará os personagens envolvidos nesse processo, suas trajetórias até o grupo e as funções que desempenham na construção de um espaço para o exercício do diálogo inter-religioso e na formação de uma identidade para o grupo. A análise final apresentará os elementos desta dinâmica do diálogo inter-religioso que ocorre na Fraternidade Cósmica Universal. / This research focuses on the study of the Fraternidade Cósmica Universal, a group headquartered in the city of Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The group set up meetings between religious and non-religious segments, promoting knowledge, interaction and dialogue between different traditions. The purpose of this work was to understand this dynamics. For its implementation, visits were done to the group, observations, participation in activities and interviews with its members and visitors. The result of this research is organized into three chapters. In the first chapter will be addressed interfaith dialogue in the current context of pluralism, the question of identity, the search for meaning and new religious settings. In the second chapter will be presented the creation and history of the group, the activities of the home, the dynamics of the meetings and the physical spaces in which they occur. The third chapter introduces the characters involved in this process, their trajectories to the group and the roles they play in the construction of a space for the exercise of interfaith dialogue and the formation of an identity for the group. The final analysis will present the elements of the dynamics of interfaith dialogue that occurs in Fraternidade Cósmica Universal.

Starting in November of 2016, a documentary series aired on the original network A&E where it continues to capture the attention of thousands of viewers in America. Scientology: The Aftermath, starring the well-known King of Queens and Dancing with the Stars actress Leah Remini and former senior executive of the church of Scientology International and Sea Organization Mike Rinder, aim to reveal the "truth" that hides behind the church of Scientology. The show interviews ex-practitioners who claim their lives have been deeply impacted by the church and who want to assist in revealing the shocking stories of abuse and harassment the church tries to keep secret. The goal of the show, in short, is to not only share the "real" face of Scientology to the public, but to also reach out and assist people who have been affected personally by the church; some have lost their family and friends while others have been followed or monitored by church members. A simple Google search on Scientology brings up multiple news headlines on the church being labeled as a "cult" and "criminal" while magazines in the lines of grocery stores display the downfall on the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes due to the intensity of the Church of Scientology. Yet Scientology isn’t alone in receiving negative attention from the media. Christian Science has been accused of depriving the ill of needed medical attention which has led to some members becoming severely ill and dying in some cases. Most of these cases are children that were deprived of needed medical assistance due to their parents' religious views. Religious Studies scholar, Mary Bednarowski, adds that due to these circumstances, Christian Science has long experienced harsh criticism. With families and anti-cult movements protesting in the streets, ads, books, and magazines displaying their opposition, and the media labeling these movements as "dangerous", why would people join and remain in these New Religious Movements? What is it that makes these religious movements alluring and what are their adherents benefiting from them?

[pt] Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender, a partir da concepção de professores, como a religião se expressa no cotidiano escolar. Buscou-se também caracterizar práticas pedagógicas voltadas à educação para a diversidade e a tolerância religiosa, considerando a diversidade de credos religiosos existentes no contexto brasileiro e presentes na escola. Para responder às questões apresentadas, optou-se por uma abordagem qualitativa através de entrevistas semiestruturadas com professores polivalentes e professores de ensino religioso do Ensino Fundamental da Rede Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. Constatou-se que a concepção de religião enquanto redentora dos problemas sociais e educacionais ainda se faz presente nas representações dos docentes. Além disso, independentemente da presença do ensino religioso, a expressão das identidades religiosas é um fato no cotidiano escolar, reconhecida tanto como iniciativa dos professores como dos alunos. Foi verificado, também, um significativo número de casos de intolerância religiosa que ocorrem no cotidiano escolar, em especial em relação aos adeptos de religiões de matriz afro-brasileira. Dentre as práticas pedagógicas relatadas, foi possível identificar que há professores que desenvolvem propostas que vão ao encontro de uma perspectiva de educação intercultural que valoriza a tolerância. Entretanto, parecem ser casos isolados quando se consideram os relatos sobre a comunidade escolar. Considera-se, portanto, que uma maior reflexão sobre a diversidade religiosa na escola, a partir da discussão da tolerância como um mínimo ético fundamental para a convivência em sociedade, pode contribuir para potencializar a ação pedagógica dos docentes. / [en] This research is aimed at comprehending, from the teachers conception, how religion is expressed in school routine. It has also been tried to identify pedagogical practices related to an education for diversity and religious tolerance, considering the diversity of religious beliefs and other identity impressions which are present not only in Brazil but also at school. To answer these questions, a qualitative approach has been chosen and it was done through semi-structured interviews with multifunctional teachers and Religious Education teachers who teach in public elementary schools in Rio de Janeiro. It has been found that the idea of religion as a redeemer of social and educational problems is still present in teachers representation. Besides that, it does not matter if Religious Education is present or absent, as the religious identities are a fact in school routine, not only because of a teachers but also because of students initiative. It has also been verified a great number of religious intolerance cases which happen in school routine, specially among adepts of Afro-Brazilian religions. Among the mentioned pedagogical practices, it has been identified that some teachers develop projects which enrich the tolerance and the intercultural education. However, these are isolated cases when we consider the school community as a whole. As a consequence, a greater consideration about religious diversity at schools is essential, through the discussion of tolerance as a minimum ethical pillar to live in society, which can contribute to enlarge the pedagogical practice of teachers.