Identity Archives | Page 5 of 9 | Contending Modernities

The New Western Plurality and Citizen Co-Existence

Robert Hefner
December 19, 2015March 2, 2023

Over the past generation the unprecedented expansion of migration to Western countries has coincided with the global revitalization of religion. These two developments have raised deep questions about received values and practices of pluralist co-existence in Western societies—questions that are likely to remain at the heart of political and social debate in Western societies for some years to come. Read the full article »

The Challenge of Updating Archaic Doctrine

Ebrahim Moosa
September 29, 2015August 12, 2019

Contending Modernities co-director Ebrahim Moosa’s recently published op-ed in the Washington Post, My madrassa classmate hated politics. Then he joined the Islamic State, provides a timely case study of a successful South African imam’s unlikely immigration to Syria to join the Islamic State. Read the full article »

Latest Contending Modernities Report Sparks Debate on the Future of Multiculturalism

David Barclay
August 15, 2013August 12, 2019

Following the launch of the latest Contending Modernities publication “Making Multiculturalism Work”, a range of politicians, scholars and journalists have engaged with the findings of author David Barclay of the Contextual Theology Center. Here, Barclay outlines reaction to the report. Read the full article »

Local ‘Political Friendships’: The Key to Making Multiculturalism Work

David Barclay
June 20, 2013August 9, 2019

The business of creating a more practical multiculturalism and overcoming the challenges presented by diversity is more complex than it first seems. My research set out to investigate how projects in the UK are bringing diverse groups together and forming what Harvard scholar Danielle Allen has called ‘political friendships’ across difference. Dialogue is all very well, but without tangible common action it is hard to create any sense of shared destiny. The future success of multiculturalism will not be won by lofty new theories or more debates on national identity, but by encouraging real relationships at a grass roots level between people of every background and belief. Read the full article »

Community Organising in London’s Congolese Diaspora

Caitlin Burbridge
May 17, 2013August 9, 2019

Community organising has significant potential for redressing low levels of democratic participation – through processes which actively engage citizens, encourage integration, and allow the voices of all individuals to be heard at local, national and international levels. My experience of engaging members of London’s Congolese diaspora in community organising has highlighted the increasing demand for both intentional processes of integration, and the opening of spaces within which citizens can actively engage in public life. Read the full article »

Global Migration and the New Cosmopolitanism: New Reports, Workshop, and Film

Angus Ritchie
February 28, 2013September 2, 2022

The ambition of Contending Modernities is to bring academic research into dialogue with policy-making and grassroots practice. Its east London research project – with the Contextual Theology Centre (CTC) – is focused on the ways that community organising enables diverse communities to work together to discern and promote a common good. As well as producing research papers, it is generating a number of resources for the wider community.

Defining Feminisms, Upholding Equality

Margot Badran
November 27, 2012August 5, 2019

Paola Bernardini rightly points out that one must be wary of the term “Western feminism.” Likewise, “Islamic feminism” is often taken by observers to mean any gender thinking and practice advocated by Muslim women — who are blithely labeled “Islamic feminists.” But such so-called “Islamic feminism” typically represents a patriarchal version of Islam, albeit mainly a “soft patriarchy” in which complementarity overrides equality. Read the full article »

The Theistic Meaning of Morality

Angus Ritchie
November 8, 2012August 5, 2019

An exciting feature of the Contending Modernities project is the way it links the academic with the deeply practical. In east London, the project has enabled us to develop new resources for Muslim engagement in public life — something I blogged about back in August. And we are currently conducting wider research on the way faiths work together to discern and promote the common good. It is also helping us to look at some apparently very abstract issues — including the relationship between morality and metaphysics — and show their relevance to the debates around faith in public life. Read the full article »

Woman and Her Complementary Relationship to Man

Mauro Meruzzi
November 1, 2012August 5, 2019

In response to the stirring invitation issued by Paola Bernardini to offer a theological account of the complementarity of women and men “without jeopardizing their equality,” I would like to take a close look at both the complementary relationship and equality of the sexes from a biblical perspective. To do so, I would like to begin at the beginning, as it were, with the Genesis account of the creation of man and woman.

Debating the Status of Women in Tunisia

Paula Bernardini
October 30, 2012August 5, 2019

As noted in a previous post on the Contending Modernities blog by Michael Driessen, post-authoritarian Tunisia has become the site of fascinating debate between contending modernities — one being self-consciously Islamist and democratic and the other being assertively secular and liberal. One battlefield where the conflict is currently fiercest is the status of women.

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