ISORECEA Conference

The changes taking place in Europe undoubtedly challenge collective and individual identities. Some scientists are convinced that identity in the stable forms typical for traditional societies is past history, while today the formation of identity is the task of the individual. Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe introduces additional factors. It stimulates new life styles, and changes the hierarchy of values, institutional patterns of modus operandi and personal answers to the most intimate and ultimate questions. Is religion present in these macro- and micro-processes? If so – in what ways? How does religion influence social identity? Has it a formative role for the structures and meanings of life courses? What aspects of religion in what circumstances, contribute to identity? To raise a more detailed question: Are rituals, such as religious weddings for instance, important for the identity of wives and husbands and parents in a given country? For citizenship? For gender? How can we understand religious identity? Why and how do people change their religious identities? What are the directions of changes of identity in Central and Eastern Europe? Does religion continue to be an element of national identity? In what forms? What are the changes influenced by the collapse of Communism? In such matters is Central and Eastern Europe in similar to other parts of Europe and the world or not? How differentiated is CEE itself? What tools can social scientists use to compare the countries? Does CEE need specific theories?

The Organizers of the Conference warmly invite you to offer your answer to these and related questions. You may propose your paper on one of the thematic sessions listed below.

Plenary sessions:

I Religion and Everyday Life in Central and Eastern Europe

II Religious Identity: From Heritage to Conversion (and back)

III Religion and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe vs. Western Europe vs. World

Conference themes:

1. Religion and identity formation – individuals and communities

2. Religion and individual formation: time and space

3. Religion and meaning of life: bioethical dilemmas (euthanasia, cloning, in vitro)

4. Religion and social problems (poverty, inequality, discrimination, social distance, access to social rights)

5. Searching identity – Changing identity

6. Religious or Secular? – Everyday life and its frames (the calendar, the time of work and rest etc.)

7. Identity and migrations

8. Local and global dimension of identity