The disjunction of time and space under conditions of globalization is bringing about an ongoing reformulation of the boundaries between seemingly clear orienting polarities, including those between core and periphery, metropolis and hinterland, home and away, global and local; and more generally, identity and difference. Using these polarities as analytic points of departure, this paper lays some theoretical foundations for raising questions about how we construct and reconstruct religions in global society. The core argument is that different places in which adherents to a religion locate serve as centres for an ongoing negotiation as to what constitutes that religion. The process greatly relativizes distinctions such as that between homeland and diaspora, especially as concerns the question of authenticity and, hence, authority.
References
1.
Andersen, W.K. and Damle, S.D. (1987) The Brotherhood in Saffron. Boulder, CO: Westview.
2.
Almond, P.C. (1988) The British Discovery of Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Babb, L.A. and Wadley, S.S. (1995) Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
4.
Beyer, P. (1994) Religion and Globalization. London: Sage.
5.
Beyer, P. (1998a) “The Religious System of Global Society: A Sociological Look at Contemporary Religion and Religions”, Numen45(1).
6.
Beyer, P. (1998b) “The Modern Emergence of Religions and a Global Social System for Religion”, International Sociology (forthcoming).
7.
Bordes-Bénayoun, C. (1997) “Les diasporas en France”, paper delivered to the 24th Conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion, Toulouse, July.
8.
Carey, S. (1987) “The Indianization of the Hare Krishna Movement in Britain”, in R. Burghart (ed.) Hinduism in Great Britain: The Perpetuation of Religion in an Alien Cultural Milieu. London: Tavistock.
9.
Cohen, Martine (1993) “Les Juifs de France: Affirmations identitaires et évolution du modèle d'intégration”, Le Débat 75 (May/Aug): 101-115.
10.
Cox, H. (1995) Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
11.
Despland, M. (1979) La religion en occident: Evolution des idées et du vécu. Montreal: Fides.
12.
Dusenbery, V.A. (1988) “Punjabi Sikhs and Gora Sikhs: Conflicting Assertions of the Sikh Identity in North America”, in J. O'Connellet al. (eds) Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto, Centre for South Asian Studies.
13.
Freston, Paul (1997) “Globalisation and the Rise of Mass Pentecostalism in Latin America”, Paper delivered to the International Society for the Sociology of Religion, Toulouse, July.
14.
Giddens, A. (1994) “Living in a Post-Traditional Society”, in U. Beck, A. Giddens and S. Lash Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
15.
Gill, Sam (1987) Mother Earth: An American Story. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
Haddad, Y.Y. and Smith, J.I. (1993) Mission to America: Five Islamic Sectarian Communities in North America. Gainsville: University Press of Florida.
17.
Haddad, Y.Y. and Smith, J.I. (eds) (1994) Muslim Communities in North America. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
18.
Harrison, P. (1990) “Religion” and the Religions in the English Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Hoover, S.M. (1988) Mass Media Religion: The Social Sources of the Electronic Church. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
20.
Jones, Kenneth W. (1989) Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India. The New Cambridge History of India. Vol. III/1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21.
King, A.D. (1990) Global Cities: Post-Imperialism and the Internationalization of London. London and New York: Routledge.
22.
King, M. (ed.) (1995) God's Law versus State Law: The Construction of an Islamic Identity in Western Europe. London: Grey Seal.
23.
Luhmann, N. (1974) “Symbiotische Mechanismen”, in O. Rammstedt (ed.) Gewaltverhältnisse und die Ohnmacht der Kritik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
24.
Luhmann, N. (1982) The Differentiation of Society, trans. S. Holmes and C. Larmore. New York: Columbia University Press.
25.
Marshall, P.J. (ed.) (1970) The British Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
26.
Meyer, J.W. , Boli, J., Ramirez, F.O. and Thomas, G.M. (1995) “Theories of Culture: Institutional Actor-Centered Approaches: The Case of World Society”, Paper presented to the American Sociological Association, Washington, DC, August.
27.
Parsons, T. (1963) “On the Concept of Political Power”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association107: 232-262.
28.
Paper, Jordan (1995) The Spirits are Drunk: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
29.
Poewe, K. (ed.) (1994) Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
30.
Prebish, Charles S. (1979) American Buddhism. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury.
31.
Robertson, R. (1992) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage.
32.
Robertson, R. (1995) “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity”, in M. Featherstone, S. Lash and R. Robertson (eds) Global Modernities. London: Sage.
33.
Shahid, W.A.R. and van Koningsveld, P.S. (1995) Religious Freedom and the Position of Islam in Western Europe: Opportunities and Obstacles in the Acquisition of Equal Rights. Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos.
34.
Smith, W.C. (1964) The Meaning and End of Religion: A New Approach to the Religions of Mankind. New York: Mentor.
35.
Van Dijk, Rijk (1997) “Time and Transcultural Technologies of the Self in the Ghanian Pentecostal Diaspora”, Paper delivered to the International Society for the Sociology of Religion, Toulouse, July.
36.
Wallerstein, I. (1979) The Capitalist World-Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
