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Conference Announcement Theme: Religious Minorities, Minority Religions Subtitle: Visibility and Recognition in the Public Space Type: International Conference Institution: Université de Strasbourg Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Location: Strasbourg (France) Date: 7.–8.4.2011 __________________________________________________ Asking for a greater legal recognition or for a greater social legitimacy, more and more religious minorities are using positive affirmation and greater visibility in the European public space. In certain cases, it is the growth of the group which attracts attention; in some cases the internal changes to groups appear as "new" minorities. These minorities may emerge within the same dimension (like the evangelical protestants as a protestant minority group), or cross the minority dimensions (for examples see the recent claims of the French black Jews or of the gay Muslims in the Netherlands); finally it could be about the transformation of a minority, as in the case of the second or third generations immigrant descendants. In all cases, taking into account the dynamics of the evolution and the transformation of the relations, from a scientific view point, is necessary from the social and political points of views. This evolution of relations may also be perceived in minority relations to other minorities, from minority to majority relations, in the internal dynamics of the minorities, or in the evolution of the minority consciousness. The question of minorities in the public space is linked to that of their visibility and political representation; this public visibility may be used as the lever, intra-community or face to face, for the public powers. Based on the models of multiculturalism by Will Kymlicka or, more recently, by Francesco Fistetti, one considers the de-privatization of religions or the privatization of the public space in legislation and Western jurisprudence, as a measure of the scope, the variables and the attempt to exactly understand the meaning. This approach leads us to investigate the evolution of the notion of the legal order and the pertinence of the paradigm of "ordered pluralism" developed by several authors: for example, Neil MacCormick or Mireille Delmas-Marty. The political approach of the subject takes into account the involvement at the state level in order to encourage or limit this same visibility in the various national European spaces. From this point of view, the hesitations in France, on the increased visibility of the Muslims or of the "colored" French in the media, form a subject study. In this context, the conference will highlight the work of Minority Media, an excellent crew financed by the European Commission and received by MIGRINTER - CNRS of Poitier. Also, the vote in Switzerland, concerning the banning of minarets, or the decisions of Belgium and France concerning the wearing of the Burqa, and above all the debate that these "decisions" caused across Europe, notably in France, Germany and Turkey, constituting an important field of analysis. In another dimension, the banning of symbols associated to the Kurds or of the wearing of headscarves in universities in Turkey, or the difficulties shown to the Jehovah Witnesses in Greece, consisting of many study subjects permitting the freeing of general tendencies and making possible a conceptualization. The binding legislation to increase or decrease the visibility of religious groups is not limited to these cases. As Chantal Ammi states many institutional and financial limits exist in Europe, and they oppose this visibility. Finally, in a sociological approach, this conference will attempt to look at in which type of public space, in the Habermasian sense of the term, the visibility of religious minorities is perceived by the dominant majority as menacing the national unity and religion, and possibly the values of this majority. The objective of this conference is to study the use of the public space by the religious minorities. The visibility of the minorities, taking into account their public debate and their positions in European politics, will be some of the different aspects of the conversation. The presence of important minority religions is a historical reality in Alsace (notably the presence of Judaism and Protestantism). The recent evolution of immigration has increased the number, diversity and importance of the minority religious groups, which one notices from the evolution of public representation; the stakes illustrated by this local reality are supplementary grounds of interest for this conference. Conference website: http://minorites-espace-public.mineurel.info/index_EN.html __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
