Ethnicity, Islam, and Space : Societies in Europe and in China

at Nanjing University, China

PRESENTATION

The workshop will focus on the intermingling notions of ethnicity, religion and society in order to understand the specificity of Islam, or the common dynamics that Muslim groups and individuals share with other religious groups or faith groups in our global world of today. Church-State relations and the analysis of State management of religious pluralism (Casanova, 1994) in Europe and in China can provide the contextual framework for understanding the different trajectories of Muslim mobilizations in society in the past or today. Do the constitutional contexts, the secular regime, the historical formations of ethnicity or the social stratification of a society play a role in the way Muslims act ? Do all these characteristics related to Law, public policies towards faith, sociological attributes of a society interact simultaneously or sequentially in the construction of ethnicity and its transformations in history ? The workshop will aim to draw some crossed analysis between different local/national contexts in Europe and in China in order to address this epistemological challenge for the study of ethnicity and Muslims’ mobilization in society.

The focus on the society will also lead us to discuss the political nature of the society. State formation through its representations, discourses and government of immigration, religious minorities, do influence the society. State recognition of ethnic differentiations can lead to a productive and positive polarization if the State considers it necessary for its rational organization and functioning which continuously evolves. However, this purpose will need to encourage at the same time freedom of religion and individuation of religion. The latter cannot be fully analysed without taking into account the globalization of religion and, more particularly here, the transnational relations enacted by Muslims. How Muslim transnationalities and translocalities participate in the interaction of ethnicity, Islam and society ? Muslim transnationalities and translocalities are built, transformed by processes of inclusion and exclusion marked by frontiers established in some cases simultaneously with the State.

This workshop will analyze interactions between ethnicity, Islam and society in Europe and in China to draw theoritical and epistemological continuities and discontinuities between European and Chinese sociologies, to produce common knowlege and to improve the paradigm of Post-Western Sociology.

Schedule

October 25th

• Full Day Arrival and Checking-in
• 18:30 Welcoming Party

October 26th

• 9:00 – 9:30 Opening Ceremony
• Prof. Cheng Boqing (Dean of the School of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University)
• Prof. Wang Chunguang (Vice-Director of the Institute of Sociology, CASS)
• Prof. Laurence Roulleau-Berger (CNRS Research Director and French Director of the LIA

• 1. 09:30 – 10:00 Post-Western Sociology : Ethnicity, Space and Cosmopolitism
  Laurence Roulleau-Berger (CNRS, ENS Lyon)

• 2. 10:00 – 10:30 Ethnicity and Islam in South Fujian
  Fan Ke (Nanjing University)

• 10:30 – 10:45 Coffee Break

• 10:45 – 11:15 : Islamophobia, Racialization and Legal Discrimination Against Muslims in France
  Abdellali Hajjat, University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre

• 3. 11:15 – 11:45 Debates on the State Regulation of Religious Goods : Inclusive Development or Exclusive Discrimination
  He Rong (Chinese Academy of Social Science)

• 4. 11:45 – 12:15 South Asian Islam, transnational space in Europe and South Africa.
  Samadia Sadouni (Sciences Po Lyon, Triangle)

• 12:15 – 13:45 Lunch Break

• 5. 13:45 – 14:15 Learning to be a Tibetan-Hui : An Anthropological Study of Tibetan-Hui Group in Shengping Town, Yunnan
  Liu Qi (East China Normal University)

• 6. 14:15 – 14:45 Racialization and Sexualization of Muslims in Euramerica
  Nacira Guénif (University Paris 8 Vincennes - Saint-Denis)

• 7. 14:45 – 15:15 The Integrative Sinicization of the Religious Practice among the New Muslim Immigrants in Nanjing, China
  Bai Li (Nanjing Normal University)

• 15:15 – 15:30 Coffee Break

• 8. 15:30 – 16:00 The Social Life of Hui Muslim in China
  _Turgunjan Tursun (Zhejiang Normal University)

• 9. 16:00 – 16:30 From Masters to Experts : Chinese diviners’ attempt of legitimization and professionalization
  Li Geng (Chinese Academy of Social Science)

• 10. 16:30 – 17:00 Halal Money : Ethnic boundaries and Islamic ethics in a transnational trading space of Guangzhou
  Chen Yanyv and Yang Der-Ruey (Nanjing University)

• 17:00 – 17:15 Coffee Break

• 17:15 – 18:15 Roundtable Discussion
  Chairpersons : Fan Ke and Laurence Roulleau-Berger

• 18:30 Dinner

October 27th

• Full Day Fieldwork Site Visit – The Mosque in Jizhaoying, Nanjing

October 28th

• Full Day : Fieldwork Site Visit – Qianyuanguan Daoist Temple in Maoshan, Jintan, Changzhou
• 18:30 Farewell Party

October 29th

• Full Day Checking-out and Departure