Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RETOPEA (Religious Toleration and Peace)

Teaser

Narratives on Europe today are often characterized by conflicting views on the relation between religion and society. Historical dimensions of these narratives have often been neglected in sociological research and the voices of religious people remain largely absent from...

Summary

Narratives on Europe today are often characterized by conflicting views on the relation between religion and society. Historical dimensions of these narratives have often been neglected in sociological research and the voices of religious people remain largely absent from legal and political discourses. Insight in these historical dimensions and the representations of religious coexistence in society can contribute to raising empathy and understanding, and help people to deal with the challenges of religious coexistence. The project focuses especially on teenagers and aims at stimulating religious literacy, empowering young people to deal with often conflicting information and statements and promote religious tolerance. RETOPEA thus contributes to preventing radicalization, improving ways of dealing with religious conflict and promoting a more harmonious society.

The RETOPEA project carries out both research and innovation activities to tackle this challenge. The project focuses on the following main questions or objectives:
1. What can religious peace settlements tell us about how complex problems of religious cohabitation were practically handled in the past?
2. How are some of the same key issues of religious cohabitation presented in contemporary culture and media?
3. How can the results of historical research about the practical implementation of peace settlements be used to develop innovative, engaging teaching and learning materials for young people, that will help them understand the issues and empower them in discussing religious coexistence?
4. What can these experiences teach us about how to improve educational policies with regard to religious coexistence and promoting tolerance at regional, national and European level?
5. Making the results of the research available for professionals as well as a wider public.

Work performed

The main objective of the first year was laying out the basis for the further development of the project. Hence the main focus was on the research of historical peace treaties (WP 2) and contemporary representations of religious coexistence (WP 3) in order to produce clippings and context for the production of docutubes and badged open courses (WP 5) and WP 6 (policy impact). Also the Virtual Research Environment was set up for dissemination and communication, such as the website, facebook, Instagram, … Supportive work has been carried out in WP 1 (management), WP 4 (Impact on Education), WP 7 (Communication and Dissemination) and WP 8 (Ethics).
Firstly a source corpus of historical peace treaties was selected. These date from a wide period and cover cases in and beyond Europe. The research on contemporary representation analyses educational contexts, popular media, political discourse, and new religious movements, using various methodologies. The first objective of the research was to identify source extracts and context to produce “clippings” that will constitute the basis for the docutubes. This raised challenges and questions, which have been and continue to be tackled and led to a common standard for the clippings. A second standard for the research is a list of 12 topical focus points. These offer a common ground between the historical and contemporary research. Based on this, a variety of clippings have already been produced.
A digital infrastructure has been set up to store and standardize output. A metadata scheme and standardized workflow regulate the supply of research outcomes to the VRE.
Pilot groups with teenagers in formal and informal education have been organized to gain an understanding of teenagers’ ideas, and concerns about religious coexistence and diversity.
Plans for communication and dissemination have been developed, and are further improved. A website and social media accounts communicate about the project. Researchers have presented RETOPEA at various instances.
Finally, the leader of the project and his assistant facilitate the information flow between the domains of the project. They also assure the quality of the outcomes.

Final results

RETOPEA is a specific form of Applied History. Its approach to the study of religious coexistence is motivated by Jo Guldi and David Armitage’s History Manifesto (2014) which pleads for relevance of history and for studying long-term and global developments. RETOPEA also includes innovating comparative, transdisciplinary and decentering research dimensions. It introduces a novel educational project of ‘empowering history’, involving stakeholders and the development of an educational application. This is a new experiment that goes beyond traditional understandings of Applied History. Research infrastructure is crucial in this. The development of RETOPEA’s VRE, and the interaction between experts from different backgrounds both provide the necessary investment.
1. Impact on historical research: RETOPEA offers a distinctive comparative and decentering approach to religious peace-making. Also non-European and non-Christian peace treaties for religious coexistence are studied and proposed for including in education.
2. Impact on the study of contemporary religious coexistence: RETOPEA assesses attitudes towards and representations of religious diversity and coexistence in diverse socio-cultural and media contexts. This has revealed that these representations diverge more than anticipated. It changes perceptions and opens discussions on religious coexistence.
3. Impact on education: RETOPEA uses historical peace treaties as cases that involve dynamic interactions between religions, and which reveal the complexity of the evolving concepts of religious coexistence used to produce and maintain the settlements.
RETOPEA will enhance critical thinking and media literacy to develop resistance to all forms of discrimination and indoctrination by its analysis of contemporary representations of religious coexistence which will be adapted for use in teaching. Docutubes will help young people understand how media representations of religion are created, and their development and dissemination will enable educators to guide young people in social media use and to enhance technical skills.
RETOPEA will provide young people with historical examples of religious coexistence, and increase the ability to analyse contemporary uses. The material will introduce new perspectives to its users to develop the docutubes.
Secondly the project will encourage the young people to make ‘docutubes’ based on material (‘clippings’) from historical and contemporary sources. The docutubes will enable them to discuss differences and similarities. The materials provided in the research and the tools developed will have an impact on educators in the formal and informal sectors. In addition, a badged open course will be developed about religious coexistence and its representations past and present to assist educators.
4. Impact on Policy: RETOPEA will work ‘bottom-up’, by focusing on the experiences and sensitivities of young people in real-life contexts and on the challenges in formal and informal education to formulate recommendations for changes in educational policies and more broadly, and hence invites various stakeholders to engage with the educational experiment to enhance the conclusions’ the political impact. RETOPEA will thus guide policy makers in filling the gap between aspiration and practice.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.retopea.eu.