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Featured researches published by Mar Griera.


Social Compass | 2012

Public policies, interfaith associations and religious minorities: a new policy paradigm? Evidence from the case of Barcelona

Mar Griera

Religious diversity is posing new and urgent challenges to local authorities and there is no solid foundation of expertise in dealing with this issue at the local level. In some European cities, interfaith platforms are providing local authorities with new governance tools to cope with the challenges of religious diversity and are generating new ways of framing and representing religion in the public sphere. The author takes the city of Barcelona as a case study with the aim of exploring the emergence of a new model for dealing with religious minority issues that goes beyond State–Church relations and the political legacies in this area.


Social Compass | 2015

Demonopolisation and dislocation: (Re-)negotiating the place and role of religion in Spanish prisons

Julia Martínez-Ariño; Gloria García-Romeral; Gemma Ubasart-González; Mar Griera

The aim of this paper is to analyse the reformulation of the place and role of religion in Spanish public institutions after the constitutional disestablishment of the Catholic Church and religious diversification of society. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork in six Spanish prisons, we argue that there is a process of the realignment of forces between the religious groups that provide services in such institutions, the Catholic Church adopting an attitude in between adaptation and subtle resistance to the loss of a number of its previous prerogatives. This incomplete demonopolisation of public organisations can be explained as the result of two opposing forces: (a) convergence towards the European standards of accommodation of religious diversity; and (b) Catholic resistance to the loss of established advantages.


Journal of Contemporary Religion | 2015

Banal is not Trivial: Visibility, Recognition, and Inequalities between Religious Groups in Prison

Mar Griera; Anna Clot-Garrell

Abstract Recognizing religious groups is not only a question of granting rights, but also a question of the possibility of being perceived as unproblematic, especially in contexts where religion is a contested issue. Spain is a compelling case to examine this proposition. There, the rise of migration-driven religious diversity and the attacks of 11 March 2004 have led religious minorities into the sensitive terrain of ‘supra-visibility’. Drawing upon research conducted in prisons, we show that, in this situation, being classified as a ‘religion’ becomes more a cause for alarm than a sign of normalcy. The most powerful actors in the field have actively distanced themselves from the category of ‘religion’, either because they are presented as spiritual therapies or because they are embedded in cultural traditions—the banal Catholicism that prevails in many southern European settings. Overall, religious inequalities are not only related to the recognition of rights, but also to the (in)visibility of some social and cultural forms over others.


Archive | 2015

Doing Yoga Behind Bars: A Sociological Study of the Growth of Holistic Spirituality in Penitentiary Institutions

Mar Griera; Anna Clot-Garrell

Drawing on a qualitative research conducted in Catalan prisons, this chapter explores what role holistic spiritualities such as yoga, Reiki and meditation activities play in contemporary Spanish prisons. These practices located at the limit of the secular are increasingly present in prisons. In this regard, the chapter particularly examines the success of such holistic activities—understanding “success” to mean the non-problematisation, acceptance and rapid diffusion of such ideas and practices—in the penitentiary context. We argue that holistic activities and therapies become symbolic resources through which inmates can make sense of their uncertain situation in prison and (re)construct their self-image while also working as a “peace-making mechanism” that fits in with the institutional order. Prison staff—specifically social workers—plays a crucial role as carriers, in the Weberian sense of the term, of the ideas and values that underlie holistic activities.


Religion, State and Society | 2016

The governance of religious diversity in stateless nations: the case of Catalonia

Mar Griera

ABSTRACT Academic literature dealing with the governance of religious diversity in Europe has gained saliency in recent years. However, most existing research is based on state-level policies, while the role of regional government is receiving far less attention. To address this lacuna, this article focuses attention on the role of the regional government in the regulation of religious diversity in Catalonia. The article reflects on the increasing relevance of religious affairs in the Catalan policy agenda and examines the emergence and configuration of a specific, distinct and prominent regional policy programme on religious diversity. The case of Catalonia is especially relevant since its ongoing nation-building project bestows additional complexity and strategic relevance on the policy approach towards religious issues.


Ethnic and Racial Studies | 2018

To see or not to see: explaining intolerance against the “Burqa” in European public space

Marian Burchardt; Mar Griera

ABSTRACT Why has the face veil become the centre of political debates about Islam in urban contexts? What kinds of experiences and ideas have animated its framing as a practice in need of regulation? Focusing on Spain, we argue that space and emotion are the key categories for explaining the micro-politics of face veil conflicts and that constitute face veiling as an object of contention “on the ground”. We suggest the notion of regimes of public space and highlight three central components: (1) understandings of ideal public space; (2) regimes of urban visibility; (3) emotional regimes. Taken together, these dimensions filter forms of inclusion and exclusion that emerge from regulatory practices and feed into graduated forms of urban citizenship and frame people’s sensibilities. The article also illustrates how the spatial analysis complicates the secular-religious dichotomy.


Social Compass | 2018

Initiatives interreligieuses et gouvernance locale : les cas de Barcelone et de Turin

Mar Griera; Maria Chiara Giorda; Valeria Fabretti

Many European local governments are seeking out ways to encourage interreligious initiatives. This article focuses on the cases of Barcelona and Turin. Both cities are pioneering new forms of governance of the religious field in Southern Europe, while also being a source of inspiration for other cities. The article traces the genealogy of the institutional collaboration between interreligious actors and local governments, and develops a typology to examine how interreligious groups intervene in both cities’ public sphere. The article shows the crucial role of Catholic intellectuals and also of the celebration of the Olympic Games in fostering local dynamics of cooperation between municipalities and religious actors. The article concludes by arguing that the increasing securitarization of the religious domain in both cities have transformed the active involvement of interreligious groups in local governance into a process of domestication of the religious field.


Social Compass | 2018

Interreligious relations and governance of religion in Europe: Introduction:

Mar Griera; Alexander-Kenneth Nagel

In recent years, the growth and expansion of interreligious initiatives have received increasing scholarly attention worldwide, and interreligious actors and repertoires are gaining relevance within emerging governance regimes of religious diversity in Europe and beyond. However, empirical research in this field is still very limited. With the aim to fill this gap, this special issue gathers four original contributions aimed at critically describing, understanding and reflecting upon the rise of the ‘interreligious sector’ and its growing relevance to the governance of religious diversity in contemporary Europe.


Social Compass | 2018

Introduction : Relations interreligieuses et gouvernance de la religion en Europe:

Mar Griera; Alexander-Kenneth Nagel

Ces dernières années, la croissance et l’expansion des initiatives interreligieuses ont reçu une attention croissante dans le monde entier (Cheetham et al. 2013 ; Cornille, 2013). Les répertoires et acteurs interreligieux gagnent en pertinence dans les gouvernances émergentes de diversité religieuse en Europe et au-delà (Griera et Forteza, 2011 ; Nagel, 2016). Cependant, la recherche empirique dans ce domaine est encore très limitée. Jusqu’à présent, la plupart des recherches sur les relations interreligieuses ont été élaborées dans une perspective théologique (Moyaert et al., 2015), et visaient à examiner les promesses et les périls des initiatives interreligieuses dans des domaines tels que l’éducation (Leirvik, 2008 ; Byrne, 2011), les processus de paix (Bercovitch et al., 2009) ou des échanges dialectiques. Malgré quelques exceptions notables (Lamine, 2004 ; Halafoff, 2011 ; 2013), les approches sociologiques des dynamiques interreligieuses n’en sont qu’à leurs débuts. Certaines études ont implicitement traité des questions interreligieuses à travers l’analyse de salles multiconfessionnelles dans les espaces publics (Cadge, 2018 ; Crompton, 2013 ; Gilliat-Ray, 2005) ou des lieux de pèlerinage partagés (Albera et Couroucli, 2012 ; Walton, 2016), mais beaucoup moins d’efforts ont été consacrés à examiner l’implication des acteurs interreligieux dans la gouvernance de la religion. Toutefois, cela est en train de changer. Actuellement, un nombre croissant de chercheurs mènent des recherches empiriques sur les initiatives et la gouvernance interreligieuses dans une perspective de sciences sociales, et notre objectif a été d’inclure une partie importante de cette nouvelle branche d’étude dans ce numéro spécial.


Culture and Religion | 2018

Born a pastor, being a woman: biographical accounts on gendered religious gifts in the Diaspora

Rafael Cazarin; Mar Griera

ABSTRACT Women’s presence in Pentecostal leadership positions has slowly increased over the past decades, which raises new questions on the reconfiguration of gender roles and its relationship with religious doctrines. Based on empirical research, this article examines the construction of female leadership and religious authority within Pentecostal churches in a diasporic context. We draw upon biographical narratives of six female Pentecostal pastors—three African and three Latin American—who are leaders in Pentecostal churches in Spain. Our aim is to understand which conditions allowed these women to obtain positions of leadership in a mainly male dominated Pentecostal milieu and analyse the discursive articulation of Pentecostal conservative views on gender issues with local dynamics in the construction of female religious authority. The article shows that the authority of these women within the church realm is forged and legitimated through a religious narrative, one that empowers them as religious leaders without challenging their (and other women’s) subaltern role in the domains of social and family life.

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Anna Clot-Garrell

Autonomous University of Barcelona

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Avi Astor

Autonomous University of Barcelona

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Gloria García-Romeral

Autonomous University of Barcelona

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Ines Michalowski

Social Science Research Center Berlin

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Rafael Cazarin

University of the Basque Country

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