Aktuelles aus Theologie und Religionsforschung

In September, Heinrich Wilhelm Schäfer visited Mexico for various activities.
Together with Adrián Tovar Schäfer visited religious groups and conducted interviews in the quarter of Ajusco, Mexico City, where Tovar was finishing a six months field research period. The project 'Faith Identity and Community in the Mega-city' focuses on religious diversity under conditions of relative social homogeneity in a special neighborhood of Mexico City. CIRRuS executes this project in close cooperation with the Institute of Social Research (Instituto de Investigación Social, IIS) of UNAM.

Therefore, the second aim of the visit to Mexico was to strengthen the cooperation by different activities. An important goal was the coordination of our common field study with Prof. Dr. Hugo Suárez since IIS is emphasizes the study of Catholic groupings in Ajusco while CIRRuS focuses on non-Catholic communities. Moreover, Schäfer presented the method of Habitus-Analysis in a seminar. And, thirdly, a public round table on "Acts of Faith and their Actors" was organized by the IIS with three Mexican sociologists of religion - Pablo Semán, Carlos Garma and Hugo Suárez - and Schäfer. (See web-cast).

Finally Schäfer established contact with different researchers on violence in Mexico in order to contribute international cooperation to the initiative for a Cluster of Excellence on "Signatures of Threat" [ Link zu einer neuen Seite auf CIRRuS; siehe unten ] the University of Bielefeld is presently launching.