IRTG 2706/1: Transformative Religion: Religion as Situated Knowledge in Processes of Social Transformation

The German–South African International Research Training Group (IRTG) investigates the impact of religion on processes of social transformation and the impact of these transformations on religion in contemporary global societies. It aims at a critical epistemology through which the situatedness of religious knowledge production and reception in processes of social transformation can be made the subject of research. In case studies from contexts in the Global South and North, the IRTG seeks to investigate religion as specifically situated knowledge functioning as a resource and as a site of social transformation. It engages scholars from two continents and a variety of disciplines to go beyond conventional research approaches. The IRTG’s studies are conducted within four thematic fields in which the relationship of religion and social transformation is approached empirically: national identity, development, migration and healing.