The symbolic dimensions of secularity, sovereignty and solidarity: a comparative study

The rising presence of religion in the public sphere of several modern societies of both Europe and Asia, be their cultural background presents a new challenge, not just to the sociology of religion, but to the theory of modernity itself. The work hypothesis underlying this project is that the reemergence of religion does not disprove theories of modern society as a secular space, but summons back the question of the extent to which the society-state nexus within modernity depends from specific symbolic materials which metamorphose and often trivialize traditional concepts and images. Without considering such materials and their transformations, the “public sphere” itself as a modern secular space of discursive and communicative autonomy cannot be grasped adequately.
The secularity of the public space should therefore be always assessed in conjunction with the analysis of symbols of state sovereignty and social solidarity. Those symbols demarcate the variety and limits of secularity within modern society—but also the chances of a transcultural and transnational deepening of the secular dynamics of public spheres via a critique of the current modes and models of secular formations.
This project will engage in a comparative analysis of secularity, sovereignty and solidarity in five countries of Europe, the Middle East and East Asia with a variety of majority political and religious culture backgrounds: Germany, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and Japan. It will finally invest those findings into a work of comparative complexification of the theory of modernity. Through the contribution of the project the theory of modernity might receive a more solid comparative underpinning and a deeper historical depth in a “multiple modernities” perspective.