POSEC developed four distinct research themes: Moralist International, Postsecular Societies, Russian Conservatism, and Orthodoxy & Values:
MORALIST INTERNATIONAL POSEC investigated the dynamics of transnational norm mobilization by actors and organizations from Russia, Europe and the United States and produced pathbreaking research on the role of the Russian Orthodox Church as a newcomer to the global culture wars. Publications touched on various aspects of moral conservative norm mobilization: the venues (Council of Europe, United Nations Human Rights Council), the actors (the World Congress of Families, Global Home Education Exchange, religious freedom advocacy groups), and issues (family, abortion, sexuality & gender, education, religious freedom). Our findings in this area are based on extensive fieldwork and over one hundred interviews with social conservative activists from Russia, the United States and Europe. The main research achievements under this theme are two research monographs co-authored by POSEC team members. The first, by Kristina Stoeckl and Dmitry Uzlaner, is entitled "The Moralist International. Russia in the Global Culture Wars" published by Fordham University Press in 2022; the second research monograph by Phillip Ayoub and Kristina Stoeckl is entitled "Global Resistances to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights" and will be published after the project's lifetime.
POSTSECULAR SOCIETIES Religions continue to play a public role in contemporary societies. The research conducted by POSEC under the keyword “Postsecular Societies” took stock of current trends in social theory with regard to religion and secularization. The contemporary situation is best described as “postsecular” not because “religion is back” (it was never gone), but because under the impact of postcolonial critique and epistemic self-reflexivity the way of looking at and thinking about religion has changed. The presence of religion in modern secular societies engenders conflicts, which sociologists and philosophers have variously considered as a threat – “Culture Wars” (James Davison Hunter) – or as a chance – “Postsecular Dialogue” (Jürgen Habermas). POSEC moved precisely in the area of tension between religious-secular conflicts, on the one side, and religious-secular learning processes, on the other and pushed the boundaries of sociological theorizing by analyzing the different genealogies of postsecular theories and the different histories of reception and elaborations (and refutations) of the term. The most important achievement in this area was the edited volume “Postsecular Conflicts. Debating Tradition in Russia and the United States”.
RUSSIAN CONSERVATISM This research theme brought into focus the expertise on Russia and Russian Orthodoxy of POSEC team members. This part of the project contributed to a paradigm-shift in the study of Russian conservatism and Russian Orthodoxy by bringing out the importance of transnational influences on conservative intellectual trends in Russia. Moving beyond reductive approaches to Russian conservatism and letting behind ideological constructs of Russian traditionalism, our research spearheaded the interpretation of Russian social and intellectual developments in the light of global trends and dynamics. POSEC hosted critical voices from the Russian academic spectrum and stood out for its commitment to an ongoing open dialogue and academic exchange. The most important recent research achievement under this theme was the volume “Contemporary Russian Conservatism” edited by Mikhail Suslov and Dmitry Uzlaner.
ORTHODOXY & VALUES The POSEC project conducted ground-breaking research at the intersection of two processes: Orthodox Churches struggling to adapt their social teaching to a new social and political reality after the end of communism, and the globalization of the culture wars. What we found out is that over the last three decades the relative void in Orthodox social teaching has increasingly been filled by Christian Right approaches generated in the context of the global culture wars. Many issues that until recently were either not controversial (i.e. abortion) or not relevant (i.e. same-sex marriage) in Orthodox majority societies, have become the defining issues for the Orthodox relation with European and liberal democratic values. This has not only hindered Orthodox theology to work out its own authentic social and ethical priorities and agenda, it has also benefited the most conservative groups inside the Churches and has provided undemocratic sovereigntist and populist political forces with a “positive” agenda to oppose liberal democracy, international human rights law and the European Union. As conservative religious actors connect on ideological grounds, a new form of “conservative ecumenism” is emerging, which unites traditionalist groups from different Christian Churches against moderate and liberal currents inside the same denominations. Among the research achievements of POSEC in this area are several journal publications around the theme "conservative ecumenism", that are documented in the "publications" section.
