Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SACRASEC (Sacralizing Security: Religion, Violence and Authority in Mega-Cities of the Global South)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-03-01 al 2025-08-31
In many mega-cities of the Global South, state institutions compete and collaborate with other organizations that offer security to urban residents. In a number of such contexts, religious organizations and vigilantes have merged to become alternative governance organizations. The emergence of religious vigilantes suggests a different connection between religion and violence than emphasized in much research on religious fundamentalism and terrorism. While religious vigilantes use violence systematically, they generally do not aim to overthrow the state, nor do they seek a global audience to witness their violence. They operate side-by-side with state actors to maintain order. Major questions are: why do mega-city residents grant these religious vigilantes authority? And what is the role of religion in the legitimation of vigilante practices? The research project SACRASEC analyzes the production of authority of religious vigilantes in mega-cities of the Global South through an ethnographic comparison of three mega-cities. The case studies focus on Christian and Afro- Brazilian religion in Rio de Janeiro; Christian, Islamic and Indigenous religion in Lagos; and Islamic and Indigenous religion in Jakarta.
The number of mega-cities in the world is rising and so is the percentage of people with religious adherence. This research will provide critically needed knowledge on the power structures in mega-cities of the Global South, and in so doing will contribute important insights to policies aimed at improving human security. Determining the role of religion in the authority of religious vigilantes is essential in understanding how the contemporary governance of urban populations in mega-cities of the Global South works. Researching the role and place of religion in relation to authority and violence beyond terrorism and fundamentalism sheds new light on its potentiality to produce order in shifting political landscapes such as those of mega-cities. Analysing the material religion of vigilantes pushes forward the methodology and theory of conflict and security studies.
The number of mega-cities in the world is rising and so is the percentage of people with religious adherence. This research will provide critically needed knowledge on the power structures in mega-cities of the Global South, and in so doing will contribute important insights to policies aimed at improving human security. Determining the role of religion in the authority of religious vigilantes is essential in understanding how the contemporary governance of urban populations in mega-cities of the Global South works. Researching the role and place of religion in relation to authority and violence beyond terrorism and fundamentalism sheds new light on its potentiality to produce order in shifting political landscapes such as those of mega-cities. Analysing the material religion of vigilantes pushes forward the methodology and theory of conflict and security studies.
Whereas we are expecting to publish more of our findings in the coming years, a number of publications and disseminations stand out and provide insight into the work that has been done in light of SACRASEC
The recent (2025) publication of the peer reviewed article “Hemato-Politics: Self-Sacrifice and the Aesthetics of Vigilante Authority in the Nigerian City of Jos” by the SACRASEC postdoc Murtala Ibrahim in the peer reviewed journal Ethnos https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2025.2560341(si apre in una nuova finestra).
The recent (2025) publication of the peer reviewed article by PhD Jolien van Veen and (PI) Martijn Oosterbaan “Creating the Complexo de Israel: Religion, Urban Orders, and Aesthetics in Rio de Janeiro” in the peer reviewed journal City & Society https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.70013(si apre in una nuova finestra).
The completion of the special issue titled “Religious Policing” co-edited by Prof. Oosterbaan and Dr. Tessa Diphoorn. This special issue, which came out in the journal Culture and Religion is the result of a successful international workshop: https://sacrasec.sites.uu.nl/workshops/postsecular-policing-workshop/(si apre in una nuova finestra). Two of the articles are from SACRASEC members (one from the PI and one from Dr. Murtala Ibrahim, one of the two SACRASEC postdocs). See for example: Carly Machado and Martijn Oosterbaan. 2024. "Theopolitical Police: BOPE, Christianity and Popular Culture in Rio de Janeiro" https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2024.2342970(si apre in una nuova finestra).
The publication of a special edition in the online magazine Inside Indonesia (https://www.insideindonesia.org/editions/edition-153-jul-sep-2023/urban-islam-and-security(si apre in una nuova finestra)) focused on the main themes and questions of the research project in relation to developments in the country with the most Muslim inhabitants in the world. Inside Indonesia is aimed at a broader public and offers a deeper "understanding of Indonesia than that painted by mainstream media. It focuses on human rights, environmental, social and political issues, but is not limited to those issues." The edition organized by the Andy Fuller and Zaki Arrobi (Postdoc and PhD) of the project.
The recent (2025) publication of the peer reviewed article “Hemato-Politics: Self-Sacrifice and the Aesthetics of Vigilante Authority in the Nigerian City of Jos” by the SACRASEC postdoc Murtala Ibrahim in the peer reviewed journal Ethnos https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2025.2560341(si apre in una nuova finestra).
The recent (2025) publication of the peer reviewed article by PhD Jolien van Veen and (PI) Martijn Oosterbaan “Creating the Complexo de Israel: Religion, Urban Orders, and Aesthetics in Rio de Janeiro” in the peer reviewed journal City & Society https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.70013(si apre in una nuova finestra).
The completion of the special issue titled “Religious Policing” co-edited by Prof. Oosterbaan and Dr. Tessa Diphoorn. This special issue, which came out in the journal Culture and Religion is the result of a successful international workshop: https://sacrasec.sites.uu.nl/workshops/postsecular-policing-workshop/(si apre in una nuova finestra). Two of the articles are from SACRASEC members (one from the PI and one from Dr. Murtala Ibrahim, one of the two SACRASEC postdocs). See for example: Carly Machado and Martijn Oosterbaan. 2024. "Theopolitical Police: BOPE, Christianity and Popular Culture in Rio de Janeiro" https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2024.2342970(si apre in una nuova finestra).
The publication of a special edition in the online magazine Inside Indonesia (https://www.insideindonesia.org/editions/edition-153-jul-sep-2023/urban-islam-and-security(si apre in una nuova finestra)) focused on the main themes and questions of the research project in relation to developments in the country with the most Muslim inhabitants in the world. Inside Indonesia is aimed at a broader public and offers a deeper "understanding of Indonesia than that painted by mainstream media. It focuses on human rights, environmental, social and political issues, but is not limited to those issues." The edition organized by the Andy Fuller and Zaki Arrobi (Postdoc and PhD) of the project.
Overall the research has amounted to my conceptualization of the intersections of religion, sovereign orders, and bottom-up authority as "theopolitical patchworks" (Oosterbaan forthcoming). In my inaugural lecture during which I stated the preliminary results of the SACRASEC research project, I explained how it is most fruitful to see order as the effect of a patchwork of partial sovereignties. Patchwork signals the provisional and material/symbolic character of order-making practices, and it highlights how the combination of apparently distinct elements can produce one relatively stable fabric. I also highlighted that patchwork sovereignty is influenced by the diversity of religious traditions within secularist states that attempt to regulate religion yet do so in historically specific manners - often privileging certain traditions over others. The forthcoming and already published scholarly works show how urban theopolitical patchworks are sustained by embodied/lived religious traditions in relation to the material symbolic manifestations of such traditions. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy influence such traditions in conjunction with formal governmental institutions but practitioners also innovate tradtions at the crossroads of security practices and search for sustainable livelihoods. In dense urban areas with religious diversity that may generate competition and even conflict between religious communities.
SACRASEC has opened up new research directions at the crossraods of these interconnected domains:
1) The intersection of religion and ontological security (Giddens 1984) in contexts of social transformation. Taking as a starting point the assumption that lived religion (McGuire 2008) is embedded in life-worlds that expose people to all kinds of contemporary challenges, vulnerabilities, and social, environmental, economic, and political risks (Beck 2009), this intersection focuses on what Ashforth (1998) called ‘spiritual insecurity’ (see also Fisher and Leonardi 2021);
2) The intersection of religion and contemporary political orders at large. Research tied to this conjunction focuses on political theologies (de Vries 2006) as they become manifest in political projects and forms of authority: nationalist ideologies, state-building practices, multinational (religious) corporations, cultural heritage projects, etcetera;
3) The intersection between religion and securitization. Departing from a critical acceptance of securitization theory (see also Holbraad and Pedersen 2012), this intersection investigates and analyzes in what ways religion influences and is influenced by the current tendency to define local, national and global politics in terms of security and security threats (Buzan et al. 1998). Research analyzes when and how religious ideologies and practices legitimate or contest extra-ordinary political interventions in the name of ‘security’.
4) The intersections of religion and conflict. This junction concerns mainly the connections between religion and violence, protection, justice, human rights, vigilantism, disputes, as they play out in situations of socio-political change, upheaval or crises (see, for instance: Jensen and Buur 2004; Benda-Beckmann et al. 2013; Kirsch and Turner 2009).
SACRASEC has opened up new research directions at the crossraods of these interconnected domains:
1) The intersection of religion and ontological security (Giddens 1984) in contexts of social transformation. Taking as a starting point the assumption that lived religion (McGuire 2008) is embedded in life-worlds that expose people to all kinds of contemporary challenges, vulnerabilities, and social, environmental, economic, and political risks (Beck 2009), this intersection focuses on what Ashforth (1998) called ‘spiritual insecurity’ (see also Fisher and Leonardi 2021);
2) The intersection of religion and contemporary political orders at large. Research tied to this conjunction focuses on political theologies (de Vries 2006) as they become manifest in political projects and forms of authority: nationalist ideologies, state-building practices, multinational (religious) corporations, cultural heritage projects, etcetera;
3) The intersection between religion and securitization. Departing from a critical acceptance of securitization theory (see also Holbraad and Pedersen 2012), this intersection investigates and analyzes in what ways religion influences and is influenced by the current tendency to define local, national and global politics in terms of security and security threats (Buzan et al. 1998). Research analyzes when and how religious ideologies and practices legitimate or contest extra-ordinary political interventions in the name of ‘security’.
4) The intersections of religion and conflict. This junction concerns mainly the connections between religion and violence, protection, justice, human rights, vigilantism, disputes, as they play out in situations of socio-political change, upheaval or crises (see, for instance: Jensen and Buur 2004; Benda-Beckmann et al. 2013; Kirsch and Turner 2009).