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Wired: The Role of Infrastructure in the Buddhist Revival in Contemporary China and Beoynd

Projektbeschreibung

Die Rolle der Infrastruktur beim Wiederaufleben des tibetischen Buddhismus im heutigen China

China hat allmählich eine Wiederaufnahme religiöser Aktivität erlaubt. Tibeter, ganz besonders diejenigen, deren traditionelle religiöse und kulturelle Institutionen dezimiert worden waren, haben diese Möglichkeit genutzt, um eine extensive Neubelebung des Buddhismus voranzutreiben. Das EU-finanzierten Projekt WIRED untersucht die zentrale und unvorhergesehene Rolle von Infrastruktur beim Wiederaufleben des tibetischen Buddhismus im heutigen China. Das Projekt nutzt eine detaillierte ethnografische Methode, um die zunehmenden infrastrukturellen Verbindungen zwischen China und Tibet, von entlegenen tibetischen Regionen zu großstädtischen Ballungsgebieten in China, zu erforschen. Es betrachtet außerdem die Faktoren Internetzugang, Neubau, Verkehrswege, Einrichtungen, Praktiken und Politik und prüft dabei ihren Einfluss auf das Wiederaufleben des tibetischen Buddhismus in China und umgekehrt.

Ziel

This project examines the critical and unforeseen role that infrastructure has played in the Buddhist revival in China and in China’s global Buddhist projects. Although both state-led developmental projects and religious revivalism in China have been widely discussed, they are usually treated as separate realms of study, as if one represents material development while the other represents immaterial perspectives. The main objective of my study is to show that these two movements are in fact interlinked and that Buddhism works as a form of infrastructure. I use an in-depth ethnographic method to explore the growing infrastructural connections between developmental and religious projects in Chinese domestic and transitional contexts by looking at Buddhist-related construction projects, schools, internet access, facilities, practices, and policies and their impact on the Buddhist revival in and outside China. My study investigates the much neglected relationship that exists between religious movements in society and infrastructural projects by the state. In doing so, it provides not only an alternative perspective from which to understand religious movements in the context of global China, but, more broadly, it offers a critical and theoretical reassessment of the relationships between materiality and immateriality, human and non-human agency, and object and subject. The University of Copenhagen is an ideal place in which to pursue my project. The Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies uniquely combines interdisciplinary inquiry and study across China Studies, Anthropology, and Religious Studies, all of which are crucial to my project. In particular, my project fits well with the research foci of the Department’s Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, a world-class research center led by Associate Professor Trine Brox with a focus on the mediating role that Buddhism plays for materiality, spirituality, economy, and value across contemporary societies.

Koordinator

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Netto-EU-Beitrag
€ 207 312,00
Adresse
NORREGADE 10
1165 Kobenhavn
Dänemark

Auf der Karte ansehen

Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Aktivitätstyp
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Gesamtkosten
€ 207 312,00