Project description
The impact of digitisation on Islam
Digitisation and globalisation have impacted religious beliefs and practices, particularly Islam. Technological advancements have led relatively marginal theological and ideological trends to acquire new prominence within Islam. Thus, an assessment of innovations’ impact on the development of Islam is necessary. The EU-funded MIDA project will train a group of early-stage researchers, providing them with inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary and international skills to understand the technological impact on Islam concerning beliefs, practices, political and social institutions, and outlooks. The project will study how technological innovations modify the relationship between Muslims and their past and answer the question of why Islam is more affected than other monotheisms. MIDA will design five work packages, each including comparative work on historical case studies.
Objective
We are witnessing the emergence of what is in very important ways essentially a new religion. Digitisation and globalisation have influenced not only social and political practices and organisation, but also religious beliefs and practices. Islam, the Islamic commonwealth and the Muslims, are at the forefront of the most recent developments. Hitherto relatively marginal theological and ideological trends have acquired new prominence within Islam and this new Islam is being disseminated as a brand in an ever-expanding corpus of public images and imaginaries. This newly acquired hyper-visibility is reminiscent of the impact of the printing press on the Catholic church in the 16th century, and its role in the Reform movement. The impact today of technological innovations on the development of Islam requires urgent assessment.
The MIDA proposal aims to understand how digitisation is shaping Islam (i.e. beliefs, practices, political and social institutions, and outlooks). How is this technological revolution modifying the relation Muslims have with the past? Why is it reshaping Islam in more profound ways than other monotheisms? We need to understand the developments that are transforming religious belief in our time and to do so scholarship itself needs to seize the resources of the technological revolution that is spurring change.
The MIDA project will make possible the necessary training of a group of young researchers, able to answer collectively to the challenge, providing them inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary, international skills.
To tackle the complexity of the issue, five interlocking work packages have been designed, each including comparative work on historical case-studies: ‘Narratives of the Self’; ‘Languages and Translation’; ‘Images and Materiality in Islam’; ‘Contested Authority and Knowledge Production’ and ‘Mobility and Mobilisation beyond Borders’.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Coordinator
75794 Paris
France
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Participants (11)
2311 EZ Leiden
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3000 Leuven
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28006 Madrid
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35037 Marburg
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14195 Berlin
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13572 Marseille
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20354 Hamburg
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71000 Sarajevo
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6525 XZ Nijmegen
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1081 HV Amsterdam
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1012WX Amsterdam
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Partners (13)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
08007 Barcelona
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
18071 Granada
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
28049 Madrid
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
75231 Paris
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
75270 Paris
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
71000 Sarajevo
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
28009 Madrid
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2312 BS Leiden
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
N/A Doha
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
75191 Paris
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
99089 Erfurt
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2321 JC Leiden
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.