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Translating religion and development: Emerging perspectives from critical ethnographies of faith-based organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Giuseppe Bolotta

    (Durham University, United Kingdom)

  • Catherine Scheer

    (Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris)

  • R. Michael Feener

    (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

Abstract

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been a remarkable surge of interest among both policy makers and academics on religion and its engagements with development. Within this context, ‘religious non-governmental organizations (RNGOs)’ or ‘faith-based organizations’ (FBOs) have garnered considerable attention. Early attempts to understand FBOs often took the form of typological mapping exercises, the cumulative effect of which has been the construction of a field of ‘RNGOs’ that can be analysed as distinct from—and possibly put into the service of—the work of purportedly secular development actors. However, such typologies imply problematic distinctions between over-determined imaginations of separate spheres of ‘religion’ and ‘development’. In this article, we innovatively extend the potential of ethnographic approaches highlighting aspects of ‘brokerage’ and ‘translation’ to FBOs and identify new, productive tensions of convergent analysis. These, we argue, provide original possibilities of comparison and meta-analysis to explore contemporary entanglements of religion and development. This article was written as part of a broader research project on Religion and NGOs in Asia. We are grateful to the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at the Henry Luce Foundation for their generous support of this research. We would also like to thank Philip Fountain and other members of the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute for stimulating conversations that have informed our thinking in this article, and the anonymous reviewers for PIDS who have helped us to improve on earlier drafts.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Bolotta & Catherine Scheer & R. Michael Feener, 2019. "Translating religion and development: Emerging perspectives from critical ethnographies of faith-based organizations," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 19(4), pages 243-263, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:19:y:2019:i:4:p:243-263
    DOI: 10.1177/1464993419862453
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Barnett, Michael & Stein, Janice, 2012. "Sacred Aid: Faith and Humanitarianism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199916092.
    2. Barbara Czarniawska, 2012. "Operational Risk, Translation, and Globalization," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 6(2), June.
    3. Ben Jones & Marie Petersen, 2011. "Instrumental, Narrow, Normative? Reviewing recent work on religion and development," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(7), pages 1291-1306.
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    Cited by:

    1. Adam Moe Fejerskov & Dane Fetterer, 2021. "Disrupting Development? A Situated Perspective on Technology and Innovation in Global Development," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(3), pages 231-243, July.

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