Common sense politics: religion and belonging in French public space

Intentionality, Politics, And Religion

The idea that intentionality is the distinctive mark of the mental or that only mental phenomena have intentionality emerged in the philosophical tradition after Franz Brentano. Much of contemporary philosophy is dedicated to a rejection of the view that mental phenomena have original intentionality. In other words, main strands of contemporary philosophy seek to naturalize intentionality of th...

Exclusion and Belonging in Urban Public and Quasi-Public Space

Public space – which comprises streets and sidewalks, parks and plazas – is one of the justly celebrated aspects of cities. If cities are rich arenas of social diversity and crucibles of civic participation, it is their public spaces which facilitate the coming together of diverse populations since there is ‘a presumption that within these spaces we will, necessarily, encounter “others” in all ...

Religion and Public Reason in the Politics of Biotechnology

Questions about the relevance of religious views to public policy have been central in debates over the governance of biotechnology since the 1960s. This article offers an empirical analysis of moments of deliberative politics surrounding human embryo research, primarily within public bioethics bodies. I examine how these bodies have used the idea of public reason as developed in deliberative d...

Religion, Politics and Gender Equality Public Religions Revisited

Religion and Comparative Politics

■ Abstract Although scholars tend to downplay the role of religion in political life, the vast majority of people in the world profess a strong allegiance to some spiritual faith. Secularization theory has long held that religion would become irrelevant, leading many comparative scholars to ignore this potentially significant variable. A recent resurgence in religious fundamentalism and “new re...