Abstract
Religion has been profoundly reconfigured in the age of development. Over the past half century, we can trace broad transformations in the understandings and experiences of religion across traditions in communities in many parts of the world. In this paper, we delineate some of the specific ways in which ‘religion’ and ‘development’ interact and mutually inform each other with reference to case studies from Buddhist Thailand and Muslim Indonesia. These non-Christian cases from traditions outside contexts of major western nations provide windows on a complex, global history that considerably complicates what have come to be established narratives privileging the agency of major institutional players in the United States and the United Kingdom. In this way we seek to move discussions toward more conceptual and comparative reflections that can facilitate better understandings of the implications of contemporary entanglements of religion and development.
Highlights
Religion has been profoundly reconfigured in the age of development
From Muslim Indonesia to Buddhist Thailand, new visions of religion and its role in society have been crafted in ways that reflect complex entanglements between religion and development that emerged both parallel to and distinct from those centered in the
We present two case studies of the ways in which religion is transformed in the course of its deepening entanglements with the sphere of development through case studies from the trans-regional traditions of Islam and Buddhism in contemporary Southeast Asia
Summary
The intersections of religion and development have become a focus of academic research that has resulted in a recent spate of production across fields including sociology, anthropology, and development studies. The implementation of Islamic law is promoted as a program that intends to reshape public morality as a central aspect of the development of the community It aims to so by reforming the behavior and practices of individuals through a variety of means—and at times even elaborates its agenda in markedly bureaucratic, ‘rationalized’ ways. These goals were actively promoted in ways that were well established in the routine practice of international humanitarian and development organizations, including outreach sessions, focus group discussions, seminars, workshops, print publications, and social media Through such means, many Acehnese came to embrace new ideas about peace, democratization, human rights, sustainability, capacity building, and gender justice. If initially the ubiquitous “build back better” slogan had been imagined by humanitarian workers as referring to their agendas for social and economic reconstruction, it soon became apparent that it could be appropriated and deployed in the service of new religious agendas for development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
