Religions and development: a paradigm shift or business as usual?

Abstract

ABSTRACT There has been a ‘turn to religion’ by global development actors over the past couple of decades. This article examines the extent to which this is evidence of a paradigm shift or simply business as usual. The first part of the article will examine the nature of this ‘turn to religion’, including how it has been debated and conceptualized within academic research. I examine the usefulness of the concept of ‘religious engineering’ (the focus of this thematic issue) as a way of helping us broaden approaches to the ‘religion-development nexus’ beyond a focus on the relationship between formal international FBOs and secular global development institutions. The second part of the article develops the concept of ‘religious engineering’ with reference to the work of Pierre Bourdieu. I argue that the concepts of habitus, field and capital help de-centre the focus of attention from global development institutions to other fields of religion-development intersection.