Abstract
Since the beginning of his mandate, Pope Francis has used the concept of periphery as a metaphor of social marginality. However, the notion of periphery also seems to target the asymmetries generated by the liberal version of globalization. Pope Francis’ narrative has to be read in the broader context of the relation between religions and globalization. That interaction is usually conceptualized in terms of religions capitalizing on global “vectors”, such as new information and communication technologies, processes of political and institutional integration, shared cultural patterns, transnational phenomena and organizations. An alternative way to analyze the role of religions consists in considering them as agencies defending the perspective of a universal community, putting into question the national political boundaries and contesting the existing global order. Understood in those terms, the concept of periphery reveals to be a powerful rhetoric device, insofar as it suggests that it is possible to get a wider perspective of the current state of the world looking form the edge rather than from the center.
Highlights
One recurrent topic in the discourse of Pope Francis, since his election on 13 March 2013, has been that of the “periphery”
To the extent that the “periphery” implies the existence of a “center”, it seems to target the asymmetries generated by the liberal version of globalization
As a background of this attempt I will intentionally emphasize that part of the religious message that can be read in terms of “resistance” of “critical actors” to the idea of globalization embedded in the current world’s political and economic structure
Summary
One recurrent topic in the discourse of Pope Francis, since his election on 13 March 2013, has been that of the “periphery”. To the extent that the “periphery” implies the existence of a “center”, it seems to target the asymmetries generated by the liberal version of globalization. From this point of view, the Pope’s discourse sounds as a critical appraisal of the world order (or disorder). Beyond the religious-normative interpretation of the political and economic structure of the world, in this paper I will try to compare the Papal narrative on the periphery to several theoretical approaches to the international relations, not to suggest that there are immediate similarities, but rather to signal that the concept of periphery has a considerable tradition in the study of international relations and that this very tradition could be useful to analyze the implication to the Francis’ insistence on that notion. As a background of this attempt I will intentionally emphasize that part of the religious message that can be read in terms of “resistance” of “critical actors” to the idea of globalization embedded in the current world’s political and economic structure
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