Religious Super-Diversity in Cape Town. Dynamics of Leadership and Territorialization Through Religious Spaces in the Migration Process.

Project Information

RELCAPETOWN

Grant agreement ID: 886578

DOI

10.3030/886578

Project closed

EC signature date 4 March 2020

Start date 1 June 2020

End date 31 May 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 212 433,60

EU contribution

€ 212 433,60

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RELCAPETOWN (Religious Super-Diversity in Cape Town. Dynamics of Leadership and Territorialization Through Religious Spaces in the Migration Process.)

Reporting period: 2022-06-01 to 2023-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Through an anthropological research, this project explored the interaction between religions and migration in specific areas of Cape Town, South Africa, from the perspective of the “religious super-diversity” notion. The research deals with social, cultural, and political roles of religious places and communities. It aims to shed light on the implications of religion and the dynamics of religious leadership and hierarchy upon urban spaces, the public sphere, and relations with institutions.
In 2007 Steven Vertovec introduced into social science theories the category of super-diversity. As a starting point, it provides a challenging scope on the South African cities. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, Cape Town and South Africa have been experiencing new migration patterns, which present wide super-diverse societies, with multiple identities and constantly changing religious urbanscapes.
The purpose of the project was to use religious belonging and adherence to plot the religious South African and Capetonian landscape in connection with other indicators emerging from census data, such as population groups, migration patterns, average annual household income, and level of education. My ambition was to show that religious superdiversity can encompass diverse methods of analysis—such as qualitative and quantitative ones—that consider the interaction among religious characters and other demographic indicators, through official statistics, charts, parameters, and inquiries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Management
I kept in frequent contact with administration of Sapienza University and with the supervisors through e-mails, phone and video calls. In June 2020 I inquired on the Research, training and networking costs, and on Management and indirect costs. I prepared the abstracts of the project which have been hosted on the web pages of the Department of Religious Studies of UCT and the Department SARAS of Sapienza University. Following the guidance of the supervisors, I updated the Career Development Plan previously formulated. Its ultimate goal was the attainment of a Tenure-track position, as assured by the Italian education system for the Italian winners of a MSCA-GF.
I formulated the Data Management Plan D 2.1 as requested to applicants who participate in the Pilot on Open Research Data in Horizon 20201, which aims to improve and maximise access to and re-use of research data generated by actions.

Fieldwork e Data Collection
I analysed the statistics data from the 22nd July 2020. In particular, I have examined the following data: 1) South Africa Census data 2001 and 2011. 2) 2016 Community Survey. Cape Town Trends 1996 to 2016. 3) Statistics for the City of Cape Town – 2012. 4) City of Cape Town. Population and Households by Subcouncil - 2001 and 2011. In the incoming phase, I continued to analyse statistical data, with the aim to cross-correlate the religious affiliations of South Africans and Capetonians with the variables such as auto-definition of population groups affiliation, average annual household income and highest education level. I reorganized the material emerged by the research and I am preparing a database for the Anthropological Laboratory of Images and Sound “Diego Carpitella,” in which ethnographic material, transcriptions of interviews, photos, pictures, will be stored (M2.2).

Training
I attend seminars and lessons. I took part to teaching activities, also in PhD courses, and exam boards for the courses of Cultural Anthropology and History of Religions. I have supported students for M.A. theses and Ph.D. students for their researches. I obtained in November 2020 the National Scientific Qualification (ASN) as associate professor in Demo-Ethno-Anthropological Disciplines (sector 11/A5) in the Italian educational system. I took part to in Anthropology and History of Religions.

Dissemination
Between June 2020 and May 2023, I wrote several articles and chapters related to the project results, while other ones are in-pressed. They are/will be in open access (free of charge, online access for any user, without log-in) on Zenodo and compliant with the provisions of Article 29.2 of the Grant Agreement.

Communication
I take part in the Scientific Committee of “Esquilino Chiama Roma,” an association composed of both academic people and “civil society,” as a delegate of the Department SARAS. I participated to some meeting in which I shared the project, especially exposing issues on religious superdiversity and migration studies.
I presented my project at the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions LAB on December 6, 2022, at Roma Tre University, and on June 6, 2023, in the course “European Planning and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships” attended by PhD candidates and students in History and Cultures of Europe, Sapienza University of Rome. I wrote articles on non-academic and non-scientific magazines to enhance the relation between my project and civil society.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

While a great deal of attention has been placed upon the numbers of migrants arriving in Europe from Africa, a little less it has done on what concerns the relationships between religious places and migrant mobility in the African cities which present big super-diverse societies, with multiple identities and constantly changing religious urbanscapes. It is particularly true for South Africa. With its long particular history of migration and demographic metamorphosis, Cape Town is a perfect case study to apply the super-diversity perspective, but a specific focus on the religious element is still lacking. Inspired by the super-diversity perspective, Becci, Burchard, and Giorda in 2016 analysed the multiplication and dynamics of religious differences in Turin (Italy) and Potsdam (Germany), focusing on the spatial relations with the urban environments. As a result, they identified three types of spatial strategies they called (a) “place-keeping”, (b) “place-making” and (c) “place-seeking”, that describe the ways in which religions (a) “intercalate in urban space”, (b) “inherit religious institutions”, and (c) “negotiate spatial regimes”. Such theoretical approach shows how diaspora and migrant religions can “adopt different ‘place-making’ strategies”, while new religious movements and practitioners of contemporary spirituality “are ‘place-seekers’, in line with their stress on flows, fluidity and journeying.” This research has provided new data for the scholars of religion and migration, from different backgrounds and disciplines, especially those who have focused on religious super-diversity theories. The originality of the expected results lies in a concrete case study of religious pluralism because Cape Town is considered in the project as a bridge between “North” and “South” of the world. Such approach to the story of Cape Town’s religious diversity has provided scholars with a refreshed discussion on the strategy of place-building in a religious super-diversity. The project provides news sources, data and approaches that encourage a reflection towards theoretical assumptions that allows avoiding pre-conceived universal understandings of “religion,” “migration,” “secularity,” etc.
No website has been developed for the project

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