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H2020Doctoral network2019–2023

MIDA · Mediating Islam in the Digital Age. Present issues and past experiences of technological revolutions

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2019-03-01 → 2023-02-28
EU contribution
€3,874,112
Participants
25
Scheme
MSCA-ITN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Mediating Islam in the Digital Age. Present issues and past experiences of technological revolutions

The MIDA-project aimed at exploring and mapping developments by bringing together researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds. Not only had digitisation seriously impacted Islam as a research field and the issues raised, but the effect and implications of the subsequent processes also required capacity building and the training of a new generation of professionals able to work in settings where the digitisation of Islam was particularly pertinent. MIDA considered the cooperation with non-academic partners crucial to achieve these goals. They have provided technical, and communicative trainings, in order to produce new and relevant skills that combine scientific insight with the effective application of expert-knowledge in order to be able to tackle complex societal issues. After 4 years of the project, in fact, the 15 ESRs have followed the training courses offered by MIDA and have gained a great deal of general satisfaction, new skills and some of them have completely reoriented their research themes. Some of them have produced documentaries for television, which was not at all foreseen in their career plan, others have already published numerous scientific articles, all of them have acquired a new way of working and have the impression of being part of a network made up of research and innovation in the humanities and social sciences, in contact with the society, with scientific and professional collaborations with academic and non-academic partners.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

We are witnessing the emergence of what is in very important ways essentially a new religion. Digitisation and globalisation have influenced not only social and political practices and organisation, but also religious beliefs and practices. Islam, the Islamic commonwealth and the Muslims, are at the forefront of the most recent developments. Hitherto relatively marginal theological and ideological trends have acquired new prominence within Islam and this new Islam is being disseminated as a brand in an ever-expanding corpus of public images and imaginaries. This newly acquired hyper-visibility is reminiscent of the impact of the printing press on the Catholic church in the 16th century, and its role in the Reform movement. The impact today of technological innovations on the development of Islam requires urgent assessment.The MIDA proposal aims to understand how digitisation is shaping Islam (i.e. beliefs, practices, political and social institutions, and outlooks). How is this technological revolution modifying the relation Muslims have with the past? Why is it reshaping Islam in more profound ways than other monotheisms? We need to understand the developments that are transforming religious belief in our time and to do so scholarship itself needs to seize the resources of the technological revolution that is spurring change. The MIDA project will make possible the necessary training of a group of young researchers, able to answer collectively to the challenge, providing them inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary, international skills.To tackle the complexity of the issue, five interlocking work packages have been designed, each including comparative work on historical case-studies: ‘Narratives of the Self’; ‘Languages and Translation’; ‘Images and Materiality in Islam’; ‘Contested Authority and Knowledge Production’ and ‘Mobility and Mobilisation beyond Borders’.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
  • AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridSpain
  • Aljazeera Media Institute (as apart of Aljazeera Media Network) · DohaQatar
  • CASA ARABE E INSTITUTO INTERNACIONAL DE ESTUDIOS ARABES Y DEL MUNDO MUSULMAN · MadridSpain
  • CENTRE NATIONAL D'ART ET DE CULTURE GEORGES-POMPIDOU · ParisFrance
  • ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES · ParisFrance
  • FONDACIJA KULTURNO NASLIJEDE BEZ GRANICA · SarajevoBosnia & Herzegovina
  • FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN · BerlinGermany
  • GERMAN INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL AND AREA STUDIES (GIGA) · HAMBURGGermany
  • INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT · MarseilleFrance
  • KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · LeuvenBelgium
  • KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV · LeidenNetherlands
  • PHILIPPS UNIVERSITAET MARBURG · MarburgGermany
  • RUCKRIEM PHILIPPGermany
  • STICHTING NATIONAAL MUSEUM VAN WERELDCULTUREN · LEIDENNetherlands
  • STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT · NijmegenNetherlands
  • STICHTING VU · AmsterdamNetherlands
  • UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID · MadridSpain
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA · GranadaSpain
  • UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA · BarcelonaSpain
  • UNIVERSITAT ERFURT · ErfurtGermany
  • UNIVERSITE PARIS I PANTHEON-SORBONNE · ParisFrance
  • UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN · LeidenNetherlands
  • UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM · AmsterdamNetherlands
  • UNIVERZITET U SARAJEVU · SarajevoBosnia & Herzegovina

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union