Beyond the Rhetoric of Recognition or Separation: Two Swiss Cantons’ Attempts at Governing Religious Superdiversity
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Switzerland as a Lab to Study Regulations of Religious Diversity
Focus on Two Cantons: Vaud and Geneva
3. Religious Tradition and Pluralization: The End of a Millennium
4. The New Millennium: The Perception of Religious Superdiversity as a Risk
5. The Formation of Camps in the Negotiation of New Laws to Govern
6. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
CIC | Centre intercantonal d’information sur les croyances |
DSE | Département de la sécurité et de l’économie (Geneva) |
LLE | Loi sur la laïcité de l’État de Genève |
LCExt | Loi sur le culte extérieur de 1875 (Législation genevoise) |
LRCR | Loi sur la reconnaissance des communautés religieuses et sur les relations entre l’État et les communautés religieuses reconnues d’intérêt public |
FSO | Swiss Federal Statistical Office |
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1 | The notion of superdiversity proposed first by Vertovec (2007) had a major impact in the field of migration studies in search of what Beck (2011, p. 53) called a “language through which contemporary superdiversity in the world can be described, conceptualized, understood, explained and researched.” For a more recent discussion of the various ways the term has been used, see Vertovec (2019). For the notion of religious superdiversity, see Becci and Burchardt (2016) and Becci (2018). |
2 | Some of the ideas in this introduction are further developed in: Becci et al. (2018). |
3 | See Foucault (1975, pp. 161 and 163) for the French version, p. 137 for the English version. |
4 | |
5 | See for instance (Göle 2014; Amiraux 2014). |
6 | In 2019, 28% of the population in Switzerland declared having no religious affiliation while 23% are Protestant and 35% Catholic. Source: FSO data published online https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/population/langues-religions.assetdetail.14856800.html (accessed on 15 December 2020). |
7 | Geneva borders France and Vaud only, while Vaud borders three Swiss cantons—Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Fribourg—and France. |
8 | |
9 | Geneva is a canton and a republic. |
10 | |
11 | |
12 | Some of the information reported here about the canton of Vaud is based on Marzi et al. (2020). |
13 | Kimbanguists adhere to Simon Kimbangu’s movement founded in the Belgian Congo (today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1921. It is a large independent Christian new religious movement. |
14 | Tocoïsm was born at the end of the 1940s under the impetus of Simaô Toco (1918–1984), an Angolan of Baptist faith, and was part of the messianic movements. |
15 | See Grandjean and Scholl (2010) for a thorough historical analysis of the Genevan case. |
16 | Henry Fazy of the Geneva Radical Party, who carried out the project, marked thereby a difference from the French model of secularism issued in a Catholic context. |
17 | Source: OFS 2016. https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/population/langues-religions/religions.html (accessed on 23 March 2021). |
18 | Remarks by Eric Golaz, Delegate for Religious Affairs until 2019, during a presentation at the University of Lausanne on 30 November 2016. |
19 | |
20 | |
21 | Here defined simply as “a group of people who share the same beliefs and meet regularly in the same place of worship”. |
22 | At the national level, this figure is 50%, see Monnot (2013, p. 46). |
23 | For Muslim communities, the ratio is reversed. At the individual level, statistics indicate that the religious affiliation of Muslims in the canton of Vaud is 5% in 2017, while the communities surveyed represent only 3%. Esoteric communities accounted for 2% and Buddhist communities for 1.5% of the groups surveyed. |
24 | The report can be downloaded on the canton’s webpage: http://ge.ch/grandconseil/memorial/seances/010413/72/6/ (accessed on 28 February 2021). |
25 | Source: Chancellery’s information brochure on the text of the LLE (ELA) to voters with positions on the subject (Chancellerie d’État 2019). |
26 | |
27 | |
28 | p. 183 for the English translation. |
29 |
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Becci, I. Beyond the Rhetoric of Recognition or Separation: Two Swiss Cantons’ Attempts at Governing Religious Superdiversity. Religions 2021, 12, 234. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12040234
Becci I. Beyond the Rhetoric of Recognition or Separation: Two Swiss Cantons’ Attempts at Governing Religious Superdiversity. Religions. 2021; 12(4):234. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12040234
Chicago/Turabian StyleBecci, Irene. 2021. "Beyond the Rhetoric of Recognition or Separation: Two Swiss Cantons’ Attempts at Governing Religious Superdiversity" Religions 12, no. 4: 234. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12040234
APA StyleBecci, I. (2021). Beyond the Rhetoric of Recognition or Separation: Two Swiss Cantons’ Attempts at Governing Religious Superdiversity. Religions, 12(4), 234. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12040234