Finanziamento UE – NextGenerationEU PRIN 2022 "URBAN GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY - GovREL" PNRR M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 104/2022

Urban societies are being reshaped by processes of cultural and religious pluralisation generated by migration flows and social transformations. Moreover, municipal administrations, faith communities, and other actors are becoming increasingly involved in the governance of religious diversity within the cities. Against this backdrop, freedom of/from religion ensures equal protection to religious and non-religious individuals and groups, which improves inclusion in urban life. With its legal anchoring, religious freedom is socially constructed and has different meanings in various social and political contexts. Although public debates on the governance of religious diversity and religious freedom in Italy are becoming more relevant, previous research approached the topic mainly from legal and political angles rather than from a social empirical perspective. This project adopts a social-scientific perspective to study the governance of religious diversity in four Italian cities and the social construction of freedom of/from religion in urban societies. The project pays close attention to the role of interreligious dialogue in the urban governance of religious diversity. First, we map the policy instruments, practices, and networks for governing religious diversity that are negotiated by local municipalities and religious/secular actors. Second, among the mapped initiatives, we focus on the establishment of interreligious dialogue initiatives linked to municipal actors and their roles in urban contexts. Third, based on these findings, we trace the main governance patterns of religious diversity and provide a typology of the societal meanings of freedom of/from religion. Finally, further exploring the patterns and typology, we examine the social representations of religious diversity and interreligious dialogue within media discourses and citizens’ attitudes in the four cities. GovREL uses a mixed-methods approach. Qualitative methods include in-depth interviews with municipal actors and religious/secular leaders on religious diversity governance and focus groups with religious communities in the Italian cities of Brescia, Firenze, Padova, and Torino. Quali-quantitative methods based on text mining include policy document analysis and media content analysis related to the research topic. A quantitative analysis will be conducted using a factorial survey experiment. The project is based on a social-scientific study with an interdisciplinary approach. For the first time in Italy, a comparative analysis will be conducted on the governance of religion and the societal understanding of freedom of/from religion in the Italian cities. GovREL will allow the research team to engage with public and scientific debates on the urban governance of religious diversity. The project will highlight good practices, provide specific policy recommendations for public administrations at the local and regional levels, and give feedback to religious communities.