The members of the Special Research Area follow a two-fold agenda: First, they want to improve understanding of the impact of processes of religious pluralisation on present-day society. Second, they want to explore to which extent concepts such as ‚interreligiosity’ or ‚interreligious competence’ help to adequately approach these processes analytically.

The concrete Research activities are shaped by three focal points:
 

  • Religious Plurality in Context
    School and religion are part of culture and society. For this reason, we always analyse consequences of processes of religious pluralisation in their socio-cultural context.
  • Focus on Empirical Research 
    Most present-day debates on Interreligiosity and interreligious competence lack empirical data. Consequently, our research is based on empirical research methods – e.g. from quantitative and qualitative social research.
  • Research and Practice
    Concepts such as ‚interreligiosity’ and ‘interreligious competence’ are markers of profound socio-cultural change. This fact is reflected in two features of our research - on the one hand, with regards to the formulation of our research questions and on the other hand, with regards to the public dissemination of our research results.

 

In the short- and medium term, the research at the SIR focuses on the empirical analysis of interreligious dialogue activities as well as the analsis of religious plurality in Austria - always keeping in mind the socio-cultural context. See some of the concrete projects.

Further Information