About this Research Topic
This Research Topic aims to contribute filling the existing gap and to offer first-hand empirical, theoretical as well as conceptual knowledge about the intersection between religion, digitalization, and politics. For this purpose, we intend to bring together scholars from different social science disciplines (e.g. communication studies, religious studies, sociology or theology) as well as political science sub-disciplines (e.g. public policy, public administration, political theory and comparative politics).
Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Digitalization of religious practices of political actors (e.g. use of spiritual apps, religious blogs, chats etc.)
- Digital communication strategies of religious political parties (e.g. Tweets, videos)
- Digital hate speech by or about religious groups in the political sphere (e.g. Islamic hate speech)
- Algorithmic governance & (religious) discrimination
- Digitalization of religious welfare state organizations and their service provision (e.g. digital spiritual care / digital chaplaincy)
- New forms of religious engagement via social networks by majority churches and their members (e.g. offline-online formats of religious services)
- Public policy and regulation of digital religion
- Reflection on the need to reconceptualize typologies of state-church relationship
- Digital protest of (far-right) religious actors (e.g. anti-gender-campaigning)
- Reflections on transhumanism and artificial intelligence from the perspective of human right and religious values
- Reflections on new types of “religious authority” promoted by algorithms and bots
We welcome different types of manuscripts – theoretical, methodological, empirical, qualitative and quantitative – from a micro, meso or macro approaches as well as country-specific research also in comparative perspectives.
Keywords: digital religion, politics, digitalization, religious organizations, religious political parties, online hate speech, algorithmic governance, religious discrimination
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.