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Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity is one of the foremost centers for the multi-disciplinary study of diversity, in its multiple forms, in today’s globalizing world. The Institute consists of three thematically-focused departments: the Department of Religious Diversity, the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity and the Department of Ethics, Law and Politics.

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Leibniz Prize 2019 for Ayelet Shachar

Ayelet Shachar, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity (MPI MMG), has been awarded the 2019 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for her groundbreaking work on citizenship and the legal frameworks of multicultural societies. Awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Leibniz Prize is Germany’s most prestigious research award.

https://stories.mmg.mpg.de/Leibniz_Prize_2019_Ayelet_Shachar/index.html

Fieldwork Photo Gallery

The collection of photographs on our website represents the fieldwork activities of our researchers. All social-science research at the Institute, particularly that requiring informed consent and involving visual materials, is designed to follow the ethical guidelines formulated by the American Anthropological Association.

click here to link to our photo gallery

(Congregational singing in the dedication of Shimen’gen Church, Fugong County, 27 July 2014. Photo: Ying Diao)

The DATARAMA

A Multimedia-Tool for Research, Teaching and Presentation

For scientists who rely on visual data or data visualizations, the limitations of monitors, multiple monitor spans or projection facilities can present serious limitations for data gathering and the analysis and presentation of findings. Arising from MPI-MMG’s ‘GlobaldiverCities’ project, the Datarama is a unique research and presentation tool that provides a significant solution to the limitations of working with visual data.

News & Updates

In this sixth conversation in the Global Religious and Secular Dynamics Discussion Series, Peter van der Veer joined Berkley Center Senior Fellow José Casanova to talk about his comparative work linking India, China, and the West, as well as his training of the next generation of anthropologists, social scientists, historians, and religious studies scholars working on religion in Asian global cities. Van der Veer also discussed his forthcoming co-edited volume, Refugees and Religion: Ethnographic Studies of Global Trajectories (2021), and the COVID-19 pandemic and its current geopolitical dynamics and trends.

Megha Amrith on ‘Latest Thinking’ about the Processes of Aging and Migration
© Latest Thinking, 2020

The challenge used as an opportunity (only in German)

How municipalities organized the acceptance of asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016

by Miriam Schader

When several hundred thousand refugees came to Germany within a short period of time five years ago, the responsible local administrations were put to the test. That meant a challenge for the state with its social systems and the administration, but by no means excessive demands. Rather, the local administration basically demonstrated its efficiency in 2015/16. However, in the course of admission by the municipalities, those seeking protection were also excluded. This is the result of a study by the Max Planck Institute for research into multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies in Göttingen, in which three municipalities in Lower Saxony were examined.

Source: www.mpg.de

78. ZEIT Forum Wissenschaft: "Flucht und Migration - Wie gestalten wir das Zusammenleben in einem diversen Europa?“

Karen Schönwälder was one of the discussion partners on the podium. The 78th ZEIT Forum Wissenschaft can be seen on YouTube.

Shifting borders: Invisible, but very real

Article by Ayelet Shachar published in The UNESCO Courier.

Today's borders are no longer necessarily made of bricks and barbed wire. They are increasingly becoming moving barriers that rely on cutting-edge technologies and complex regulations to impose travel restrictions on citizens. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accentuated this phenomenon.

Climate Change and Migration

This inhouse discussion explores how we as a Max Planck institute can contribute to the fight against the global climate crisis by researching it’s consequences on migration and by becoming more aware of our individual and institutional responsibilities and opportunities for change.

2019 IRN Best Paper Award

MPI MMG researcher Elisabeth Badenhoop wins the 2019 IRN Best Paper Award.

ASA Sociology of Human Rights Section's Best Article Award

Congratulations to our colleague Nicole Iturriaga who received the ASA Sociology of Human Rights Section's Best Article Award 2020 for her article “At the Foot of the Grave: Challenging Collective Memories of Violence in Post-Franco Spain”.

Urban Diversity, Diversification and Complexity

Keynote Lecture by Steven Vervovec at the Twentieth International Conference on "Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations", University of Milan, Italy, 10-12 June 2020.

Scapegoating in times of Corona

Institute Director Steven Vertovec gave a live television interview on Deutsche Welle and PBS America to comment on the coronavirus pandemic, xenophobia and group stigmas.

DWnews TV Interview Thursday, 7th May 2020 with Steven Vertovec, conducted by Anchor Brent Goff

The Shifting Border: Legal Cartographies of Migration & Mobility

In her remarkably timely new book, Ayelet Shachar analyzes the return of borders & their radical transformation. Essential for understanding government responses to people on the move, Shachar's vivid description, analytical precision and reasoned persuasion combine to challenge conventional wisdoms about "borders" and how they work. The result: exceptional insights into how migration control can be more just. The Shifting Border offers an indispensable roadmap to immigration and refugee debates all around the world.

Events

Forthcoming Events

"Intersections of Religion and Race: Law, Politics, and everyday Life"

Workshop

Dec 9, 2020 - Dec 10, 2020

Zoom Meeting

all events

Career

Job Offers

No Vacancies

Recent MMG Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

Issues

Schönwälder, K. (ed). (2020). Special Issue: Diversity in local political practice. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(11). Link

Dorman, B., & Korom, F.J. (eds). (2020). "Intangible Cultural Heritage in Asia", in Asian Ethnology, 79(1). Link

Hänsch, V., Stasik, M., & Bekele Debele, S. (eds). (2020). "Temporalities of Waiting in Africa", in Critical African Studies, 12(1). Link

Journal Articles

Badenhoop, E. (2020). The fallacy of perfect regulatory controls: Lessons from database surveillance of migration in West Germany from the 1950s to the 1970s. Regulation & Governance. doi:10.1111/rego.12364. Link

Sakti, V. K. (2020). Aging in Timorese exile: (Im)mobilities of care and intergenerational relationships. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 18(3), 301-319. doi:10.1080/15350770.2020.1787039. Link

Vertovec, S. (2020). Two cheers for migration studies. Comparative Migration Studies, 8: 38. Link

Nee, V., & Drouhot, L. G. (2020). Immigration, opportunity, and assimilation in a technology economy. Theory and Society. Link

Schönwälder, K. (2020) Diversity in local political practice. Ethnic and Racial Studies (Special Issue: Diversity in local political practice) 43 (11): 2020, 1929-1941. Link

Sampaio, D. (2020). Caring by Silence: How (Un)documented Brazilian Migrants Enact Silence as a Care Practice for Aging Parents. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2020.1787038 Link

Contributions to a collected Edition

Sakti, V. K. (2020). The politics of loss and restoration: Massive bad death in the Oecussi Highlands. In L. Kent, & R. G. Feijo (Eds.), The Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste (pp. 159-178). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Link

Vertovec, S. (2020). Afterword: The work of integration. In K. McKowen, & J. Borneman (Eds.), Digesting Difference: Migrant Incorporation and Mutual Belonging in Europe (pp. 251-266). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Link

MacLochlainn, S. (2020). For Christ and State: Collaboration, EJK, and the Communal Subject. In E. Heffernan, F. Murphy, & J. Skinner, Collaborations: Anthropology in a Neoliberal Age. London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Link

Koenig, M. (2020). Emile Durkheim and the Sociology of Religion. In H. Joas, & A. Pettenkofer (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Link

Kang, J. (2020). Rural to Urban Protestant House Churches in China. In S. Feuchtwang (Ed.). Handbook on Religion in China (pp. 407-430). Edward Elgar Publisher.

Working Papers

WP 20-04
Steven Vertovec:
Considering the work of ‘integration’
download pdf

WP 20-05
Paul Bramadat (University of Victoria):
Religion and Bioregionalism in Cascadia: The Trouble with Categories
download pdf

Online Lectures

Here you will find videos from lectures given by distinguished researchers at the MPI MMG.

Blogs

Researchers from the institute describe the development of their projects and the challenges, delights and frustrations of conducting social scientific research.

Diversity Interviews

Here you will find transcripts of interviews with distinguished scientists, led by staff members of the MMG.

MPI-MMG linked Journals

NEW DIVERSITIES

New Diversities is an international, peer reviewed, scholarly and professional journal, published by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

Global Networks

Global Networks publishes high quality, peer-reviewed research on global networks, transnational affairs and practices, and their relation to wider theories of globalization. The journal provides a forum for discussion, debate and the refinement of key ideas in this emerging field.

CityScapes

CityScapes is a 144 page biannual print publication. It is a hybrid of forms, simultaneously invested in scholarly discourse around contemporary urbanism in Africa and the global south, as much as individual everyday experiences and activities of the multitude of actors that are actively involved in shaping cities across the continent and the rest of the developing world.

MAX, the Max Planck Network

All social scientific research at the Institute, particularly concerning informed consent and involving visual materials, is designed to follow the ethical guidelines formulated by the American Anthropological Association (see http://www.aaanet.org/... ).

All material on the Institute’s website is protected by copyright. If you wish to use material from the website, please contact our Research Coordinator, Dr. Norbert Winnige (winnige(at)mmg.mpg.de).