Home | Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

About the Institute

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.

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. (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

How do we perceive people with frizzy hair? (in German)

Podcast

detektor.fm presenter Aileen Wrozyna spoke with Johanna Lukate about her research on the identities of Black, African, and African diasporic people in Europe in the podcast "Ach, Mensch!". Johanna explains why hair influences people’s experience on the job market and discusses how the malleability of hair makes it an important medium through which Black, African and African dispaoric people in Europe express their identities. „Ach, Mensch!“ Is a cooperation with the Max Planck Society.

MPI-MMG in Dialogue

“Can advocacy organisations be intersectional?”
The third MPI-MMG in Dialogue event, in which invited scholars discuss new research results and ideas with the institute’s scientists, took place on July 13, 2022.

Missed the last event? Watch the video here.

„Können Organisationen Vielfalt?“

Video

(in German) The film about the ZOMiDi results (11 minutes). The project investigates how and why civil society organizations change in response to migration and societal diversity.

Three colleagues from Ukraine have now started the fellowships at the institute: Yuliya Byelikova (Kharkiv National University of Economics), Olena Kyselova (Sumy State University) and Akif Tahiiev (Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv). Supported by funding from the Max Planck Society, we were able to offer the colleagues from the war-torn country one-year fellowships in Göttingen. We hope this will help them to continue their academic work and build networks.

On understanding Social Complexity

To kickstart the new series of episodes, Steven Vertovec was invited to speak about ways of studying and understanding one of the consequences of migration, that is social complexity.
The Migration Podcast, 02 June 2022

The author about his new book

INEWS.CO.UK
“I studied my London community to work out how people can live together and overcome immigration tensions”
The decline of high streets, parks and community centres – civic spaces where people of different backgrounds can mix – is often the biggest factor, found anthropologist and author Farhan Samanani after studying lives in Kilburn.

From vaccines to insect mortality to making the right decisions

28.10.-06.11.2022
At the lecture series "Science at Göttingen Literaturherbst," researchers from Germany and abroad provide answers to pressing questions of our time. From Friday, October 28, to Saturday, November 6, at 7 p.m., eight internationally renowned researchers and authors will report on new developments in biology, psychology, medicine, and the social sciences. All lectures are in German.

Britain’s multilingual children: ‘We speak whatever language gets the job done’

In modern Britain, millions of kids grow up learning two languages or more – and experts believe fluidity in language has some surprising advantages. In 2021 there were around 6 million people with non-British nationality living in the UK, with 9.6m people born abroad – 35% of whom live in London. In the social sciences, this relatively new landscape of such diverse national origins is often referred to as “superdiversity” – a term coined by the German anthropologist Professor Steven Vertovec. Read more on The Guardian

New project

This 5-year project looks at how Cyprus, Greece and Malta have managed their transformation from countries of emigration to destination countries for migrants and asylum seekers; and their emergence as border states of an emerging EU migration and asylum regime.

Post-war/post-Covid

Podcast

Peter Hennessy, Jane Alison and Farhan Samanani discuss Britain post-war and post-Covid, with Helen Lewis, on BBC Start the Week podcast.

Events

Forthcoming Events

MPI-MMG in Dialogue "Navigating a Political Minefield? Researching Muslim-Jewish Encounters"

Conference

Oct 13, 2022 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM (Local Time Germany)

MPI-MMG, Goettingen, Room: Hybrid event: Livestream/ Live, Hermann Föge Weg 11

MPI-MMG @ Conferences

No events

September 2022

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Steven Vertovec at the 25th International Metropolis Conference 2022

from 11:30 AM to 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

MPI-MMG @ IRiS 10th anniversary international conference

from Sep 14, 2022 12:30 PM to Sep 16, 2022 04:45 PM (Local Time Germany)

Johanna Lukate at SPSS - Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues: “Space, race and identity: An ethnographic study of the Black hair care and beauty landscape and Black women's racial identity constructions in England”

at 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

MPI-MMG @ IRiS 10th anniversary international conference

from Sep 14, 2022 12:30 PM to Sep 16, 2022 04:45 PM (Local Time Germany)

MPI-MMG @ IRiS 10th anniversary international conference

from Sep 14, 2022 12:30 PM to Sep 16, 2022 04:45 PM (Local Time Germany)

ALUMNI HOUR | Anna Cieslik (University of Cambridge): “Research Funding Opportunities and Applications”

from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

Anna Cieslik (University of Cambridge)

all events

Career

Job Offers

No Vacancies

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS

Palgrave Macmillan
Global Diversities

Recent MMG Publications | Monographs and Edited Volumes

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-10894-5

https://profilebooks.com/work/how-to-live-with-each-other/

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-85580-2?gclid=Cj0KCQiA9OiPBhCOARIsAI0y71DZjO73m97ZLCupqLd5YN-1aEKxJd4iF93qfyjXSPsXlIvy0kAWvWsaAo4_EALw_wcB

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783035623710/html

https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/refugees-and-religion-ethnographic-studies-of-global-trajectories/

https://www.routledge.com/Diversity-in-Local-Political-Practice/Schonwalder/p/book/9780367696344

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rethinking-markets-in-modern-india/5EAAB80DB5C2186F689588C4FF699DF3

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AhmadAnthropology

https://www.routledge.com/.../Martin.../p/book/9780367335670?fbclid=IwAR1_y2V_MotepcwST_c0k6GnyUsaoWKfeiofbycmtf4BDt2wABbNz2g6aLE

https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5985-6/organisationaler-wandel-durch-migration/

The Global Diversities Book Series

Working Papers

WP 21-01
Kasey Zapatka (The Graduate Center, City University of New York):
Superdiversity in Metropolitan New York - Technical Report
download pdf

WP 21-02
Lucas Drouhot (Utrecht University · The Netherlands), Sören Petermann (Ruhr Universität Bochum), Karen Schönwälder (MPI-MMG), and Steven Vertovec (MPI-MMG):
The “Diversity Assent” (DivA) Survey – Technical Report
download pdf

WP 21-03
Jeremy F. Walton (MPI-MMG):
Post-Empire: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Post-Imperial Legacies and Memories
download pdf

WP 21-04
Steven Vertovec (MPI-MMG):
Superdiversity and Social Complexity
download pdf

Issues

Sakti, V. K., & Amrith, M. (Eds.). (2022). Living in the here and now: Extended temporalities of forced migration [Special Issue]. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43(4). Link

Dorman, B., & Korom, F.J. (eds). (2021). South Asian Nationalisms [Special Issue]. Asian Ethnology, 80(1). Link

Goossaert, V., & van der Veer, P. (Eds.). (2021). Réguler les pluralités religieuses: Mondes indiens et chinois comparés [Special Issue]. Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, 193 Link

Journal Articles

Yamamura, S. (2022). Transnational migrants and the socio-spatial superdiversification of the global city Tokyo. Urban Studies. Link

Emmerich, A. (2022). Masks, mosques and lockdowns: Islamic organisations navigating the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Entangled Religions, 12(3). Link

Amrith, M. (2022). Fleeting joy, divergent expectations and reconfigured intimacies: The visits home of Filipino migrant care workers in Singapore. Global Networks, 1-15. Link

Yamamura, S., Lassalle, P., & Shaw, E. (2022). Intersecting where? The multi-scalar contextual embeddedness of intersectional entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development. Link

Careja, R., & Harris, E. (2022). Thirty years of welfare chauvinism research: Findings and challenges. Journal of European Social Policy, 32(2), 212-224. Link

Hazama, E. (2022). Unravelling the myth of Gandhian non-violence: Why did Gandhi connect his principle of satyāgraha with the “Hindu” notion of ahiṃsā? Modern Intellectual History, First View. doi:10.1017/S1479244322000014. Link

Sakti, V. K., & Amrith, M. (2022). Introduction: Living in the ‘here and now’: Extended temporalities of forced migration. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43(4), 457-463. Link

Lukate, J. M. (2022). Space, race and identity: An ethnographic study of the Black hair care and beauty landscape and Black women's racial identity constructions in England. Journal of Social Issues., 78, 107-125. doi:10.1111/josi.12433. Link

Sakti, V. K. (2022). ‘Here for Now’: Temporalities of ageing and forced displacement through pension narratives. Journal of Intercultural Studies. doi:10.1080/07256868.2022.2086227. Link

Suerbaum, M. (2022). In search of legal stability: predicaments of asylum-seeking mothers in Berlin. Ethnic and Racial Studies. doi:10.1080/01419870.2022.2074281. Link

Contributions to a collected Edition

van der Veer, P. (2022). Secularism in Asia. In P. Bourdeaux, E. Dufourmont, A. Laliberté, & R. Madinier (Eds.), Asia and the secular: Francophone perspectives in a global age. Berlin: De Gruyter. Link

Amrith, M. (2022). Migrant eldercare workers in Asia. In S. Irudaya Rajan (Ed.), Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy: Perspectives from Asia. Singapore: Springer Singapore. Link

van der Veer, P. (2022). Indian and Chinese global networks. In R. Gowricharn (Ed.), New perspectives on the Indian diaspora (pp. 17-26). London: Taylor & Francis, Imprint: Routledge India. Link

Harms, L. (2022). Zur Europäisierung muslimischer Anerkennungskämpfe: Effekte transnationaler Verrechtlichung. In M. Wohlrab-Sahr, & L. Tezcan (Eds.), Islam in Europa: Institutionalisierung und Konflikt (pp. 63-105). Baden-Baden: Nomos. Link

Baykara-Krumme, H., Karakayali, S., Schönwälder, K., & Unger, H. v. (2022). Einleitung. In H. v. Unger, H. Baykara-Krumme, S. Karakayali, & K. Schönwälder (Eds.), Organisationaler Wandel durch Migration? Zur Diversität in der Zivilgesellschaft (pp. 9-31). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Link

Baykara-Krumme, H., & Rau, V. (2022). Dynamische Zeiten, zögerlicher Wandel: Migrationsbezogene Vielfalt in der Lebenshilfe. In H. v. Unger, H. Baykara-Krumme, S. Karakayali, & K. Schönwälder (Eds.), Organisationaler Wandel durch Migration? Zur Diversität in der Zivilgesellschaft (pp. 33-66). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Link

Bökle, S. (2022). Migrantische Gruppen als Lösung des Repräsentationsproblems? Das Beispiel queerer Geflüchteter im LSVD. In H. v. Unger, H. Baykara-Krumme, S. Karakayali, & K. Schönwälder (Eds.), Organisationaler Wandel durch Migration? Zur Diversität in der Zivilgesellschaft (pp. 235-256). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Link

Schönwälder, K., & Bökle, S. (2022). Widersprüchliche Offenheit: Migration und organisationaler Wandel im LSVD, 1990-2020. In H. v. Unger, H. Baykara-Krumme, S. Karakayali, & K. Schönwälder (Eds.), Organisationaler Wandel durch Migration? Zur Diversität in der Zivilgesellschaft (pp. 103-140). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Link

van der Veer, P. (2022). Afterword: Reflections on nationalism. In I. Ahmad, & J. Kang (Eds.), The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 349-359). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link

Yu, J. (2022). Socialization of language and morality at Chinese Christian Church of Berlin. In I. Ahmad, & J. Kang (Eds.), The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 329-348). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link

Kang, J. (2022). Nationalism and chinese protestant christianity: From anti-imperialism to islamophobia. In I. Ahmad, & J. Kang (Eds.), The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 175-202). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link

Appointment / Career

Irfan Ahmad | Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Sociology at Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, Turkey
Benjamin Boudou | Professor of Political Science at the University of Rennes 1, France (starting in Sep. 2022)
Alan Gamlen | Professor at the Australian National University
Jifeng Liu | Visiting Scholar in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University (August 2022 - August 2023)
Scott Maclochlainn | Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University
Neena Mahadev | Visiting scholar at Columbia University's
Sabine Mohamed | Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University
Xiaoxuan Wang | Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sakura Yamamura | Associate professor at the RWTH Aachen University

Book Publications

— Ahmad, Irfan & Kang, Jie 2022 (Eds.). The Nation Form in the Global Age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Link
— Chan, Felicity Hwee-Hwa 2022. Tensions in Diversity: Spaces for Collective Life in Los Angeles. University of Toronto Press. Link
— Iturriaga, Nicole 2022 Exhuming Violent Histories: Forensics, Memory, and Rewriting Spain’s Past. Columbia University Press. Link
— Liu, Jifeng. 2022. Negotiating the Christian Past in China: Memory and Missions in Contemporary Xiamen. Penn State University Press. Link
— Maclochlainn, Scott (Upcoming in November). The Copy Generic: How the Nonspecific Makes our Social Worlds. The University of Chicago Press. Link
— Scholz, Maximilian Miguel 2022. Refugees, Religious Bonds, and Reformation in Frankfurt am Main, 1554-1608. University of Virginia Press. Link
— Simone, AbdouMaliq 2022 The Surrounds--Urban Life within and beyond Capture. Duke University Press. Link

Awards

► Sahana Udupa received Joan Shorenstein Fellowship awarded by Harvard University for her research on digital extreme speech, artificial intelligence and the autonomy of factchecking in 2021. https://shorensteincenter.org/maria-ressa-sahana-udupa-named-fall-2021-joan-shorenstein-fellows/.
► Francqui Foundation in Belgium awarded Sahana Udupa the “Francqui Chair” in recognition of her contribution to critical digital research in 2022.
► Neena Mahadev’s book manuscript “Of Karma and Grace: Mediating Religious Difference in Millennial Sri Lanka” was the 2021 winner of the Claremont Prize in the Study of Religion. https://www.ircpl.columbia.edu/claremont-winners
► Article prize: Jiazhi Fengjiang’s article “The ethical labour of suspension among nightclub hostesses in Southeast China” won the 20^th William L. Holland Prize for the best article published in 2021 Pacific Affairs. https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/announcements/current-holland-prize-winner/2021-holland-prize/
► Book Award: Marian Burchardt’s book “Regulating Difference: Religious Diversity and Nationhood in the Secular West” published Rutgers University Press in 2020 won 2021 ISSR (International Society for the Sociology of Religion) Best Book Award. https://www.sisr-issr.org/en/awards-and-grant
► Book Award: Alan Gamlen’s book “Human Geopolitics: States, Emigrants and the Rise of Diaspora Institutions” published by Oxford University Press in 2019 won the 2020 Distinguished Book Award for Best Book on Ethnicity and Migration from the International Studies Association. https://www.isanet.org/Programs/Awards/ENMISA-Distinguished-Book

Grants

Jeremy F. Walton • ERC Consolidator Grant project "REVENANT--Revivals of Empire: Nostalgia, Amnesia, Tribulation"
Michalis Moutselos • Partner Group (gefördert mit 20.000 Euro). Cooperation between MPIMMG and Department of Social and Political Science, University of Cyprus. Project title: Re-bordering the Southeast Mediterranean in an age of migration.

The City Show

Podcast

The City show is a podcast about complexity and how people live and adapt to life in fast-changing cities across Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Blogs

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

Online Lectures

Video

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

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.

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).

About the Institute

Fieldwork Photo Gallery

The DATARAMA

News & Updates

Events

Forthcoming Events

MPI-MMG @ Conferences

Career

Job Offers

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS

Recent MMG Publications | Monographs and Edited Volumes

Working Papers

Alumni News

Online Media

MPI-MMG linked Journals