Author: Xabier E. Barandiaran
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031507843
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
This Open Access book explains the philosophy, design principles, and community organization of Decidim and provides essential insights into how the platform works. Decidim is the world leading digital infrastructure for participatory democracy, built entirely and collaboratively as free software, and used by more than 500 institutions with over three million users worldwide. The platform allows any organization (government, association, university, NGO, neighbourhood, or cooperative) to support multitudinous processes of participatory democracy. In a context dominated by corporate-owned digital platforms, in the era of increasing social structuring via Artificial Intelligence, Decidim stands as a public or community owned platform for collective human intelligence. Yet, the project is much more than its technological features. Decidim is in itself a crossroad of the various dimensions of the networked society, a detailed practical map of its complexities and conflicts. The authors distinguish three general dimensions of the project: (1) the political - shedding light on the democratic model that Decidim promotes and its impact on public policies and organizations, (2) the technopolitical - explaining how this technology is democratically designed and managed to produce and protect certain political effects, and (3) the technical - presenting the conditions of production, operation, and success of the project. This book systematically covers those three levels in an academically sound, technologically consistent, and politically innovative manner. Serving as a useful resource and handbook for the use of Decidim, it will not only appeal to students and scholars interested in participatory and digital democracy but also to professionals, policy-makers, and a wider audience interested in learning more about the Decidim platform. This is an open access book.
Decidim, a Technopolitical Network for Participatory Democracy
Author: Xabier E. Barandiaran
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031507843
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
This Open Access book explains the philosophy, design principles, and community organization of Decidim and provides essential insights into how the platform works. Decidim is the world leading digital infrastructure for participatory democracy, built entirely and collaboratively as free software, and used by more than 500 institutions with over three million users worldwide. The platform allows any organization (government, association, university, NGO, neighbourhood, or cooperative) to support multitudinous processes of participatory democracy. In a context dominated by corporate-owned digital platforms, in the era of increasing social structuring via Artificial Intelligence, Decidim stands as a public or community owned platform for collective human intelligence. Yet, the project is much more than its technological features. Decidim is in itself a crossroad of the various dimensions of the networked society, a detailed practical map of its complexities and conflicts. The authors distinguish three general dimensions of the project: (1) the political - shedding light on the democratic model that Decidim promotes and its impact on public policies and organizations, (2) the technopolitical - explaining how this technology is democratically designed and managed to produce and protect certain political effects, and (3) the technical - presenting the conditions of production, operation, and success of the project. This book systematically covers those three levels in an academically sound, technologically consistent, and politically innovative manner. Serving as a useful resource and handbook for the use of Decidim, it will not only appeal to students and scholars interested in participatory and digital democracy but also to professionals, policy-makers, and a wider audience interested in learning more about the Decidim platform. This is an open access book.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031507843
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
This Open Access book explains the philosophy, design principles, and community organization of Decidim and provides essential insights into how the platform works. Decidim is the world leading digital infrastructure for participatory democracy, built entirely and collaboratively as free software, and used by more than 500 institutions with over three million users worldwide. The platform allows any organization (government, association, university, NGO, neighbourhood, or cooperative) to support multitudinous processes of participatory democracy. In a context dominated by corporate-owned digital platforms, in the era of increasing social structuring via Artificial Intelligence, Decidim stands as a public or community owned platform for collective human intelligence. Yet, the project is much more than its technological features. Decidim is in itself a crossroad of the various dimensions of the networked society, a detailed practical map of its complexities and conflicts. The authors distinguish three general dimensions of the project: (1) the political - shedding light on the democratic model that Decidim promotes and its impact on public policies and organizations, (2) the technopolitical - explaining how this technology is democratically designed and managed to produce and protect certain political effects, and (3) the technical - presenting the conditions of production, operation, and success of the project. This book systematically covers those three levels in an academically sound, technologically consistent, and politically innovative manner. Serving as a useful resource and handbook for the use of Decidim, it will not only appeal to students and scholars interested in participatory and digital democracy but also to professionals, policy-makers, and a wider audience interested in learning more about the Decidim platform. This is an open access book.
The Politics of Becoming
Author: Hans Asenbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192858874
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
When we participate in political debate or protests, we are judged by how we look, which clothes we wear, by our skin colour, gender and body language. This results in exclusions and limits our freedom of expression. The Politics of Becoming explores radical democratic acts of disidentification to counter this problem. Anonymity in masked protest, graffiti, and online debate interrupts our everyday identities. This allows us to live our multiple selves. In the digital age, anonymity becomes an inherent part of everyday communication. Through our smart devices we express our selves differently. As cyborgs our identities are disrupted and reassembled. We curate self-representations on social media, create avatars, share selfies and choose the skin colour of our emojis. The Politics of Becoming encourages us to engage in a revolution of the self. Democratic pluralism is not only a matter of institutional design but also about how we express our identities. Inner revolutions change our personal realities and plant a seed for democratic futures. Praise for The Politics of Becoming: "The Politics of Becoming presents a striking and creative reworking of key aspects of democratic theory and practice, inviting the reader to rethink what presence, democratic spaces, equality, pluralism, and freedom now can and should mean. This revelation of ways to be democratic is essential reading for anyone interested in the contemporary prospects for democracy." John Dryzek "Social movement studies have often noted that, while normative standards aim at inclusivity, participatory spaces often discriminate marginalised subjects. This important volume reflects on how a politics of becoming can contribute to improve democratic qualities." Donatella della Porta "This uniquely relevant book draws a map to our civic future, and invites us to digitally transport ourselves there." Zizi Papacharissi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192858874
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
When we participate in political debate or protests, we are judged by how we look, which clothes we wear, by our skin colour, gender and body language. This results in exclusions and limits our freedom of expression. The Politics of Becoming explores radical democratic acts of disidentification to counter this problem. Anonymity in masked protest, graffiti, and online debate interrupts our everyday identities. This allows us to live our multiple selves. In the digital age, anonymity becomes an inherent part of everyday communication. Through our smart devices we express our selves differently. As cyborgs our identities are disrupted and reassembled. We curate self-representations on social media, create avatars, share selfies and choose the skin colour of our emojis. The Politics of Becoming encourages us to engage in a revolution of the self. Democratic pluralism is not only a matter of institutional design but also about how we express our identities. Inner revolutions change our personal realities and plant a seed for democratic futures. Praise for The Politics of Becoming: "The Politics of Becoming presents a striking and creative reworking of key aspects of democratic theory and practice, inviting the reader to rethink what presence, democratic spaces, equality, pluralism, and freedom now can and should mean. This revelation of ways to be democratic is essential reading for anyone interested in the contemporary prospects for democracy." John Dryzek "Social movement studies have often noted that, while normative standards aim at inclusivity, participatory spaces often discriminate marginalised subjects. This important volume reflects on how a politics of becoming can contribute to improve democratic qualities." Donatella della Porta "This uniquely relevant book draws a map to our civic future, and invites us to digitally transport ourselves there." Zizi Papacharissi
Global Perspectives on Youth Arts Programs
Author: Frances Howard
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447357116
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
What do the best youth arts programs look like, and how can young people develop through them? This groundbreaking book highlights the conditions needed for youth arts work to be successful, using six international, best practice case studies.
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447357116
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
What do the best youth arts programs look like, and how can young people develop through them? This groundbreaking book highlights the conditions needed for youth arts work to be successful, using six international, best practice case studies.
The Politics of Ritual
Author: Molly Farneth
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691198926
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
An illuminating look at the transformative role that rituals play in our political lives The Politics of Ritual is a major new account of the political power of rituals. In this incisive and wide-ranging book, Molly Farneth argues that rituals are social practices in which people create, maintain, and transform themselves and their societies. Far from mere scripts or mechanical routines, rituals are dynamic activities bound up in processes of continuity and change. Emphasizing the significance of rituals in democratic engagement, Farneth shows how people adapt their rituals to redraw the boundaries of their communities, reallocate goods and power within them, and cultivate the habits of citizenship. Transforming our understanding of rituals and their vital role in the political conflicts and social movements of our time, The Politics of Ritual examines a broad range of rituals enacted to just and democratic ends, including border Eucharists, candlelight vigils, and rituals of mourning. This timely book makes a persuasive case for an innovative democratic ritual life that can enable people to create and sustain communities that are more just, inclusive, and participatory than those in which they find themselves.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691198926
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
An illuminating look at the transformative role that rituals play in our political lives The Politics of Ritual is a major new account of the political power of rituals. In this incisive and wide-ranging book, Molly Farneth argues that rituals are social practices in which people create, maintain, and transform themselves and their societies. Far from mere scripts or mechanical routines, rituals are dynamic activities bound up in processes of continuity and change. Emphasizing the significance of rituals in democratic engagement, Farneth shows how people adapt their rituals to redraw the boundaries of their communities, reallocate goods and power within them, and cultivate the habits of citizenship. Transforming our understanding of rituals and their vital role in the political conflicts and social movements of our time, The Politics of Ritual examines a broad range of rituals enacted to just and democratic ends, including border Eucharists, candlelight vigils, and rituals of mourning. This timely book makes a persuasive case for an innovative democratic ritual life that can enable people to create and sustain communities that are more just, inclusive, and participatory than those in which they find themselves.
The Transformation of Citizenship, Volume 1
Author: Juergen Mackert
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317203895
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223
Book Description
The Transformation of Citizenship addresses the basic question of how we can make sense of citizenship in the twenty-first century. These volumes make a strong plea for a reorientation of the sociology of citizenship and address serious threats of an ongoing erosion of citizenship rights. Arguing from different scientific perspectives, rather than offering new conceptions of citizenship as supposedly more adequate models of rights, membership and belonging, they deal with both the ways citizenship is transformed and the ways it operates in the face of fundamentally transformed conditions. This volume Political Economy discusses manifold consequences of a decades-long enforcement of neo-liberalism for the rights of citizens. As neo-liberalism not only means a new form of economic system, it has to be conceived of as an entirely new form of global, regional and national governance that radically transforms economic, political and social relations in society. Its consequences for citizenship as a social institution are no less than dramatic. Against the background of both manifest and ideological processes the book looks at if citizenship has lost the basis it has rested upon for decades, or if the institution itself is in a process of being fundamentally transformed and restructured, thereby changing its meaning and the significance of citizens’ rights. This book will appeal to academics working in the field of political theory, political sociology and European studies.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317203895
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223
Book Description
The Transformation of Citizenship addresses the basic question of how we can make sense of citizenship in the twenty-first century. These volumes make a strong plea for a reorientation of the sociology of citizenship and address serious threats of an ongoing erosion of citizenship rights. Arguing from different scientific perspectives, rather than offering new conceptions of citizenship as supposedly more adequate models of rights, membership and belonging, they deal with both the ways citizenship is transformed and the ways it operates in the face of fundamentally transformed conditions. This volume Political Economy discusses manifold consequences of a decades-long enforcement of neo-liberalism for the rights of citizens. As neo-liberalism not only means a new form of economic system, it has to be conceived of as an entirely new form of global, regional and national governance that radically transforms economic, political and social relations in society. Its consequences for citizenship as a social institution are no less than dramatic. Against the background of both manifest and ideological processes the book looks at if citizenship has lost the basis it has rested upon for decades, or if the institution itself is in a process of being fundamentally transformed and restructured, thereby changing its meaning and the significance of citizens’ rights. This book will appeal to academics working in the field of political theory, political sociology and European studies.
Relating with More-than-Humans
Author: Jean Chamel
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031102940
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Within the social sciences, other-than-human being’s agency has often been denied and interbeings relationships have not been fully addressed. However, many indigenous worldviews and Western contemporary spiritual practices are shaping a very different reality, with various attempts to share the world with non-human beings, animate or inanimate, creating forms of relationships to “the living”. This edited volume documents how humans deal with non-human entities in a large variety of cultural contexts. It focuses on ritual processes and how ritual creativity is mobilised to invent new ways of relating with more-than-humans. Comprising nine case studies, the volume is divided into three main sections that address successively daily interactions, political implications, and spiritual engagements. Cooperative interactions, kinship relations, senses of belonging, traditional healing techniques, non-human beings’ legal personality attribution, transformative experiences, and phenomenological relationalities are examined in various locations: West Africa, Buryatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Mexico, Nepalese Himalayas, Sweden and Wales. Chapters "Relating with More-than-Humans: Interbeing Rituality and Spiritual Practices in a Living World—An Introduction" and "Ritual Animism: Indigenous Performances, Interbeings Ceremonies and Alternative Spiritualities in the Global Rights of Nature Networks" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031102940
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Within the social sciences, other-than-human being’s agency has often been denied and interbeings relationships have not been fully addressed. However, many indigenous worldviews and Western contemporary spiritual practices are shaping a very different reality, with various attempts to share the world with non-human beings, animate or inanimate, creating forms of relationships to “the living”. This edited volume documents how humans deal with non-human entities in a large variety of cultural contexts. It focuses on ritual processes and how ritual creativity is mobilised to invent new ways of relating with more-than-humans. Comprising nine case studies, the volume is divided into three main sections that address successively daily interactions, political implications, and spiritual engagements. Cooperative interactions, kinship relations, senses of belonging, traditional healing techniques, non-human beings’ legal personality attribution, transformative experiences, and phenomenological relationalities are examined in various locations: West Africa, Buryatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Mexico, Nepalese Himalayas, Sweden and Wales. Chapters "Relating with More-than-Humans: Interbeing Rituality and Spiritual Practices in a Living World—An Introduction" and "Ritual Animism: Indigenous Performances, Interbeings Ceremonies and Alternative Spiritualities in the Global Rights of Nature Networks" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Democracy and Rhetoric
Author: Nathan Crick
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611172357
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
An innovative approach to Dewey's view of rhetoric as art, revealing an "ontology of becoming" In Democracy and Rhetoric, Nathan Crick articulates from John Dewey's body of work a philosophy of rhetoric that reveals the necessity for bringing forth a democratic life infused with the spirit of ethics, a method of inquiry, and a sense of beauty. Crick relies on rhetorical theory as well interdisciplinary insights from philosophy, history, sociology, aesthetics, and political science as he demonstrates that significant engagement with issues of rhetoric and communication are central to Dewey's political philosophy. In his rhetorical reading of Dewey, Crick examines the sophistical underpinnings of Dewey's philosophy and finds it much informed by notions of radical individuality, aesthetic experience, creative intelligence, and persuasive advocacy as essential to the formation of communities of judgment. Crick illustrates that for Dewey rhetoric is an art situated within a complex and challenging social and natural environment, wielding influence and authority for those well versed in its methods and capable of experimenting with its practice. From this standpoint the unique and necessary function of rhetoric in a democracy is to advance minority views in such a way that they might have the opportunity to transform overarching public opinion through persuasion in an egalitarian public arena. The truest power of rhetoric in a democracy then is the liberty for one to influence the many through free, full, and fluid communication. Ultimately Crick argues that Dewey's sophistical rhetorical values and techniques form a naturalistic "ontology of becoming" in which discourse is valued for its capacity to guide a self, a public, and a world in flux toward some improved incarnation. Appreciation of this ontology of becoming—of democracy as a communication-driven work in progress—gives greater social breadth and historical scope to Dewey's philosophy while solidifying his lasting contributions to rhetoric in an active and democratic public sphere.
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611172357
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
An innovative approach to Dewey's view of rhetoric as art, revealing an "ontology of becoming" In Democracy and Rhetoric, Nathan Crick articulates from John Dewey's body of work a philosophy of rhetoric that reveals the necessity for bringing forth a democratic life infused with the spirit of ethics, a method of inquiry, and a sense of beauty. Crick relies on rhetorical theory as well interdisciplinary insights from philosophy, history, sociology, aesthetics, and political science as he demonstrates that significant engagement with issues of rhetoric and communication are central to Dewey's political philosophy. In his rhetorical reading of Dewey, Crick examines the sophistical underpinnings of Dewey's philosophy and finds it much informed by notions of radical individuality, aesthetic experience, creative intelligence, and persuasive advocacy as essential to the formation of communities of judgment. Crick illustrates that for Dewey rhetoric is an art situated within a complex and challenging social and natural environment, wielding influence and authority for those well versed in its methods and capable of experimenting with its practice. From this standpoint the unique and necessary function of rhetoric in a democracy is to advance minority views in such a way that they might have the opportunity to transform overarching public opinion through persuasion in an egalitarian public arena. The truest power of rhetoric in a democracy then is the liberty for one to influence the many through free, full, and fluid communication. Ultimately Crick argues that Dewey's sophistical rhetorical values and techniques form a naturalistic "ontology of becoming" in which discourse is valued for its capacity to guide a self, a public, and a world in flux toward some improved incarnation. Appreciation of this ontology of becoming—of democracy as a communication-driven work in progress—gives greater social breadth and historical scope to Dewey's philosophy while solidifying his lasting contributions to rhetoric in an active and democratic public sphere.
Reassembling Democracy
Author: Jone Salomonsen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781350185043
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Diverse processes of democratic participation - and exclusion - are closely bound by ritual acts and complexes. This collection is the result of collaborations and conversations between international researchers who have focused on the use of those cultural resources identifiable as “ritual” as they reassemble democracy. The main question integrating the collection concerns the ways in which the performative qualities of ritual resources achieve their potential as forms of personal and political empowerment in our changing and challenging world. The contributors seek to define the key terms “ritual” and “democracy” with reference to fieldwork-informed case studies from selected locations and communities. They critically address democracy as a concept, practice, model or vision in a time of climate crisis, nationalism, religious re-traditionalizing, fake news and aspirational fascism. Furthermore, they discuss ways in which ritual and ritualized practices such as memorial gatherings, festivals, protest actions, pilgrimages, worship services give rise to modes of feeling, processes of representation, and patterns of interaction in which democratic explorations, collective resistance and/or involvement with the larger than human world are given pride of place.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781350185043
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Diverse processes of democratic participation - and exclusion - are closely bound by ritual acts and complexes. This collection is the result of collaborations and conversations between international researchers who have focused on the use of those cultural resources identifiable as “ritual” as they reassemble democracy. The main question integrating the collection concerns the ways in which the performative qualities of ritual resources achieve their potential as forms of personal and political empowerment in our changing and challenging world. The contributors seek to define the key terms “ritual” and “democracy” with reference to fieldwork-informed case studies from selected locations and communities. They critically address democracy as a concept, practice, model or vision in a time of climate crisis, nationalism, religious re-traditionalizing, fake news and aspirational fascism. Furthermore, they discuss ways in which ritual and ritualized practices such as memorial gatherings, festivals, protest actions, pilgrimages, worship services give rise to modes of feeling, processes of representation, and patterns of interaction in which democratic explorations, collective resistance and/or involvement with the larger than human world are given pride of place.
The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies
Author: Pamela J. Stewart
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030768252
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
Ritual Studies have achieved prominence since the 1980s, when interest in ritual as an object of inquiry was established, bridging over a number of humanities and social science disciplines. Both connected with religious studies and independent of it; overlapping with social and cultural anthropology, but also with history; related to science and health practices and ranging across the life course to education, Ritual Studies has come to encompass studies of change and dynamism in social life. Rituals are determinate in form, but not static. They enunciate distinctive social values within specific contexts that frame them; and they relate to the wider concerns and issues of their practitioners. Due to this broad and wide-ranging scope, it is often difficult to find a single resource on Ritual Studies, and even more so to find one which moves beyond the beginnings of anthropological theorizing to grapple with the present-day contexts of ritual. Bringing together recent ethnographies of ritual practice and ritualization from across the globe, this Handbook provides case study of ritual in the light of Emotion and Cognition, Identity, Religious Power, Performance and Literature, Ecology and Ecological Disaster, Media, and other topics. While each chapter provides a deep ethnography of a specific society, ritual, or ritualized practice, each also engages with current theoretical and substantive approaches to the relevant topic. The scholars collected here provide original synoptic and indicative pieces as guideposts and pathways through the complex, varied and cross-disciplinary, and vast landscape of scholarship that constitutes Ritual Studies today and points to developments in the future.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030768252
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
Ritual Studies have achieved prominence since the 1980s, when interest in ritual as an object of inquiry was established, bridging over a number of humanities and social science disciplines. Both connected with religious studies and independent of it; overlapping with social and cultural anthropology, but also with history; related to science and health practices and ranging across the life course to education, Ritual Studies has come to encompass studies of change and dynamism in social life. Rituals are determinate in form, but not static. They enunciate distinctive social values within specific contexts that frame them; and they relate to the wider concerns and issues of their practitioners. Due to this broad and wide-ranging scope, it is often difficult to find a single resource on Ritual Studies, and even more so to find one which moves beyond the beginnings of anthropological theorizing to grapple with the present-day contexts of ritual. Bringing together recent ethnographies of ritual practice and ritualization from across the globe, this Handbook provides case study of ritual in the light of Emotion and Cognition, Identity, Religious Power, Performance and Literature, Ecology and Ecological Disaster, Media, and other topics. While each chapter provides a deep ethnography of a specific society, ritual, or ritualized practice, each also engages with current theoretical and substantive approaches to the relevant topic. The scholars collected here provide original synoptic and indicative pieces as guideposts and pathways through the complex, varied and cross-disciplinary, and vast landscape of scholarship that constitutes Ritual Studies today and points to developments in the future.
Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves?
Author: Anna Fedele
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429853181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Book Description
Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves? is the first volume to address the gendered intersections of religion, spirituality and the secular through an ethnographic approach. The book examines how ‘spirituality’ has emerged as a relatively ‘silent’ category with which people often signal that they are looking for a way to navigate between the categories of the religious and the secular, and considers how this is related to gendered ways of being and relating. Using a lived religion approach the contributors analyse the intersections between spirituality, religion and secularism in different geographical areas, ranging from the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy to Canada, the United States and Mexico. The chapters explore the spiritual experiences of women and their struggle for a more gender equal way of approaching the divine, as well as the experience of men and of those who challenge binary sexual identities advocating for a queer spirituality. This volume will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists as well as scholars in other disciplines who seek to understand the role of spirituality in creating the complex gendered dynamics of modern societies.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429853181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Book Description
Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves? is the first volume to address the gendered intersections of religion, spirituality and the secular through an ethnographic approach. The book examines how ‘spirituality’ has emerged as a relatively ‘silent’ category with which people often signal that they are looking for a way to navigate between the categories of the religious and the secular, and considers how this is related to gendered ways of being and relating. Using a lived religion approach the contributors analyse the intersections between spirituality, religion and secularism in different geographical areas, ranging from the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy to Canada, the United States and Mexico. The chapters explore the spiritual experiences of women and their struggle for a more gender equal way of approaching the divine, as well as the experience of men and of those who challenge binary sexual identities advocating for a queer spirituality. This volume will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists as well as scholars in other disciplines who seek to understand the role of spirituality in creating the complex gendered dynamics of modern societies.