Recovira, Author at Recovira

ReCoVirA Deutschland – Zeiten der Erholung?

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 11:22 am by Recovira

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Am 8. April wurden die letzten Corona-Maßnahmen, die FFP2-Maskenpflicht in Krankenhäusern und Apotheken, nicht verlängert. Damit ist Deutschland zumindest politisch in einen post-pandemischen Zustand eingetreten. Der größte Teil des gesellschaftlichen und auch des kirchlichen Lebens ist schon länger zu einer Art ‚neuer alter Normalität‘ zurückgekehrt.

Als wir Mitte März in die Feldphase eintraten, erlebten wir, das deutsche ReCoVirA-Team, ein Feld, in dem die Auswirkungen der Pandemie noch präsent waren. Die Zahlen der Gottesdienstbesucher sind oft niedriger als vor der Pandemie, die Menschen zögern immer noch, sich die Hände für den Friedensgruß zu schütteln, die Hände werden vor der Spendung der Eucharistie desinfiziert und einige andere Hygienemaßnahmen sind noch immer in Kraft. Doch viele ist momentan in Bewegung. Der beliebte Livestream aus der Bischofskapelle in Limburg, der im März 2020 gleich zu Beginn des ersten Lockdowns seinen Anfang fand, wurde nach einem Stream Ostermesse eingestellt. Viele Arten von Veranstaltungen, Gottesdiensten und Zusammenkünften, die während der Pandemie entstanden sind, wurden bereits eingestellt, werden derzeit eingestellt oder an die neuen Gegebenheiten angepasst. Ramadan 2022 war der erste Ramadan seit zwei Jahren ohne Corona-Beschränkungen, Ramadan 2023 bereits der zweite.

Die Gesellschaft und mit ihr die Religionsgemeinschaften scheinen sich auf ein Leben nach der Pandemie eingestellt zu haben. Das bedeutet nicht, dass die Auswirkungen der letzten drei Jahre einfach verschwunden sind, aber in einem Zustand der Erholung, eine etwas begrenzte Übersetzung des englischen Wortes recovery, nach dem sich Akronym ReCoVirA bildet, haben sich die Praktiken verändert. Wie Stephan Lessenich in seinem Buch Nicht mehr normal beschreibt, ist Normalität etwas, das durch alltägliche Praktiken hergestellt wird. Das Gleiche gilt für Prozesse der Wiederherstellung oder der Rückkehr zur Normalität. Das bedeutet, dass wir in diesen Zeiten der Erholung beobachten können, welche Praktiken und Mechanismen in einem post-pandemischen Zustand zur Anwendung kommen, wie sie verhandelt werden und welche Prioritäten sich herausbilden.

Anknüpfend an einige Vorgängerstudien (CONTOC, midi, ReTeOG…) geht es nun um die Frage: “Wie formieren sich Religionsgemeinschaften angesichts aller Herausforderungen, Veränderungen und der in der Pandemie entwickelten Kreativität?”. An diese Frage knüpft an eine andere an, nämlich wie sich die Rolle der Religion im öffentlichen Leben verändert hat und verändert. Der Religionsmonitor 2023 legt nahe, dass die Religion in der Corona-Krise, wenn es Angebote im Umgang mit Krisen geht, nicht mehr den gleichen gesellschaftlichen Stellenwert wie zuvor hat. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass Politik und Medizin im Krisenmanagement und der Orientierung in Krisen von den Bürger:innen als wichtiger wahrgenommen wurden. Religiöse Einrichtungen sind für religiöse Menschen nach wie vor eine wichtige Ressource und eine wichtige gesellschaftliche Institution in Krisenzeiten, aber ihre gesellschaftliche Wahrnehmung scheint sich verändert zu haben.

Die Einschränkungen durch die Pandemie haben die Religionsgemeinschaften gezwungen, sich für digitale Formate und eine digitalisierte Öffentlichkeit zu öffnen. Allerdings sind nicht alle Religionsgemeinschaften online gegangen und nicht alle haben sich mit diesem Umfeld vertraut gemacht. Wird dies insbesondere traditionelle Religionsgemeinschaften in den gegenwärtigen Zeiten multipler Krisen auf einer tieferen Ebene beeinflussen? Wie gehen die Religionsgemeinschaften mit der digitalisierten Öffentlichkeit um, insbesondere die der jüngeren Generationen?

Literature

Churches Online in Times of Corona (CONTOC) (2021). Ergebnisse zur CONTOC-Studie, Sektion Deutschland. Aufbauend auf die erste ökumenische Tagung am 13.4.2021. PDF-Bericht. https://contoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Ergebnisse-zur-CONTOC-Deutschland-Tagung-13.04.2021-1.pdf.

CONTOC2 (28. September 2022). Für die evangelischen Kirchen in Deutschland und in der Schweiz. Foliensatz. https://contoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CONTOC2-Erste-Ergebnisse.pdf.

Hillenbrand, C., Pollack, D., & El-Menouar, Y. (2023). Religion als Ressource der Krisenbewältigung? Analysen am Beispiel der Coronapandemie. Religionsmonitor: Vol. 2023. Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Hörsch, D. (2020). Digitale Verkündigungsformate während der Corona-Krise.: Eine Ad-hoc-Studie im Auftrag der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland. Evangelische Arbeitsstelle midi. https://www.mi-di.de/media/pages/materialien/digitale-verkuendigungsformate-waehrend-der-corona-krise/f0b254d2b8-1598620182/midi-ad-hoc-studie-digitale-verkuendigungsformate-waehrend-der-corona-krise.pdf

Hörsch, D. (2021). Gottesdienstliches Leben während der Pandemie.: Verkündigungsformate und ausgewählte Handlungsfelder kirchlicher Praxis – Ergebnisse einer midi-Vergleichsstudie. Evangelische Arbeitsstelle midi. https://www.mi-di.de/media/pages/materialien/gottesdienstliches-leben-waehrend-der-pandemie/065d6d852f-163223314/midi_gottesdienstliches-leben-waehrend-der-pandemie.pdf

Lessenich, S. (2022). Nicht mehr normal : Gesellschaft am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs. Hanser.

Reimann, R. P & Sievert, H. (2021). Studie zu Online-Gottesdiensten 2021: Update der Befragungsstudie „Rezipiententypologie evangelischer Online-Gottesdienstbesucher*innen während und nach der Corona-Krise“. https://medienpool.ekir.de/A/Medienpool/92419?encoding=UTF-8

Schlag, T., & Nord, I. (2021). Kirche in Zeiten der Pandemie: Erfahrungen – Einsichten – Folgerungen : Einblicke in die internationale und ökumenische CONTOC-Studie. Deutsches Pfarrerblatt. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-217645

Image credit: AI image generated using Leonardo.AI
“An illustration showcasing the use of digital tools, such as smartphones or tablets, by religious leaders or practitioners to connect with their communities virtually”

ReCoVirA Germany – Times of recovery?

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 11:15 am by Recovira

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Recently, on the 8th of April, the last corona measures, ffp2-masks being compulsory in hospitals and pharmacies, were not prolonged and Germany has now at least politically entered a post-pandemic state. Most of social life as well as religious life had already reverted back to a somewhat “new old normal”.

Entering the field phase in mid-March, we, the German ReCoVirA team, experienced a field were effects of the pandemic were still present. Attendance is often lower than before the pandemic, People are still hesitant shaking hands for the rite of peace, hands are disinfected before the administration of the Eucharist and some other hygiene measures are still in place. Currently there is a lot of change. The popular livestream from the bishop’s chapel in Limburg, which was established in March 2020, was discontinued after Easter mass. Many types of events, services and gatherings adapted during the pandemic have been discontinued, are being discontinued or adjusted to new circumstances. Ramadan 2022 marked the first Ramadan in two years without corona restrictions, Ramadan 2023 already the second.

Society and with it religious communities seem to have moved on to a post-pandemic life. That doesn’t mean that the impact of the last 3 years has just disappeared, but in a state of recovery, on which the acronym ReCoVirA models itself, practices have shifted. As Stephan Lessenich points out in his book Nicht mehr normal, normality is something produced by every-day practices. The same can be said to processes of recovery or reverting back to normalcy. This means in these times of recovery we can observe which practices and mechanisms are invoked in a post-pandemic state, how they are negotiated and which priorities emerge.

Following up on some predecessor studies (CONTOC, midi, ReTeOG…), the question transforms to “How do religious communities (re-)shape themselves in light of all challenges, changes and creativity of the pandemic?”. This question link to another about how the role of religion in public life changed and changes. The Religionsmonitor 2023 suggests that following the corona crisis religion does not have the same social standing as before, when it comes to dealing with crisis. Politics and medicine have shown to be perceived as more important to citizens, when it comes to crisis management and orientation in times of crisis. Religious institutions remain an important resource for the religious as well as an important social institution in times of crisis, but their social perception seems to have changed. The restrictions of the pandemic have compelled religious communities to open up to digital formats and a digitized public sphere. But not all religious communities went online and not everyone became familiar with these surroundings. Will this affect especially traditional religious communities in the current times of multiple crises on a deeper level? How do religious communities engage with the digitized public sphere, especially the younger generations?

Literature

CONTOC2 (28. September 2022). Für die evangelischen Kirchen in Deutschland und in der Schweiz. Foliensatz. https://contoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CONTOC2-Erste-Ergebnisse.pdf.

Hillenbrand, C., Pollack, D., & El-Menouar, Y. (2023). Religion als Ressource der Krisenbewältigung? Analysen am Beispiel der Coronapandemie. Religionsmonitor: Vol. 2023. Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Lessenich, S. (2022). Nicht mehr normal : Gesellschaft am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs. Hanser.

Prvi intervjuji izvedeni s predstavniki religijskih skupnosti v Sloveniji

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 10:55 am by Recovira

Katja K. Ošljak and Simona Kuntarič Zupanc, Researchers, University of Ljubljana

V raziskavi Religijske skupnosti v digitalni dobi sodeluje tudi Fakulteta za družbene vede, UL.

V slovenski raziskovalni ekipi pod vodstvom Aleša Črniča sodelujejo še Simona Kuntarič Zupanc, Katja K. Ošljak in Taja Fortuna.

Slovenski tim raziskuje več religijskih skupnosti, med drugim Rimskokatoliško cerkev, Islamsko skupnost v RS in Skupnost za zavest Krišne. Raziskovalec in raziskovalke preučujejo digitalizacijo na področju religije s perspektive organizacij in vernikov; v središču njihove pozornosti pa so spremembe narave, strukture in doživljanje religijskega življenja od epidemije COVID-19 dalje.

V prvi fazi je zbiranje potekalo po t. i. metodi netnografije, s čimer je raziskava zajela oziroma popisala spletno oziroma digitalno prisotnost slovenskih religijskih skupnosti ter dobila vpogled v širino delovanja religijskih organizacij in religijskih praks vernic in vernikov prek spleta.

Tudi na podlagi tako zbranih podatkov je nato širša mednarodna raziskovalna skupina zasnovala etnografske intervjuje. Slovenski raziskovalki Simona Kuntarič Zupanc in Taja Fortuna pa sta prvi iz mednarodne skupine izvedli poglobljene intervjuje s predstavniki religijskih organizacij ter verniki in vernicami. Poleg tega sta raziskovalki preživeli veliko časa v družbi predstavnikov različnih religijski skupnosti in opazovali obredja v cerkvah, džamiji in templjih.

Ohranjanje stika s skupnosjo

PHOTO CAPTION: Menih Skupnosti za zavest Krišne med jutranjim obredjem, pri katerem se geografsko razpršena skupnost na spletu srečuje tudi po koncu epidemije.

Med terenskim raziskovanjem smo opazili, da so si religijske skupnosti v času epidemije prizadevale, da bi ohranile stik s svojimi člani in članicami kljub omejitvam, ki jih je prinesla epidemija. Prilagodile so se novim okoliščinam in poiskale načine za izvedbo maš, molitev, predavanj in drugih religijskih praks na daljavo prek digitalnih platform.

S pomočjo digitalnih medijev so ohranjale stik in zagotavljale več religijskih vsebin na platformah kot so YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, WhatsApp itd. Te so vernikom omogočale dostop do obredov, molitev, predavanj, pesmi in drugih religijskih vsebin ter aktivnosti. Veliko jih ostaja dostopnih tudi po koncu epidemije, saj so člani in članice digitalne kanale sprejeli oziroma jih prepoznali kot koristne.

Nekateri sogovorniki so epidemične omejitve interpretirali celo kot priložnost za digitalizacijo religijskih praks, vendar smo pogosto slišali tudi, da so omejitve združevanja v skupnih prostorih morda prispevale k upadu občutka pripadnosti skupnosti, ki ga naj bi ga zagotavljali fizični obredi in srečanja iz-oči-v-oči v cerkvi, džamiji ali templju.

A few preliminary findings from the Danish context

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 10:50 am by Recovira

Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

When researchers write an application for a project, we always try to visualize the many different stages of said project as well as predict the possible pitfalls and difficulties we can run into at each stage. While the RECOVIRA project is an international, collaborative project spanning seven different European countries with a thoughtful plan for administration, each of these seven different countries have their own national research culture, logics and law. This can produce challenges, which became evident when we in Denmark in January began to plan our field work and applied for ethical approval of the data collection.

Though the RECOVIRA project might have been approved in terms of research ethics at the hosting university of Manchester Metropolitan University, we were also obliged to have the collection of empirical data in Denmark approved by a research ethical committee at Aarhus University before we began our investigation. This was one element we had to respond to; however, as we began to prepare our ethical application, another important element came into play, namely The General Data Protection Regulation. Essentially, we had to make sure that the way we collect data is both ethically sound and follows the GDPR, which might seem fairly simple. However, what proved to be difficult was to make sure that the many aspects of the fieldwork lived up to both. The RECOVIRA project is based upon the integration of many sources of data: fieldwork – both online and offline -interviews as well as observations of rituals, preferably in the form of pictures and video. The latter proved to be difficult. When we first submitted our ethical application, the board responded with concerns in terms of how we would ensure ethical consent from all participants who would be depicted on pictures and video; however, even if we manage to do this, our legal advisor also pointed to us that any type of personal data collected must live up to the GDPR, which makes such data collection further difficult, since video material is very hard to pseudonymize compared to for instance interview data. The ethical board instead encouraged us to reapply with an application for just field work and interviews.

We have now just received an approval for this application and are eager to initiate the Danish data collection; however, we continue to reflect upon how we will collect data on rituals in a manageable, ethical and data secure way. For now, we know that when planning empirical research project one should be prepared to set aside time for ethical applications and educate themselves on GDPR and recognize that this can a more time-consuming process than one might expect.

Image credit: AI image generated by craiyon.com “Illustrate the concept of data privacy and security”

A hybrid ethnography of religious life in post-pandemic Britain

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 10:40 am by Recovira

***Emmanuel Chiwetalu* *Ossai, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University***

The Recovira team in the UK is studying how religious communities in the country have been affected by digitisation since early 2020 when the first COVID-19-related restrictions were implemented. One research approach that the team has adopted is a social scientific design known as ethnography, which researchers have used to study people’s culture.

Traditionally, the ethnographer does their research by spending a relatively large amount of time (like months or years) with the people being studied. During this time, the ethnographer conducts in-depth interviews with the people, observes the people’s activities and the happenings in their environments, and takes notes about these observations and the ethnographer’s own experiences on the field. However, this traditional approach to ethnography is no longer sufficient for some contemporary ethnographers.

A kind of ethnography that some social scientists do these days has been referred to as “hybrid ethnography.” This term is often used to refer to the ethnography in which the researcher combines the more traditional ethnography done in physical spaces, with a more digital kind of ethnography done mainly in online environments. For example, a hybrid ethnographer who is studying how a religious community operates in a Britain emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic will (a) join the community in person when it meets, for example, on Sundays for worship, and (b) attend the community’s virtual activities on Zoom or other digital spaces.

Since February 2023, one of the two postdoctoral research associates on the UK Recovira Team, Emmanuel Ossai, has been using a hybrid ethnographic approach to investigate the post-pandemic religious experience in Pentecostal Christian, Theravada Buddhist, and Triratna Buddhist communities in the Greater Manchester area. His research methods have included in-depth interviews with leaders and lay persons in the religious communities, and observation at the communities’ in-person and virtual events.

As of June 2023, Emmanuel has conducted research at two Black-majority parishes of an originally Nigerian church, and one Theravada Buddhist vihara (monastery) which is mostly attended by the Sri Lankan expatriates residing in several parts of England. Emmanuel has identified some major findings about COVID-19-driven visible and less visible changes, as well as short-lived and more long-term changes, within the religious communities. Emmanuel continues to collect ethnographic data, while he transcribes the previously conducted interviews. Currently, he is studying a Black-majority church in Salford, Manchester, and a Buddhist Centre that exists primarily on the internet and whose daily meditations are held virtually only.

Image credit: AI image generated by Clipdrop by Stability AI “An image of a computer with religious symbols on the screen.”

Getting into the field

Posted on June 22, 2023 - 4:38 pm by Recovira

Sean Durbin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

While funding for Recovira officially began in November last year, we had plenty of work to do before getting out into the field. In early January we held our first in-person, all-country meeting in Manchester, where we experienced a rare glint of winter sun. There, members of the academic teams spent three days talking about (as academics like to do!) and refining our research questions, as well as deciding on what shared questions we would all ask the communities we are working with in our respective countries.

Given that we are trying to answer the same bigger questions, one might ask why wouldn’t all the questions we ask community members be the same? There are many reasons for this, but the main one is because this is an ethnographically-led project rather than, say, a survey based one. For those unfamiliar with the term, ethnography is a method grounded in observing life as it happens in order to draw some conclusions about how different communities or social groups function—what the anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1973) referred to as “thick description”. And because the world is often an unpredictable place, and communities do things differently, it doesn’t always make sense to ask the same questions in different contexts. So while we may want to answer the same questions in this project, in many cases the specific questions a researcher ends up asking participants will emerge organically as they spend more time in the field.

This last point is what made it so important for me to be able to get out in the field. In my case, “the field” consists of different Church of England communities where I live in London. Research like this takes time. It involves reaching out to (often very busy) people and not only asking them to give up their time to speak with you, but also asking them to trust you to represent what they say fairly and in a way they would recognize.

When we got our ethics approval signed off by the University, I was excited to get started reaching out to different Parishes in the area in the hopes of hearing about their experiences of the pandemic, their engagement with digital technology both before and after, and what they are up to now. The only hitch was that our ethics got signed off just before Lent. So rather than risk burdening busy people at a particularly busy time of year, I decided to wait until after Easter to reach out in earnest to different communities in the area.

Since Easter, I have been fortunate enough to speak with a number of church leaders who have generously given interviews about their and their communities’ experiences of the pandemic, and their uses of technology in this virtual age we now find ourselves. Beyond this I have also had the opportunity to start participating in weekly events where I am able to speak both formally and informally to church members and introduce myself and the project. While it is far too soon to even attempt to draw any kinds of conclusions, I can say that the people and communities that I have spoken with have experienced the pandemic and its effect on their church life in different ways, and I am excited to be able to continue these conversations with them throughout this exciting project.

Image credit – AI image generated using Dall-E2. “A visual depiction of the digital age blending traditional church imagery with digital technology”

Newer posts

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Katja K. Ošljak and Simona Kuntarič Zupanc, Researchers, University of Ljubljana

Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

Emmanuel Chiwetalu Ossai, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

Sean Durbin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

***Emmanuel Chiwetalu* *Ossai, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University***