Diversity, Fear and Religions (Routledge-Giappichelli Studies in Religion, Law and Economics in the Mediterranean Space)

This book investigates ways ‘the Other’ can be both a cause of and an answer to religious and cultural fears. The multi-layered question of cultural and religious diversity has received some attention recently both in academic and policy circles. The authors of this work address this issue by focusing on fears and phobias, and the ways they are historically and sociologically produced and reproduced in a Global Era. The volume presents examples of fears related to different cultures and religions from a multidisciplinary perspective. Some of these have been provoked or sublimated by religious fundamentalisms, and a double ignorance, that is, ignorance of and about fundamentalisms, which have helped feed these collective concerns. Through a sample of stereotypes, mystifications and simplifications, the authors look at Islam as a focal lens for showing the current power of globalized collective fears. The collection also explores possible cultural antidotes to these phobias, such as the need for awareness and familiarity with diversities, based on an education accepting of interculturality and plural citizenship. The book will be essential reading for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Intercultural Pedagogy, History, Anthropology and Sociology of Religions, Law and Religion, Contemporary Islam, Migration Studies, Interreligious Dialogue, and Ethnography.

Gennaro Gervasio is Associate Professor of History of the Muslim Countries at the De- partment of Humanities, Roma Tre University, Italy. Prior to that, he has worked in Egypt, Australia and in the United Kingdom. He is Research Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin, and from 2019 to 2021 he was the co-coordinator for Roma Tre Univer- sity of PriMED international project (Prevention and Interaction in the Trans-Mediterrane- an Space). His research focuses on: secularism and Marxism in the Arab world, the history and politics of Islam in Europe, and civic activism and social and protest movements in the Arab World (especially Egypt and Iraq).

Maria Chiara Giorda is Full Professor of History of Religions at the Department of Hu- manities, Roma Tre University, Italy. She is the coordinator of the international project “SHARP Lab”, and a member of the École Française d’Athènes Project, “Interactions, juxtapositions, imbrications religieuses dans les Balkans (XX-XXIe siècles)” and of the Permanent Seminar on “Religious Diversity in Italian Urban History” (RDIUH), promoted by New York University and Roma Tre. Her research focuses on the following themes: history of religions, geography of religions, religion and urban spaces, shared religious places, history of monasticism.

Paola Perucchini is Full Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology, and Head of Department at the Department of Education, Roma Tre University, Italy. She has been Vice-Director of the same Department and member of the Executive Committee of the Italian Psychology Association, Developmental and Educational Section (2012-2019). From 2019 to 2021 she was the co-coordinator for Roma Tre University of PriMED inter- national project (Prevention and Interaction in the Trans-Mediterranean Space). Her re- search interests include, among others, communicative infant development; children’s so- cial adjustment; children’s ethnic prejudice and educational programmes against discrimination.