| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/I031820/1 |
| Title: |
Online Inter-faith Dialogue Platform |
| Principal Investigator: |
Higton, Professor M |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Divinity |
| Organisation: |
University of Cambridge |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research |
| Starts: |
01 September 2011 |
Ends: |
31 July 2013 |
Value (£): |
288,680
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Human Communication in ICT |
Human-Computer Interactions |
| Inter-faith Relations |
Islam |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Communications |
Information Technologies |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
| Panel Date | Panel Name | Outcome |
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01 Mar 2011
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Digital Economy Research in the Wild
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Announced
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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This Research in the Wild project will lead to the development of an online platform for a well-established form of inter-faith dialogue, with proven transformational potential for a secular and religiously plural global society.In a world that is a complex mix of secularity and multiple religions, questions arise about how members of religious communities can participate fully in public debate. One dominant answer to those questions says that public argument is only possible to the extent that religious participants keep private their commitment to particular traditions of religious thought and practice. However, other answers are possible - answers that focus upon the practices of reasoning internal to each religious traditions, and upon the patterns of shared reasoning that are possible when those differing practices are brought into interaction.One prominent example of work that explores this possibility has been the development of a practice of inter-faith discussion called 'Scriptural Reasoning' (SR). In SR members of different religious traditions meet in small groups to discuss extracts from their sacred or authoritative texts together. In the process, a member of one tradition learns to explain to those who do not share her tradition the reading and reasoning practices by which her judgments (including judgments about public issues) are shaped. She also learns to respond to questions about those practices, to understand the different reading and reasoning practices by which the judgments of other participants are shaped, and to experiment as a reader of the other participants' texts. The normal outcome of the process is not consensus but a deeper understanding of the roots of others' judgments, an understanding of the kinds of flexibility and responsiveness built in to one's own tradition and the traditions of others, and an understanding of the kinds of arguments that might make sense to those whose authorities and traditions of reasoning differ from one's own. This practice of inter-faith reasoning therefore deepens understanding both within and between traditions, and enables the development of practices of reasoned debate across traditions.Existing face-to-face implementations of the SR model amongst scholars, religious leaders, students, school children, civic leaders and ordinary citizens have proved encouraging, and have demonstrated that this is a practice with a potential for transformational impact in a society where religious commitment and commitment to shared public discourse are often assumed to be opposed. Face-to-face implementation is, however, unavoidably limited: gathering multi-faith groups for discussion is expensive; numbers are limited; geographical constrains mean that participants tend to be from similar cultural backgrounds; and the mono-lingual nature of the discussions both reduces the range of possible participants, and presents particular constraints for some Muslim participants for whom reliance on as-yet-untranslated Arabic textual authorities and traditions of reasoning is essential.To ensure that the potential transformational impact of SR is realised, these limitations need to be overcome. This project offers an innovative way to do so by taking SR practice onto the web and across languages. We will build on an existing online inter-faith platform (developed by the Cambridge Inter-faith Program and the non-profit technology company Meedan) which includes a facility for machine-assisted human translation of content and discussions between Arabic and English. By means of extensive user testing with a variety of non-academic user groups drawn from Christian and Islamic communities in the UK and the Middle East, we will tailor this platform for specific use in Christian-Muslim SR, extending SR across geographical and linguistic barriers in the process.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
http://nurani.org |
| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.cam.ac.uk |