Religion, “race” and emerging middle classes in Salvador, Brazil

Religion and development: Tracing the trajectories of an evolving sub-discipline

“…Post those earlier years in which RaD had to gain and defend the legitimacy of religion within international development and development studies, 2009-2011 saw a move towards understanding the ways in which religion was intimately woven into people's identities and everyday lives, both individually and collectively. Just as one's religious identity affects attitudes and actions towards states, institutions and development efforts, so too do these forces shape religious experience and identity (Donnelly, 2013;Gordon, 2013;. Scholarship started to offer explanations that defined religion as "embodied" (Deneulin and Bano, 2009); "embedded" (Bompani and Frahm-Arp, 2010); and in terms of religious ideologies that worked as "prisms" (Terr Harr, 2010).…”

“…A special issue of the Canadian Journal for Development Studies (Gordon, 2013; raised the importance of understanding how development work shapes religious beliefs and practice as previous emphasis has been on how religion (generally dichotomously) enables or impedes development. This appears to be taken up within the 'nexus' or interactional trend and is likely to endure in future scholarship.…”