[Air-l] Internet and Religion in Asia graduate student seminar

[Randolph Kluver (Assoc Prof)]

The adoption and development of new technologies have been identified by
many Asian countries as a key element to achieve long-term developmental
goals. Historically, the spread of religion has always been closely
linked to the growth and proliferation of new technologies. While the
contribution of technological innovations to economic change is widely
known and accepted, how new technologies impact on the experience of the
sacred and the divine in Asian societies is scarcely documented or
understood.

Graduate students from across the disciplines are invited to submit
papers that focus on the historical, social, cultural and political
relations between technology and belief in the Asian context. How does
people's use of technology affect their experience of spirituality and
the formation of religious identity and community? To what extent is the
medium more important than the message? How do developments in the
latest technological breakthroughs such as the Internet influence the
ways people in Asian societies constitute themselves as social beings,
and how does it shape their experience of the sacred and the divine?
Conversely, to what extent, and in what ways do religious beliefs and
practices shape people's attitude towards new technology and its
deployment?


http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/conf2006/4thGraduateWorkshop.htm



Randolph Kluver
Singapore Internet Research Centre
School of Communication and Information
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore 637718
phone (65) 6790-5770
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/