Pourquoi une nouvelle page Facebook?

La page Facebook « World Religion Watch » vous informe en anglais et en français sur l'actualité religieuse nationale et internationale. Les articles proposés par les membres du site www.world-religion-watch.org sont systématiquement relayés par les administrateurs sur la page principale pour alimenter notre revue de presse. Chacun peut y réagir et toute contribution est bienvenue. Mais nous avons récemment dû faire face à un problème imprévu.

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Über-Bobo goes global: the rise and mobility of a new dominant world class?

In his recent book, Souci de Soi, Conscience du Monde : Vers une religion globale ? (Armand Colin, Paris 2012) Raphaël Liogier examines the dominant religious sentiment of the age, a sentiment he calls "Individuo-globalism." Not quite religion, more than mere ideology, individuo-globalism desginates a transnational religious sentiment -a faith- which touches nearly every aspect of modern life. Rooted in the fertile soil of nineteenth century European Romanticism and later American Transcendentalism, nourished by Western reinterpretations and re-appropriations of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism as well as the various technological advances of the twentieth century, individuo-globalism has emerged onto the world stage and gives life to a new religious sentiment shared -and lived out- by millions.

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Contre Huntington (Le mot 'civilisation' s'écrit mal au pluriel)

Si je republie aujourd’hui ce texte déjà vieux de dix-huit ans, c’est que, d’une part, je pense qu’à en écrire un autre sur le même sujet aujourd’hui, comme le ‘devoir d’indignation’ face à certaines ‘bavures’ en haut lieu le réclame, je ne saurais à peu de choses près que le réécrire avec les mêmes mots.De l’autre, parce que cette ‘maladie huntingtonienne’ dont le foyer de contagion pouvait encore paraître possible à circonscrire à l’époque, malgré toutes les dénonciations et les analyses critiques, continue depuis lors de plus beau ses ravages, et se révèle comme ayant, par glissements et défaillances immunitaires subreptices,apparemment désormais acquis droit de cité parmi les outils légitimes de la conquête ou de la conservation du pouvoir en terre de République.

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Discussing cultural diversity and legal certainty in the Enterprise

Is it licit for one to be dressed in such a way as to import cultural or religious connotations into the workplace? Should breaks be granted for prayer-time, or leave allowed for denominational feast days? May a female employee decline to interact with her male colleagues? Is the observance of various hygiene or food prescriptions to be allowed for? Today, every human resources manager has already had to face issues such as these, or will soon have to. Some may have nursed the thought that, in a secular country, religious issues would become less impassioned, and even be sidelined by a naïve form of Marxism. But, far from that, it turns out that increasing globalization has encouraged cultural diversity. Finally, the complexity of the human ever eludes even the most sophisticated of management techniques. Homo economicus is already a fossil; the classic anthropology of many economists has been shaken to the roots. Today people at work demand respect and guarantee for other aspects of their personality.
A growing number of companies are having to face such demands. Are they obliged to take into account the religious and cultural convictions of their staff ? And if such is the case; how is this to be done, and to what extent?

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Mediterranean Tipping-point? Focus on the Human Priorities...

The current situation in Tunisia and Egypt, plus the gigantic after-shocks of revolt still spreading through other Arab countries, must surely prompt us to do some in-depth soul-searching on the mutual relations between Europe and the Mediterranean of the southern shore.

For a quarter of a century or so, an ambiguous, fragmentary DIY approach has mainly presided over the dealings of the European Union with the societies of this region. Europe's Mediterranean policy, as of today in full-blown crisis and verging on war with the long-courted Quadafi regime in Libya, has been more concerned with capitalising on the assets of proximity with our Mediterranean neighbours than with assuming any more uncomfortable responsibilities.

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