Sungsoo Hong

"The Simultaneity of the Unequal." New Spatial Orders and Paradoxes as a Challenge for Religious Education

Personal Information:

Dr. Sungsoo Hong

Fürstengraben 6, 07743 Jena

Room 306

Telephone: +49 3641 9-42773

sungsoo.hong@uni-jena.de

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Research interests related to Diaspora:

Global religions in a local context
Negotiation of spatial regulations
Delimitation and new demarcation

Provisional working title of the habilitation project: "The Simultaneity of the Unequal." New Spatial Orders and Paradoxes as a Challenge for Religious Education

The research project is based on the perception of societal and lifeworld change processes that have become dynamic in recent decades, e.g., globalization, increased mobility, migration movements, and digitization. Accordingly, spatial aspects have received greater attention in recent sociological and cultural studies approaches. These spatial aspects enable new constellations and the resulting paradoxes to be understood more precisely, primarily characterized by the "simultaneity of the unequal." The relationship between delimitation and limitation, majority and minority, center and periphery, as well as belonging and non-belonging are important research aspects.

The planned research project examines new constellations and the resulting paradoxes more closely as a challenge for religious education. These new constellations can be clarified analytically and more precisely based on (1) sociological theory of space and (2) cultural-scientific considerations of the concept of space. School and religious education can be defined as particular areas (3) located at the intersection between society and the individual world. This intersection is followed by an educational (4) and theological-religious pedagogical (5) examination of the new spatial arrangements and the paradoxes caused by them. The planned research project thus aims to consider the current social and living environment change and the associated (religious) educational processes from a spatial perspective. In addition, the underlying spatial aspects themselves are to be critically reflected on theologically.

Keywords: Theory of space, globalization, religion, paradox, religious education

Project duration: 12/2021 – 12/2024

Publications:

Hong, Sungsoo (2021): 다양성과 통합에 관한 독일의 교육담론 고찰 (research on the German educational discourse on heterogeneity and inclusion, in: 교육의 이론과 실제 (Theory and Practice of Education), No. 2, 6), pp. 97-121.
Hong, Sungsoo (2020): Heterogeneity, inclusion and education - pedagogical and religious pedagogical comments on the three key concepts in the current discourse on inclusion, in: Theo-Web. Journal for religious education vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 399-412. https://doi.org/10.23770/tw0141External link