Research Projects

The Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road

(Funded under Collaborative Research Fund Scheme 2018 – 2019 Exercise, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong)

Project Coordinator

David A. Palmer, Associate Professor, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and Department of Sociology

Total Fund Awarded

HKD 6,252,078

Project Duration

36 months

Project Description

The project objectives are 1) to conduct a macro-level mapping of religious mobilities between China and BRI nations; 2) to conduct 7 micro-level case studies for each of the following 5 regions on circulations between China and Central Asia, the Arab world, the Indian subcontinent, continental Southeast Asia and maritime Southeast Asia; 3) to apply theories and concepts developed within the fields of Science, Technology and Society (STS) and the sociology of mobilities, to develop a conceptual framework within which the case studies will be conducted, and allowing their comparison and analysis, and, more generally, to trigger theoretical innovation and renewal in the social scientific theory of religion; 4) to provide a historical context for the role of the BRI in the reconfiguration of religious, ethnic and civilizational identities, connections and boundaries within the region.