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Professor Benjamin Kaplan is a pioneer of what has been called `the new history of toleration', which is of great significance to the public's understanding of the possibilities for peaceful coexistence between people of different faiths in the post-9/11 world. More than any other work in this revisionist school of historical writing, Kaplan's book Divided by Faith has been read and discussed by journalists, human rights organisations, churches and other non-academic audiences in North America, Britain and The Netherlands; it has also widely been used in university teaching. Kaplan's research has thus profoundly influenced public discourse and academic education regarding the history and character of religious toleration.
LSE research has contributed to institutional capacity building and to the renewal of the study of religion in the former Soviet Union. More specifically, the LSE anthropologist Mathijs Pelkmans has contributed to the training of a new generation of local scholars in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia; he has helped introduce these scholars to contemporary research and to innovative methodologies, and has mentored them in critical social science. As stated in one of the testimonials: "the ultimate value of Mathijs' engagement has been to intensify dialogue between different research, educational, and broadly scholarly traditions, and thereby to facilitate our own efforts to develop a discipline which is relatively new in Central Asia".
This case study describes an iterative cycle of research and impact in relation to work in the area of religion and peacebuilding in Nepal. King's and Owen's research in Buddhism and conflict transformation, Islam and gender violence, and their work on developing a framework for analysing the potential of religion for peacebuilding in a given context, has informed the development of a participatory workshop on the role of religious actors in peacebuilding which has been delivered to a number of communities in the Terai region of Nepal, and the facilitation of a larger networking event in Kathmandu in June 2013 which resulted in the formulation of an action plan to which participating religious groups and faith-based NGOs have committed.
This case study reports three inter-related impacts from Peter Clegg's research at UWE, Bristol. Firstly, his research has helped to shape the reform programme and the return to self-government in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Secondly, it has helped to frame the United Nations Decolonisation Committee's views on how best to implement the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. Thirdly, it has assisted the UK Overseas Territories governments to create an enabling environment for the protection and promotion of the human rights and dignity of People Living with HIV. It has done so by ensuring that these governments' laws and policies facilitate HIV prevention, care, treatment and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Today, religion has great social and political influence. Religion `returned' to politics and international relations following the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. The case study focuses on a key expression of religion's influence: `religious soft power'. Religious soft power is the ability to wield influence in politics and international relations, despite the fact that religion has few conventional or `hard' attributes of power and influence (such as, financial, diplomatic or military resources). The research sets out strategies to enhance public understanding of religious soft power, including broadcast and internet dissemination, publishing ventures, and research seminars and conferences open to the public.
The impact of Natalia Sobrevilla Perea's research on Peruvian political history has been to transform the public understanding of the importance of constitutions and elections in the search for political legitimacy in Peru. This impact has been achieved through engagements in the media (public online discussions, public presentations, and newspaper articles), as well as through a two-phase British Library-funded project to catalogue and digitize newspapers held in provincial Peruvian archives. The reach and significance of the impact achieved by Sobrevilla Perea's research is evidenced by her being identified in the 3 March 2012 issue of Revista Somos (the Saturday supplement to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio) as one of the eight most influential new voices commenting on, and contributing to, national debate in Peru.
Professor Eric Kaufmann's research into the interrelations between religion, demography and politics has made a significant contribution to public awareness of and engagement with issues concerning the political demography of religion and has informed American foreign policy. His book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth: Religion, Demography and Politics in the 21st Century (2010) received considerable public attention, including numerous reviews, media interviews and invitations to speak. Kaufmann has challenged the widely-held view that religion must inevitably decline in Europe. He has arguably contributed toward lowering the temperature of concern over the `Eurabia' question; and has improved governments' understanding of the demographics of religion — especially its role in Israeli politics, where the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox are tilting the balance of power toward hawks and away from those advocating a two-state solution.
Hardie's extensive research on Chinese gardens — objects of major public interest and cultural landscapes rich in social and symbolic meaning — has been widely disseminated through her national and international profile as a speaker. Highlighting the importance of gardens and their theoretical and empirical study across museum, gallery and academic spheres, the research has formed the basis for collaborations with York Art Gallery and Yorkshire Museum Gardens and led to displays in the Gardens that were seen by over 800,000 visitors. Significantly deepening public knowledge and understanding of the garden in China, the research has also influenced the practice of museum professionals.
The Religious Symbolism and Discrimination project consists of a body of research in the philosophy of religion that has effected changes in practice and awareness among religious practitioners, legal practitioners, and policy makers both within the North-West of England and nationally. This case study describes changes in users' awareness of the issues involved in religious-discrimination legal cases; changes in their religious literacy; and changes in their practice (particularly with regard to professional equalities training). The project delivered impact on civil life and public discourse through (a) a philosophical analysis of the concepts of symbol and belief in religious-discrimination cases; (b) a participatory research methodology that involved users in the construction of research right from the beginning; and (c) community-engagement activities devised to ensure that the research findings influenced users.
Sondra Hausner's AHRC-funded project, Vernacular Religion, grew out of her existing work with Nepalis around the world, and especially in the UK. Conducted in close collaboration with the Centre for Nepal Studies-UK, an organization run by Nepali social scientists for the benefit of Nepalis living in Britain, Hausner's research has taken up the multiple religious identities of the Nepali community in the UK. Based on voluntarily collected social data, her team's work led to a much clearer recognition of the specific cultural, social and religious profile of this migrant community. This information, of vital importance as British Nepalis define their identity and their roles in the wider society of Great Britain and transnationally, was fed back into the community through various channels including the non-academic publication Nepalis in the UK: An Overview (Adhikari, ed., CNS-UK 2012), participation in community integration programmes, and feedback sessions where findings of the team's research were discussed with community representatives, religious leaders, and policymakers.