Assistant Professor of Singapore Management University (SMU) Orlando Woods has been awarded a grant to study and understand new types of socio-cultural diversity of the city-state. The co-principal investigator on the grant is SMU president Professor Lily Kong.
"When speaking of religious pluralism, we often think of inter-religious relations. In Singapore, this means how Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and other groups can coexist in a state of harmony," said Professor Woods.
"Our notion of new religious pluralism, however, focusses on intra-religious differences – the differences not just between but also within religious groups," he added.
In the project, titled ‘New Religious Pluralisms in Singapore: Migration, Integration and Difference’, Professors Woods and Kong will study how religion intersects with new categories of difference – such as class – as well as new forms of difference within pre-existing social groups – such as the differences between Singaporean Chinese and Chinese migrants.
Through their findings, they hope to identify the extent to which new religious pluralisms exist in Singapore, how they manifest across different religious groups, and the strategies deployed by different religious groups to manage them.