Globalization and Glocalization of

Religious Complex Systems. Case

Studies: Daoism and Zen Buddhism in
Italy

-Research proposal-

Andrei-Razvan Coltea

Student ID: 19862008

Defining the problem: Background, literature review and

theoretical framework of the research

This research represents an attempt to integrate various valuable theoretical

perspectives, such as complexity theory, religious market theory and individuo-
globalism theory, into a broader framework for investigating the trans-location
of Eastern religions to a Western cultural context, using case studies to support
it. In a broad sense, the phenomena we are trying to analyze concern two general
questions that represent the background of this research, starting with:
HOW (local) religions globalize?

Roland Robertson was the first to offer a definition of globalization in a

sociological article, as being "the compression of the world and the
intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole" (Robertson, 1992).
In his view, globalization creates a global culture, which is subsequently
interpreted and absorbed differently, according to each particular cultural scape
(glocalized).

Globalization creates new markets. This law doesn’t exclusively apply to

commodities, but also to ideas and systems of meaning. It has therefore been
theorized that the concept of ‘religious marketplace’ (Stark and Bainbridge,
1985) is an appropriate paradigm in analyzing and understanding current
dynamics in the field of religious studies. Assuming that competition increases
the quality of religious ‘products’ on offer, and therefore religions compete for a
better market position that would attract more ‘customers’, is certainly an
attractive economic metaphor. The competition and marketization process
should therefore create fragmentation, diversity, and the spread of traditional
Asian faiths (Daoism, Buddhism etc.), which became a popular option in the West
in the second part of the 20th century, might certainly be viewed to fit this
perspective. Additionally, an increasing volatility of belief, coupled with the
abandonment of institutionalized forms of religion has been conceptualized in
the famous concept of “Believing without belonging” of sociologist Grace Davies
(2000) as a main-stream tendency of people who are “spiritual but not religious”.

Our research, although recognizing the importance of the religious marketplace

as an analytical tool, seeks to move beyond this paradigm and prove (by the use
of case studies) that, in the process of trans-locating to a totally foreign cultural
environment in the context of globalization, religious systems of meaning lose
their core features. By ‘core features’ we understand key ontological and
epistemological assumptions that ensure the internal coherence and identity of
the system as a whole. This premise in itself doesn’t fully contradict the theory of
religious markets, but, if true, will provide us with a starting point in determining
the reasons and dynamics of this radical transformation. An obvious issue arises:
Why do (Eastern) religions need to give up some of their core features in order
to globalize, if diversity (of supply) is an inherent characteristic of the religious
market?

We follow the French sociologist Raphael Liogier in observing the common

features of the spiritual products that we can find on the market. In other words,
the phenomenon of religious trans-location brought by globalization in
developed societies doesn’t simply imply syncretism, as observed in previous
ages with the spread of Christianity or Islam or even Buddhism. Glocalizing a
universal religion couldn’t happen, by definition, without globalization. If we
therefore accept Robertson’s thesis that globalization creates a global awareness,
a global consciousness and, ultimately, a global culture, if follows that this
culture is characterized by its’ own more or less coherent structure of meaning
and specific ontological and epistemological assumptions. This ideology is the
yardstick by which all spiritual systems that want to conquer a niche in the
market are measured by, and this observation provides the answer to our second
question. If a specific religion wants to access the market, it needs to change and
adapt to the ideology of the market, ultimately differing from others only in
aesthetics. In other words, the products we can find on this market are mostly
different ways of believing in the same things, and not an infinity of different
options. So what are the main features of this global spiritual ideology?

Liogier calls this dogmatic structure “individuo-globalism” (Liogier 2009, p.136).

He sees it as a process of normalization of new age and alternative culture in
post-industrial societies, under the influence of globalization. Anthony Giddens
theorizes the two dimensions of modernity: the extensive one, represented by
globalization, and the intensive one, represented by the reflexive construction of
the self (Giddens, 1991), which is a core feature of this ideology and is not
confined to the religious or spiritual sphere, but is permeating traditionally
secular domains, such as tourism, sports, health or business. The holistic
individual acting as an agent on this market is, according to Liogier, not only a
tourist of the spiritual exotic, but a seeker of his ‘authentic self’ through
experiencing the other (understood as an instrument in his search for the truth).
The main features of individuo-globalism are, as the name shows, dualistic in
nature. On the one hand, we encounter an obsession for physical appearance and
aesthetics, personal development and well-being, the goal being, as previously
mentioned finding one’s true self, using what Michel Foucault calls ‘technologies
of the self’ (Palmer and Siegler, 2017). On the other hand we can observe a global
consciousness, a concern for global problems, such as ecological issues,
sustainable development and humanitarian action. The new ideology can be
called ‘spirituality’, a word that slowly replaces ‘religion’ a term that has
acquired multiple negative connotations, being associated with rigid institutions,
proselytism, hierarchy, power, sometimes even violence or terrorism. This
‘individuo-globalist spirituality’ is not limited to NRMs (New Religious
Movements) or Oriental religions spreading to the West, but it’s also influencing
established religions (Kaballah in Judaism, neo-sufism and some ecumenical
movements can constitute good examples), although in much more subtle ways
due to their institutional robustness. It is not even limited to Western culture,
because globalization creates a flow of cultural products leading to an increasing
ideological homogeneity amongst, for example, members of the middle class in
different parts of the world.
Last important characteristic of ‘spirituality’ that we should mention is the fact
that, unlike traditional religions, it integrates scientific and psychological
discourse, sometimes through psycho-physical practices.

Second question we are interested in is:

HOW (global) religions glocalize?

This question concerns the last phase of the process of trans-location. Spiritual
traditions/religions must adapt to the individuo-globalist ideology dominant on
the religious marketplace by giving up many ‘core features’, as well as a great
deal of coherence. Furthermore, when applying to a specific historical and
cultural context , they must further adapt to it by changing at least some lexical
and organizational features, whilst trying to maintain ancient traditions and
practices as a reference for authenticity. This process is called glocalization, and,
at this point, it is necessary to define it.

Roland Robertson is perhaps the most entitled to define glocalization, and he

does so as a a corrective to the homogenizing effects of globalization, producing
diversity and heterogeneity. According to Roudomentof, the main issue of
concern about globalization is the form of its spreading around the world.
Robertson and other scholars “accept the conceptual metaphors of liquidity or
diffusion as ways of thinking about the spread of globalization.” If, however,
globalization is seen to be spreading in a wave-like manner, the conceptual
metaphor of refraction can also be employed to understand the global-local
binary:

“In the case of the globalization of X, what actually takes place is the migration
and spread of X into different localities. If one further views these localities as
having varying degrees of density or ‘thickness’, or to put it differently, as having
different wave-resistance capacities, the process can then operate in two
different ways. First, the wave-like properties can be absorbed and amplified by
the local and then reflected back onto the world stage.” (Roudomentof, 2015,
p.,9) This shows the manner in which globalization is responsible for both
homogeneity and heterogeneity, as the local shapes operates in symbiosis with
the global, shaping the end result through the aforementioned refraction
process. In conclusion, for this author glocality becomes experiencing the global
through local lenses (Roudomentof, 2015, p. 11).

Having used repeatedly the word ‘system’ in reference to religion and

spirituality, it is also necessary to establish the theoretical framework we will
use in our analysis of these concepts.
Cultures and all their constitutive elements cannot be assumed to be monolithic
and static for the sake of maintaining a solid conceptual architecture. The
complexity and fluidity of religious phenomena especially raise the question of
inter-disciplinary analysis as the only epistemologically valid option.

Complexity Theory offers a very broad framework that allows us to integrate

approaches from anthropology, psychology, economy, history, religious studies
but also mathematics. In this perspective, religions (we include here all forms of
spirituality) will be viewed as complex adaptive systems. Richard Sosis is the
maybe the scholar that best theorized this view (Sosis 2017), although he draws
inspiration from the works of Geertz and Rappaport.

What is a complex adaptive system? Sosis uses the definition of Miller and Page
(2007): “Complexity arises when the dependencies among the elements become
important. In such a system, removing one such element destroys system
behavior to an extent that goes well beyond what is embodied by the particular
element that is removed...Complicated worlds are reducible, whereas complex
ones are not.” Sosis further describes these systems as ‘adaptive’ “in the sense
that they are flexible and they respond successfully – in terms of the system’s
survival – to local social and ecological conditions” (Sosis, 2017, p. 423).

In our view, this definition applies to the religious systems we will research, and,
as Sosis claims, removing key elements leads to changes in the system that are so
profound that it would make it totally unrecognizable, if not for the
aforementioned preoccupation for stylistic and aesthetic aspects.

Sosis theorizes that religious systems have eight main building blocks: authority,
meaning, moral obligation, myth, ritual, sacred, supernatural agents, and taboo.
“Each of these building blocks is most usefully conceived of as a unique category
that may have an independent phylogenetic history, but within religious systems,
they are inherently interconnected to the other building blocks within the
system.” (Sosis, 2017, p. 424). It should be noted however that the complexity
trait of the system means that the system is more than the sum of its parts. These
building blocks and their inter-connections will represent our analytical
foundation.

Defining the solution: Case studies and research questions

Italy offers a rather unique and very significant cultural context, due to its solid
catholic background, but also to the surprising popularity of new religions and
forms of spirituality, as it is also home to the only European Daoist organization
legally constituted as a church and also to the biggest Buddhist temple in Europe.
This might seem a paradox, but a closer look shows that the identity of Italians as
Catholics: “does not necessarily imply an adherence of conviction, accompanied
by an appropriate system of beliefs and practices" (Marchisio and Pisati, 1999:
240).

We therefore consider Italy as an excellent empirical background for testing our

theories on the glocalization of globalized religious systems. As to the first issue,
concerning the globalization of religions, we consider at least two case studies to
be relevant:

1. The spread of Daoism in Italy, leading to the emergence of the Italian Daoist
Church. In June 2019 the Italian town of Caserta hosted the largest and most
important Daoist council ever to take place outside Asia. Not only it gathered
members of many Daoist organizations across Europe alongside scholars,
Chinese Daoist Masters and leading members of the Chinese Daoist
Association, but it was also the first official theological encounter between
Daoist masters and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. The
encounter was organized by the Italian Daoist Church, the only organization
to adopt such an institutional form in Europe. This proves the significance of
Italian Daoism for our research, in the context of the emergence of ‘Global
Daoism’, described by Palmer and Siegler in their excellent monograph
“Dream Trippers. Global Daoism and the predicament of modern spirituality”
(2017). According to these authors, “China’s indigenous religion has, during the
twentieth century, spread to North America and Europe, breaking out of its Chinese
cultural matrix and finding a home in the world of alternative spiritualities, natural
health practices, and academic scholarship.” (Palmer and Siegler, 2017, p.16). The
question these authors ask in their study of the encounters between American Daoist
practitioners and Chinese Daoists is whether Daoism contains transportable messages
and portable practices that can be trans-located to a different culture without losing
much of their meaning or if this process” involves such an extreme level of
disembedding and de-contextualization that what is exported is either not
Daoism at all, or a Daoism deeply mutilated and reduced. Is it still Daoism, or
does it becomes something completely different?” (Palmer and Siegler, 2017,
p.29). This is the also one of the questions that our research will try to
answer regarding the Italian case study, the other one being related to the
specificities of the glocalization of Daoism in Italy. The compatibility of this
case with our original theoretical framework of individuo-globalism and
religion as a complex adaptive system is also to be verified.

2. The history and structure of UBI (Unione Buddista Italiana) and other inter-
Buddhist cooperation organizations. The Rinzai Zen Buddhist Center of
Scaramuccia will serve as one focus for our case study, due to its importance
for Italian Buddhism and the surprising heterogeneity of the practices that
include some Buddhist ones not specific to Rinzai Zen, such as Vipassana
meditation, some Oriental ones not specific to Buddhism, such as yoga or Tai
 Chi, and even some Western physical ones not inherently religious/spiritual,
such as ski, climbing or alpinism. It has numerous affiliated centers across
Italy, also being one of the founding members and main promoters of UBI. It
constitutes an excellent example of adherence to an individuo-globalist
ideology by radical de-contextualization of a conservative Japanese Buddhist
tradition, combined with an adaptation to the Italian cultural context. In an
excellent research in the field of translation studies on the spread of Soka
Gakkai Buddhism in Italy, Manuela Foeira shows that “Italian converts to
Buddhism have absorbed and domesticated the new religion according to
their pre-existent categories of "what a religion should be". Like all pioneers
in an "alien" land, in fact, Italians exploring Buddhism brought with them
their own cultural assumptions, and started their journey with an embedded
idea of ‘religione’, their domestic tradition functioning as the yardstick
against which to measure the religious otherness in the search for perfect
"equivalences”, adding that the overlap of Catholic and Buddhists practices
has given rise to a peculiar form of hybrid religion that can be defined as
"Catho-Buddhism" (Foiera, 2007, p.1).

3. We will research the practice in a Chinese Daoist Temple and a Japanese Zen
Monastery to provide a term of comparison between the practice in Italy and
the practice in the original cultural context. The location shall be determined
according to relevance and affiliation.

Our research questions can therefore be formulated as follows:

1. Can Daoism and Buddhism be understood as religious complex adaptive

systems in their process of globalizing out of their original cultural context
and glocalizing to a new one (Italy)?

2. Is Individuo-Globalism the dominant ideology of the Italian religious market

place? Is inter-faith dialogue a catalyst or a consequence of this?

3. How is Daoism and (Zen) Buddhism practiced differently in Italy compared to

their respective cultural roots? What is ‘lost in translation’ and why?

Methodology and sources

Firstly, an extensive investigation of academic and archival material will clarify

and refine the theoretical basis of this research, as well as its historical context.
Complexity theory will serve as a framework for analysis, allowing for an inter-
disciplinary approach. Individuo-Globalism will represent the most important
hypothesis to be tested through our case studies, as the existence of such a
dominant ideology will help us overcome the religious market theory.
Globalization and glocalization are the specific processes that will be analyzed in
reference to religious phenomena. A necessary step is clarifying the historical
aspect of the emergence of Buddhism and Daoism in Italy through the analyze of
sources such as legal documents, government statistics and archives of media
publications.

Secondly we will use qualitative methods specific to anthropological and

ethnographic studies in order to determine the specific features of our selected
cases. We will use participant observation and field notes to analyze and the
practice in Italy and the one in the country of origin. Individual semi-structured
interviews will be employed to investigate the attitudes and beliefs of the Italian
practitioners. The aforementioned building blocks of religious systems will
constitute the analytical dimensions of our research, which we will use to
organize and interpret the data we will have collected.

REFERENCES

Davie, Grace (2000), Religion in Modern Europe. A Memory Mutates, Oxford, Oxford

University Press,

Foiera, Manuela (2007)– “The Translation and Domestication of an Oriental Religion into a
Western Catholic Country: The Case of Soka Gakkai in Italy”
http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/2403

Giddens,  Anthony (1991)- “Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in Late Modern Age”
Cambridge, Cambridge Polity Press.

Liogier, Raphael (2009) –“L'individuo-globalisme : nouvelle culture croyante des sociétés

industrielles avancées” in Revue internationale de politique comparée 2009/1 (Vol. 16), p.
135-154

Marchisio, Roberto, and Pisati, Maurizio (1999) " Belonging without Believing: Catholics in
Contemporary Italy. " Journal of Modem Italian Studies. 4.2,236-255.

Palmer, David and Siegler, Elijah (2017) - “Dream Trippers. Global Daoism and the
predicament of modern spirituality”, University of Chicago Press

Robertson, Roland (1992)- “Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture”London, Sage

Roudometof, Victor (2015) Mapping the glocal turn, literature streams, scholarship, clusters
and debates. Glocalism: Journal of Culture , Politics and innovation 2015, pp.1-21
Sosis, Richard (2017) – “The Building Blocks of Religious Systems: Approaching Religion as a
Complex Adaptive System” in Giorgiev, Georgi- “Evolution, Development and Complexity”,
Siegler, p.421-449

Stark, Rodney and Bainbridge, William (1985) – “The Future of Religion: Secularization,
Revival and Cult Formation”, University of California Press