Engaging with Conflicts in Mediatized Religious Environments (CoMRel) (completed)
This project examines how religion in public conflicts becomes thematised and enacted through mass media and social media and further articulated in social interaction.
The project was concluded 30.08.2018: A summary of the results.
The book from the project is available open access for free download from De Gruyter. Also accessible as paperback.
The full list of publications and presentations.

This project studies the intertwined role of media and religion in conflicts and tensions in contemporary Norway and the other Scandinavian societies.
The project is theoretically informed by research on mediatization of religion.
The social tensions that are addressed revolve around uses of public spaces.
The studies relate to three arenas where people engage in conflicts over religious symbols, items and claims that are made visible through the media. See subprojects.
Subprojects
A) Contested visibility in public service media. Case studies in the main public service broadcasters in Scandinavia.
B) Conflictual interactions in mixed localities, where the population has a large segment of Muslims. Comparing communities in the Oslo and Kristiansand areas in Norway.
C) Mediatized conflicts in public schools. Classroom interaction in secondary schools with pupils from varied religious backgrounds.
D) Survey in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Activities and attitudes in relation to media and religion in the three Scandinavian countries.

Blog
CoMReL is pleased to announce the launch of the Religion: Going Public blog which discusses various aspects of contemporary religion in the public sphere, and aims to disseminate on-going research findings to wider audiences and engage with and inform public debates on religion. Religion: Going Public develops out of a collaboration between researchers in three research projects funded by the Norwegian Research Council’s SAMKUL program: Engaging with Conflicts in Mediatized Religious Environments (CoMRel), Good Protestant, Bad Religion? Formatting Religion in Modern Society (GOBA), and Muslim Politics and Governance of Islam: Interactions of Structure and Culture in Multi-religious Europe.
For more info and the latest blog posts, check out: http://religiongoingpublic.com
Project partners
University of Oslo has collaboration with the University of Agder, MF Norwegian School of Teology, University of Copenhagen and Uppsala University.
Project period
From 1st October 2014 to 30 August 2018.
Financing
The project is funded by Research Council of Norway under the Programme for Cultural Conditions Underlying Social Change (SAMKUL) as well as by the contributing institutions.
Related projects
- CC2: Cultural Conflict 2.0
- TRILS: Teaching Religion in Late Modern Sweden
- Impact of Religion
- Mediatization of Culture
- GOBA: Good Protestant, Bad Religion? Formatting Religion in Modern Society
- Muslim Politics and Governance of Islam: Interactions of Structure and Culture in Multi-religious Europe
- IcoRel: Iconic Religion.
