Publisher's Synopsis
Global Sceptical Publics is the first major study of the significance of different media for the (re)production of non-religious publics and publicity. While much work has documented how religious subjectivities are shaped by media, until now the crucial role of diverse media for producing and participating in religion-sceptical publics and debates has remained under-researched. With some chapters focusing on locations hitherto barely considered by scholarship on non-religion, the book places in comparative perspective how atheists, secularists and humanists engage with media - as means of communication and forming non-religious publics, but also on occasion as something to be resisted. Its conceptually rich interdisciplinary chapters thereby contribute important new insights to the growing field of non-religion studies and to scholarship on media and materiality more generally.
Praise for Global Sceptical Publics
'When it comes to the burgeoning study of atheists, humanists, and the like, Global Sceptical Publics is just the volume we need. For unbelievers and secularists, media technologies and the promises of the public sphere have long been central to their practical aims and conceptual commitments alike. And now here, between two covers, is an analytically nuanced and empirically rich set of essays showing how and why. It deserves a prominent place on the shelf of any serious student of media, aesthetics, and non-religion.'
Matthew Engelke, Columbia University
'Global Sceptical Publics provides vital insight into the formation and transformation of non-religious identities, communities and publics through media - engaging some of the most significant and most under-researched topics in the sociology and anthropology of non-religion, and demonstrating their profound importance for addressing major questions in political philosophy. Global Sceptical Publics is an outstanding achievement and one of the most significant publications of recent years in the several fields it brings together.'
Lois Lee, University of Kent
'This vibrant collection offers a major conceptual incentive to rethink the non-religious from a material and corporeal angle. Importantly, non-religion is not reduced to a mere abstract and intellectual project, but instead shown to emerge through actual political-aesthetic practices and media representations. A marvellous intervention which liberates us from the straitjacket of the religious-secular binary!'
Birgit Meyer, Utrecht University
'Breaking free from the limitations of the religious-secular binary and approaching the study of non-religious phenomena from a material angle, the volume... stands as a seminal work, paving the way for a deeper understanding of the multifaceted dynamics between media, non-religion, and the complexities of contemporary human experiences.'
Reading Religion
'This simple summary... does not begin to do service to the richness of this book, as each of its chapters are far more nuanced and detailed than can be conveyed in a short review. Indeed, for this reason alone I believe Global Sceptical Publics will be welcome reading for those scholars interested in the intersection of media and the rise of global non-religion and atheism, especially since it is available for free from the publisher.'
Nova Religio
