He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions

The recent digital turn has had an unprecedented impact on the identity of the academic disciplines that study religions. Expectedly, this shift has brought about a dramatic change in the power dynamics between the main research actors and funders. In particular, historians and humanist scholars hav...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Ambasciano, Leonardo (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Brill 2022
Dans: Method & theory in the study of religion
Année: 2022, Volume: 34, Numéro: 1/2, Pages: 182-209
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Science des religions / Éthique de la science / Big data / Philanthropie / Capitalisme / Humanités numériques
RelBib Classification:AA Sciences des religions
NCJ Science et éthique
ZG Sociologie des médias; médias numériques; Sciences de l'information et de la communication
Sujets non-standardisés:B historical study of religion
B The John Templeton Foundation
B Big data
B neoliberal academia
B cognitive science of religion
B Philanthrocapitalism
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Résumé:The recent digital turn has had an unprecedented impact on the identity of the academic disciplines that study religions. Expectedly, this shift has brought about a dramatic change in the power dynamics between the main research actors and funders. In particular, historians and humanist scholars have taken the brunt, mostly replaced by data scientists, software engineers, statisticians, psychologists, anthropologists, and biologists alike. Consequently, multimillion-dollar projects aimed at testing historical hypotheses and massive agent-based simulations have been implemented on shaky methodological and epistemological grounds. Concurrently, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, private religious bodies have increasingly replaced public funding, raising important but still unaddressed moral questions about transparency, independence, and potential conflicts of interests. The present article explores the ethically troubling relationship between the boom of Big Data and computational approaches to the study of religions past and present and the infiltration of religious philanthrocapitalism in contemporary neoliberal academia.
ISSN:1570-0682
Référence:Kritik in "Paying the Piper: History, Humanities, and the Scientific Study of Religion (2023)"
Contient:Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341527