Facts

Contact person:
Olivia Cejvan
Financer:
  • Vetenskapsrådet
Responsible at MaU:
Olivia Cejvan
Time frame:
01 January 2026 - 31 December 2028
Faculty/department:
Research subject:

About the project

The proposed project is a qualitative study of how and why religion is made and remade in situated practices of teaching and learning, in relation to broader educational contexts. To accomplish this, it takes as its case the nature-oriented and esoteric New Religious Movement (NRM) Wicca, as it developed in Scandinavia from its inception in the 1980s until today.

The project takes as its starting point that the development and endurance of a religious movement are dependent on the efficacy of its educational practices. Wicca’s organisation in Sweden, Denmark and Norway displays varieties in establishment, development, and endurance.

By studying these varieties, this project aims to explain how and why some NRMs develop and thrive while others do not. Charting the past and ongoing development of Wicca in Scandinavia through ethnographic methods (interviews and participant observation) combined with qualitative text analysis (QTA) of letter correspondences, diaries, and educational materials, offers an analytical perspective on teaching and learning in an original approach to theorise religious change. It will enhance our understanding of the dynamics between secular educational contexts and the endurance or decline of NRMs in contemporary Scandinavia, which will, in extension, help explain issues of change and continuity within religious movements generally.