ĚÇĐÄVolg

François Gauthier

Dr. Phil. Religious ĚÇĐÄVolg UQAM

photo

 francois.gauthier@unifr.ch
 +41 26 300 7459
 

Sociology and anthropology of modern and contemporary religion in a global perspective; General social scientific theory; History of religion; Theories of religion; Gift theory and application; Religion and Politics; Religion and Public Space issues; Globalization; Qualitative methods; Epistemology of social sciences and the study of religion; Festivals; Counterculture and subcultures; Burning Man Festival; Rainbow Gatherings; Rituals; Death Rituals; Marcel Mauss; Georges Bataille; Anti-Globalization protest movement; etc.

Professor
Department of Social Sciences

PER 21 bu. E309
Bd de PĂ©rolles 90
1700 Fribourg
PER 21, E309
+41 26 300 7459

Biography

François Gauthier est un socio-anthropologue des religions. Né et formé au Québec (PhD Sciences des religions, UQAM), il a été professeur régulier au Département de sciences des religions de l'Université du Québec à Montréal de 2009-2012, professeur de Sciences des religions à l'Université de Fribourg depuis janvier 2013. Ses recherches et publications comprennent un vaste éventail comprenant: le festival Burning Man et des sous-cultures musicales (par ex. techno), altermondialisme et radicalités politiques, sociologie des religions, anthropologie des religions, théories de la religion, paradigme du don. Il travaille notamment à l'élaboration d'un cadre analytique permettant de mieux saisir les mutations modernes et contemporaines du religieux dans une perspective globale, en lien avec la montée en puissance du néolibéralisme et du consumérisme. Il est également membre du MAUSS (Mouvement anti-utilitariste en sciences sociales) et a, à ce titre, cofondé et codirige la revue interdisciplinaire de langue anglaise MAUSS International (https://www.maussinternational.org) et fait partie du comité de rédaction de la Revue du MAUSS semestrielle.

Research and publications

  • Publications
    102 publications


    François Gauthier, Journal of Contemporary Religion (2025) | Journal article


    François Gauthier, Journal of Beliefs & Values (2025) | Journal article


    François Gauthier, Birgit Krawietz (Routledge, 2024) | Book


    Mayfair Yang, Peter van der Veer, François Gauthier, Prasenjit Duara, Susan Brownell, Religion and Society (2023) | Journal article


    Gauthier, François, (2023) | Journal article


    GAUTHIER, FRANÇOIS, (2023) | Journal article


    Gauthier, François, (2023) | Journal article


    Gauthier, François, (2023) | Journal article


    Gauthier, François, Perreault, Jean-Philippe (2023) | Book chapter


    Gauthier, François (2023) | Other

  • Research projects

    Spirits and Gods
    Status: Ongoing

    Start 01.01.2025
    End 31.01.2027
    Funding Other 

    Religion in the Market Era: The Rise of Market Islam, the Revenge of Confucius, and Other Stories from a Global Age
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.07.2024
    End 31.12.2024
    Funding SNSF 
    Religion in the Market Era sketches a global analysis of the transformations of religion in modernity from the end of the nineteenth century until today, whose history is divided into two constellations, or “regimes”: the Nation-State and the Global-Market regime. The book sketches out an alternative to the grand narrative of religion in terms of secularization that is not Western-centric, and in which the construction of the nation-state and then economic globalization appear as foundational and structuring processes. Three broad case studies are presented, showing how the destinies of religion, understood as a complex phenomenon deploying on three levels (macro, meso, micro), has been intimately bound to the massive changes in world societies over the course of modernity: Islam, with a focus on the Middle-East and the formation of Global Islam; Christian Orthodox Eastern Europe; and China, perhaps the most radical and remarkable example of the fate of religion in our modern world.

    European Network on Death Rituals - Annual Workshop 2020
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.02.2020
    End 30.04.2020
    Funding SNSF 
    Je vous soumets par la présente une demande de soutien financier pour l’organisationdu 2020 Annual Workshop of the European Network on Death Rituals (https://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/de/research/death-rituals.html ), qui aura lieu à Fribourg les 7 au 10 mars 2020. Ce réseau, fondé en 2015 à l’initiative de la professeure de Religionswissenschaft Dorothea Lüddeckens de l’Université de Zürich, rassemble des chercheurs européens travaillant principalement sur ou ayant un intérêt pour les rituels entourant la mort. L’objectif de ce réseau est de créer une synergie pour le développement de ce champ de recherche, et tout particulièrement de mettre à jour les connaissances concernant les transformations actuelles de ces pratiques, incluant ce que l’on appelle l’apparition de nouveaux entrepreneurs rituels, et de nouvelles pratiques rituelles. Il faut insister sur le fait que ces dernières décennies ont vu des changements majeurs dans les modes de traitement des cadavres (notamment la hausse spectaculaire des crémations), ce qui pointe vers des transformations profondes dans les structures symboliques de nos sociétés occidentales. Il est impératif, autrement dit, de se pencher sur ce phénomène, qui plus est dans une perspective internationale et interdisciplinaire. La tenue d’un Workshop annuel a été jusqu’à présent l’occasion de réunir parmi les plus importants chercheurs dans le domaine, et d’échanger sur les transformations en cours et sur les possibilités et potentialités de recherches futures. L’objectif à plus long terme du réseau est la coordination des différentes initiatives de recherche des partenaires sur le thème des rituels entourant la mort, ainsi que la préparation et soumission d’un projet de recherche pan-européen. À plus court terme, un projet de recherche comparatif sur les régions langagières en Suisse est en chantier, avec l’apport direct des membres du réseau. Le format adopté pour le Workshop se veut le plus convivial et informel possible, de manière à stimuler les synergies et les apports réciproques. Chaque chercheur présente sa recherche ou des réflexions et observations sur le thème, suivi de discussions libres guidées par des participants, à tour de rôle. En outre, une excursion est prévue vers un lieu funéraire important et la rencontre avec des acteurs de terrain. Enfin, l'activité inclue des chercheurs de niveau Doctoral et postdoctoral, et prête une attention particulière à la relève. Jusqu'à maintenant, le Workshop a surtout attiré des chercheurs de l'Europe du Nord, Danemark, Grande Bretagne, Pays Bas, Finlande, Allemagne et Suède, à tradition plutôt protestante. Les membres ont signalé leur intérêt pour une extension vers les pays du sud de l'Europe, de tradition plutôt catholique, et au-delà. C'est pourquoi le programme de cette année accueille un spécialiste Français des études rituelles, le Prof Michael Houseman, de l'EPHE, ainsi que la jeune chercheuse Dr Marika Moisseeff. L'objectif est d'étendre le réseau, mais de manière graduelle, de manière à conserver l'aspect relationnel qui s'est avéré si important pour la collaboration.

    European Network on Death Rituals - Annual Workshop 2019
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.02.2019
    End 28.02.2019
    Funding SNSF 
    Je vous soumets par la présente une demande de soutien financier pour l’organisation du 2019 Annual Workshop of the European Network on Death Rituals (https://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/de/research/death-rituals.html ), qui aura lieu à Fribourg les 3 au 5 mars 2019. Ce réseau, fondé en 2015 à l’initiative de la professeure de Religionswissenschaft Dorothea Lüddeckens de l’Université de Zürich, rassemble des chercheurs européens travaillant principalement sur ou ayant un intérêt pour les rituels entourant la mort. L’objectif de ce réseau est de créer une synergie pour le développement de ce champ de recherche, et tout particulièrement de mettre à jour les connaissances concernant les transformations actuelles de ces pratiques, incluant ce que l’on appelle l’apparition de nouveaux entrepreneurs rituels, et de nouvelles pratiques rituelles. La tenue d’un Workshop annuel a été jusqu’à présent l’occasion de réunir parmi les plus importants chercheurs dans le domaine, et d’échanger sur les transformations en cours et sur les possibilités et potentialités de recherches futures. L’objectif à plus long terme du réseau est la préparation et soumission d’un projet de recherche pan-européen. À plus court terme, un projet de recherche comparatif sur les régions langagières en Suisse est en cours de préparation, avec l’apport direct des membres du réseau. Le format adopté pour le Workshop se veut le plus convivial et informel possible, de manière à stimuler les synergies et les apports réciproques. Chaque chercheur présente sa recherche ou des réflexions et observations sur le thème, suivi de discussions libres guidées par des participants, à tour de rôle. En outre, une excursion est prévue vers un lieu funéraire important.

    Burning Man and Transformational Event Cultures
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.10.2018
    End 31.12.2018
    Funding SNSF 
    Support is sought to host 8 leading scholars at a 2-day symposium “Burning Man and Transformational Event Cultures” to take place at the ĚÇĐÄVolg, Nov 29–30, 2018. This symposium marks the conclusion of Burning Progeny, a three-year SNSF supported study of the European adaptation of Burning Man and its ethos. With attention to Burning Man and other event cultures, this symposium will critically investigate, though the participation of scholars and practitioners, the historical, ethical, religious and economic parameters of transformational event cultures. In this, the first proposed Transformational Event Cultures symposium, Burning Progeny team members will present project findings, joining 15–20 invited scholars and practitioners to dialogue on a variety of critical inquiries related to Burning Man and other transformational event cultures in Europe and elsewhere. These exchanges are anticipated to be pivotal to a proposed edited collection on Transformational Event Cultures (to which all scholars for which funding is sought will be asked to contribute), and the formation of an Event Cultures Research Network, in which the Dept of Social Sciences, ĚÇĐÄVolg, will perform a key role. As such, the event will be pivotal to fulfilling the primary obligations as set out in the research plan, regarding dissemination and research network development.

    Ritual Creativity in the Swiss and European Rainbow Gatherings
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.08.2017
    End 31.07.2022
    Funding SNSF 
    Context: This research project investigates a significant alternative-spiritual movement—the gatherings of the 'Rainbow Family', and extends into questions of ritual creativity in a 2-part study. These events originated in the wake of the 1960's and 70's countercultural movement in the US, and have since grown into a longstanding, transnational 'event-culture'. The movement's migration to Europe proceeded through Switzerland in the early 80's, and Switzerland continues to be an active and important node in the growing European Rainbow networks. The Rainbow Gatherings form a vital hub of the New Age movement in its contemporary formations, displaying an original culture with vivid religious themes, characterized by its eclectism and creativity. The proposed project is the first scholarly research of the European Rainbow events, and it examines religiosity in Rainbow Gatherings through the varied rituals and other religious expressions, with a focus on the processes of creativity in construction, performance, interpretation, authentication and legitimization of ritual actions and their underlying symbolism, functions and meaning. Research questions: Part 1 is concerned with a historical and descriptive study of European Rainbow Gatherings with special attention to their religious dimensions: What is the history as well as social, cultural and religious characteristics of Rainbow Gatherings and their (sub)culture? How are these aspects expressed in beliefs and practices? How are the Gatherings and their culture experienced and interpreted by participants? What kinds of religious expressions, practices and types of rituals occur in these events? Part 2 focuses on ritual creativity with the following research questions: How are the rituals in Rainbow Gatherings crafted? What is achieved with ritual (and religious) creativity, what kind of needs does it address? What kind of religious and social critique is embedded in the crafted rituals? How are the crafted rituals re-contextualized? How do ritual actors establish the authority of these rituals, and their own authority? What can be learned about the relationship between ritual's form and content and it's perceived aim, efficacy, purpose and function? How are aspects of play involved with the rituals in Rainbow Gatherings? What do these rituals tell us about the evolution of rituals today and the dynamics of ritual efficacy? Methods: The research will operationalize the research questions and working hypotheses through a multi-sited ethnography of Rainbow Gatherings in Europe, with a specific focus on Swiss and Swiss-collaborated events and networks. The ethnography will consist of a mixed-method approach with three components: 1) participant observation-based fieldwork including 2) semi-structured and semi-formal interviews, and supported by 3) a survey mapping the socio-demographics of the Gatherers. This combination is designed to access on-going actions as well as accomplished actions as narrativised by the actors, especially concerning the creative and performative aspects of crafted rituals, and will allow for an analysis of subjective significations articulated with contextual (political, social, economic, cultural) determinants. Impacts: This project fills a void in quality academic research on one of the most important event-culture borne out of the 60's and 70's counter-culture: Rainbow Gatherings. It is the very first to study the European movement and will provide yet unreported comprehensive historical, descriptive and quantitative information on the movement, including socio-demographics of participants. Through its focus on ritual creativity from an empirical, ethnographic perspective, as well as its pioneering theoretical frame, this project will make an important contribution to the study of vernacular religion, 'holistic spiritualities', Ritual ĚÇĐÄVolg and to the socio-anthropology of religion more widely. The project will produce a PhD thesis, articles, an international conference and a co-edited book on ritual creativity.

    Burning Progeny: The European Efflorescence of Burning Man
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.01.2016
    End 31.12.2019
    Funding SNSF 
    Context: The project investigates the European proliferation of Burning Man, self-identified as the world’s largest temporary city. Burning Man is an annual weeklong event attracting up to 70,000 people to the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Over the course of three decades, Burning Man has transformed from a remote art festival into a prodigious cultural movement with a global profile. Designed within a vast grid of radial streets established around a standing figure called “The Man”, otherwise known as Black Rock City (BRC), Burning Man is governed by a participatory, self-organising ethos. From festival to movement, Burning Man and its uniquely principled gift-economy have been transposed worldwide. Indeed, spearheaded by the Burning Man Project, this ritualised event-centred movement and its so-called Ten Principles has undergone transnationalisation, with its impact felt in Regional Events in thirty countries. Through the practices of artists, designers, computer engineers, spiritual entrepreneurs and other legates within a global “Burner” diaspora, the event’s gift-driven ethos has been appropriated and reinterpreted in these regional translations. Europe is the strongest region of translation outside of North America, with Regional Events in Switzerland among ten European countries. Research questions: As the first study of this global movement, the project will investigate the dynamics of Burning Man’s diasporisation by way of inquiry on the translation and modification of its Ten Principles in Europe. How is Burning Man’s gift-economy recast outside of Black Rock City? What is the significance of this movement with respect to the dynamics of identity and community in the age of global consumerism and transnational mobility? How does a sub/countercultural event become a cultural movement? To achieve this inquiry, the project applies an innovative template comprising event culture and gift paradigm theory to demonstrate how a marginal cultural event is converted into a global movement. Methods: Over three years, the project will mobilize mixed qualitative methods to address these questions. Informed by preliminary research (including an electronic survey conducted in 2014), we have devised a comparative ethnography comprising solicited diaries, semi-directed interviews and collaborative multi-sited fieldwork on the internal dynamics of Burning Man and four of its European Regional Events. Impacts: The project is expected to provide definitive insights on self-organised event-centred movements. A benchmark ethnography of a transnational event culture formation, the case study will offer an exemplary application of gift theory. The resulting heuristic advancements for event cultures, cultural movements and consumer culture will be of significant value to the disciplines of Cultural ĚÇĐÄVolg and Socio-Cultural Anthropology. The project is expected to pioneer the field of Event Cultural ĚÇĐÄVolg, enabling the establishment of a genuine Cultural ĚÇĐÄVolg perspective in Switzerland.

Teaching and courses

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