Synopsis

This plenary asks: given that we know digital platforms can create echo chambers and be used for divisive ends, how can we employ them to promote social cohesion? People’s identities are part of this, including their religious identities, but practical examples of how cohesion is built online and with technologies such as social media is central to this plenary.

Looking from different global angles and focusing on areas such as community-building, preventing and countering violent extremism, and mapping global peacebuilding, this session shows how online platforms may be beacons of cohesion and hope, rather than division and hatred.

Visual Summary

Speakers

Mr Jasvir Singh
Founding Chair of City Sikhs, United Kingdom

Mr Jasvir Singh is a prolific community activist and a leading figure within the British Sikh and British South Asian communities. City Sikhs is one of the main Sikh organisations in the UK and provides a voice for over 10,000 members across the country. He is also the former Co-Chair of the Faiths Forum for London that encourages and promotes interfaith social initiatives.

Associate Professor Patrice Brodeur
Associate Professor, Institute of Religious Studies, University of Montreal (Canada)

Associate Professor Patrice Brodeur’s expertise includes contemporary Islamic thought and interreligious dialogues. He is also Senior Consultant, The International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), Lisbon and has lectured academically to a variety of audiences and conducted trainings on different forms of dialogue in over fifty countries around the world.

Dr Shashi Jayakumar
Head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Dr Shashi Jayakumar’s research and publications span a range of interests, including extremism, disinformation, social resilience, cyber and Singapore politics. He is also Singapore’s representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).

Moderator:

Dr Terri-Anne Teo
Lecturer in the Politics of Race and Ethnicity
Newcastle University, United Kingdom

Dr Terri-Anne Teo holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Her research and teaching areas include race, citizenship, multiculturalism and migration. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, with her most recent publications in Journal of Intercultural Studies (2022), Ethnicities (2021) and Citizenship Studies (2021) addressing themes of ethnic and gender politics, citizenship and contestations, and multiculturalism. She is also the author of Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore: Revisiting Citizenship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and co-editor of Postcolonial Governmentalities: Rationalities, Violences and Contestations (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).