Modeling Religion in Norway

Etter tre år har det MODRN prosjektet utviklet flere datamodeller som kan simulere årsaker, effekter og intern dynamikk av religion og sosiale konflikter som er publisert i tidsskriftene: Journal for Artificial Societies and Social Simulation and Religion, Brain & Behavior. Vi har jobbet med aktuelle temaer som integrasjon av immigranter, arbeid, utdanning og eksistensiell sikkerhet. Vi har bidratt til vitenskapelig kunnskap til de underliggende mekanismene til konflikter knyttet til religiøse forskjeller og sekularisering.

In the grant application form, we anticipated that the MODRN project would produce 6 journal articles or book chapters related to the computer models, 1 book, and a prototype of a simulation platform. At the end of our final year, we have published 52 articles or book chapters, produced 3 books, and a prototype of a simulation platform (called METAPHR). Several other articles and books are in progress. Team members also gave over 30 presentations at international conferences on work related to the MODRN project. Finally, as a result of MODRN collaborations, we have submitted 9 additional grant applications, including 2 to the EU Horizon 2020 scheme.

Like most countries, Norway has to continually deal with tensions and conflicts that arise as a result of religious difference - and indifference. Over the last few decades, Norwegian scholars have developed massive data sets documenting the attitudes and behaviors of native Norwegians and immigrants in relation to religiosity and secularization. It also has a strong tradition of robust interaction between scholars in the scientific study of religion and strategists in the field of public-policy debate. For these reasons, it provides an ideal context for modeling the various factors and dynamics at work in modern societies shaped by religious and secular diversification. The MODRN project will bring together national and international experts on computer simulation and modeling, the scientific study of religion, and Norwegian society and public policy in order to develop theoretically integrated and empirically grounded simulations of religious diversity and secularization in Norway. These simulations will be created to interact with, and will be calibrated upon, the data sets available through NSD, including Meningsmålingsarkivet, ESS, ISSP and LOGG (see project description). The 'causal architecture' for the models, which will include both micro- and macro-levels of society, and the strategies for impacting policy discussions will be developed in dialogue with experts in the relevant fields. The MODRN project will also contribute to the development of a simulation platform, freely available to Norwegian (and other) scholars and policy-makers, on which they could perform virtual experiments to test their ideas about the religiously salient dynamics of conflict and change in society. Understanding the complex relations that affect religiosity and secularization is crucial for informed public debate and the MODRN models will provide a clear, concrete platform within which relevant theories and policies can be evaluated.