Remediating Religion as Everyday Practice: Postsecularism, Postcolonialism and Digital Culture

Abstract

This essay focuses on instances of religion in everyday online practices as expressed by migrant youth (i.e., Moroccan-Dutch youth in the Netherlands). We explore, in particular, how the engagement with digital practices, such as participation in social network sites like Hyves and Facebook and online discussion forums such as www.Marokko.nl, offer specific instances of the postsecular condition that deserve further scrutiny. The digital realm offers, in fact, medium-specific modalities for creating counter-publics — locations of appropriation and contestation of the dictums imposed by so-called secular society on migrant groups and their faiths and beliefs — but also an arena for alternative affective networks, through which religion is embedded and incorporated in everyday personal needs.