Rooms of Silence at Three Universities in Scandinavia

Abstract

In recent decades, a new type of room has been established in public institutions in Europe: the rooms of silence. In this article, rooms of silence at three Scandinavian universities are analyzed with focus on intention, materiality, and use in relation to increased religious diversity in the student population, individualization, and ongoing secularization. This is done by using a typology which distinguishes between individual and collective use and use associated with religious, spiritual, and secular practices. The analyses show that plans and policies for the rooms emphasize stress-reduction and spiritual or secular reflection. The chaplains actively facilitate the shift from collective to more individual use of the rooms. The analyses also show that the restricted materiality of the rooms shapes practices in ways that either hinder collective Muslim prayer or force students to perform prayer as an individual “silent” action.

The accommodation of Muslim body practices in German public swimming pools

“…The current study acknowledges such idiosyncracies but still looks for more systematic factors that could at least partially explain local variation. Here, a study on the accommodation of religious pluralism in the rooms of silence of three Scandinavian universities, proposes local variations in the composition of users as one potential explanatory factor for variation in accommodation across local contexts (Christensen et al 2018). Another study by Koopmans, Michalowski, and Waibel (2012) argues that citizenship rights for immigrants are more likely to be restricted in context with higher electoral success of right wing populist parties.…”

“…Following Christensen et al (2018) we assume that the users partially determine how the framework for accommodation provided by the organization is lived in practice. It is thus not only important to study the pool rules on swimwear but also to take into account the permissiveness of the users' swimwear.…”

Interior Design Dilemmas in a Shared Room of Silence

“…It could also be seen as reflected in the setting aside of a place for Muslim prayer in particular (either as a division within a shared space, or by creating a completely separate Muslim prayer room), which is a common trait following the production of rooms of silence in public institution in both Europe and USA (e.g. Gilliat-Ray 2005; Crompton 2013; Christensen et al 2019). At times the perceived prominence and frequency of Muslim prayer in shared rooms of silence is the driving force behind such regulations and relocations.…”

“…Rooms of silence can be described as orchestrated spaces held to welcome a multitude of religious practices and reflective moments (Petersson, Sandin, and Liljas 2016), and as they appear in hospitals, at airports and in other public contexts, they are generally designed to support both collective and individual use. In reality, such openness based on the principle of freedom of religion (Council of Europe 1952, Article 9), is in fact often designed and carried out by one or a few dominant religious denominations, and a fair offering of usage can be quite tricky to achieve (Gilliat-Ray 2005;Christensen et al 2019). The design of rooms of silence generally faces a dilemma: either prioritizing particular religious denominations, thus failing to shape the rooms into spaces that cater to a diversity of existential and ritual needs, or, to the contrary, making the rooms into overly generic spaces, that cease to sufficiently represent or fit specific religious practices (Crompton 2013).…”

Détournement des espaces et gestion asymétrique du religieux dans les établissements d’enseignement supérieur québécois

“…Des coussins et des chaises pliantes sont dispersés, permettant différentes configurations en fonction des activités. Ces types d'espaces font actuellement l'objet d'une littérature importante, notammentà travers le cas des « rooms of silence »étudiés en Europe (Christensen et al, 2018) qui relèvent de la catégorie des lieux multiconfessionnels. Ainsi, « a common characteristic of these rooms is that they are open for use by adherents of different religions and intentionally established to address diverse religious or spiritual needs » (idem).…”