Disindividualisation: religious identity negotiation amongst young Australian Buddhist rractitioners

This paper presents a new theory for conceptualising work on the self in relation to young people and religion, in an era which is characterised by detraditionalisation, majorityminority conflict, and anti- religious sentiment. In contrast to existing perspectives of youth religious identity, which emphasise self-interest via the development of discrete and defensive religious identities, the theory proposed in this paper takes into account the efforts of young Australian Buddhist practitioners to enhance interconnectedness, social cohesion and mutual respect. Data from a qualitative study of 22 young Australian Buddhist practitioners shows how participants seek to actualise these priorities by purposefully working on the self to become, or remain, religiously indistinct. I refer to this process as ‘religious disindividualisation’, and note that this is facilitated by Buddhist teachings about the self, which emphasise interdependence and the loss of self. In contrast to multicultural policies, which assume that social cohesion is enhanced by facilitating the preservation and expression of discrete religious identities, these findings of my study present an alternate way for thinking about how social cohesion, mutual understanding and participation can be enhanced in contexts of religious diversity.