The anatomy lesson: a note on the Merton thesis1

In the sociology of science, the historical analysis of the rise of seventeenth-century experimental science has been dominated by the research of Robert Merton, who argued that Protestant asceticism paved the way for scientific world-views. Merton was criticized by L.S. Feuer who claimed that science was in fact the outcome of hedonism not asceticism. This article supports the Merton thesis on the basis of a note on the historical development of anatomical dissections with special reference to public dissections in Holland m the seventeenth century. The principal difficulty for both Merton and Feuer is that scientific medicine in pre-modern societies was not differentiated from either religion or law. The anatomy lesson was in fact a juridical and moral drama.     

How scientists and engineers use cultural resources to make controversies and selves meaningful

In this essay, I provide an overview of recent sociological studies of science, technology, religion, and spirituality; the ways they contribute to sociological theorizing; and make some recommendations for future research. There are two major themes in these studies. One of them analyzes religious and spiritual discourse as controversy practice, suggesting how religion and spirituality are used as cultural discourses to understand controversy, who the actors are or should be, how to act in a controversy, and how popular discourses inform, and are informed by, science and technology discourses. This theme contributes to theorizing by describing how forms of cultural talk organize understandings of controversies, interactions, and action. The second theme explores scientific and religious identities, and how they are made compatible with each other. This theme points sociological theory toward considering science and religion relations as intertextual relations.     

Diversification and internationalization in the sociological study of science and religion

Classical sociology addressed the relationship between science and religion, but interest in the topic waned during the 20th century. A second wave of research has emerged in the 21st century, focusing on scientists' (ir)religiosity, evolution, and the relationship between knowledge and acceptance of scientific concepts. Most of this research has been conducted in the United States, used quantitative methods, and focused on creationism, although scholars have recently begun to explore different research methods and sites. Their results suggest that the “conflict thesis” is not valid and that publics and scientists' views tend to be fluid and strongly shaped by national context. The literature on nonreligion has also expanded, but its connection to science remains ripe for further development. A more intersectional approach would also benefit the field, as would increased engagement between public understanding of science scholars and sociologists studying science and religion. Research in both areas is showing that attitudes toward science and religion cannot be understood solely in terms of knowledge about either domain. There is scope for more empirical and theoretical work internationally eschewing the assumption that science and religion conflict and focusing more on identity, culture, and power relations.     

Small Towns in Turkey: Footnotes in Somebody Else's History

This article follows the trajectories by which modernity and development in Turkey have been constituted as an antagonism between villages and cities. Both inspired, albeit in opposing ways, modernising/ developmental ideals, and constituted the true locus of nationalist discourses. Meanwhile, small towns with shrinking populations, low-level capital accumulation and limited jobs have been left invisible. They have been depicted as irrelevant places of the same essence, which had nothing to add to the story. As such, the article is an analysis of how the Republican history is constructed as a narrative of an antagonism between the West and the East, backwardness and progress, modern and non-modern. What follows is an exploration of how provincial places and people, which are lumped together on either side of these binaries, are left out, silenced or marginalized.     

Cultural Schemas of Religion,Science, and Law in Talk About Social Controversies

We analyze cultural schemas of religion, science, and law reflected in the way ordinary citizens discuss contemporary social controversies and assess whether these schemas accord with a modernization narrative or whether people's experiences with each of these institutional arenas lead them to adopt realistic or critical schemas not predicted by modernization accounts. Focus group participants in three metropolitan areas were asked to talk about one of three vignettes on faith‐based prison ministries, parents’ refusal of medical treatment for a child on religious grounds, or preimplantation genetic diagnosis of human embryos. We find that people's everyday experiences, grounded in specific institutional contexts, produce perceptions of the domains of religion, science, and law that are not fully captured by the modernization account. Further, our findings illustrate that schemas of law, science, and religion are varied and evoked by social context and the specific issues under consideration. Schemas that do not fit the modernization framework provide a way for people to address concerns about power and effectively level the playing field between more and less rationalized social domains. Future research on a broader range of issues is needed to develop a theory of when different schemas of law, science, and religion are activated.     

The great antagonism that never was: unexpected affinities between religion and education in post-secular society

A persistent sociological thesis posits that the spread of formal education causes an inevitable decline in religion as a social institution and diminishes adherence to religious beliefs in postindustrial society. Now that worldwide advanced education is a central agent in developing and disseminating Western rationality emphasizing science as the ultimate truth claim about a humanly constructed society and the natural world this seems an ever more relevant thesis. Yet in the face of a robust “education revolution,” religion and spirituality endure, and in certain respects thrive, thus creating a sociological paradox: How can both expanding education and mass religion coexist? The solution proposed here is that instead of educational development setting the conditions for the decline and eventual death of religion, the two institutions have been, and continue to be, more compatible and even surprisingly symbiotic than is often assumed. This contributes to a culture of mass education and mass religion that is unique in the history of human society, exemplified by the heavily educated and churched United States. After a brief review of the empirical trends behind the paradox, a new confluence of streams of research on compatible worldviews, overlapping ideologies, and their enactments in educational and religious social movements illustrates the plausibility of an affinity argument and its impact on theory about post-secular society.

     

Deinstitutionalisierung des Religiösen und Religiöse Individualisierung in Ost- und Westdeutschland

Luckmann’s thesis of “invisible religion” which is based on religious individualization attracts great attention within the field of sociology of religion in the German speaking countries. It states that religion currently is not loosing social relevance, but that current religious changes are characterized by processes of religious individualization in which subjectively constructed, syncretistic, and non-institutionalized systems of ultimate meaning are replacing traditional Christian religious forms. Thus, the thesis contradicts the theory of secularization processes. On the basis of two surveys carried out by the authors, the paper looks for empirical evidence to support this thesis. Three dimensions of religion are distinguished: traditional church affiliation, individual Christian religiosity, and non-church religiosity. Additionally, an individualization index is constructed. The analysis shows that processes of de-institutionalization of religion can be observed, but forms of nonchurch or non-Christian religiosity do not constitute serious alternatives to church adherence and Christian religiosity. Secularization and religious individualization are not two diametrically opposed processes. The trend towards secularization is prevailing in Germany and the tendencies towards religious individualization are components of this pre-dominant trend.     

Arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people: towards a ‘practice spectrum’ approach

This article argues for an approach to the evaluation of arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people that goes beyond the dialogic antagonism between Disability Arts and community arts, and towards a ‘practice spectrum’. Little is known about the extent to which a Disability Arts perspective has extended into arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people. The article aims to redress this knowledge gap. It is based upon two sets of data collected in relation to the East Midlands region of England during 2014. First, a critical evaluation was conducted of official and institutional attitudes to arts practice with disabled children and young people. Second, interviews exploring contemporary practice were conducted with 24 arts organisations. Their practice represents a diverse range of art forms and programmes undertaken in the region, and a range of attitudes and positions taken towards disabled children and young people. We argue that the best way to conceive of current practice is as a spectrum, as opposed to an antagonism between community arts and Disability Arts perspectives. There is, however, little evidence of the penetration of a Disability Arts perspective into policy and practice for children and young people.     

Belief Systems and Evolution: A Distinction between Magic and Religion and its Implications for Socio-Cultural Change*

La controverse au sujet des definitions de la magie et de la religion est dtudiee. Afin de reduire I'ambiguite, on elabore une typologie des systemes de croyance qui differencie tout aussi bien magie et religion que science et ideologic Les consequences de ce schema, pour comprendre 1'evaluation socio-culturelle, sont examinees. II y est suggere qu'au fur et a mesure que des systemesisociaux mieux adaptes se sont developpes, ils ont eu tendance a mettre l'accent sur la science et l'ideologie plutot que sur la magie et la religion. The controversy over the definitions of magic and religion is surveyed. As a solution, a typology of belief systems is constructed which not only differentiates magic and religion, but science and ideology as well. This scheme's implications for socio-cultural evolution are explored. It is suggested that, as increasingly adaptive social systems have evolved, they have tended to emphasize science and ideology rather than magic and religion.     

Immigrants,Immigration, and Sociology: Reflecting on the State of the Discipline*

The growth of the field of immigration in multiple directions and across disciplines and areas presents an opportune juncture to pause and reflect on the central role sociology has played in the study of immigrants and immigration, as well as to assess the contributions that immigration research has made to sociology. This essay discusses three subfields in sociology in which the sociological study of immigrants has contributed to bring new light to long‐standing questions: family, religion, and ethnic and racial studies. At the same time, it brings up areas – culture and arts, social movements and civic engagement, and citizenship, belonging and the state – in which immigration scholars in sociology could establish a more vibrant intellectual dialog with those subfields. Far from exhausting the discussion, these comments are intended to offer potential avenues for further research and discussion.     

Religion and bullying: Perspectives from sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) in Michigan

Abstract

This paper explored whether SGM (sexual and gender minority) young adults in Michigan thought religion played a role in the bullying they had witnessed or experienced. Twenty-four self-identified SGM young adults ages 20–29 participated in this study. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with participants following protocols approved by an institutional review board. The majority of participants (23/24) stated that religion had played a role in the bullying they witnessed or experienced. Additionally, several participants noted that the worst bullying they experienced based upon religion came from their families.     

BLOOD MATH

The text takes the form of a dialogue - a series of spoken fragments developed in correspondence by Phelan and Heathfield and written in an interleaved structure. The performance of this dialogue employed slide imagery and a musical score, and the correspondence was pursued through a game of spelling in which the participants gradually chalked out a word on a board. Each letter of the word stands for a thematic concern elaborated in the speaker's writing. Working from various anthropological, psychoanalytic and philosophical discourses on the nature of the gift, the dialogue examines the place of performance within various economies of cultural and personal exchange. Writing letters to one another, the authors move through the intertexts of Beckett, Boltanski, Heidegger, Nabokov and Franko B. The resonance of the act of giving is explored as it is played out in the relations between language and loss, calculation and love, memory and the object, the body and sacrifice, the arts of living and the arts of death. Aside from its conceptual address the presentation explores possibilities within the practice of performative writing and opens the form of the scholarly paper.     

Religion, Rationality, and Experience: A Response to the New Rational Choice Theory of Religion

This paper is a critical response to the newest version of the rational choice theory of religion (RCTR). In comparison with previous critiques, this paper takes aim at RCTR's foundational assumption of psychological egoism and argues that the thesis of psychological egoism is untenable. Without that thesis, the normative aspects of religious commitment cannot be reduced validly to instrumental reason. On neither conceptual nor empirical grounds therefore can religion or religious commitment be defined comprehensively in terms of exchange theory. With the failure of psychological egoism as a point of departure, the paper articulates an alternative theory of religion, one based on the epistemic rationality grounded in religious experience and religious emotion .     

Secular state,religious lives: Islam and the state in Malaysia

Debates on secularism in Malaysia often revolve around the legal, especially the constitutional, framework. To this end several NGOs organised a road show in 2006 to debate issues surrounding freedom of religion. Not only were these events mobbed by angry crowds, but also the state intervened and shut down these and future discussions on the topic of religion, deeming such debates sensitive. This article addresses the particularities of secularism in Malaysia vis-à-vis Olivier Roy's thesis in ‘Secularism Confronts Islam’ that sees religious space and secular space as discernable yet not antithetical and Charles Taylor's thesis in the ‘Secular Age’, where he points to a new definition of secularism as a pluralist and transcendent notion of belief. In Malaysia both variants are present, with the state playing a dangerous game situating itself between reactionary Muslim forces and a moderate majority.     

Polarized Scientists? Exploring Political Differences about Religion and Science among U.S. Biologists and Physicists1

From the Texas textbook debate to the March for Science, visible displays of activism illuminate how deeply politicized the science‐religion interface has become. However, little is known about the extent to which scientists’ attitudes about science and religion are politicized. Using original survey data from 1,989 U.S. academic biologists and physicists, we examine the degree to which political views shape how scientists perceive the relationship between religion and science, religious authority, their personal religious identity, and views on dominant scientific theories. Findings suggest that, indeed, the science‐religion interface holds political meaning for scientists, but in different ways across the political spectrum. Specifically, for politically liberal scientists, atheism and the conflict narrative are particularly politicized belief structures, while politically conservative scientists emphasize religious identity to distinguish themselves from political liberals. Findings point to the critical role of politics in shaping scientists’ attitudes and identities, which may have implications for the scientific enterprise, both at the lab bench and in the political sphere.     

Students' Views on the Relationship between Religion and Science: Analyses of Results from a Comparative Survey*

Deux enquêtes ont été effectuées auprès d'étudiants de deux universitiés canadiennes sur leurs perceptions des relations entre la religion, la science et le sens de la vie. Les données démontrent que, tandis que les étudiants pensent régulièrement à la signification de la vie, leurs opinions sur la religion par rapport à la science ne laissent voir que de bas niveaux de corrélation. Les étudiants ont indiqué que leur plus grande préoccupation par rapport au sens de la vie était due à leur famille et à leurs amis. Dans l'ensemble, les données suggèrent que les étudiants considèrent la religion et la science comme des entités indépendantes, mais seulement en ce qui concerne la part qu'elles occupent dans la vie des individus et dans les affaires mondiales.
Students at two distinctly different Canadian universities were surveyed about their perceptions of the relationship between religion, science, and thinking about the meaning of life. The data show that while students regularly think about the latter, their views on religion and science show only low levels of correlation with each other. Students indicated that their greatest insights into the meaning of life came from family and friends. Overall, the data suggest that students view religion and science as independent entities, both with respect to the part that these play in the life of individuals and in world affairs.     

Cities, material flows and the geography of spatial interaction: urban places in the system of chains

The emerging discourses on world cities and Global Commodity Chains are valuable spatial frameworks for conceptualizing globalization and its spatial consequences. However, both discourses have one thing in common: they neglect the territorial and thus physical dimension of global flows. Hence, in this article I take the perspective of material flows to reconnect the discourses on cities and chains. I aim to clarify the role of urban places and their ability to attract, manage and redirect flows in such networks. I do so by re-examining classical concepts of spatial interaction and reorganization in human geography, with particular reference to centrality and intermediacy. The case of seaports and port cities is further explored to demonstrate the concrete conflicts and opportunities that arise with chain developments and insertion. To determine the relative position of places with regard to global chains and flows, Sheppard's concept of 'positionality' is discussed.     

Science, Religion and Secularization

The persistence of religion among scientists is the background question from which is derived a number of theoretical questions previously explored only tentatively in the sociology of religion and less by the sociology of science. The examination, organized around the differences in style and subject of these two sociological specialties, argues that the social study of science could benefit from and supplement theoretical concepts recently developed in the sociology of religion. Propositions are developed on the idea of scientism as a general ideology functioning as a substitute religion, and the proposition that modern consciousness is more able to sustain normative dissonance, including dissonance between religious and scientific norms. The discussion is theoretical and programmatic rather than empirical.     

Athletic Involvement,Academic Achievement,and Aspiration

Abstract

Prior to World War II, religion in America was characterized by a tripartite system of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups. More recently, Robert Wuthnow (1988), James Davison Hunter (1991), and others have argued that religion in America has been “restructured” into a two-party system, consisting of liberals within these religions on one side and conservatives on the other. Most empirical research examining the restructuring of religion in America focuses on the two-party division within Protestant religious advocacy groups, noting how some Protestant groups are politically more similar to Catholics than to other Protestants. Little work has examined the extent to which this phenomenon applies to Washington offices, which are formally tied to parent religious bodies, particularly Jewish groups. By conducting interviews with Washington office leaders and examining office materials and websites during the 108th Congress, this study seeks to answer the question: How does the thesis of the restructuring of religion in America apply to 15 Washington offices? Results suggest the thesis applies to both Protestant and Jewish Washington offices. The priorities of liberal offices, such as social welfare and economic justice issues, differ from those of conservative offices that focus on life and morality concerns.     

Profiles of Achievement: Women's Entry into the Professions,the Arts,and Social Reform*

This paper examines the structural determinants of the achievement behavior of over 1,300 American women whose lives collectively span three centuries of American history, 1607–1950. Of particular importance is the investigation of the relative effects of historical birth cohort, religion, sibling placement, social class background, and region of birth upon the career patterns of women involved in the professions, the arts, and social reform. A major conclusion of this study is that denomination and importance of religion are major factors accounting for social reform careers, while the absence of religion combined with being the first child is related most importantly to career choices in the professions and the arts. Historical birth cohort was found to be of some importance along with social class. However, region of birth proved to be the least important influence affecting achievement patterns. The data for this study are a quantitative archive established by the author on the basis of a detailed coding of all the biographies included in the three-volume reference set, Notable American Women (James, James, and Boyer, 1971). Information concerning 302 variables relevant to a study of achievement behavior was coded on a standardized form, keypunched, and transferred to magnetic tape suitable for computer and statistical analysis. The techniques used in this research are discriminant analysis and cross tabular analysis.