Sociology of Religion

This edited collection brings together an international panel of contributors to explore ways of engaging with issues of religion and spirituality when carrying out social science research.

"Faith in the public realm" takes an explicitly multi-faith perspective, exploring the controversies, policies and practices of 'public faith'. It questions perceptions of a fixed divide between religious and secular participants in public life and challenges prevailing concepts of a monolithic 'neutral' public realm.

The original analysis in this book presents a new and comprehensive narrative of social welfare in the Middle East through an examination of the role of religious welfare.

This book illustrates the variety of religious, spiritual and other beliefs held by older people, including British Christians, Muslims, Humanists and witnesses of the Soviet persecution of religion.

This original book offers a critical overview of the role of religious values, actors and institutions in the development of social welfare provision in Britain, combining historical discussion of the relationship between religion and social policy in Britain with a comparative theoretical discussion covering Europe and North America.

This timely book explores the role played by faith-based organisations (FBOs), which are growing in importance in the provision of social services in the European context.

Compares regional conceptions and variations of welfare in relation to national religious traditions across key parts of Europe. Using comparative case studies, the book examines the transition from research to practical policy recommendations, highlighting the similarities and differences between selected European countries.

This edited collection provides interdisciplinary, global, and multi-religious perspectives on the relationship between women’s identities, religion, and social change in the contemporary world.

With growing diversity of religion and belief in every sector comes the potential for new dialogues across previously impermeable policy and disciplinary silos. This volume critically challenges policy makers to re-imagine religion and belief as an integral part of public life that contains resources, practices, forms of knowledge and experience.

Moral order is disturbed by criminal events, however traditionally, issues around morality have been neglected by criminologists. Using the moral perspective Boutellier bridges the gap between people’s emotional opinions on crime, and criminologists rationalised answers to questions of crime and security.

This book is the first to investigate what role religion plays in health care in East Africa. Taking in to account the geopolitical and economic environments of the region, the authors examine the roles played by individual and group beliefs, government policies, and pressure from the Millennium Development Goals in affecting health outcomes.