SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion

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 collection brings together a diverse range of interpretivist perspectives to find fresh takes on the meanings of religion. Cutting across paradigms and traditions, experts from the UK, US, and India apply different approaches to engagement with beliefs and themes, including identity, ritual, and emotion.

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.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence

Uses original scholarship and empirical research to examine how Muslim women are represented in social policy discourse and situated within national debates about Britishness, the death of multiculturalism and international terrorism.

This wide-ranging book critically reviews the ways in which religious and non-religious belief systems interact with scientific methods, traditions and theories. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the United States, the book shows how debates about science and belief are firmly embedded in political conflict, class, community and culture.

"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.

In this thought-provoking collection, Muslim and non-Muslim academics take a multi-disciplinary approach to humour in Islam. They draw on examples of comedy practices and styles to scope sociological, cultural, theological and political themes, consider humour’s role in fundamentalism, and correct misconceptions about laughter in the religion.

Why do the UK and US disproportionately incarcerate the mentally ill? Via multiple re-framings of the question—theological, socioeconomic, and psychological— Andrew Skotnicki diagnoses a "persecution of the prophetic" at the heart of the contemporary penal system and society more broadly.

This book presents a critical history of criminological thought from the Enlightenment to the present day. Mehozay contends that Western criminological approaches are based upon ‘otherness’ which validate projects of control and exclusion, modernization and care, and even eugenics.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book brings together reflections, knowledge and learning about the experiences of religious minorities. It showcases the participatory methodologies implemented by its contributors and highlights the importance of using non-extractive methods for engaging with participants.

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.