The project aims to analyze processes of detraditionalization, individualization and privatization of religious values and forms of religious life in contemporary Czech society, including implicit ones and their functional equivalents. Although surveys show that the level of (declared) religiosity of Czech population is low, qualitative studies have carried out that current religiosity/spirituality is to a great extent defined by privatized and detraditionalized „post-Durkheimian“ forms, that significantly influence political and economic behaviour of people, often without direct awareness of the actors. The apparent rationality of socio-economic and political action, which is counted by neoclassical theories, is thus shown to be a fiction leading to incorrect models and predictions. The project is therefore going to focus its research on the analysis of deep-seated roots of such actions, and their practical impacts in social processes including family life and reproduction, social action and relationship to supra-individual entities, etc. The project is theoretically and methodologically grounded in sociology of religion, economic sociology, history and social anthropology. Apart from multidisciplinary theoretical elaboration of the problem, the project is going to include both quantitative and qualitative empirical surveys.
Project publications (total 13, displaying 1 - 10)
The study describes new social habit ľ creating public roadside memorials in the Czech Republic. They generally take the form of permanent constructions to remind travellers of both the accident and the deceased; most often young men. Such memorials are constructed and visited by the bereaved - parents and other relatives (spouse, siblings) or friends. The memorial has a special meaning for those who build it; it represents an intimate bond with both the life and death of the victim.
Introduction to the sociology of religion, which describes development, key problems and current state of the discipline. The authors deal, among others, with the issues of „invisible religion“, religious deprivatization and desecularization, ethnic religions, and other contemporary religious phenomena.
Abstract
The encyclopedia of sociology of religion, which oulines all the fundamentals historic and contemporary debates within the discipline, its development, method(s) and contribution of seminal scholars.
The paper discuses the role of religion, including Islam, and post-Christian opposition towards religiosity in contemporary European Union. I tis concerned with the issue of the construction of Europe´s negative boundaries, and describes religious organizations activities in the proces sof europeanization and actual transnational politics.
The author presents a fundamental overview of developments in religion in Europe in the sekond half of the 20th century. He compares the situation in Western European countries and post-Communist countries, and, referring to the literature, analyzes some central trends.
The book resumes qualitative research on religion in two medium-szided Czech towns - Ceska Lipa and Mikulov - that took place in 2007-08 within the framework of a project on Detraditionalization and Individualization of Religion in the Czech Republic; the research was inspired by a study of Kendal made by the University of Lancaster.
The paper analyses character and sources of contemporary best selling spiritual literature and its readership in the Czech Republic. It also provides a case study of a Prague spiritual bookshop and its comparison with five other Czech spiritual outlets and the outcomes of similar studies in Western Europe.
Abstract
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