Religious Elites and Social Organization in South-Eastern Europe

• Applicant: Dr. Jochen Töpfer
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 249166551

The relationship between traditional religion and processes of modernity is a central issue in contemporary public discussions as well as in debates in the social sciences. The enlargement of the European Union, which becomes more diverse also in spiritual terms, new religious movements and anti-Islamic populism within several societies of the region, violent conflicts with religious background in South-Eastern Europe and new developments in the Arabic world give an empirical basis to justify the above-mentioned attention and hence arguments on hand for the relevance of a scientific analysis of religion in society today.The project `Religious Elites and Social Organization in South-Eastern Europe` asks for the integrative as well as the conflict-afflicted potentials of religion in multi-religious societies. Several major branches of Christianity and Islam are traditionally rooted in this region. Why are some societies threatened by religious conflict, while others with a comparable differentiated structure of religious communities are not? Are reasons located exclusively within the religious sphere or rather caused by external factors as political power arrangements? The selection of cases is based on the specific differences in the structure of the religious field and comprises Albania, Macedonia, and Slovenia.Central source of the interpretation of traditional religion for today are religious dignitaries. They represent their religious community to the external environment and interpret the content of religion internally for the members of their spiritual community. Thus, they are accepted as normative multiplicators within their group and additionally influence wider parts of society by public statements and symbolic behaviour. Consequently, it is the intention of the proposed project to take the perspective of religion and detect central types of attitudes of religious dignitaries towards the triangle of religion, politics, and population in multi-religious societies of South-Eastern Europe and ask for their integrative and separative potential.In order to determine the attitudes adequately, a relatively new qualitative method will be applied which refers explicitly to the internal frame of reference of the respondents (Q-method). It is designed for explorative approaches; e.g. a data collection in foreign countries or in areas of society which were rarely subject of scientific analysis before. Religious conflict-potential within a society is given in the first step of the analysis, if central attitudes of religious dignitaries towards religion, politics, and society are significantly diverging (intra- and inter-religious comparison). Secondly, these results and the patterns of attitudes of the population towards the topic are contrasted. Next, the legal and factual situation of the relationship between religion and politics is considered to identify the impact of relevant intervening variables on the conflict potential of religion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants