A longitudinal qualitative study of belief and identity

Lead Research Organisation: University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Global Studies

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
 
Description s seem to be less religious now than in previous generations, but what is not known is how their beliefs may change over time and why. Between 2003 and 2005, I explored the beliefs of a representative sample of the UK population, using an original, innovative method. Rather than asking them obvious religious questions, like 'do you believe in God', they talked about their lives, what was important to them, how they knew right from wrong, what made them happy, sad or afraid, and who or what helped them. In 2009 I returned to the field to investigate through interviews and participant observation how their beliefs and identities may have changed as their lives - especially teenagers' - have altered significantly.
I found that most people described their lives and beliefs as relatively stable. What change did occur was prompted by changes in social relationships and not, as other researchers may suppose, changes in 'life course'. Methodological innovation was necessary to adapt to a deterritorialised 'field' and to ensure that the returning researcher's own theories were not forcing preliminary conclusions. Findings are being disseminated through media, international conferences, schools, universities and specialised academic journals.
Exploitation Route Further research into faith transmission.
Sectors Education
 
Description AHRC/ESRC placement fellowship British Council
Amount £80,070 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/J011320/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 10/2011 
End 09/2012
 
Description AHRC/ESRC placement fellowship British Council
Amount £80,070 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/J011320/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 10/2011 
End 09/2012
 
Description Sacred communities : connected practices across place and time : a joint review and scoping study
Amount £40,000 (GBP)
Funding ID AH/I507698/1 
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2010 
End 11/2011
 
Description Sacred communities : connected practices across place and time : a joint review and scoping study
Amount £40,000 (GBP)
Funding ID AH/I507698/1 
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2010 
End 11/2011
 
Description The death of the Christian, female generation A : social, religious, economic impacts
Amount £100,000 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/I038306/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2012 
End 02/2014
 
Description The death of the Christian, female generation A : social, religious, economic impacts
Amount £100,000 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/I038306/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2012 
End 02/2014
 
Description Anthropological roots of ethnography 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Lecture Kingston University UK
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Belief over time : why young people's beliefs change and older people's don't. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Presentation to National Teachers Conference Religious Studies Philosophy Study Day
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Believing in belonging & belief over time 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Guest lecture in Department of Sociology, University of Alberta,

Canada followed by discussion
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Believing in belonging : method and policy implications 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Departmental Seminar, Institute of Applied Social Sciences
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity
 
Description Christian in name 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Invited Cover essay for Network, the newsletter of the British Sociological Association
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2009
 
Description Methodological approaches to the study of religion : interviews 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Half day workshop on interviews, stressing longitudinal research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity
 
Description Methodological challenges in doctoral research on religion 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Chaired and co-convened a postgraduate workshop focusing on methods training.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity
URL http://www.bbk.ac.uk/crcs/events/HEA_Socrel_2010
 
Description Reflections on returning to the field 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact Departmental Seminar, Religious Studies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity
 
Description Researching religion through longitudinal and multi sited ethnographies 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Primary Audience
Results and Impact This paper reports on a research project that has explicitly focused on beliefs over time, using a mix of sociological and anthropological methods. The findings have important implications for religion and society. While questions about young people and their beliefs animate public debate and underpin many related research questions in the academic study of religion, there is little rich, informative evidence to illuminate the issue. Most longitudinal research into religion tends to consist of questionnaires or panel surveys where the same questions are asked over time. Such methods claim to offer 'comparability', but may also reproduce the same set of assumptions that may mislead, rather than inform, current and future researchers and may neglect real, sometimes messy, changes over time, responding to what Law (4) described as "the ephemeral, the indefinite and the irregular".

During the project described here, in 2009/2011 I collected and analysed longitudinal, qualitative data across three generations of informants in northern England, whose beliefs, practices, and identities I first explored as a 'snapshot' during my initial fieldwork in 2003-05 when some were as young as 14 and as old as 83. That project was sparked by responses to the 2001 census, where 72 per cent claimed a Christian identity, and is described in detail elsewhere (Day 2009, 2011, Day and Voas 2010). Changes in religiosity and wider beliefs were analysed and compared, particularly among those experiencing rapid life transitions (for example, as youth grew from adolescence to adulthood).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity