Religion's Sudden Decline


Book Description

'Religion's Sudden Decline' provides evidence of a major decline in religion in most of the world, based on surveys of over 100 countries containing 90 percent of the world's population, carried out from 1981 to 2020 - the largest base of empirical evidence ever assembled to analyse mass acceptance or rejection of religion.--




A World of Three Cultures


Book Description

In this volume, the author presents a provocative look at the impact of culture on global development.




The Global Historical and Contemporary Impacts of Voluntary Membership Associations on Human Societies


Book Description

"Reviewed here is global research on how 13 types of Voluntary Membership Associations (MAs) have significantly or substantially had global impacts on human history, societies, and life. Such outcomes have occurred especially in the past 200+ years since the Industrial Revolution circa 1800 CE, and its accompanying Organizational Revolution. Emphasized are longer-term, historical, and societal or multinational impacts of MAs, rather than more micro-level (individual) or meso-level (organizational) outcomes. MAs are distinctively structured, with power coming from the membership, not top-down. The author has characterized MAs as the dark matter of the nonprofit/third sector, using an astrophysical metaphor. Astrophysicists have shown that most physical matter in the universe is dark in the sense of being unseen, not stars or planets."--Page 4 of cover




Cultural Evolution


Book Description

Presents and tests a theory that helps explain the rise of environmentalist parties, gender equality, and same sex marriage - and the reaction that led to Brexit and the election of Trump.




Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy


Book Description

This book presents a revised version of modernisation theory.




Religion, Politics, and Values in Poland


Book Description

This volume brings together leading scholars to examine how the Church has brought its values into the political sphere and, in the process, alienated some of the younger generation. Since the disintegration of the communist one-party state at the end of the 1980s, the Catholic Church has pushed its agenda to ban abortion, introduce religious instruction in the state schools, and protect Poland from secular influences emanating from the European Union. As one of the consequences, Polish society has become polarized along religious lines, with conservative forces such as Fr. Rydzyk’s Radio Maryja seeking to counter the influence of the European Union and liberals on the left trying to protect secular values. This volume casts a wide net in topics, with chapters on Pope John Paul II, Radio Maryja, religious education, the Church’s campaign against what it calls “genderism,” and the privatization of religious belief, among other topics.




Meaning-making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness


Book Description

This book provides an alternative, complementary approach to the existing conventional approaches to religious and spiritually oriented coping. By focusing on the role of culture, the authors take into account the methods employed by a vast number of people who do not directly identify themselves as religious. The empirical data used in this book derive from studies conducted in several countries; Sweden, China, South Korea, Turkey and Malaysia, across which religion plays a different role in the social and cultural life of individuals. This approach and these empirical data are unique and allow comparisons to be made between different cultural settings. By introducing the concept of meaning-making coping, the authors explore the influence of culture on choice of coping methods, be they purely religious, spiritual or existential. The term "existential meaning-making coping" is used to describe coping methods that are related to existential questions; these methods include religious, spiritual and existential coping methods. Meaning-making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness contributes to new approaches and theoretical models of coping. As such it is an invaluable resource for health care, medical, public health and sociology students and researchers. It will also be of interest to educators and policy-makers working in the area of health.




International Handbook of Learning, Teaching and Leading in Faith-Based Schools


Book Description

The International Handbook on Learning, Teaching and Leading in Faith Based Schools is international in scope. It is addressed to policy makers, academics, education professionals and members of the wider community. The book is divided into three sections. (1) The Educational, Historical, Social and Cultural Context, which aims to: Identify the educational, historical, social and cultural bases and contexts for the development of learning, teaching and leadership in faith-based schools across a range of international settings; Consider the current trends, issues and controversies facing the provision and nature of education in faith-based schools; Examine the challenges faced by faith-based schools and their role and responses to current debates concerning science and religion in society and its institutions. (2) The Nature, Aims and Values of Education in Faith-based Schools, which aims to: Identify and explore the distinctive philosophies, characteristics and guiding principles, values, concepts and concerns underpinning learning, teaching and leadership in faith-based schools; Identify and explore ways in which such distinctive philosophies of education challenge and expand different norms and conventions in their surrounding societies and cultures; Examine and explore some of the ways in which different conceptions within and among different religious and faith traditions guide practices in learning, teaching and leadership in various ways. (3) Current Practice and Future Possibilities, which aims to: Provide evidence of current educational practices that might help to inform and shape innovative and successful policies, initiatives and strategies for the development of quality learning, teaching and leadership in faith-based schools; Examine the ways in which the professional learning of teachers and educational leaders in faith- based settings might be articulated and developed; Consider the ways in which coherence and alignment might be achieved between key national priorities in education and the identity, beliefs, and the commitments of faith-based schools; Examine what international experience shows about the place of faith-based schools in culturally rich and diverse communities and the implications of faith-based schooling for societies of the future.




The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy


Book Description

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy is a comprehensive reference guide to the practice of philanthropy across twenty-six nations and regions. In addition, thematic chapters examine cross-national issues to provide an indispensable guide to the latest research in this field. Drawing on theoretical insights from sociology, economics, political science, and psychology, and including a stellar international line-up of leading philanthropy scholars, this essential reference work describes the non-profit sector and analyzes philanthropic endeavours country by country, providing a global overview that covers Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and the Americas. In addition, thematic chapters examine cross-national issues, including the social origins of the non-profit sector and charitable giving; the influence of government support; the role of religion; fiscal incentives; and fundraising to outline how major country-specific differences in governmental, economic, and legal policies for philanthropic actors and nonprofit organizations shape philanthropic giving, demonstrating how country-specific factors may facilitate or inhibit charitable giving. Nonprofit organizations provide important public goods and services in societies across the world. In times of economic crisis, when governments are forced to decrease public spending, these organizations become even more important in meeting demands for these goods and services. But what motivates individuals to voluntarily give away portions of their own financial resources to benefit the public good and to enable nonprofit organizations to carry out their work? Why do people in one country give more frequently and more generously to nonprofit organizations than those in another? The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy provides an indispensable guide to the latest research in philanthropy, the non-profit sector and charitable giving.




Civility and Its Development


Book Description

This is the first book-length study of the development of civility in Chinese societies. Although some social scientists and political philosophers have discussed civility, none has defined it as an analytical tool to systematically measure attitudes and behavior, and few have applied it to a non-Western society. By comparing the development of civility in mainland China and Taiwan, Civility and Its Development: The Experiences of China and Taiwan analyzes the social conditions needed for civility to become established in a society. Schak argues that the attempts to impose civility top-down from the state are ineffective. Civility appeared in Taiwan only after state efforts to impose it ceased at the end of the 1980s when Taiwan began to democratize, and the PRC government civility campaigns have so far had only limited success. The book concludes with an examination of various differences between Taiwan and the PRC relevant to Taiwan’s having become a society with civility while the PRC still encounters difficulties in doing so. The essential factor in developing civility in Taiwan, Schak contends, was its evolution from a place composed of myriad small, inward-looking communities to a society in which everyone shares a strong identity and civic consciousness, and people consider others as fellow members, not anonymous strangers. “This book represents the most thorough review of what social scientists once called ‘the civilizing process’ in Chinese society. David C. Schak builds on the earlier studies on this issue and goes well beyond the established literature.” —James Watson, Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society and Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Harvard University “This is a topic that people talk about all the time, and David C. Schak draws a lot of material together in a systematic and comprehensive way that can stimulate important discussions beyond the academy.” —Thomas Gold, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley