Young people and the cultural performance of belief
Research network funded through the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Youth programme
This network will run from May 2009 until January 2011, drawing together an international group of researchers interested in studying religion and youth in a wide range of national, social and religious contexts. The central aim of the network is to develop a more critical understanding of the concept of 'belief' in relation to the study of contemporary religion and young people. Anthropologists and historians have developed a well-established critique of the concept of internalised, propositional belief as a universal element of religion. But sociological studies of religion continue to assume that religion can be understood through identifying individual's beliefs. Similarly public discourse about religion (including religious education in schools) assumes that assent to a set of beliefs is a defining feature of all religious life. This network will examine the idea that propositional belief is an important part of religious life only in specific historical and cultural contexts, as well as exploring how young people come to be formed as 'believing subjects'. It will also examine whether there are alternative ways of conceiving of belief, beyond individualized assent to religious doctrines, in terms of different forms of cultural performance. In doing so, the network aims to clarify in what ways the concept of belief may be useful for the study of contemporary religion and youth, as well encouraging greater conceptual clarity about the theoretical frameworks that researchers bring to this work. A fuller summary of the intellectual background and aims to the network can be found here.
The network has run two main events so far. The first of these, held in London on 18 September 2009, was an initial orientation workshop designed to focus on critical debates on the concept of belief from various disciplinary perspectives. Presentations from this workshop are listed below for download as podcasts:
Gordon Lynch - An introduction to the background and focus for this research network
Simon Coleman - For and against 'belief': the anthropological debate
Abby Day - The meanings of belief amongst young people in contemporary Britain: an ethnographic approach
Peter Marshall - Belief in Reformation Britain
Ian Reader - Belief and popular religion in Japan
The main network event was held in Oxford on 19th-22nd July 2010, and involved participants from the UK, Sweden, Poland, Russia and North America. This built on the earlier theoretical discussions developed through the network to explore different ways in which belief might be conceptualised in relation to young people in different social, cultural, political and religious contexts. A detailed summary of the discussions and provisional findings from this event is available for download here. Short podcast reflections are also available from some of the participants in this event: Sylvie Collins-Mayo, Mathew Guest, Peter Nynas, Sarah Pike, and Pete Ward.
As part of this network project, a virtual conference also took place in which papers were circulated for discussion on an email list for discussion between the London and Oxford events. The virtual conference has now closed.
A final project event is being planned for early 2011, in which key findings from the network will be presented at a day conference aimed at a wide range of users including teachers and youth workers.
This network is convened by Gordon Lynch at Birkbeck College, and Simon Coleman and Abby Day at the University of Sussex.
Further resources
Click here for a podcast of a recent talk by Abby Day on her research on the meanings of 'belief' for people in contemporary Britain.
The definition of 'belief' is not just a matter of academic concern, but has practical implications in a range of legal, policy and cultural contexts. A recent legal decision over-turning a Jewish school's decision not to admit a boy whose mother was a convert to Judaism generated an interesting discussion on the BBC Today programme on whether to be Jewish, in religious terms, is a matter of personal belief or a social status achieved through specific Jewish legal processes. Click here to listen to this discussion. The case also illustrates how notions of belief may be imposed on religious communities by other political and legal institutions, and forms part of a wider process in which 'belief' has become included in recent equality and human rights legislation.
Another example of the way in which 'belief' is constructed as being central to religion in contexts outside of academic research can be found in the teaching of Religious Education in schools. In the UK National Curriculum, for example, Religious Education is understood to be primarily concerned with the study of religions and 'beliefs', where beliefs are understood to be theistic and non-theistic 'systems of thought'. Within this framework, belief is given primary significance in religious life, and is seen as having an impact on how people live their lives, shaping their identities, and finding expression through different cultural practices. The broader understanding of belief within Religious Education, to include humanism and atheism, further extends the notion of the centrality of belief to those who do not identify with traditional forms of religion.