Gendered and Minority Perspectives

Edited by Lina Molokotos-Liederman with Anders Backstrom and Grace Davie

Publisher: Policy Press (September 13, 2017)

Using welfare as a prism, Religion and Welfare in Europe explores regional conceptions and variations in welfare and religion across Europe.  Methodological approaches to research and practice draw thematic comparisons on these issues using case studies focused on gendered and minority perspectives as they relate to the varied provision of social welfare in selected European countries.

Contributors offer comparative insights on majority-minority relations concerning practices, patterns and mechanisms of social welfare provision, explaining how these lead to conflict, cohesion or – as is so often the case – the grey area in between.

The book will be of interest not only to religion and social policy researchers, but to welfare practitioners and policy advisors with a particular interest in the interaction between religion, social welfare, minorities and gender.

About the Author:

• Lina Molokotos-Liederman is a Visiting Fellow at the Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre at Uppsala University, Sweden, and a Post-Doc Associate of the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL/CNRS), Paris. She holds a PhD in sociology of religion from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris.

• Anders Bäckström is Professor Emeritus in Sociology of Religion at Uppsala University. He established both the Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre and The Impact of Religion program.

• Grace Davie is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Exeter, UK and senior adviser to The Impact of Religion program.

Table of Contents:

– Introduction, by Anders Bäckström

• Part one: Thinking methodologically: approaches to research and practice

– Between contextuality and comparability: a dilemma in qualitative comparative case studies, by Pål Repstad

– Using case studies in religion, values and welfare research, by Olav Helge Angell and Lina Molokotos-Liederman

– Social cohesion: from research to practice, by Olav Helge Angell, Marjukka Laiho, Anne Birgitta Pessi and Siniša Zrinščaka

• Part two: Thinking regionally: key case studies in welfare and religion in Europe

– The WaVE project as a record of religious and social transformations in northern Europe, by Anders Bäckström

– The intersections of state, family and Church in Italy and Greece, by Margarita Markoviti and Lina Molokotos-Liederman

– Religion, welfare and gender: the post-communist experience, by Siniša Zrinščaka

• Part three: Gendered and minority perspectives

– Understanding religious minority communities as civil society actors, by Annette Leis-Peters

– Striving to live the good life: the tension between self-fulfilment and family obligations for women in northern England, by Martha Middlemiss Lé Mon

– Religion as a resource or as a source of exclusion?: The case of Muslim women’s shelters, by Pia Karlsson Minganti

– The moral and gendered crisis of the Italian welfare system seen through the prism of migrant women’s reproductive health, by Annalisa Frisina

• Part four: Drawing the threads together

– Welfare and values in Europe: insights drawn from a comparative cross-country analysis, by Effie Fokas

– Afterword, by Grace Davie

Reviews

– “A fascinating volume exploring religion, gender, minorities and welfare in Europe, offering significant insights into the link between values, welfare and social change.” (Dr. Stephanie Sinclair, The Open University)

– “This is a timely and authoritative text – fit for students and experts alike – which builds on the insights of the WaVE research to shed new light on gender issues and minority religious groups in Europe. The comparative perspective encompassing diverse national settings provides an important back-drop for analysing some of the key social welfare implications of an increasingly culturally diverse continent.”(Rana Jawad, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Bath, UK)

Source: Policy Press