Research programme: Research areas

Research in the subject of Social Sciences of Religion and Practical Theology is conducted within the following main research areas. These are common to both specialisations and include both ongoing research and the initiation of new research projects. Within the research areas below, theories and methods are combined and developed based on previous research in sociology of Religion, psychology of Religion, practical theology and didactics of religion.

Learning about religion: school, community and everyday life

This research area focuses on how learning about religion and worldviews takes place through school, media, communities and everyday life, and how new methods for studying this can be developed. The starting point for this area is previous sociological and didactic research on how religion and worldviews are portrayed and used in various forms of media, in education and in political debate. Particular focus is placed on agency, identity, learning, complexity and practical knowledge in the encounter between different actors.
Contact persons: Malin Löfstedt, Maximilian Broberg

Religious practices and meaning-making in change

This research area focuses on changes in practices and meaning-making within faith-based organisations such as churches and communities. The focus is on change and coping with everyday life and crises, how these are interpreted, and what resources people use to cope with the existential conditions of life. Individual resources, social and community networks, and faith-based organisations are examined, as well as the interaction between them. The research highlights practices, resources and strategies for meaning-making discovered in previous research, and aims to critically examine and develop these. Issues of power, gender and ethnicity are given particular attention. Key theoretical concepts are practice, existential health and lived religion.
Contact persons: Katarina Westerlund, Önver Cetrez

Religion in the media, politics and civil society

This research area examines the dynamics between ongoing secularisation and new issues concerning religion and worldviews that are becoming topical in the public sphere. Examples of issues addressed include how states interact with religious communities and civil society organisations on issues of welfare, democracy and religious freedom; how religion and values are used by different actors in a new political landscape; and how religion is debated in the mass media, popular culture and digital media. The focus is on negotiations about the boundaries between the religious and the secular, the private and the public in society.
Contact persons: Mia Lövheim

Changing values and worldviews

This research area explores changes in values and worldviews, particularly among children and young people, in relation to institutions such as the family, religious communities, schools and the media. The research builds on previous quantitative and qualitative studies of young people's religiosity and values in the fields of sociology of religion and worldview research. Key theories and concepts include socialisation, social participation, worldview and meaning-making.
Contact persons: Maria Klingenberg, Anders Sjöborg, Katarina Westerlund, Malin Löfstedt