Type of project: Subproject in DFG-joint project hosted at University of Münster
Duration: since 01/12/2020 | 1st Funding period
The project
focuses on the accommodation of religious majorities and (immigrant) religious
minorities in public organizations. It asks whether decisions on religious
accommodation that are taken on this sub-national, organizational level are
influenced by a national state-religion regime. It seeks to contribute to
debates about the negotiation of secularity. Relying on theories from the
sociology of organizations, the project refines and tests hypotheses about how
organizational specificities such as an organization’s goals, its conditions of
membership and hierarchies as well as its relationship with the organizational
environment may impact decisions on religious accommodation. Empirically, it
pays particular attention to decisions on religious accommodation that are
similar within one type of organization across many countries as well as
organizational rules that systematically reflect national state-church
relationship. To answer these questions, the project collects data on six
indicators of religious accommodation (e.g., time and space for prayer,
religious apparel) in five public organizations per country (police, military,
prison, hospital, school). For each indicator, information is collected for a
historically established religious majority and an (immigrant) religious
minority. The dataset aims to cover a total of 30 countries.
Keywords: organizations; religious majorities; religious minorities; secularity; international comparison