Doctoral Dissertation Research: State Transformations and Family Norms

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The research supported by this award will investigate religious change in a context of increasing secularism. Much of recent social science research on religious change has focused on societies where increases in religiosity have produced political division and activism, particularly around social policies seen as inconsistent with belief. Less attention has been paid to societies in which religiosity is decreasing as religious citizens support secular social policies that are inconsistent with religious doctrine. Given the impact of religious politics in the contemporary world, it is important to understand both of these trends.To address this gap in knowledge, University of Chicago anthropology doctoral student Kelsey Robbins, under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Cole, will investigate a situation in which believers advocate for policies and practices that conflict with the social teachings of their religion. The research will be carried out in the Republic of Ireland. Proposed reforms of Ireland's social legislation, and the debates, activism, and practices that surround them, offer an ideal context for examining these processes of religious change. The researcher will gather data using a variety of anthropological methods, including: participant observation, semi-structured interviews, the collection of life history narratives, and analysis of textual discourse and media. By exploring how Irish citizens make sense of the tensions between their politics, their policy preferences, and the mainstream social teachings of their religion, this project will advance social scientific theory of the relationship between state secularization, religious dissent, and social regulation.