An online centre for British data on religion

英国宗教数据在线中心

• 批准号: AH/F009119/1
• 负责人: David Voas
• 金额: $ 33.96万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF009119%2F1
• 关键词: online; centre; British; data; religion

The British religious landscape has changed dramatically in the past four hundred years. Nor is the pace of change slowing: during recent decades, a combination of secularisation and growth of non-Christian and alternative religions has transformed public culture. As yet there is no consensus over how far Britain remains a religious society, and how far religiosity or secularity conditions socio-political behaviours. Studying these changes (and their implications for public policy) calls on the combined skills of historians and social scientists. It also requires a firm evidence base about religious involvement, past and present. We propose to create an online centre for British data on religion to make a rich store of statistical records and up-to-date commentaries available to historians and sociologists, policy-makers, religious leaders, journalists and the public. Britain has a wealth of religious data, including church records on births, marriages and deaths going back centuries but also ad hoc surveys from the 1603 ecclesiastical census to the 2001 population census and the 2005 English Church Census. An enormous amount of new statistical material has been produced during recent decades from opinion polls, local and national surveys, and record-keeping by religious organisations. Most of these datasets are underused, being known to very few scholars. They have also often been poorly archived, with significant data loss. We will not be conducting original surveys: rather, we will make the enormous body of religious statistics in Britain from the last four centuries accessible to ordinary researchers and research users. The project has three central objectives. We will: 1) identify and catalogue the full range of British statistics on religion. We will describe the nature and limitations of each source, with clear directions about where to find the data. 2) assemble a reasonably comprehensive set of statistical time series. These figures / drawn from faith, official and independent sources / will be immediately available to all researchers. 3) produce thematic commentaries on changing religious practice, identity and belief, illustrated with tables, charts and maps. These analytical summaries will be accessible to ordinary research users. The first objective will largely be realised by updating and rearranging an existing statistical review. For all principal religions and alternative belief systems in the country, the catalogue will cover data on identification, membership, belief, practice, rites of passage, and opinion at the level of individuals and details of buildings and personnel at the level of organisations. Coverage will be from the seventeenth century (the time of the earliest ecclesiastical censuses) to the present. The second objective, construction of time-series data, will concentrate on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For much of this period we can offer statistics on membership, rites of passage, places of worship and ministry. We will provide figures by age, gender and geographical area whenever possible. The third objective, preparation of thematic commentaries, is planned with two kinds of users in mind. For people interested in religion and religious change but with limited ability or inclination to analyse the data, these short overviews will describe trends and summarise how scholars have interpreted them. Users who want to do further research will find pointers to current controversies and areas of uncertainty, with supporting references. Publication on the web is ideal for material of this kind that requires complex cross-referencing. Moreover, the high-quality maps and cartograms, and full-colour charts and graphs, produced using contemporary technology, would be too expensive to publish in hard copy but can easily be displayed on a website.

在过去的四百年里，英国的宗教景观发生了巨大的变化。变化的步伐也没有放缓：近几十年来，世俗化与非基督教和另类宗教的增长结合在一起，改变了公共文化。到目前为止，对于英国在多大程度上仍是一个宗教社会，以及宗教虔诚或世俗性在多大程度上影响了社会政治行为，人们还没有达成共识。研究这些变化（以及它们对公共政策的影响）需要历史学家和社会科学家的综合技能。它还需要一个关于过去和现在的宗教参与的坚实证据基础。我们建议建立一个英国宗教数据在线中心，为历史学家、社会学家、政策制定者、宗教领袖、记者和公众提供丰富的统计记录和最新评论。英国拥有丰富的宗教数据，包括几个世纪以来的出生、婚姻和死亡的教会记录，以及从1603年教会人口普查到2001年人口普查和2005年英国教会人口普查的特别调查。近几十年来，从民意调查、地方和国家调查以及宗教组织的记录保存中产生了大量新的统计材料。这些数据集大多未被充分利用，只有极少数学者知道。它们的存档也常常很差，导致大量数据丢失。我们不会进行原始的调查：相反，我们将把英国过去四个世纪的大量宗教统计数据提供给普通的研究人员和研究用户。该项目有三个中心目标。我们将：1)确定和编目全范围的英国宗教统计数据。我们将描述每个来源的性质和局限性，并明确说明在哪里可以找到数据。2)组建一套比较全面的统计时间序列。这些数据/来自信仰、官方和独立来源/将立即提供给所有研究人员。3)制作关于宗教习俗、身份和信仰变化的专题评论，并用表格、图表和地图加以说明。这些分析性摘要可供普通研究用户使用。第一个目标将主要通过更新和重新安排现有的统计审查来实现。对于国内所有主要宗教和替代信仰体系，该目录将涵盖个人层面的身份、成员、信仰、实践、成人仪式和意见的数据以及组织层面的建筑物和人员的详细信息。涵盖范围将从17世纪（最早的教会人口普查的时间）到现在。第二个目标，构建时间序列数据，将集中于十九和二十世纪。在这一时期的大部分时间里，我们可以提供成员、成人仪式、礼拜场所和事工的统计数据。我们会尽可能提供按年龄、性别及地理区域划分的数字。第三个目标是编写专题评论，计划时考虑到两类用户。对于那些对宗教和宗教变化感兴趣，但分析数据能力或倾向有限的人来说，这些简短的概述将描述趋势，并总结学者们是如何解释这些趋势的。想要做进一步研究的用户将找到当前争议和不确定领域的指针，以及支持参考资料。对于这类需要复杂的交叉引用的材料，在网上发表是理想的。此外，使用现代技术制作的高质量地图和制图以及全彩图表和图表过于昂贵，无法以硬拷贝形式出版，但可以很容易地在网站上展示。