The Patriotism of Despair

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-182
Author(s):  
Kristen Ghodsee ◽  
Mitchell A. Orenstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Movements ◽  
Collective Trauma ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Market Democracy

Chapter 16 uses ethnographic data to explore the development of new identities rooted in the collective trauma experienced during transition in postsocialist countries. This chapter shows how the void left by the sudden disappearance of Soviet-era propaganda and positive imagery was replaced by postmodern neoliberal individualism. It shows how nationalist and nativist movements swept in to fill this ideological vacuum and rooted themselves in a shared victim identity, pointing to local disillusionment with market democracy as a major legitimating factor for authoritarian movements. Many who searched for a postsocialist identity turned to orthodox, sometimes radical, religious groups or to ethno-nationalist political movements.

Spatial Processes and the Duality of Church and Faith: A Simmelian Perspective on U.S. Denominational Growth, 1900–1930

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith R. Blau ◽  
Kent Redding ◽  
Walter R. Davis ◽  
Kenneth C. Land
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rates ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Competitive Markets ◽  
Spatial Processes ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Social Associations

With information on all U.S. denominations of nontrivial sizes, this paper examines various spatial and temporal prcesses underlying religious expansion between 1900 and 1930. Simmel's provocative and complex essay, “Soziologie des Raumes” (1903) poses the central paradox that religion is both faith—cultural constellations of beliefs—and church—social associations that are spatially situated. This distinction helps to clarify differences among denominations with regard to the extent to which they exert strong demands on their members, and leads to predictions about variation in denominational growth rates, in spatial dynamics, and in the extent to which denominations accommodate to contextual heterodoxy (diversity) or not. In these terms, we re-examine the debate about whether adherence rates increase in competitive markets (under conditions of diversity) or under monopoly conditions (under conditions of little diversity). We finally suggest that Simmel's theoretical emphasis on spatial and temporal dynamics has relevance for understanding the nature of mobilization efforts of various kinds, not only by religious groups, but also by those that organize social and political movements

Resource Mobilization Among Religious Activists

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Chapp
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Congregational Leadership ◽  
Civic Skills

The concept of resource mobilization helps explain how and why religious beliefs and attachments can become a political force. Religious actors achieve their political aims only when they are able to mobilize resources on behalf of a particular cause. While material resources are perhaps the most intuitive prerequisite for social movement success, what sets religious activism apart is not access to capital, but rather activists’ ability to leverage organizational, moral, cultural, and human resources. Religious groups ranging from local churches to broad-based parachurch organizations take advantage of organizational resources to support their goals. Religious activists also leverage moral resources by reframing a cause in appropriate moral terms to spur potential supporters into action or gain direct institutional access. Cultural resources, particularly civic skills that are developed in apolitical contexts, are regularly adapted and appropriated to achieve political objectives. And, human resources such as local congregational leadership are an important factor in political movements ranging from the American civil rights movement to the prolife movement.

scholarly journals “Our Stool and its Rituals are the basis of Protection for our Chieftaincy and Community”: The Value of Stool Rituals among the Anfoega- Ewe of Ghana.

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Kofi Semanu Atsu Adzei
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practices ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The People ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Impact

Chieftaincy is the oldest traditional leadership institution in Ghana which combines religion and rituals, and which is charged with the responsibility  of  performing  executive,  legislative  and  judicial functions  in  order  to  ensure  peace,  stability  and  development among most traditional societies in the country. Despite the impact of  colonial  rule  and  post-colonial  administrative  measures  that have  weakened  the  functions  of  this  noble  institution,  it  has survived  due  to  its  ability  to  merge  leadership  and  religious practices. Based on ethnographic data from the ritual experts of the paramount stool (Gablui Kofi Stool) of the Anfoega-Ewe of Ghana, this  paper  explores  the  specific  rituals  of  this  sacred  stool  and  the spiritual  entities  attached  to  it,  and  argues  that  the  stool  is indispensable  in  the  life  of  the  Anfoega  people  as  protector  and source  of  solution  to  their  existential  problems;  and  that  this benevolence is reciprocated with ritual events. It is emphasized that despite the influx of Christian religious groups to the area, the stool is  still  highly  revered  even  by  some  local  Christian  converts,  and that the people believe that abandoning the stool and its associated rituals is an anathema in the community. 

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