Understanding How the Social Scientific Study of Same-Sex Parenting Works

The social scientific study of same-sex households with children has come a long way in 10 years. Better quality data collection is now available. However, this is no guarantee that consistently sensible analyses and reasonable conclusions are imminent, because the “consensus” that children from same-sex households fare no differently than children from opposite-sex households—in particular, married families—is a carefully guarded social construction. The consensus is the result of sampling decisions, analytic comparisons, and interpretations of results that often indicate baseline differences prior to statistical controls for household instability, after which they commonly disappear. It is this variable—relationship dissolution—that remains demonstrably different between same-sex and opposite-sex relationships, even in the most tolerant of societies. The point of this article is neither to trumpet nor dispute any particular study’s conclusion in the domain of parental influence on children’s outcomes. Rather, I seek to explain how the consensus around “no differences” came to be, and how it is reinforced, despite evidence that it was, and remains, premature.

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Contemporary Spirituality and the Making of Religious Experience

Fieldwork in Religion ◽

10.1558/firn.v6i2.120 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 120-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Peter Versteeg ◽

Johan Roeland

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

Religious Experience ◽

Scientific Discourse ◽

Scientific Study ◽

Social Scientific Study ◽

Starting Point ◽

The Social ◽

Long Time ◽

Contemporary Religion ◽

Social Scientific

The ‘turn to experience’ has been described as one of the most defining characteristics of contemporary religion. Research on religion, and in particular on spirituality, therefore increasingly concentrates on the description of its experiential dimensions. The turn to experience, however, asks for something more than just the observation that a particular dimension (experience) has become of greater value for practitioners of religion. Dimensions which have for a long time been central to the social-scientific study of religion, but are avoided in the practitioners’ discourse and, surprisingly, in the social-scientific discourse as well, such as authority and power, turn out to be of lasting significance in the mediation and construction of religious experience. In this contribution, the authors take the social construction of religious experience in contemporary spirituality as a starting point for a reflection and discussion on the methodological challenges of experiential religion for those engaged in the study of religion.

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Bringing Moral Culture into the Fray

10.23943/princeton/9780691164342.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Justin Farrell

Keyword(s):

Environmental Conflict ◽

Scientific Study ◽

Theoretical Argument ◽

Moral Culture ◽

Social Scientific Study ◽

The Social ◽

Social Scientific ◽

Basic Level

This introductory chapter briefly presents the conflict in Yellowstone, elaborates on the book's theoretical argument, and specifies its substantive and theoretical contributions to the social scientific study of environment, culture, religion, and morality. The chapter argues that the environmental conflict in Yellowstone is not—as it would appear on the surface—ultimately all about scientific, economic, legal, or other technical evidence and arguments, but an underlying struggle over deeply held “faith” commitments, feelings, and desires that define what people find sacred, good, and meaningful in life at a most basic level. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

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