scholarly journals Religion and spirituality in contemporary dreams

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Nell
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
South African ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Semistructured Interviews

This article examines the spiritual value and role of dreams in the lives of South African Christians, based on the findings of a qualitative research project in which semistructured interviews were used to examine the dream-related beliefs and practices of contemporary Christians. The findings indicated that dreams are still considered to be of distinct religious value and importance by a significant number of the Christian participants who took part in the study. Specifically, the participants reported that their dreams often serve as source of spiritual inspiration, insight and guidance, as well as feedback on decisions and ways of living. It was also indicated that dreams sometimes constituted an important natural resource in coming to terms with bereavement. In response to this, the article closes with a call for a re-evaluation of the position and value of dreams in contemporary Christianity, and offers several practical suggestions for working with dreams in a spiritual context.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Ritual in Social Capital Formation for Poverty Alleviation and Social Development. Theoretical and Methodological Points of Departure of a South African Exploration

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cas Wepener ◽  
Marcel Barnard ◽  
Ignatius Swart ◽  
Gerrie ter Haar
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Development ◽  
South African ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Research Project ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Religious Ritual

AbstractThe article is a presentation of a South African research project in which researchers in the fields of ritual-liturgical studies and social development are collaborating to explore the role of religious ritual in the kinds of social capital formation that have a direct significance and implication for alleviating poverty and promoting social development at grassroots level. Focusing on Christian congregations in poor socio-economic contexts in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, the aim of the research is to understand social capital formation through the lens of religious ritual. The research project builds on the hypothesis that social capital has a role to play in the related goals of poverty alleviation and social development, something which it seeks to conceptualise and explore in greater detail. Within this framework the discussion explores and contextualises the conceptual link between social capital and the practice of religious ritual in present-day South African society by drawing on existing research and theoretical debates, both nationally and internationally. This enables the authors to present some additional notes on the key theoretical, conceptual and methodological points of departure of the undertaken project. These are followed by a number of concluding observations about the modes of investigation and action steps through which the research topic is currently being further developed.

The Prayer of a Married Man Is Equal to Seventy Prayers of a Single Man

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 617-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
BAHIRA SHERIF
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Upper Middle Class ◽  
The Life Course

This study examines the central role of marriage among upper-middle-class Muslim Egyptians in Cairo, Egypt. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out over a total of 20 months by the author between 1988 and 1996. Using religious and legal sources as well as semistructured interviews and participant observation among two generations of 20 households, this study indicates that marriage continues to occupy a significant place in the life course of both upper-middle-class Muslim men and women. This article indicates that societal norms, as well as family structure and expectations, influence the prevalence of marriage as a necessary rite of passage for achieving adulthood among this class of Egyptians. Furthermore, this article describes the actual customs, beliefs, and practices associated with Muslim Egyptian marriages to counteract the Western bias that often obscures studies of this area of the world.

scholarly journals Shaping a ‘pedagogy of interruption’: Theorizing the role of educational agents in democratic education in urban contexts

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-530
Author(s):  
Evelyne Deceur ◽  
Griet Roets ◽  
Kris Rutten ◽  
Maria De Bie
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Democratic Education ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
Democracy And Education ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Relationship

This article theorises the role of educational agents in democratic education in urban contexts by engaging in the discussion about the relationship between citizenship, democracy and education. Therefore, we confront Gert Biesta’s conceptualisation of a ‘pedagogy of interruption’ with the empirical insights that emerge from a qualitative research project on democratic education in a particular urban context in Ghent (Belgium). We elaborate on the historical developments and origins of the educational practices and interventions in this urban context and reveal three contemporary educational strategies that coincide and complement each other while implementing the democratic ideal of equality in differentiated ways: integration, activation and instigation. Our analysis enables us to reflect on the complexities, ambiguities and dilemmas at stake when educational agents shape a ‘pedagogy of interruption’. This pedagogy entails the constant search to balance the multidimensional purposes of democratic education, that is, between socialisation and subjectification.

Ritual as a Way of Transmitting the Ideas of New Spirituality

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4-2) ◽  
pp. 429-450
Author(s):  
Fedor Redin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Actual Content ◽  
Part Structure ◽  
One Year

The article is focused on the ritual practice of “NamMaReal”, the analysis of which allows to make a conclusion, that contemporary spirituality (also known as “new”, “post-secular”) can be transmitted through the ritual, which is similar to a religious one, despite the fact that religion and spirituality are mostly contraposed nowadays. The article presents the results of a qualitative study of “NamMaReal” based on the method put forward by A. Strauss and J. Corbin, with the help of which the author makes a conclusion that “NamMaReal” can be considered as a ritual of contemporary spirituality. The process of gathering the data and analytical procedures demonstrated great potential of qualitative research strategies in the empirical study of the phenomenon. The observation that lasted for one year and a series of interviews with participants in the practice and the subsequent categorization of the data obtained empirically revealed the presence in the worldview of participants of such semantic units as monism, the holistic nature of the worldview, the paramount role of personal experience and the path to individual truth, focus on achieving comfort and success in earthly life. It is established that NamMaReal has a pronounced three-part structure “concept-climax-denouement,” which, in accordance with their actual content, can be described in terms of the pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal stages highlighted by V. Turner in his theory of ritual. The presence in the structure of the event and specific symbolic actions of the elements of creativity of all participants, regardless of their ritual status, the dramatic filling of what is happening with their interactions and experiences, allows us to define NamMaReal as performance and agree with R. Schechner in his view on the performative foundations of ritual practices.

Interlude

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Helen Thomas-Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Community Or ◽  
Programme Development ◽  
Regulatory Regimes ◽  
Peer Researchers ◽  
Longitudinal Qualitative Research

The role of community researchers within the projects of Productive Margins was envisaged at the earliest stages of programme development. This vision was driven, in part, by the expert experience of one of the partner organisations who had previously led a longitudinal qualitative research project in which the fieldwork was primarily conducted by community researchers. It was also informed by the programme’s founding understanding: that people and communities have expertise, experience and creativity that can catalyse new spaces for engagement in and the redesign of regulatory regimes. This echoed a wider trend towards the inclusion of community or ‘peer’ researchers within co-produced research processes, recognising that community researchers are, in many ways, a practical example of co-production’s attempt to radically redistribute power within the research process....

‘Velddrift’: the making of a South African company town

Urban History ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lance van Sittert
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
South African ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
The State ◽  
Company Town ◽  
Rural Urbanization ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Shadow Cast

Recent reviews of South African urban history have highlighted its neglect of rural urbanization and the role of the state and capital in urban development. Natural resource frontiers offer a uniquely unobstructed view of rural urbanization under the aegis of capital and the state. The process has been well documented for South Africa's mineral revolution, but other resource frontiers have been completely ignored. The latter developed in the long shadow cast by mining and the urban metropoles, with their centripetal pull on labour and the state, making the company town an archetypal urban form on the rural periphery.

scholarly journals The development of a change agent identification framework for South African change agents

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzanne Van der Linde-de Klerk ◽  
Nico Martins ◽  
Marie De Beer
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Change Agent ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Form Part

The main aim of this research project was to develop a theoretical change agent identification framework that could enable organisational change management specialists to identify change agents more effectively in large organisations that are undergoing change. To date, little research has been conducted into the best way to identify change agents. Change agents can play a significant role in effectively assisting co-employees to adapt to change and in eliminating resistance. The sample of change agents utilised in this research project comprised employees at a large South African utility organisation who were affected by change themselves but nevertheless helped to communicate key messages to other affected employees and supported them throughout the change process. These change agents played a significant role in helping to develop a comprehensive change agent identification framework that focuses on those elements to be taken into account when selecting individuals in an organisation to serve as change agents. A thorough 12-step empirical research process which included both a qualitative and a quantitative approach was followed. The qualitative process and results constitute the focus of this article. The literature findings contributed towards a comprehensive understanding of the role of change agents, as well as of the elements that should form part of a change agent identification framework to be used as a basis for selecting change agents

Moving Beyond Themes

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Lucas ◽  
Suzy D’Enbeau
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods

Teaching novice qualitative researchers how to move beyond first-cycle themes is a challenging endeavor. In this essay, we articulate four harmful habits that tend to impede our success: moving too quickly, privileging product over process, providing cursory coverage of analytic technique and artistry, and overlooking the role of synthesis in qualitative research. As a step toward replacing harmful habits with more healthy ones, we offer a number of practical suggestions for reimagining the qualitative research methods curriculum.

“Wi, se kretyènn mwen ye” (Yes I am Christian)

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadège Mézié
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Christian Woman

During a field study of a year and a half in the Haitian mountains, I was forced to re-evaluate my research strategy, and consequently the object of my study, after a setback that denied me access to the American evangelical mission, which I had hoped to study from within. This failure to integrate as a non-Protestant researcher, led me to adopt a methodological falsehood to allow me to penetrate the Haitian evangelical mission. The researcher who chooses methodological falsehood has to fashion a passing and superficial redefinition of her appearance, beliefs and practices, and live her new religious identity according to the prevalent beliefs and norms. This paper will focus on the fieldworker’s daily performance in her role of “Christian woman,” and the strategies put in place to respond to the prescriptive criteria of the role being played.

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