Study of expenditure and stay in the segmentation of the international tourist with religious motivation in Galicia

Tourist expenditure is an element that is gaining weight in the local economies of many regions throughout the world and that conditions income levels. This has a positive effect on local economies through the diversification of their traditional activities, but it also has an impact on the social and environmental context. This work carries out a latent class segmentation model (Latent Class Model -LCM) in which tourists who travelled to the region of Galicia for religious reasons are segmented in order to differentiate the groups, variables on personal characteristics and also on the activities they carried out were used. Six different groups were obtained by segmentation, showing significant differences between the variables of stay and daily expenditure. The study has important implications for management, as it helps to focus companies according to the attributes of international visitors and to relate them to their levels of expenditure

Preliminary Validation Study of the Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale and the Centrality of Religiosity Scale for the Portuguese Population

Religion is a construct widely present in most people’s lives. Religious motivations, either intrinsic or extrinsic, as well as religious centrality, are crucial aspects of religion. In the Portuguese population, there are no validated instruments to assess these aspects of religion. Accordingly, this study intends to validate the Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale (IRMS) and the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) for the Portuguese population. This is a validation study whose sample consists of 326 participants (73.1% women) from the general population. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out and the correlations between the constructs and self-compassion were determined to assess the convergent and divergent validity. The results obtained confirm the existence of models adjusted to the population, allowing us to conclude that the instruments are reliable for assessing the studied constructs. The validation of the IRMS and CRS for the Portuguese population is of outstanding importance, as it provides researchers in the field with valid instruments and psychometric qualities to carry out research within religion and religiosity.

Buddhist Pilgrimage and the Ritual Ecology of Sacred Sites in the Indo-Gangetic Region

In contemporary India and Nepal, Buddhist pilgrimage spaces constitute a ritual ecology. Not only is pilgrimage a form of ritual practice that is central to placemaking and the construction of a Buddhist sacred geography, but the actions of religious adherents at sacred centers also involve a rich and diverse set of ritual observances and performances. Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper examines how the material and corporeal aspects of Buddhist ritual contribute to the distinctive religious sense of place that reinforce the memory of the Buddha’s life and the historical ties to the Indian subcontinent. It is found that at most Buddhist sites, pilgrim groups mostly travel with their own monks, nuns, and guides from their respective countries who facilitate devotion and reside in the monasteries and guest houses affiliated with their national community. Despite the differences across national, cultural–linguistic, and sectarian lines, the ritual practices associated with pilgrimage speak to certain patterns of religious motivation and behavior that contribute to a sense of shared identity that plays an important role in how Buddhists imagine themselves as part of a translocal religion in a globalizing age.

Fifty Shades of Terrorist Credit-Taking: A Review of the Existing Scholarship on Terrorist Credit-Taking

The consistently low credit-taking rates, 16 percent in 2016 (Global Terrorism Database), continue to challenge the understanding of terrorism as “propaganda of the deed” twenty years after researchers initially pointed out the conundrum. While providing an overview and evaluation of the limited existing literature on credit-taking, this paper draws attention to three core problems in the current literature on terrorist credit-taking, which may have led the low credit-taking rates to appear more puzzling than is due. First, the available explanations struggle to find corroboration when empirically tested and many also show theoretical shortcomings with strong unspoken assumptions and unclear predictions of credit-taking behavior. Second, data structure and data availability unnecessarily narrow our academic understanding of credit-taking. Finally, theories focused on group characteristics such as religious motivation or state sponsorship suffer from severe issues of sample bias due to unintended selection on the dependent variable. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research less prone to the problematic issues identified in the article. A re-orientation toward a less restrictive and more fine-grained understanding of credit-taking is advised.

Connection between spiritual involvement and psychological well-being among the congregation of the Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists

The article focuses on the study of the interaction of spiritual involvement, topical religious feelings, the specifics of religious motivation and subjective well-being among parishioners of the Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. The experimental data consisted of 80 respondents from the congregation of the churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists with 40 men and 40 women involved. We have used a self-designed questionnaire to measure religious involvement, INSPIRIT test made by Jared Kass to measure the topicality of spiritual experiences, a religious motivation questionnaire constructed by Irena Stojković & Jovan Mirić to study motivation and Subjective Well-Being Scale method to measure subjunctive well-being. The mathematical analysis of the results included Pearson's correlation coefficient with bilateral rotation, Student's t-test was used to seek possible differences between subgroups, all the calculations were made in MC Excel and SPSS programmes. The study showed that the INSPIRIT test results have significant positive correlation with the data of the religious involvement questionnaire, r = 0.71 (P ≤ 0.01). The INSPIRIT test results also have positive correlation with the data of the Scale of Religion as the highest value of religious motivation test, r = 0.55 (P ≤ 0.01). The correlation analysis showed that Evangelical Christians’-Baptists’ spiritual involvement (questionnaire) and vividness of spiritual experiences (INSPIRIT) are highly interconnected, that is to say, persons who more frequently attend church recommended events and perform spiritual practices have more vivid subjunctive spiritual experience. A number of specific features of Baptists are discovered by the questionnaire on religious motivation.

The Role of Islamic Banks in Tackling Financial Exclusion in North-East Nigeria

The purpose of this study is to explore the level of financial exclusion in North-East Nigeria and determine the reasons and barriers behind the huge percentage of financial exclusion. The contemporary Islamic bank is considered as a solution to tackle financial exclusion. The paper uses a quantitative approach in which 2500 questionnaires were distributed out of which 2352 were received back from the respondents. The data was gathered and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling, and descriptive, correlation and regression analyses. The findings revealed that awareness, literacy, and religiosity are considered as the key barriers to financial exclusion and the need of Islamic banks with Shariah-compliant products is highly felt to address religious motivation in North East Nigeria. Since Islamic banks are compliant with Shariah principles, the Nigerian government should facilitate the creation of more Islamic banks to tackle financial exclusion.

Post-Christian or Post-Atheistic Society? Some Characteristics of the Russian Regime of Secularity

The authors argue that the specificity of the Russian case of secularity is generally underestimated. This leads to two negative consequences. First, it leads researchers to considering the regimes of secularity in Eastern Europe as variations of the “Soviet model,” which is false. Second, it entails inaccuracies in the analysis of the regime of secularity that has developed in post‑Soviet Russia that the authors propose to describe as “post‑atheistic.” The special Russian case implied the destruction of the very mechanism of religious and cultural transmission during the period of communist rule. This is where other features of the post‑atheistic society stem from: a relatively low relevance of religious symbols and narratives for the social fabric; the involvement of religious agency in the projects of nation‑building and, there‑ fore, a predominantly ideological, rather than religious, motivation of the subjects of such agency; a top‑down, rather than bottom‑up, dynamic of the post‑Soviet return of religion to the public sphere; the lack of a broad public support of the state activities in this field; wide‑ spread polarization of views on the role of public religion in modern society — either linking religion to cultural backwardness, or the total rejection of modernity and secular culture.