Capitalising on faith? An intergenerational study of social and religious capital among Baby Boomers and Millennials in Britain

Intergenerational inequalities in economic security, health and political participation are frequently associated with inequalities in access to social capital. Millennials (those born after 1982) are often regarded as the least civically active generation, suggesting that they have less access to social capital, compared to other generations. Numerous studies have linked the decline of religion with falling social capital, as younger generations are deprived of a valuable source of social interaction; others, however, have claimed the link between the two is spurious because Millennials have developed different ways of interacting with social institutions and each other. Despite various studies exploring links between forms of religious and social capital, the role of religious decline in contributing to the intergenerational inequalities of today remains unclear. This study examines how religious capital is related to social capital for Baby Boomers and Millennials in the UK. Our analysis shows that while lower levels of religious capital are contributing to lower levels of social capital among Millennials, religious activity is also a more effective source of social capital for Millennials than their elders. We discuss possible interpretations of our data, including exploring whether greater religious engagement among Millennials may protect against intergenerational inequality and conflict.

Empowerment of Social Capital Based on Religion to Espouse Employee Work Ethics at Al-Azhar Foundation Jakarta

Trust is the essence of social capital. The Al-Azhar Islamic Boarding School Foundation (YPI) as an educational institution requires trust to survive and develop until now. As a religion-based foundation, the work ethic of employees is expected to be able to follow the religious norms that have been established so as to become a character for the institution. This research uses descriptive and exploratory approaches so that the researcher can clearly describe the concepts used in this research in detail. While the data was collected through observation and interviews from supervisors, administrators, supervisors, teachers, employees, alumni and the parents of YPI Al-Azhar. The results showed that employees and teachers at work prioritized service and honor than indicators of worship and trust. Employees at work are generally still transactional and pragmatic. So that the religious socio-religious capital, grace and sincerity that were imparted and inherited by the founders of Al-Azhar have not yet become the soul of the employees at work. Kepercayaan merupakan inti dari modal sosial. Yayasan Pesantren Islam (YPI) Al- Azhar sebagai lembaga pendidikan memerlukan kepercayaan untuk bertahan dan berkembang hingga saat ini. Sebagai yayasan yang berlandaskan agama, maka etos kerja karyawan diharapkan dapat mengikuti Norma agama yang sudah ditetapkan agar menjadi karakter bagi lembaga tersebut. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif dan eksploratif agar peneliti dapat menggambarkan dengan jelas konsep yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini secara rinci. Sedangkan data dikumpulkan melalui observasi dan wawancara dari pembina, pengurus, pengawas, guru, karyawan, alumni dan serta orangtua murid YPI Al-Azhar. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa para karyawan dan guru dalam bekerja lebih mendahulukan pelayanan dan kehormatan dibandingkan indikator ibadah dan amanah. Karyawan dalam bekerja pada umumnya masih bersifat transaksional dan pragmatis. Sehingga modal sosial religious, keikhlasan, ketulusan yang disemaikan dan diwariskan oleh para pendiri Al-azhar belum dapat menjadi jiwa dari para pegawai dalam bekerja.

Leah Horowitz’s Tkhine Imohos A Proto-Feminist Demand to Increase Jewish Women’s Religious Capital

This chapter discusses an article from 1961, in which Haim Liberman introduced the academic world to an eight-page booklet entitled Tkhine imohos. It explains that the booklet has three parts: a Hebrew introduction, an Aramaic piyut, and a Yiddish tkhine. It also points out that Aramaic piyut and the Yiddish tkhine were intended for liturgical recitation in the synagogue on sabbaths when the day of the appearance of the new moon was announced and a special prayer was said to bless the upcoming Hebrew month. The chapter describes the booklet as unusual since it presented material in three different languages and it was written by a woman. It provides a background about Sarah Rebecca Rachel Leah Horowitz as the author of Tkhine imohos, noting how her ability to write in both Hebrew and Aramaic placed her among the Jewish intellectual elite of her era and region.

Buddhist Temple Networks in Medieval Japan: Daigoji, Mt. Kōya, and the Miwa Lineage

The intellectual links between medieval esoteric temples and localized Shingon movements are still far from being well understood. Although a part of education at major monastic complexes such as Daigoji and Mt. Kōya, transmissions of esoteric theories were not uniform and varied depending on their recipients’ social status. A comparative reading of the Yugikyō transmissions imparted by the abbot Jikken of Kongōōin to his official disciple Dōhan and a lesser-known semi-itinerant priest, Rendōbō Hōkyō, from a local training hall at Mt. Miwa in Nara Prefecture shows that during the late twelfth to fourteenth centuries non-elite practitioners in medieval Japan, such as those associated with the local Miwa lineage, did not simply study the Yugikyō teachings but were actively involved in their dissemination. They used theories associated with this sutra as key parts of their own religious capital and transported them from large esoteric temples further afield to Japan’s countryside.

Tuṭṭanabšum: Princess, Priestess, Goddess

Tuṭṭanabšum, daughter of Naram-Suen, was one of the most powerful women of the Akkadian dynasty. The princess was installed as the high priestess of Enlil at Nippur; she held one of the highest cultic positions for the head of the Sumerian pantheon, in a city whose temple served as the religious capital of Sumer. Now, an administrative tablet from the Iraq Museum shows that Tuṭṭanabšum, like her father, was also elevated to the realm of the divine. Never before has there been evidence that a member of the Akkadian royal family other than the king was given divine status. The tablet demonstrates that the divinity adopted by Naram-Suen after his victory in the Great Rebellion applied not only to the king, but to other members of the royal family. Tuṭṭanabšum, therefore, was not only a member of the royal house and one of the highest cultic officials in the empire, but was also elevated to the divine realm.

Evaluating the return on religious capital in the Russian labor market

Subject. The article addresses the impact of religious confession on wages and the likelihood of unemployment in Russia. Objectives. The aim is to test the hypothesis that religious faith and high church attendance are accompanied by an increase in employment earnings. Methods. Using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey data, I estimate the Mincer's extended equation with variables that characterize the respondent’s religious commitment. To assess the impact of religious identity and the activity rate of attendance at religious services on the likelihood of unemployment and life satisfaction, I use probit models. Results. The estimates demonstrate that the Russian labor market rewards men with moderate and high degree of religious commitment; their wage growth reaches seventeen percent of the level of non-believers with comparable education and work experience. However, faithful Muslim women are employed in the lowest paid areas. Religious faith and regular church attendance have a positive effect on satisfaction with life (significant for Orthodox Christian women). Conclusions. Positive impact of religious capital on income and employment can be attributed to the development of business qualities that are rewarded in the labor market, the mutual support of religious network participants. Therefore, it possible to consider religious capital, along with educational capital and health capital, as a component of human capital and a factor of socio-economic development.

Teaching Islam in an International School: A Bourdieusian Analysis

Recent years have witnessed the burgeoning growth of international schools in Qatar, where Islamic Studies is a statutory subject for all schools. This paper aims to investigate how Islamic Studies teachers navigate an internationalized setting where there is dissonance between local and global educational priorities. International schools aim to forge global citizens who perceive their identity in terms of global rather than religious belonging. To examine how Islamic Studies teachers view their work in such a setting, a qualitative study was conducted in an international school based in Qatar. The study employs Bourdieu’s concepts of religious capital and field to explore how the Islamic teachers’ pedagogical skills and knowledge are valued in a non-Islamic teaching setting. The study concludes that the international schooling field allowed Islamic Studies teachers to transform their religiosity into social capital, but they failed to convert their Islamic knowledge into cultural capital. However, Islamic Studies teachers positively view their work in internationalized milieu. They think that the international schooling field can help them to accumulate different forms of capital that are prized in Qatar.

The Social Significance of Religious Guides

As religious tourism developed, some stakeholders have focused on the religious guide as a spiritual leader of the pilgrimage to supply religious knowledge and deepen the spiritual experience of the participants. In fact, the customers of religious tour operators seem to recognise religious guides as the important element in selecting a religious tour, and religious tour operators actively promote these religious figures as a significant element in their tour services. This chapter, therefore, considers the social context of religious guides in the Islamic religious tourism industry by mapping them in the structure of the marketplace from the perspective of the flow of ‘religious capital'. Particular focus is placed on clarifying the flow of the religious guide's religious capital in the religious tourism industry, and the social networking emerging from the religious tourism industry through considering the novel use of financial and physical resources in the marketplace for religious tourism.