Annual Review of  the Sociology of Religion
Issue number 3, 2012

New Methods in Sociology of Religion
Call for Papers

Research in the sociology of religion has hitherto been based on either qualitative or quantitative methods. This division is based on European philosophy at the end of the XIX century which distinguished between natural science and the humanities, exploration and interpretation, empirical-measurements and hermeneutics. The Methodenstreit of German historicism expressed this dualism, and it is repeated in the current ‘war of paradigms’ (eg. Guba and Lincoln). 

Despite this, social research methods are increasingly interested in the possibilities of combined methods. This has also consequences for the sociology of religion, which tries on the one hand to describe and explain religious facts and on the other to comprehend and interpret religious expressions. The issue of methodological innovation is actualized by the challenge to present a comprehensive analysis of new religious forms in contemporary society. This interest for combining quantitative and qualitative approaches opens for a new  kind of “methodological question”: whether such combinations are meaningful and which combinations are especially fruitful for the sociology of religion. Therefore, the third number of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion focuses on methodological innovation, new techniques or new combinations of established techniques, with special regard to new research themes in the sociology of religion. It also takes up a discussion of the epistemological foundation for such methodological innovations. 

We solicit proposals for: 

1.      Epistemology and meta-theory, theoretical assumptions, plural theories.  

2.      Critical reviews of commonly used methods.

3.      New methods. 

Among the topics of special interest are:

• The role of the participant observer in field research
• New media for sociological research
• Visual and spatial methods
• Comparative research between history and sociology
• New approaches to quantitative analysis
• New approaches to case studies
• Methods for studying cyber religion  and cyborg religion

Send all proposals by email to:
Luigi Berzano (University of Torino), luigi.berzano@tin.it
Ole Riis (University of Adger), ole.riis@uia.no <mailto:ole.riis@uia.no> 

Paper proposals (between 250 and 300 words) due: January 31, 2010
Completed manuscripts (between 8,000 and 10,000 words) due: July 30, 2011

Source: the e-mail list of the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Annual Meeting
October 28-30, 2011
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Research in the Scientific Study of Religion: from the Local to the Cross-National 

Research on religion from social scientific perspectives takes many different forms. It varies by discipline, theoretical orientation, research questions, methodological strategy, available funding, and so on. This year’s meeting will focus on the question of how the processes of research take place at levels ranging from the local to the cross-national.

Following the emphasis in last year’s call for papers on religion in global perspective, the aim will be to examine the challenges that face researchers working at the local, national, international, and cross-national levels. This will involve discussion of the material, academic, political, legal and intellectual conditions that help to frame religion as an object for research at these levels. With these themes in mind, a special plenary session will examine two large-scale programs of research on religion in the UK and Canada. Other sessions will explore the variety of approaches to research in the scientific study of religion in different regions of the world.

Proposals for sessions and papers on any topic in the scientific study of religion are welcome. We particularly invite proposals that shed light on the opportunities and challenges of researching religion. This year’s meeting will showcase the diversity of scholarly debates about the concepts, theories, and methods that inform research. It will also highlight the opportunities for collaborative work, the training of researchers, and the limitations imposed on their investigations. As usual, presentations on the findings of research on any aspect of religion are strongly encouraged.

All session and paper proposals must be submitted via the on-line submission system that will be available on the SSSR’s web site, www.sssrweb.org, beginning January 15, 2011. In addition to the session proposer’s full contact information, a session proposal requires a session title and an abstract of not more than 150 words describing the goal of the session and how the proposer expects the session to contribute to scientific knowledge about religion. Paper proposals require the name(s) of the author(s), first author’s full contact information, an abstract of not more than 150 words that succinctly describes the question(s) motivating the research, the data and methods used, and what the paper contributes or expects to contribute to the knowledge or understanding of religion. The submission deadline is March 1, 2011.

Important Dates

Submissions Open: January 15, 2011 (see http://www.sssrweb.org)
Submissions Close: March 1, 2011
Decision Notification: April 5, 2011

Please direct questions to:                     

Stephen McMullin, Program Chair                 
Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada               
stephen.mcmullin@acadiau.ca   

Source: http://www.sssrweb.org/news.cfm?newsid=152