Research group Contemporary society is characterized by contradictory processes and identities: our society is secularizing while religions continue to influence our everyday lives in new and complex ways as religious diversity and polarization increase. This means that we need new knowledge about how religions are lived, expressed and impact society.
The sociologists of religion at Umeå University study how society and people relate to religion and how this affects the religious landscape. The focus is on how religiosity and secularity affect our social relations, our social contracts, and ways of understanding group dynamics as well as individual identities. By focusing on religion as a social process, sociological perspectives on religiosity and secularity differ from theological research approaches.
We use methods that enable large scale investigations. Thus, we work on research questions such as which behaviours are increasing and which are decreasing? What might explain large-scale changes? And how does majority ways of relating to the religious impact the minorities? We also study the everyday and examine the influence of our past and present in institutions such as the health care system and the armed forces. We are also interested in the study of implicitly religious features in institutions and society, such as appeals to strong community, meaning and an overarching purpose. We are interested in the function of religions and existential health in a normative medical context, something that overlaps with the research focus of medical sociology.
How does Sweden's self-image as one of the world's least religious countries affect how we relate to issues of religion, religiosity, identities, and existential dimensions of life? How does it affect our understanding of what it means to be non-religious or secular? How can it be for a person to accommodate both secular and religious identities in everyday life in Sweden today?
What can we learn from observing the patterns of behaviour and identity expression that are common and uncommon? What new knowledge do we gain by comparing what is common in different countries or between/within religious groups? Here, sociologists of religion at the department specialize in finding analytical tools to delineate patterns and make new comparisons.
