Call for Abstracts (ISA Forum 2025): Welfare State Developments between New and Old Religious Cleavages – Global Perspectives

RC19/RC22 Session:

RC19 Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (host committee)
RC22 Sociology of Religion

Language: English

Session Type: Oral

Religion has always been a central source for “knowing”; about the world and social life. While a key narrative of modernity is that of emancipation from religious “knowing”, research has identified strong influence of religion(s) on key institutions of modern society, such as the welfare state. Principles of subsidiarity and family ideals in European conservative welfare regimes can be traced back to Social Catholicism; Nordic welfare state ideals of trust and equality relate back to Lutheran dominance in this region; distrust in state institutions and preference for welfare provision via civil society has been linked to Reform-Protestantism, e.g. in the UK or USA (Naumann/Paterson 2022; van Kersbergen/Manow 2009). Religious influence becomes even more visible in developing welfare states, for example with respect to Zakat-based welfare in Islamic countries. Importantly, religious influence on social policies is not simply a remnant from the past but very much present today, as highlighted by tensions in Latin America between Liberal Theological orientations towards poverty and social justice and new Pentecostal movements. These new religious cleavages are fought out in the public sphere and address key questions regarding the role and scope of social policy, for example with respect to gender relations (as seen in conflicts over reproductive rights) and beliefs regarding “deservingness” and social justice.

This session invites contributions that explore new and old religious cleavages in social policy and politics. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome. We particularly welcome contributions examining this theme with regards to Global South and Global East regions.

Session Organizers:

Please include: title, up to four keywords, author(s) and abstract with a maximum length of 300 words.

Miriam Dengjel

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Universität Freiburg

Sekretariat

Sozialarbeit, Sozialpolitik und globale Entwicklung

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