Between Secularisation and Sacralisation (TSR)

Mission

The TSR research programme focuses primarily on the dynamics of practices of signification and identity formation of churchgoing and ex-churchgoing Dutch in the Netherlands. It intends to highlight the particularities of such dynamics by studying changes over the last fifty years in religious experience, language, ritual forms, moral orientations and identity formation. It does so through a contextually and historically specific analysis of meaning repertoires and practices in the religious field. It is assumed that these meaning repertoires and practices highly inform both subjective and inter-subjective practices of signification concerning the self, others, and the 'superhuman' dimension. These can only be meaningfully analyzed with explicit reference to wider social and cultural developments and ever-changing power relations. The fieldwork that is implied in studying the central research theme takes place in four different locations: Amsterdam, Houten, Gulpen and Leiden.

Identity is taken as the capacity to experience and position oneself as an active and relatively coherent participant in a social world that is ruled by centripetal and centrifugal tendencies. To this capacity both purposive and routine signification through reflexivity and inter-subjectivity on available meaning repertoires are central. As such, the study of signification and identity formation in the TSR programme is informed both by practice theories and connectionism. Practice theories are useful for studying the dynamic interrelation between structures and actors from a historical perspective, with an emphasis on the many faces of power. Connectionism is helpful in gaining insight in the employment and workings of cultural meaning repertoires, and in the centrifugal and centripetal tendencies that (re)produce these basic scripts for human experience, thought and behavior.

TSR research projects

The TSR research programme consists of five interrelated research projects, which respectively focus on moral orientations, ritual forms, experience, language and identity formation. The interrelation between the separate projects is implied in a) the complementary nature of the four aspects to signification, i.e. moral orientation, ritual forms, language and experience, and b) the mutual influence between signification on the one hand and processes of identity formation on the other hand.
The research project on changing moral orientations and religious practices in the South of the Netherlands explores how modernization and secularization have been received by people in the local community of Gulpen (Limburg) and which repertoires presently inform moral and religious practices in this region.

The study on ritual forms is comparative in nature. It compares changes in the ritual forms in two churches in Houten, which is an interesting research location as it consists of an old village center and a new suburb, and since influences of both the ecumenical and the charismatic movement are observable.

The project on language investigates changes in language that people use when talking, writing or reading about their world view; it particularly focuses on the meaning repertoires among readers – either individual readers or people organized in so-called book clubs in Amsterdam – of popular books.

The research project on experience and changing signification in Christian spiritual groups focuses on (changing) religious signification within the context of non-institutional forms of religion in the Netherlands. Participatory research takes place in meditation groups, encounter groups and spiritual retreats, located in several training centers for Christian spirituality in Amsterdam.

The linking project on identity, finally, focuses on the form and content of processes of identification and differentiation among and between ecumenical churchgoing as well as ex-churchgoing inhabitants in the town of Leiden. It looks into the ways in which these processes are related to the practices of signification of both individuals and social groups as well as to current social phenomena such as secularization, individualization and de-traditionalization.

To all projects the use of qualitative research methods is central, including participant observation, interviewing key respondents, and the recording of life histories.

Objectives

First, the TSR programme aims at gathering qualitative research data on identification and signification in the religious field, which can serve as a necessary complement to the already existing body of quantitative data on this subject. Second, the research programme provides for an in-depth verification of the prevalence and range of social developments, such as individualization, secularization and de-traditionalization, as up to now these are merely presupposed, starting from philosophical and theological assumptions and theories. Third, the TSR programme intends to contribute to the testing and, if necessary, development of qualitative research methods that are designed to investigate processes of signification and identification. Fourth, the research programme wants to make a contribution to existing theoretical discussions on practices of signification and identity formation. Finally, the results of the research programme can serve as a starting-point for the formulation of new policy by those churches involved, and for correcting persistent stereotypical representations of church-going and non-church-going Dutch in the media.

Time-table

 
The Ph.D. projects on moral orientations and language each have duration of 4 years (full-time). The post-doctoral projects on experience, ritual forms and identity take up 2,5 years (full-time) and 4 years (part-time) respectively. All projects consist of four stages, i.e. literature study, fieldwork, data analysis and reporting, the duration of which depends on the total duration of each individual project.

Output

The TSR research programme will result in a reader, in scientific and popular articles in Dutch and foreign journals, and in two PhD theses. In the final stage of the programme, an international congress will be organized to present the first solid results of the research programme and to compare these with findings of research projects in other countries on related issues.

Morality
Rituals
Identity
Experience
Word and images
Programme members