Religion and local civil society: participation and change in a post-industrial village

ABSTRACT

The relationship between religion and civil society at the macro-level has attracted the attention of sociologists of religion but empirical detail of how religion is connected to the social relations and practices that constitute local civil society is relatively lacking. This article explores the contemporary social and communal significance of the religious dimension in local civil society using the authors’ ethnographic fieldwork and biographical interviews in a post-industrial village in North East Wales. Data on social change and participation in the locality include evidence of decline in religious affiliation and practice alongside the persistence of religion in the built environment, family ties, memory, and sense of belonging. The evidence can be used to inform a number of recent debates in both the sociology of religion and studies of civil society, including (post)secularity, religiously motivated social action, networks and associations, beliefs and belonging.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society
• locality
• participation
• religion
• Wales

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The study was part of the WISERD Civil Society Research Centre’s five-year multidisciplinary programme of research addressing civil society in Wales, the UK, and internationally (see https://wiserd.ac.uk/research; Mann et al. 2021).

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was supported by the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD). WISERD is a collaborative venture of the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales, and Swansea. The research was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (ES/L009099/1).

Notes on contributors

Howard Davis

Howard Davis is Professor Emeritus of Social Theory and Institutions at Bangor University, where he was Head of the School of Social Sciences (1999–2007). He was Co-Director of the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD) (2008–2018). His main areas of research are: social theories of culture and creativity; cultural formations and transitions in post-Soviet societies; social identities at local, national, and international levels. He was principal investigator for the WISERD Civil Society project “Civic Participation in Wales in Place and over Time”.

David Dallimore

David Dallimore is an independent researcher and Honorary Research Associate at Bangor University, formerly a Research Officer and member of the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD) Civil Society team examining change in localities over time. He has published in the Voluntary Sector Review on the determinants of local volunteering activity and extended this work with funding from the UK “Local Trust” charity. Most recently, he has worked with the Wales School of Social Care Research and undertaken qualitative research with older people with complex social care needs.

CORRESPONDENCE: Howard Davis, School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, Wales, UK.

Marta Eichsteller

Marta Eichsteller is Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow in Sociology at University College Dublin, formerly Lecturer in Sociology at Bangor University and a member of the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD) Civil Society team. Her main areas of research include the formation of identity and belonging at the local, national, and international levels as well as innovative methodological approaches using biographical narrative data. Her recent research includes analysis of household resilience and sustainable escape from poverty in Africa.

Robin Mann

Robin Mann is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Bangor University and Co-Director of the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD). His research interests and expertise are in political sociology, especially: national identity, nationalism, ethnicity, and class; civil society; the politics of local social relations. He is author (with Steve Fenton) of Nation, Class and Resentment: The Politics of National Identity in England, Scotland and Wales (2017).