Mapping the relationship between religion and social policy

ABSTRACT

Religion is a major aspect of human life that directly intersects with a number of social policy issues. Although much has been written about the religion-social policy nexus, the literature remains overly fragmented. Focusing primarily on Western Europe and North America, this review essay seeks to create a fruitful dialogue among the three main streams of research in the area, which respectively that focus on political parties, faith-based organisations, and individual behaviour. This essay has the goal of formulating a new, integrated agenda for future research on the religion and social policy nexus that also extends beyond Western societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion
• social policy
• welfare state
• faith-based-organizations
• political parties
• individual behaviour

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Rachel Hatcher and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Daniel Béland acknowledges support from the Canada Research Chairs Program and Rana Jawad would like to thank the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Emmanuele Pavolini is Associate Professor in Economic Sociology at the University of Macerata. He focuses his research interests in the following fields: comparative welfare state studies; labour market research and economic development. He has extensively published in English. In 2016, with Ugo Ascoli, he published The Italian Welfare State in European Perspective (Policy Press).

Daniel Béland holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Policy at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. A specialist in fiscal and social policy, he has published 17 books and more than 115 articles in peer-reviewed journals. In 2016, with Rianne Mahon, he published Advanced Introduction to Social Policy (Edward Elgar).

Rana Jawad is Associate Professor in Social Policy at the University of Bath. She specializes in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and has researched the role of religion and the voluntary sector in social welfare provision in both MENA and the UK. Her publications include From wellbeing to ways of being: religion and faith-based welfare in the UK (2012) and she has acted as a consultant on a variety of government and international projects.