‘Community’ in the sociology of religion

The case of Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID18968909
AuthorsJames A Beckford (University of Warwick, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume62
Issue2
Pages225-237
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7686 • E-ISSN: 1461-7404
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0037768615571692
OpenAlexW1901994643
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited31

The author’s aim is to offer some critical observations on usage of the terms ‘community’ and ‘faith community’. The central argument is that ‘community’ is a weasel word that occurs frequently in discourses at the levels of everyday life, public policy-making, welfare services and social scientific analysis. The article begins by reviewing relatively uncontentious uses of ‘community’. The second section of the article analyses the UK government’s usage of the term ‘faith community’ in policy documents since 1997. And the third section explores two particularly problematic issues: on the one hand a tension that arises within official discourses about faith communities and, on the other, the UK government’s practice of treating faith communities as if they were undifferentiated collectivities. The conclusion urges sociologists of religion to avoid uncritically reproducing official discourses about faith communities

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Faith · Government (linguistics) · Political science · Public policy · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of religion · Gender Studies · Law · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology