G Bouma
Biographic Data
| ID | 3346 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G Bouma |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | Bouma |
| SIGNATURE | BOUMA G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2093-5738 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 75 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 129 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 75 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Whiteness, Religious Diversity and Relational Belonging
OPEN ACCESS CC BY-NC-ND-PAID African communities in Australia reflect the rich cultural and religious diversity of the African continent. Despite their persistence and agency, many members from these communities continue to experience a ‘fractured belonging’ due to persistent issues of racism and exclusion; issues that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Religious community groups and organizations have long played important roles…
Worldview complexity
Social science analysis of diversity, and religious diversity in particular, has long struggled to move beyond simple binaries of religious-secular, religious-spiritual, traditional-modern, global north-global south, and so on. Twenty-first century realities test existing terms and find them wanting. While concepts such as the postsecular, multiple modernities, multiple secularities, and non-religion point to new lines of analysis, each still ref…
Religious diversity through a super-diversity lens
Melbourne's religious diversity is increasing. This article reveals distinctive new configurations of ethno-religious diversity arising from immigration and residential mobility at a fine spatial level in different parts of one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities - Melbourne. Using the lens of super-diversity, we see beyond multicultural groups to intersections of diversities, and identify new types of ethno-religious compound in neighbourhoo…
Worldviews Complexity in Covid-19 Times
In 2020, as infections of COVID-19 began to rise, Australia, alongside many other nations, closed its international borders and implemented lockdown measures across the country. The city of Melbourne was hardest hit during the pandemic and experienced the strictest and longest lockdown worldwide. Religious and spiritual groups were especially affected, given the prohibition of gatherings of people for religious services and yoga classes with a sp…
Census
Tales from a Life in the Sociology of Religion
From structural functionalism and social realism to a vastly different sociology and social context, keeping up with changes within the profession and in the object of study, society, has been a challenge. A burning desire to use what is known to build a better society and enhance the lives of all, but especially those less fortunate and trapped in structures of poverty, discrimination or abuse, has provided an ongoing motivation to discover what…
Diverse worldviews education and social inclusion
Ongoing global issues relating to the decline of the popularity of institutional religions, the rise of numbers of non-religious persons, and new models of spirituality in superdiverse societies have resulted in the need to reconceptualise religious diversity as worldviews diversity, and to critically examine increasing calls for the provision of worldviews education in schools. This paper first examines the key concepts of superdiversity and rel…
Religious literacy of Australia’s Gen Z teens
Australia is a culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse country, however, learning about the religious dimensions of this superdiversity is inadequately reflected in the national school curriculum, notwithstanding recent attempts to address this at the state level in Victoria. Debates regarding the role of religion in school have raged across the country for decades and have impeded the introduction of learning about diverse worldviews …
Methodological challenges of designing a survey to capture young people’s (non-binary) affiliations in relationship to religion, sexuality and gender
Large-scale population studies surveying young people in relation to their worldviews have tended to frame their identities in a fixed and limited capacity while also treating the topics of religion/spirituality and sexuality/gender as discrete categories of scholarly analysis. We highlight the affordances and limitations of foregrounding fixed religious, sexual and gender-based identity categories in the process of collecting and analysing data …
Religious Diversity in Australia
This paper argues for a reconsideration of social cohesion as an analytical concept and a policy goal in response to increasing levels of religious diversity in contemporary Australia. In recent decades, Australian has seen a revitalization of religion, increasing numbers of those who do not identify with a religion (the "nones"), and the growth of religious minorities, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. These changes are often und…
Complex, Critical and Caring
Recent scholarly and media perspectives on religion and youth have often depicted young people as being apathetic when it comes to religion. The methods used in research on religion are also typically informed by outdated, fixed idea of religious identity that are no longer applicable, especially to young people. This paper confronts these issues by applying contemporary theories of religious diversity, including lived religion and religious comp…
Bruce Kaye, The Rise and Fall of English Christendom
Worldviews education
Since the mid-2000s soft power approaches to counter and prevent violent extremism (C/PVE) have increasingly been implemented by civil society, state actors and UN agencies internationally. Education is a critical and previously undervalued component in PVE, as it has only recently begun to attract significant scholarly and policy attention. This article briefly reviews the emerging field of education and PVE, and argues that it could benefit fro…
Social Cohesion in Australia
In a context of increasing ethnic and religious diversity, Australia's future prosperity may depend, in part, on the ability to maintain social cohesion. Drawing on the framework developed by the Scanlon Foundation Social Cohesion Research Program, this study examines data from the 2016 National Church Life Survey and the 2016 Australian Community Survey to compare levels of social cohesion among Australian churchgoers and among the general popul…
Religion, religiosity and patriarchal gender beliefs
This study examines diversity in how different religious groups and people with different levels of religiosity see the value and roles of women in Australian society through an examination of their gender beliefs. This addresses a significant gap in knowledge in the Australian scholarship in religious diversity and the impact of religion in family life. Understanding the relationships between religious identity and patriarchal gender attitudes i…
Religion, Support of Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples and the Australian National Vote on Marriage Equality
In 2017, the Australian Government commissioned a national vote on same-sex marriage legislation, which elicited substantial debates dominated by religious voices. We examine the associations between religious identification, the importance of religion to one’s life and frequency of attendance at religious services and support for same-sex couples in such a unique context. We contribute to knowledge by (1) systematically examining these relations…
Australia’s Changing Religious Profile—Rising Nones and Pentecostals, Declining British Protestants in Superdiversity
The 2016 Australian Census reveals continued change in Australia’s religious diversity. While reviewing some of the highlights of this development–the continuing increase in the ‘no religion’ category, the first ever decline in Catholic numbers, and the rise of Hindus and Sikhs–several religious groups, which are not usually combined in the census, actually when grouped together represent most of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches and form …
The Charles Strong Lecture 2015 Two Disconnected Discourses of Disconnection
Narratives like paradigms offer explanations of some aspect of life which are largely self-contained, self-sustaining, self-validating and impervious to disconfirming evidence. Anti-Islam discourses in the West and Anti-Western discourses among Muslims are two such discourses. That such discourses can legitimate violence is clearly evident in the rhetoric, actions and rationales given for violence among such groups as the Islamic State, Boko Hara…
Religious Diversity and the Challenge of Social Inclusion
As societies have become religiously diverse in ways and extents not familiar in the recent histories of most, the issues of how to include this diversity and how to manage it, that is, questions about how to be a religiously diverse society have come to the fore. As a result religion has become part of the social policy conversation in new ways. It has also occasioned new thinking about religions, their forms and the complexity of ways they are …
The role of demographic and socio-cultural factors in Australia’s successful multicultural society
Religious diversity and social cohesion have long been seen to be at odds with each other. Classical sociology, grounded in the Westphalian solution to religious conflict in Europe presumed that a single religion was necessary for social cohesion. The issue of religious diversity and social cohesion has come to the fore as once religiously monochrome societies have become diverse through migration and, to a lesser degree, conversion. While Europe…
Religion and Sex
The debate about same-sex marriage in Australia is used as a lens through which to examine the challenges to social policy debates produced by increases in religious diversity, on the one hand, and the re-entry of religious voices in the public sphere on the other. Moreover, it has now become necessary for non-religious so called secular voices, once considered to be the norm, to defend their positions. Australia’s provision of ‘civil celebrants’…
Using census data in the management of religious diversity
Mapping and measuring religious diversity has become critical to the management of interreligious relations in the 21st century. The data about religious identification provided by the Australian census since the formation of Federal Government in Australia, and prior to that in the Colonies, has provided detailed information about the extent of and changes in religious diversity in the nation and in particular cities. Because the census also pro…
Australian Anglicans and Religious Plurality
Religious Diversity both within and between religious groups has long challenged Anglicans. The demographics of religious diversity shape interreligious relations. Societies where one group dominates numerically and adds to this cultural domination and state support are very different from societies where no one group dominates. In Australia, Anglicans have been one group among others, sharing state support in the early nineteenth century and civ…
Religious diversity and social policy
The increase in religious diversity produced by the global movement of people and cultures and the proliferation of internal difference within religious communities raises social policy issues. Consideration of these issues is facilitated by understanding that religious groups intersect with social policy in four basic ways: as objects, sources, critics and implementers of policy. A major issue is the challenge societies face in respecting freedo…
Religious Diversity
The Emergence of Religious Plurality in Australia
As a result of post-war migration Australia has become a religiously plural, multicultural society. Following a careful examination of recent changes in the religious demography of Australia, a comparison of Australia with Canada and New Zealand, and a discussion of the nature of religiously plural, multicultural societies, six factors (three demographic and three social structural) are identified as key in reducing the likelihood of religious in…
Religion, religiosity and patriarchal gender beliefs
This study examines diversity in how different religious groups and people with different levels of religiosity see the value and roles of women in Australian society through an examination of their gender beliefs. This addresses a significant gap in knowledge in the Australian scholarship in religious diversity and the impact of religion in family life. Understanding the relationships between religious identity and patriarchal gender attitudes i…
A Comparative Study of the Successful Management of Religious Diversity
The study of the management of religious diversity has largely proceeded non-comparatively at national and organizational levels. As a result it is not yet possible to declare what promotes and what hinders the emergence of harmonious inter-religious relations in religiously diverse societies. This article compares the management of religious diversity at an urban level through a comparison of Melbourne, Australia and Hong Kong. The article first…
Complex, Critical and Caring
Recent scholarly and media perspectives on religion and youth have often depicted young people as being apathetic when it comes to religion. The methods used in research on religion are also typically informed by outdated, fixed idea of religious identity that are no longer applicable, especially to young people. This paper confronts these issues by applying contemporary theories of religious diversity, including lived religion and religious comp…
Max Weber and Modern Sociology
Religion, Support of Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples and the Australian National Vote on Marriage Equality
In 2017, the Australian Government commissioned a national vote on same-sex marriage legislation, which elicited substantial debates dominated by religious voices. We examine the associations between religious identification, the importance of religion to one’s life and frequency of attendance at religious services and support for same-sex couples in such a unique context. We contribute to knowledge by (1) systematically examining these relations…
Many Religions, All Australian
The role of demographic and socio-cultural factors in Australia’s successful multicultural society
Religious diversity and social cohesion have long been seen to be at odds with each other. Classical sociology, grounded in the Westphalian solution to religious conflict in Europe presumed that a single religion was necessary for social cohesion. The issue of religious diversity and social cohesion has come to the fore as once religiously monochrome societies have become diverse through migration and, to a lesser degree, conversion. While Europe…
Islamophobia as a constraint to world peace
One of the critical factors shaping any understanding of the reception of Islam and Muslims in the West is an overarching anti-Islam and anti-Muslim discourse. This article takes Islamophobia to refer to a discourse that reifies and essentializes negative images of Islam, Muslims and their cultures, resulting in unfounded fear of actual Muslims. This article briefly discusses this discourse and demonstrates its effects in the West and in particul…
Gender and Religious Settlement
Religious settlement refers to the process whereby a religion moves from one place to another and becomes incorporated into the religious economy of the new place. In this process, both the migrating religion and the society in which it settles are changed. This process, described in detail by several studies, results in an increase in religious diversity necessitating new strategies to negotiate this diversity in everyday life. Using census data…
Distinguishing institutions and organisations in social change
There has been a renewed interest in social institutions and social change. However, most discussions of social change use the terms 'institutions' and 'organisations' almost interchangeably, while a few make a distinction which is then ignored, obscured or lost. Institutions are sets of norms which apply across a variety of specific organisations. Organisations are structures of social relationship, social actors arranged in positions and roles;…
Religious diversity through a super-diversity lens
Melbourne's religious diversity is increasing. This article reveals distinctive new configurations of ethno-religious diversity arising from immigration and residential mobility at a fine spatial level in different parts of one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities - Melbourne. Using the lens of super-diversity, we see beyond multicultural groups to intersections of diversities, and identify new types of ethno-religious compound in neighbourhoo…
Religious Diversity in Australia
This paper argues for a reconsideration of social cohesion as an analytical concept and a policy goal in response to increasing levels of religious diversity in contemporary Australia. In recent decades, Australian has seen a revitalization of religion, increasing numbers of those who do not identify with a religion (the "nones"), and the growth of religious minorities, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. These changes are often und…
Using census data in the management of religious diversity
Mapping and measuring religious diversity has become critical to the management of interreligious relations in the 21st century. The data about religious identification provided by the Australian census since the formation of Federal Government in Australia, and prior to that in the Colonies, has provided detailed information about the extent of and changes in religious diversity in the nation and in particular cities. Because the census also pro…
Religious diversity and social policy
The increase in religious diversity produced by the global movement of people and cultures and the proliferation of internal difference within religious communities raises social policy issues. Consideration of these issues is facilitated by understanding that religious groups intersect with social policy in four basic ways: as objects, sources, critics and implementers of policy. A major issue is the challenge societies face in respecting freedo…
The Real Reason One Conservative Church Grew
Methodological challenges of designing a survey to capture young people’s (non-binary) affiliations in relationship to religion, sexuality and gender
Large-scale population studies surveying young people in relation to their worldviews have tended to frame their identities in a fixed and limited capacity while also treating the topics of religion/spirituality and sexuality/gender as discrete categories of scholarly analysis. We highlight the affordances and limitations of foregrounding fixed religious, sexual and gender-based identity categories in the process of collecting and analysing data …
Worldviews Complexity in Covid-19 Times
In 2020, as infections of COVID-19 began to rise, Australia, alongside many other nations, closed its international borders and implemented lockdown measures across the country. The city of Melbourne was hardest hit during the pandemic and experienced the strictest and longest lockdown worldwide. Religious and spiritual groups were especially affected, given the prohibition of gatherings of people for religious services and yoga classes with a sp…
Social Cohesion in Australia
In a context of increasing ethnic and religious diversity, Australia's future prosperity may depend, in part, on the ability to maintain social cohesion. Drawing on the framework developed by the Scanlon Foundation Social Cohesion Research Program, this study examines data from the 2016 National Church Life Survey and the 2016 Australian Community Survey to compare levels of social cohesion among Australian churchgoers and among the general popul…
Social Justice Issues in the Management of Religious Diversity in Australia
New Rules of Sociological Method
Estimating the Extent of Religious and Spiritual Activity in Australia Using Time-Budget Data
The amount of religious and spiritual activity in a society is usually estimated by surveys, census data, participant records, and membership data. Most of these do not provide a comparison of religious with other activities and suffer from significant halo effects. Time-budget data provide the basis for estimating religious activity as a percentage of all time and enable comparisons with other similar activities. This analysis of time-budget dat…
Articulating Religious Meaning in Conversation
Keeping the Faithful
Journal Article Keeping the Faithful: Patterns of Membership Retention in the Christian Reformed Church Get access Gary D. Bouma Gary D. Bouma Monash University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 41, Issue 3, Fall 1980, Pages 259–264, https://doi.org/10.2307/3710402 Published: 01 October 1980
The Social Psychology of Religion
Assessing the Impact of Religion
A persistent interest in the scientific study of religion has been to assess the impact of religious beliefs and values on human behavior and social structure. The methodological prerequisites for making such an assessment, including the criteria for valid causal inference, are described. Attempts by American social scientists to determine the impact of religion are evaluated in terms of the criteria. Most research fails to meet the minimal crite…
Max Weber and Modern Sociology
Beyond Lenski
What is the result of the research stimulated by Lenski's The Religious Factor? This research testing hypotheses derived from Weber's Protestant Ethic thesis focused on ProtestantCatholic differentials in social status and mobility, in achievement motivation, and in educational and scientific performance. Most of the data were nonsupportive of, or contradictory to, the hypotheses derived from the Weber thesis. None of the research was adequate to…
The Public Style
The Academic Melting Pot
Journal Article The Academic Melting Pot: Catholics and Jews in American Higher Education: by Stephen Steinberg. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1974, xix + 193 pp. $8.95 Get access Gary D. Bouma Gary D. Bouma Dalhousie University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 35, Issue 3, Autumn 1974, Pages 227–228, https://doi.org/10.2307/3710657 Published: 01 October 1974
The Seduction of the Spirit
Responses to Religion
Patterns of Vocalization and Impression Formation
The Social Psychology of Religion
New Rules of Sociological Method
Fertility Control
Explanation in Yinger's Sociology of Religion
A Sociology of Belief. James T. Borhek , Richard F. Curtis
The Real Reason One Conservative Church Grew
Samuel W. Blizzard's contribution to ministry studies and theological education
Keeping the Faithful
Journal Article Keeping the Faithful: Patterns of Membership Retention in the Christian Reformed Church Get access Gary D. Bouma Gary D. Bouma Monash University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 41, Issue 3, Fall 1980, Pages 259–264, https://doi.org/10.2307/3710402 Published: 01 October 1980
The Plight of the Australian Clergy
How the Saints Persevere
Journal Article How the Saints Persevere: Social Factors in the Vitality of the Christian Reformed Church, by Gary D. Bouma, Clayton, Australia: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Monash University., 1984, iv+94 pp. $8.00 Get access Raymond F. Currie Raymond F. Currie University of Manitoba Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 46, Issue 4, Winter 1985, Pages 465–466, https:/…
How the Saints Persevere
The Seeds of Secularization
The Religious Factor in Australian Life
The Religious Factor in Australian Life
Continuity and Change among Canadian Mennonite Brethren
Religion in Australia
Religion
Journal Article Religion: Meaning, Transcendence and Community in Australia, by Gary D. Bouma. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992, x + 194 pp. A$19.99 Get access Alan W. Black Alan W. Black University of New England, Australia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 54, Issue 2, Summer 1993, Pages 234–235, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712150 Published: 01 July 1993
Sociology (70 works) · Political science (38 works) · Social science (35 works) · Philosophy (34 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (32 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (28 works) · Law (26 works) · Anthropology (22 works) · Religious studies (19 works) · Epistemology (18 works)