Christophe Monnot

Representation of Vulnerability and the Elderly. A Total Survey Error Perspective on the VLV Survey

This chapter focuses on the “Vivre-Leben-Vivere” (VLV) research and explains how the team in charge has dealt with the issue of representing old people in Switzerland and the vulnerable persons within this population. For this purpose, we draw inspiration from the “total survey error” perspective and discuss the procedures that were used to collect the information, but also the quality of the information itself. We present some of VLV’s methodological choices, such as the contact procedures that were designed to “capture” the most vulnerable individuals, especially in a context where refusal rates for participation in surveys are increasing. We also consider the missing values in responses to some “complex” topics. Results show that participation rates are highly related to the effort that was made in order to recruit the individuals. This is critical for the VLV project, where people can show different degrees of vulnerability related to age, health, and/or poverty. In this sense, efforts such as repeated calls, home visits, and the proxy procedure were successful both in a general perspective and more specifically for a fair inclusion of vulnerable persons in the survey. At the same time, the non-response rates show to what extent it is difficult to explain the personal decision not to respond to a survey or to a question. We can find some traces of “interviewer effects” in the analysis of item non-responses, which we have done by using a logistic regression for one of the psychological tests included in VLV. Some aspects relate to interviewer and respondent characteristics, but others relate to the interview context, all highlighting the complex social interactions at stake.

The Diversity of Religious Diversity. Using Census and NCS Methodology in Order to Map and Assess the Religious Diversity of a Whole Country

Religious diversity is often captured in “mapping studies” that use mostly qualitative methods in order to map and assess the religious communities in a given area. While these studies are useful, they often present weaknesses in that they treat only limited geographic regions, provide limited possibilities for comparing across religious groups and cannot test theories. In this article, we show how a census and a quantitative national congregations study (NCS) methodology can be combined in order to map and assess the religious diversity of a whole country (Switzerland), overcoming the problems mentioned above. We outline the methodological steps and selected results concerning organizational, geographic, structural, and cultural diversity.

Croire ensemble. Analyse institutionnelle du paysage religieux en Suisse

The study presented in this book for the first time in Switzerland offers a broad empirical and sociological perspective on local religious organizations. From this perspective, religion appears first, as already observed by Weber and Durkheim, through communities regardless of their various profiles. In Switzerland, 5,734 parishes and religious groups have been identified by a national census in 2008. The book underlines the institutional salience of historical churches (Reformed and Roman Catholic) but also the emerging religious plurality, particularly in urban areas. This study sheds a new light upon the effects of secularization (lower limbs and practice) and pluralisation (diversification of religious denominations and traditions) in the organizational field. The analysis of differences and similarities between religious traditions shows a social positioning of the local groups according to the statutes acquired in history. The classical theories − e.g. about the relationship between social status of members and membership groups, types of religious authorities or differences between Church and Sect − are revisited, clarified or reformulated based on an original and representative quantitative data of the Swiss religious field.

S’inscrire dans l’espace public en tant que musulman en Suisse

In Switzerland, as in many European countries, Muslims are required to be represented in the public sphere. The author clarifies the various institutional constraints that lead Muslims to present themselves differently in the public sphere. He identifies, on the one hand, a tendency for representatives to present themselves as part of a confessional structure embodying the communitas islamica. This structure consists of communities from the diaspora that have reached an agreement with the Swiss Confederation and communities that federate at the level of the canton to form a representative body in the eyes of the authorities responsible for religious regulation. There are, on the other hand, actors who manage to impose their will to create an idealized homo islamicus by becoming directly involved in the media, at the risk of damaging the hard-won ‘representation’ of the institutional actors.

The Established and the Newcomers. A Weberian-Bourdieusian View of Congregations in the Swiss Religious Field

At least since the work of Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu, scholars have claimed that established and newcomer groups may compete for resources and power in religious fields. Remarkably, even though the religious field concept rests in important ways on the relationships between religious suppliers, there have, to date, been few quantitative studies that describe these fields on the congregational level. Using a representative National Congregation Study (NCS), we measure and compare the activities and resources of established and newcomer congregations across all major religious traditions in Switzerland. As expected, establishment status is linked to strong privileges for the established groups. Despite diminishing numbers of official members and diminishing attendance, established groups are much wealthier and have more staff than newcomer groups. Other than expected, established groups do not seem to compete with newcomer groups by using exclusion strategies. On the contrary, established groups explicitly seek ecumenical and interreligious contacts and are very tolerant concerning individual social and religious diversity. We suggest that this does not contradict the Weberian/Bourdieusian field theory, but can be viewed as a strategy by established groups to preserve their threatened establishment status.

How Do You Recognize a “Congregation”? Definition and Operationalization Strategies of the Swiss Congregation Census

In congregation studies, scholars must define and operationalize their unit of observation. While most mapping studies routinely give a definition of congregation, there has been no attempt to show just what techniques of operationalization are needed to apply the definition to the field, what problems may arise and how they can be solved. This chapter uses the example of the Swiss congregation census to fill this gap in the literature. We first discuss general questions of definition and operationalization and give our definition of congregation. Second, we show how the definition has been operationalized in the census, demonstrating for every element of the definition how it includes certain phenomena and excludes others. We give special attention to borderline cases and discuss with what techniques they have been treated.

Visibility or Invisibility: The Dilemma of the Muslim Associations of Switzerland

The Muslim associations of Switzerland are in the throes of a dilemma: should they remain invisible in order to avoid social stigmatization, or become visible in order to speak out and gain fair recognition? This invisibility especially relates to the local level and the impact and interactions that the associations have with their immediate environment. The visibility is characterized by the decision of the ‘representative’ associations to bring Muslims out of obscurity. It touches on the supra-local level of federal cantonal representation. The analysis in this article will illuminate the two levels of the dilemma, based on observations and interviews conducted with the Muslim religious communities of a large representative region of Switzerland.