Rana Jawad

Religion, Social Welfare and Social Policy in the UK: Historical, Theoretical and Policy Perspectives

Social science researchers in the UK now accept that religion has returned to public life (Spalek and Imtoual, 2008; Dinham and Lowndes, 2009), after what has been described by Gorski (2005) as a considerable period of ‘intellectual and political repression’ that began in the post-World War II era. This lasted until around the beginning of the 1980s when political events such as the 1979 Iranian revolution, the rise of the ‘moral majority’ in North America and the spread of religious political mobilisation across the world, forced social scientists to recalculate their predictions about the effective demise of religion which had been considered to be a direct consequence of processes of modernisation (Casanova, 1994; Gorski, 2005; Habermas, 2006).

Human Ethics and Welfare Particularism: An Exploration of the Social Welfare Regime in Lebanon

This paper presents a profile of the welfare regime in Lebanon which is posited on the twin precepts of human ethics and welfare particularism. It highlights the key role that moral values play in the conceptualization and implementation of social policy, as well as in the measurement of welfare outcomes. This is marked by the dominance of duty, traditionalism and elitism in the ethics of religious welfare in Lebanon. The paper argues that the social welfare regime in Lebanon overlaps with the debates on the ethics of care and on virtue ethics in Western moral philosophy. This is also linked in with contemporary conceptualizations of religious ethics in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The paper asserts that religious ethics is a valid endeavour in its own right and an ever more pertinent subject matter for the study of social welfare and social policy. This challenges the traditional dichotomy between reason and faith which has subdued the relevance of religion to public life. Indeed, religion, the nuclear family and clientelism networks are shown to play a critical role in Lebanese social welfare, such that, in spite of state incapacity, the welfare regime there cannot be considered rudimentary. The method adopted for this research was a large qualitative case study involving service providers and users at the Ministry of Social Affairs and five leading Christian and Muslim religious welfare organizations in Lebanon.

Serving the public or delivering public services? Religion and social welfare in the new British social policy landscape

Religion appears as a dormant actor in British social policy, yet since the early 1990s its role in public service provision has become more prominent. What can a religious perspective bring to our understanding of human wellbeing - especially as the idea of the Big Society opens up new normative landscapes? In response, this article outlines some policy and practice issues, namely that religious welfare provision: is key to a more historically accurate account of British social policy; challenges utilitarian notions of wellbeing; is a potentially good example of the Big Society; and is able to reconcile its secular public service provision role with its religious identity and mission to serve the public.

Thinking about Religious Welfare and Rethinking Social Policy in the British Context

The role of religion in social welfare provision, and more broadly in shaping the development of state social policy in the UK, has become an issue of increasing prominence in the last decade raising both new challenges and opportunities. This article brings together new and existing research in the field of religion and social action/welfare in the British context to present a preliminary discussion of how and why religion, as a source of social identity and moral values, matters for social policy. The key argument is that religious welfare provision goes beyond the mixed economy of welfare paradigm and has the capacity to challenge the Utilitarian underpinnings of mainstream social policy thinking by giving more relative importance to ethical issues such as self-knowledge and morality, in addition to the more conventional concepts of wellbeing or happiness. The article proposes the concept of ways of being in order to bring together these moral ideational factors that underpin social welfare.

Sociology in the 21st Century: Reminiscence and Redefinition

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sociology, the editorial board decided to produce four e-special issues reflecting the contributions of the journal across the decades. Each of the four e-specials focuses on a different theme: ‘1967–1979 Sociology and Social Class’ edited by Ryan and Maxwell; ‘Self-Identity and Its Discontents: Sociology in the 1990s’ edited by Skinner, May and Rollock; ‘Sociology in the 1980s: The Rise of Gender (and Intersectionality)’ edited by Roth and Dashper; and ‘Sociology in the 21st Century: Redefinition and Reminiscence’ edited by Jawad, Dolan and Skillington. The purpose of this e-special was to assess new developments in the research agenda of sociology as reflected through publications in Sociology during the period 2000–13. Two articles that featured in the journal before this time interval were also included on account of their seminal importance to new directions in sociological thinking. One theme, in particular, seemed to capture the essence of sociology’s new spirit of

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.

Chapter 19. Religion and Development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Poverty relief or social transformation

This Handbook provides a cutting-edge survey of the state of research on religions and global development. Part one highlights critical debates that have emerged within research on religions and development, particularly with respect to theoretical, conceptual and methodological considerations, from the perspective of development studies and its associated disciplines. Parts two to six look at different regional and national development contexts and the place of religion within these. These parts integrate and examine the critical debates raised in part one within empirical case studies from a range of religions and regions. Different religions are situated within actual locations and case studies thus allowing a detailed and contextual understanding of their relationships to development to emerge. Part seven examines the links between some important areas within development policy and practice where religion is now being considered, including: Faith-Based Organisations and Development; Public Health, Religion and Development; Human rights, Religion and Development; Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Religion; Global Institutions and Religious Engagement in Development; Economic Development and Religion; Religion, Development and Fragile States; Development and Faith-Based Education. Taking a global approach, the Handbook covers Africa, Latin America, South Asia, East and South-East Asia, and the Middle East. It is essential reading for students and researchers in development studies and religious studies, and is highly relevant to those working in area studies, as well as a range of disciplines, from theology, anthropology and economics to geography, international relations, politics and sociology.