Tuomas Martikainen

Introduction: Religion et société de consummation/ Religion in Consumer Society

Le point départ de ce numéro thématique est l’observation que les nouvelles formes d’économie politique et culturelle qui sont devenues dominantes depuis les années 1980 ont entraîné de profondes conséquences sur les croyances, les pratiques et les expressions religieuses en Occident et dans le monde. La montée du consumérisme dans les années d’après-guerre, accompagnée de l’accroissement constant d’une sphère communicationnelle mondialisée et mondialisante, combinée à l’influence de plus en plus marquée de l’idéologie du néolibéralisme, n’a pas été sans influencer le religieux. Ces changements en appellent à une réflexion critique et à l’exploration de nouvelles voies théoriques et analytiques. Ce numéro thématique de Social Compass vise à apporter une contribution en ce sens, quoiqu-évidemment partielle et fragmentaire. Comment le religieux a-t-il été articulé à l’économique suite à ces transformations? Les travaux sur le sujet s’inscrivent dans des courants différents. En premier lieu, une série de travaux aborde la question de la croissance de la société de consommation en relevant Introduction: Religion in Consumer Society

Religion, Migration, Settlement

In Religion, Migration, Settlement, Tuomas Martikainen provides an account of the impact of immigration on the field of religion in Finland since the 1990s.

The Governance of Islam in Finland and Ireland

The questions of how western European states have related, and should relate, to their Muslim populations have in recent decades generated a rapidly growing body of research, aimed at answering the above questions from different theoretical perspectives. It has been argued that the main problem with the existing theories is their failure to take into account historically evolved church–state relations that have a bearing on the way that Muslim religious practices are accommodated in a given country. In order to test this argument, we will examine the representational structures of Muslims in Finland and the Republic of Ireland as well as questions pertaining to Islam and education. Even if under different legal arrangements of church–state relations, both Finland and Ireland have opted for a policy where they aim at securing the status quo of a dominant national church while also extending some of the legal privileges enjoyed by the mainstream church to religious minorities. What we will demonstrate in our article is that while this kind of “policy of extended privileges” can work for, it can also function against securing the rights of religious minorities such as Muslims.

Religious diversity beyond the cosmopolis: Immigration and the religious field in the City of Turku, Finland

Abstract International migration has fundamentally changed local population demographics in many corners of the world. This article discusses the religious implications of an increase in the population of immigrant origin in the city of Turku, Finland, which serves as an example of a regional immigration centre. Migration started at the turn of the 1990s and by 2006, about 9% of the citys population were first and second generation migrants with backgrounds mainly in Europe and Asia. The main countries of origin are Russia, Iraq, former Yugoslavia and Estonia. The migrants have brought increasing religious diversity to the local religious fields, including internal diversification of membership in many Christian churches (Lutheran, Protestant free church, Orthodox and Catholic), and have founded new Muslim, Buddhist and Mandaean congregations. This article argues that the founding of religious organisations is a main form of structural adaptation to the local social context. In addition, there is a discussion of religious activities and transnational connections in relation to immigration, as well as, the local, national and transnational implications of increasing globality.

New communities of worship: Continuities and mutations among religious organizations in Finland

The authors provide a summary of three key developments that have brought change to the field of religious organizations in Finland: the emergence of new Lutheran communities (the St Thomas Mass, the so-called Nokia Revival and the fundamentalist Luther Foundation Finland); Ashtanga yoga as a form of spirituality; and the spread of migrant religious communities. The article sets these developments in the context of late modern communal belonging and discusses how religious communities have been transforming over the last two to three decades in Finland.

Towards a new political economy of religion: reflections on Marion Maddox and Nicolas de Bremond d’Ars

The author offers a commentary on Marion Maddox’s and Nicolas de Bremond d’Ars’s articles in this journal. He suggests that taking into account macro-level changes in political economy is the key to understanding many current debates in the sociology of religion. He situates the Maddox and de Bremond d’Ars texts in the context of contemporary scholarship on religion and economy and discusses whether a new political economy of religions is emerging with reference to a growing economic reasoning among religions, new forms of religion and Church–State relations. The author raises many questions on the nature of contemporary religious change and the specific role of global capitalism and neoliberalism. He also suggests that religions will both adapt to and take advantage of the new state of affairs.

Bibliographie internationale de Sociologie des Religions 2010/ International Bibliography of Sociology of Religions 2010

Les lecteurs de notre revue trouveront ci-dessous la bibliographie internationale de sociologie des religions pour l’année 2010. Nous rappelons que notre bibliographie ne couvre de façon systématique que des revues spécialisées (à l’exclusion des ouvrages). La liste de celles-ci et leurs abréviations usuelles figurent en tête de la bibliographie, classées par langues. Readers of our review will find below the international bibliography of sociology of religions for 2010. We would remind readers that our bibliography is a systematic indexing only of specialized journals (and not of books). The list of these journals and their usual abbreviations precede the bibliography and are classified by language.