...MODEL ESSAY ANSWER “Assess the view that New Religious Movements are mainly for the middle classes and the young.” [33 marks] Introduction New Religious Movements are often viewed as non-traditional organisations, such as sects and cults. Sociologists believe that there are differences within such groups and thus, they could help to explain why certain social groups might find them appealing. Traditional organisations are often referred to as churches and denominations. They also might appeal to certain groups more than others. Arguably, the middle classes find NRMS more appealing because according to Wallis the affluent middle class are more likely to suffer from relative deprivation. Despite their wealth and having all the material comforts of life, they feel a spiritual void. So, a cult – which, according to Stark & Bainbridge offer compensation by offering people the things they lack; might appeal to those who materially have everything but spiritually lack fulfilment. Also, most cults allow members to lead conventional lifestyles – a factor appealing to the middle classes who might need to retain this sort of life in order to keep on making money. However, Troelstch believes that the M/C actually find the more conventional church more appealing. This is because the church is very well-established in society and perceived as hierarchical and formal. Belonging to a church therefore serves to reinforce their status in society or their local community. E.G Several...
Words: 1602 - Pages: 7
...specification: The relationship between religious beliefs and social change and stability * Functionalism: conservative force, inhibition of change, collective conscience, Durkheim and totemism, anomie; civil religions * Marxism: religion as ideology, legitimating social inequality, disguising exploitation etc * Weber: religion as a force for social change: theodicies, the Protestant ethic * Neo-Marxism: religion used by those opposing the ruling class, liberation theology * Feminism: religious beliefs supporting patriarchy * Fundamentalist beliefs: rejecting change by reverting to supposed traditional values and practices. Religious organisations, including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age movements, and their relationship to religious and spiritual belief and practice * Typologies of religious organisations: churches, denominations, sects and cults, with examples of each New Religious Movements and typologies of NRMs eg world rejecting/accommodating/affirming; millenarian beliefs, with examples of each * New Age movements and spirituality, with examples * The relationship of these organisations to religious and spiritual belief and practice. The relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organisations and movements, beliefs and practices * Reasons why people join NRMs, NAMs and other organisations * Gender and religion: women: women’s greater participation, women in religious organisations including NRMs;...
Words: 23270 - Pages: 94
...relationship between religious beliefs and social change and stability * Functionalism: conservative force, inhibition of change, collective conscience, Durkheim and totemism, anomie; civil religions * Marxism: religion as ideology, legitimating social inequality, disguising exploitation etc * Weber: religion as a force for social change: theodicies, the Protestant ethic * Neo-Marxism: religion used by those opposing the ruling class, liberation theology * Feminism: religious beliefs supporting patriarchy * Fundamentalist beliefs: rejecting change by reverting to supposed traditional values and practices. Religious organisations, including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age movements, and their relationship to religious and spiritual belief and practice * Typologies of religious organisations: churches, denominations, sects and cults, with examples of each New Religious Movements and typologies of NRMs eg world rejecting/accommodating/affirming; millenarian beliefs, with examples of each * New Age movements and spirituality, with examples * The relationship of these organisations to religious and spiritual belief and practice. The relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organisations and movements, beliefs and practices * Reasons why people join NRMs, NAMs and other organisations * Gender and religion: women: women’s greater participation, women in religious organisations including...
Words: 23270 - Pages: 94
...Assess sociological explanations for the increasing number of religious and spiritual organisations and movements in society today. (33 marks) In society some people hold religious beliefs without belonging to an organised group, whereas others express their beliefs through membership of a religious organisation. Troeltsch distinguished between two main types of religious organisations – the church and the sect. Churches are large organisations with millions of members, run by a bureaucratic hierarchy of priests, who claim a monopoly of the truth. Churches are universalistic aiming to include the whole of society as they place few demands on their members. However people of the higher class tend to be more attracted as they are ideologically conservative and are often close linked to the state. Sects are small exclusive groups opposed to wider society, expecting a high level of commitment from its members. Sects tend to draw their members from the poor and oppressed, many of the sects are led by charismatic leaders. The only similarity between churches and sects is that they both believe they have a monopoly of religious truth. Sects are often short lived organisations only lasting a single generation or less. As well as churches and sects. Sociologists have identified other types of religious organisations such as denominations and cults. Niebuhr describes denominations as lying midway between churches and sects. Membership for denominations is less exclusive compared to sects...
Words: 2703 - Pages: 11
...behavior should not be considered an individualistic matter, but in a broader social context. He argued that there is a link between the degree of social integration and suicide. He believed the greater the autonomy or Independence of a category of people, the higher the suicide rate. He came up with the term Anomie, which is a floundering, or loss of purpose and direction people experience during periods of extreme social change. -Max Weber's theory was that social behavior can only be understood when the meanings of the people's actions are known, it is necessary to understand the attitudes, feelings, and beliefs. He called this Verstehen, a German word for understanding. -Karl Marx focused on the struggle between social classes of people. Marx called owners of the means of production the bourgeoisie and the non-owners the proletariat. Marx believed that a social class was determined solely by economics. -W.E.B Dubois researched conflict theory as it pertained to racial prejudice in hopes of achieving justice for his race. He helped found the NAACP. -Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead studied the effects of symbols such as nods of the head, clinched fists, smiles, frowns, stares, etc., as individual behaviors that influence group behaviors. They also...
Words: 20445 - Pages: 82
...Glossary of Sociological Terms |11-Plus Exam |Examination introduced with the 1944 Education Act, sat by all pupils in the state sector| | |at the age of 11. If they passed they went to the selective Grammar School, or if they | | |failed to the Secondary Modern School. This exam still exists in some counties such as | | |Kent and also in Northern Ireland. | |12-Plus Exam |Exam made available only to a minority of 'high-flyers' in Secondary Modern schools, | | |offering a late chance to go to Grammar School at the age of 12. | |'30-30-40 society' |A term associated with Will Hutton to describe an increasingly insecure and polarised | | |society. The bottom 30 per cent is socially excluded by poverty from the rest of society.| | |The next 30 per cent live in fear and insecurity of falling into poverty. Only the top 40| | |per cent feel secure and confident. ...
Words: 22530 - Pages: 91
...EDUCATION i ii IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIA ISLAMIC STUDIES AND ISLAMIC EDUCATION Editors KAMARUZZAMAN BUSTAMAM-AHMAD PATRICK JORY YAYASAN ILMUWAN iii Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-In-Publication Data Islamic studies and Islamic education in contemporary Southeast Asia / editors: Kamaruzzaman Bustamam-Ahmad, Patrick Jory ISBN 978-983-44372-3-7 (pbk.) 1. Islamic religious education--Southeast Asia. 2. Islam--Education--Southeast Asia. I. Kamaruzzaman Bustamam-Ahmad. II. Jory, Patrick. 297.77 First Printed 2011 © 2011 Kamaruzzaman Bustamam-Ahmad & Patrick Jory Publisher: Yayasan Ilmuwan D-0-3A, Setiawangsa Business Suites, Taman Setiawangsa, 54200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – for example, electronic, photocopy, recording – without prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed review. The opinions expressed in this publication is the personal views of the authors, and do not necessary reflect the opinion of the publisher. Layout and cover design: Font: Font size: Printer: Hafizuldin bin Satar Goudy Old Style 11 pt Gemilang Press Sdn Bhd iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS T his book grew out of a three-day workshop jointly held by the Regional Studies Program, Walailak University, and the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University...
Words: 104903 - Pages: 420
... | | | |37 | |Unit A2 1: Option 3, Liberalism and Nationalism 1815–1914 | | |Unit A2 1: Option 4, Nationalism and Unionism in Ireland 1800–1900 |51 | |Unit A2 1: Option 5, The Clash of Ideologies in Europe 1900–2000 |67 | Introduction CCEA has developed new GCE specifications for first teaching from September 2008. This scheme of work has been designed to support you in introducing the new specification and was produced by practicing teachers who will be teaching the specification. This A2 Scheme of work provides suggestions for organising and supporting students’ learning activities. It is intended to assist you in developing your own schemes of work and should not be considered as being prescriptive or exhaustive. Please remember that this...
Words: 15150 - Pages: 61
...Social Studies and Civics (DRAFT COPY) compiled by A. H. Nayyar and Ahmed Salim Sustainable Development Policy Institute Report of the project “A Civil Society Initiative in Curricula and Textbooks Reform” A project of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute #3, UN Boulevard, Diplomatic Enclave I, Islamabad Mailing Address: PO Box 2342, Islamabad, Pakistan Telephone: ++(92-51) 2278134, 2278136, 2270674-6 Fax:++(92-51) 2278135 URL: www.sdpi.org e-mail: main@sdpi.org SDPI is an independent, non-profit research institute on sustainable development Partial support from Eqbal Ahmed Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. 2 Contents Summary Recommendations Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Introduction Insensitivity to the Religious Diversity of the Nation Appendix 1-1: Listing of Material in Curriculum Documents Appendix 1-2: Listing of Material in Textbooks Historical Falsehoods and Inaccuracies Glorification of War and the Military Omissions That Could Have Been Enriching Pedagogical Problems in Primary Education: A Critique of the Curriculum Gender Biases Human Rights Teaching of Urdu, Class 6 to 10 Teaching Social Studies, Class 6 to 10 Peace Studies: a proposed program of studies in schools Curriculum Documents Covered Thoughts on Curriculum Objectives List of participants in the project i iii 1 9 27 53 65 77 89 95 101 111 123 127 131 135 137 139 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Appendices I: II: III: ...
Words: 58595 - Pages: 235
...Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Poetics 39 (2011) 469–490 www.elsevier.com/locate/poetic Experiencing unemployment: The roles of social and cultural capital in mediating economic crisis ´ Virgılio Borges Pereira ˆ Departamento de Sociologia, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Via Panoramica, ´ s/numero 4150-564 Porto, Portugal Available online 24 October 2011 Abstract The paper offers an engagement with economic issues, via an exploration of the recent crisis in Northern Portugal, to discuss the roles of social capital and cultural capital in the configuration of diverse experiences of unemployment. It focuses on changes over time and on contemporary everyday relations to identify such experiences. By means of a multiple correspondence analysis, patterns of sociability are discerned. Ethnographic material enables these patterns to be qualified and three main types of unemployment experience are identified, all centred on the idea of unemployment as a space of sociability. The case study elaborates on and qualifies research inspired by Bourdieu on methodological and theoretical grounds. It demonstrates the need to qualify statistical patterns emerging from MCA with refined qualitative material and indicates specific ways in which social and cultural capitals interact with the economic sphere in a particularly severe economic crisis. # 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper puts forward an analysis of the experience of economic...
Words: 10739 - Pages: 43
...Different definitions of crime, deviance, social order and social control * The distinction between sociological theories of crime and other theories (eg biological, psychological); crime and deviance as socially constructed * Functionalist theories of crime: Durkheim, anomie, collective conscience; Merton’s strain theory; manifest and latent functions; functionalist subcultural theories * Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of crime: classical Marxism, laws reflecting class interests; Neo-Marxism, hegemony, the CCCS studies, critical and new criminology * Interactionist theories of crime: labelling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy * Feminist theories of crime: patriarchy, male control of women’s lives * Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime: social bonds, communitarianism, situational prevention; postmodern theories; Foucault on individualisation and surveillance * Realist theories: New Left Realism and Right Realism * The relevance of the various theories to understanding different types of crime, and their implications for social policy. 2 The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends in crime * Study of statistics and other evidence on the social distribution of crime by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends * Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of...
Words: 25825 - Pages: 104
...Critique of Nonviolent Politics From Mahatma Gandhi to the Anti-Nuclear Movement by Howard Ryan (howard@netwood.net) Preface 2 Part I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Problems of Nonviolent Theory Nonviolent Philosophy 6 Moral View: Violence Itself Is Wrong 9 Practical View: Violence Begets Violence 13 Nonviolent Theory of Power 21 Voluntary Suffering 24 Common Nonviolent Arguments 34 A Class Perspective 49 Part II 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Gandhi: A Critical History Father of Nonviolence 56 Satyagraha in South Africa 59 Textile Strike 66 Noncooperation Movement 1919-22 70 Religious Conflicts 80 Salt Satyagraha 87 Congress Ministries 97 The War Years 101 Independence and Bloodshed 111 Part III 17 18 19 20 Nonviolence in the Anti-Nuclear Movement Nonviolent Direct Action 120 Consensus Decision Making 123 Open, Friendly, and Respectful 136 Civil Disobedience 142 Epilogue 151 Notes 154 ©2002 by Howard Ryan. All rights reserved. Readers have my permission to use and distribute for non-profit and educational purposes. Critique of Nonviolent Politics 2 Preface (2002) Critique of Nonviolent Politics may be the only comprehensive critique of nonviolent theory that has been written. I wrote it between 1980 and 1984, while living in Berkeley, California. Since 1977, I had been active in the movement against nuclear power and weapons which, in California, focused its protests at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant near San Luis Obispo, and at the University of California's Lawrence Livermore Labs where...
Words: 74845 - Pages: 300
...Different definitions of crime, deviance, social order and social control * The distinction between sociological theories of crime and other theories (eg biological, psychological); crime and deviance as socially constructed * Functionalist theories of crime: Durkheim, anomie, collective conscience; Merton’s strain theory; manifest and latent functions; functionalist subcultural theories * Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of crime: classical Marxism, laws reflecting class interests; Neo-Marxism, hegemony, the CCCS studies, critical and new criminology * Interactionist theories of crime: labelling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy * Feminist theories of crime: patriarchy, male control of women’s lives * Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime: social bonds, communitarianism, situational prevention; postmodern theories; Foucault on individualisation and surveillance * Realist theories: New Left Realism and Right Realism * The relevance of the various theories to understanding different types of crime, and their implications for social policy. 2 The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends in crime * Study of statistics and other evidence on the social distribution of crime by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends * Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of...
Words: 25825 - Pages: 104
...Social Change and Modernity Edited By Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford © 1992 The Regents of the University of California INTRODUCTION Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser Haferkamp is grateful to Angelika Schade for her fruitful comments and her helpful assistance in editing this volume and to Geoff Hunter for translating the first German version of parts of the Introduction; Smelser has profited from the research assistance and critical analyses given by Joppke. 1. Social Change and Modernity Those who organized the conference on which this volume is based—including the editors— decided to use the terms "social change" and "modernity" as the organizing concepts for this project. Because these terms enjoy wide usage in contemporary sociology and are general and inclusive, they seem preferable to more specific terms such as "evolution" "progress," "differentiation," or even "development," many of which evoke more specific mechanisms, processes, and directions of change. Likewise, we have excluded historically specific terms such as "late capitalism" and "industrial society" even though these concepts figure prominently in many of the contributions to this volume. The conference strategy called for a general statement of a metaframework for the study of social change within which a variety of more specific theories could be identified. 2. Theories of Social Change Change is such an evident feature of...
Words: 171529 - Pages: 687
...bibliography, this dissertation is the sole work of Janine Scambler and has not been previously submitted as part of the assessment requirements for any academic reward. Signed: Contents Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Chapter 1: Visual Culture 8 Chapter 2: Ancient Practices 21 Chapter 3: Beliefs and Superstition 30 Conclusion 41 Bibliography 43 Appendix 56 Abstract This dissertation will demonstrate cultural changes in England through the period c.700-1660. The changes studied will focus on visual sources, or visual culture; ancient practices, or festivals and the cult of saints; and superstition and belief. It will show how changes occurred around political and religious change, and that different areas were affected by different factors. Introduction This dissertation will assess the extent to which ancient beliefs and practices survived the introduction of Christianity and their subsequent development in England. This will be achieved through the study of visual culture; the survival of ancient practices; and an investigation into superstition and the changing acceptance of witchcraft. Visual Culture will be used to group together several different areas, for instance knot work and grotesques in architecture and manuscripts. Other artefacts such as The Franks Casket will also be investigated. Ancient culture will be defined as an umbrella term covering everything from pagan or Anglo-Saxon festivals to...
Words: 17040 - Pages: 69