MYPLACE THEMATIC REPORT

Transcription

1 MYPLACE THEMATIC REPORT RELIGION

2 MYPLACE: Aims and Objectives The central research question addressed by the MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy & Civic Engagement) Project is: How is young people s social participation shaped by the shadows of totalitarianism and populism in Europe? Key themes addressed include: Understanding the legacy of totalitarianism and populism; Mapping youth participation and civic engagement; Exploring receptivity to new radical and populist political agendas. Case study approach The MYPLACE project used a case study approach, using 30 carefully selected research locations (illustrated in Figure 1) which provided within country contrasts in terms of hypothesised receptivity to radical politics. MYPLACE work strands include: Questionnaire survey (N = 16,935, target = 600 per location) of young people aged 16-25; Follow up interviews (N = 901, target = 30 per location with a sub-sample of these young people; 44 ethnographic studies of youth activism, in 6 thematic clusters; Ethnographic observation at 18 sites of memory including expert interviews with staff (N = 73), focus groups with young people (N = 56) and inter-generational interviews (N = 180). Thematic Reports The aim of this series of thematic reports is to present a general Europe wide thematic analysis of young people s views, attitudes and behaviour towards a range of social and political issues. This report focuses on content for the EU Youth Report 2015, and will cover the following areas: Format Religiosity; Attending religious services; Attitudes towards religion and the role of religion in politics Each page presents a specific theme and contains descriptive narrative, quotes from interviews and two graphs presenting questionnaire survey data. One graph presents the theme by the 30 research locations (colour coded into clusters of locations). These second graph illustrates a demographic breakdown. Quotes cited as Interviewee emanate from follow up interviews with a subset of the survey sample of young people while those cited as Activist are from young people interviewed as part of the ethnographic case studies. Statistical techniques have been used to construct derived variables (Factor Analysis) and test reliability (Cronbach Alpha or Correlations).

3 Religiosity Figure: Level of religiosity by location The MYPLACE project measured the complex issue of religiosity by focusing on self-expressed religiosity. Gender turned out to be a variable that affects levels of religiosity, as women appeared more religious than men. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to rate how religious they were, regardless of whether or not they formally belonged to a particular religion. The answers have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the greatest level of religiosity. The overall average for all locations is 44.8 (n= 16,722, sd = 31.7), demonstrating fairly low levels of religiosity. This varies from Telavi (GE) with 81.9 with the highest levels of religiosity to Odense Center (DK), 24.3 with the lowest levels of religiosity. Young people discuss their religion and the religious state of their country quite openly, whether their views and beliefs are for or against formal religion. I can t talk about my religious beliefs with my sister, because she s very religious and too much of a believer so I don t talk about these topics with relatives, but with friends freely. [Interviewee, Georgia] Locations in Georgia, Greece and Croatia have the highest levels of religiosity. Locations in Denmark, Estonia and Spain have the lowest. it s like when I was with, my grandparents are Christians and they used to take me to church and I just decided that you know Christianity isn t for me, and they used to try to force Christianity down my throat and I used to have full blown arguments with them, I don t want to believe in Jesus, I think it s a load of rubbish, stop trying to force it down my throat [ ] [Interviewee, UK]

4 Attending religious services Figure: Frequency of attending religious services by location It is perhaps unsurprising that there is a correlation between levels of religiosity and attendance of religious services. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents to state how often they attend religious services apart from weddings and funerals. They were asked to use the scale ranging from several times a week to never. The answers for both have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the most frequent attendance of religious services. The overall average for all locations is 33.1 (n=16,655, sd = 29.7), demonstrating low frequency of attending religious services. This varies from Kutaisi (GE), 72.9 with the highest frequency of attendance to Tartu (EE), 18.7 with the lowest frequency. Young people s attendance or non-attendance of religious services could be determined by family traditions as well as their own personal views. INT: Are you Protestant, Catholic? RES: Yes, I'm Protestant. INT: Yeah. And do you go to church? RES: Yeah, every week. INT: [Surprised] Oh right, do you? Gosh. You're the first person I know from doing this that does. It's interesting. And have you always done that, was that in your family? RES: Yeah, it's always something I've done. INT: And something you'd take into your family? RES: Oh yeah, definitely. Locations in Georgia, Croatia and the UK have the highest frequencies of attending religious services. Locations in Estonia, Hungary and Estonia have the lowest frequencies. [Interviewee, UK]

5 Attitudes towards religion and the role of religion in politics (Part A) Figure: Belief that there is only one true religion by location In order to assess young people s attitudes towards religion and the role of religion in politics, the MYPLACE project focused on discussion of four key ideas. The MYPLACE survey asked respondents how much they agreed or disagreed with four statements. The first statement was: There is only one true religion. The answers have been standardised on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of agreement with this statement. The overall average for all locations is 38.0 (n=15,867, sd = 33.4), demonstrating low levels of belief that there is only one true religion. This varies from Kutaisi (GE), 81.6 with the highest levels of belief to Jena (DE-E), 11.1 with the lowest levels of belief. Some young people s support for autocracy is due to frustration with the way that democracy has seemingly failed in their country and a desire for strong leadership: If my neighbour is a Muslim, there is no danger of me becoming a Muslim. I will do my best to put him/her on the right path but I don t have the right to push or force him and I myself should be responsible for our good cohabitation. [Interviewee, Georgia] Locations in Georgia, Greece and Russia have the highest levels of belief that there is only one true religion compared with locations in Germany (East), Denmark and Finland where this belief is the lowest.

6 Attitudes towards religion and the role of religion in politics (Part B) Figure: Belief that Good politicians believe in God by location The relationship between religion and state has always been problematic. Politicians declaring themselves to be religious have been met with varying responses from citizens and other political elites. The second idea concerning the role of religion in politics presented to respondents in the MYPLACE survey was Do you agree or disagree that good politicians believe in God? The answers are represented on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the highest level of agreement or belief in this idea. The overall average for all locations is 34.9 (n=15,437, sd = 28.1), demonstrating low levels of belief in the idea that good politicians believe in God. This varies from Kutaisi (GE), 52.7, with the highest levels of belief to Odense Center (DK), 13.3 with the lowest levels. Locations in Georgia, Russia and Greece have the highest levels of belief that good politicians believe in God. Denmark, Germany (East) and Finland believe this least.

7 Attitudes towards religion and the role of religion in politics (Part C) Figure: Belief that religious leaders should have no influence on government decisions by location. Religious leaders have varying degrees of influence over political decisions. The MYPLACE project explored young people s opinions on this influence. The MYPLACE survey presented a third statement: religious leaders should have no influence on government decisions. Again, respondents were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement. The responses have been used to create a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the strongest agreement with or belief in that statement. The overall average for all locations is 65.1 (n=15,889, sd = 27.8), demonstrating relatively high levels of belief that religious leaders should have no influence on government decisions. This varies from Saint Cugat (ES), 80.0 with the highest levels of belief to Nuneaton (GB), 52.7 with the lowest levels. Locations in Spain, Croatia and Germany (East and West) have the highest levels of belief that religious leaders should have no influence on government decisions. Locations in UK, Georgia and Estonia believe this the least. Trust of course, in the first place trust in the patriarch and when the patriarch himself trusts someone, then I think everything s clear. [Interviewee, Georgia] Whilst some young people see the trusting relationship between religious leaders and the state as legitimising the government, others feel that religious leaders should no longer be allowed to have influence: I m otherwise a religious person. I was christened and I m Orthodox, but I believe that the Church shouldn t meddle in politics. [Interviewee, Russia]

8 Attitudes towards religion and the role of religion in politics (Part D) Figure: Belief that none of the major religions have any truths to offer by location As well as considering their own religion, the MYPLACE project gathered young people s views on other religions. The fourth idea related to religion and politics presented MYPLACE respondents with the statement none of the major religions have any truths to offer and asked them whether they agreed or disagreed. The responses have been plotted on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 representing the strongest agreement with or belief in that idea. The overall average for all locations is 45.9 (n=15,368, sd = 28.3), demonstrating moderate levels of belief that none of the major religions have any truths to offer. This varies from Lieska and Nurmes (FI), 63.8, with the highest levels of belief to Telavi (GE), 24.4 with the lowest levels of belief. Locations in Finland, Spain and Portugal have the most belief that none of the major religions offer any truths. Locations in Georgia, Hungary and UK believe this the least. I understand people have their religions to follow or their beliefs, but I don t have any. Just people like, we get, we get the God squad, as I call them, come to the door, try and push things on you and try and talk to you about religion, God will be proud, God will take you in, God will help you through, if there was a God there wouldn t be homeless people, there wouldn t be people struggling, there wouldn t be people with addictions, there wouldn t, the world would be a better place, I believe, they believe it, I don t. They believe in him up there or her up there or whatever, me, no. [Interviewee, UK]

9 MYPLACE Partners General Acknowledgement We would like to thank the young people across Europe who participated in this study, all the fieldworkers and the various public, private and voluntary organisations who supported the fieldwork. We hope to have done justice to the collective efforts of so many people in our analyses. Without funding under the EU s Framework 7 programme none of this work would have been possible.