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In Violence and in Peace: The Role of Religion and Human Security in Northern Ireland

Emily Morrison Griffin

in Religion and Human Security: A Global Perspective

This chapter examines the conflict in Northern Ireland in light of existential security theory. It suggests that during the Troubles, Northern Ireland was caught in a self-reinforcing mechanism of ... More

This chapter examines the conflict in Northern Ireland in light of existential security theory. It suggests that during the Troubles, Northern Ireland was caught in a self-reinforcing mechanism of continuously strengthened effects of religiosity, polarization, conflict, and existential threat. The rise of modernization in Northern Ireland as the United Kingdom joined the European Community/Union introduced an external change into that self-perpetuating mechanism, which contributed to the development of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in 1998. The importance of recognizing the religious nature of the conflict has significant policy implications for the continued success of the agreement. While the signing of the GFA was an invaluable step toward resolution, further steps will need to address religiously motivated fears and the mutually exclusive identities of the communities involved. More broadly speaking, the conflict in Northern Ireland presents a useful case study for policy formation in other conflict areas where states are trying to negotiate social harmony and to understand the relationship between religion and the pursuit of human security.Less

Modernization, Existential Security, and Cultural Change: Reshaping Human Motivations and Society

Ronald F Inglehart

in Handbook of Advances in Culture and Psychology, Volume 7

Survey data from countries containing over 90% of the world’s population demonstrate that in recent decades, rising levels of economic and physical security have been reshaping human values and ... More

Survey data from countries containing over 90% of the world’s population demonstrate that in recent decades, rising levels of economic and physical security have been reshaping human values and motivations, thereby transforming societies. Economic and physical insecurity are conducive to xenophobia, strong in-group solidarity, authoritarian politics, and rigid adherence to traditional cultural norms; conversely, secure conditions lead to greater tolerance of outgroups, openness to new ideas, and more egalitarian social norms. Existential security shapes societies and cultures in two ways. Modernization increases prevailing security levels, producing pervasive cultural changes in developed countries. But long before, substantial cross-sectional cultural difference existed, reflecting historical differences in vulnerability to disease and other factors. Analysts from different perspectives have described these cultural differences as Collectivism versus Individualism, Materialism versus Postmaterialism, Survival versus Self-expression values, or Autonomy versus Embeddedness, but all tap a common dimension of cross-cultural variation that reflects different levels of existential security.Less

Comfort and Joy

in The Music between Us: Is Music a Universal Language?

According to R. D. Laing, people who have a basic sense of belonging to the same world as others are “ontologically secure” and the lack of ontological security is a form of profound psychological ... More

According to R. D. Laing, people who have a basic sense of belonging to the same world as others are “ontologically secure” and the lack of ontological security is a form of profound psychological disturbance. Laing describes music as a special case in which some schizoid and schizophrenic patients can overcome a sense of deep isolation and a desperate need for protection. This chapter, which suggests that music helps to establish a sense of ontological security in an individual and to reinforce feelings of security more generally, challenges the view, advocated by Theodor Adorno, that we should be dubious of music that promotes a sense of comfort and security. It focuses on three categories of musical features that produce feelings of security. The first category links music to ontological security, the second to existential security (the sense of being at home in the world), and the third to a sense of belonging (in relation to some particular social membership).Less

What’s Causing Secularization? Insecurity

Ronald F. Inglehart

in Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?

Evolutionary modernization theory holds that both religiosity and pro-fertility norms are linked with existential insecurity, and a massive body of empirical evidence confirms this: secure people and ... More

Evolutionary modernization theory holds that both religiosity and pro-fertility norms are linked with existential insecurity, and a massive body of empirical evidence confirms this: secure people and secure countries show the lowest levels of religiosity. Existential security reflects not only a society’s per capita GDP but how evenly it is distributed, making income inequality a strong predictor of religiosity. Similarly, high levels of social welfare expenditures have a strong negative impact on religious attendance. Historic vulnerability to disease also has a persisting impact on religiosity: countries that were vulnerable to disease tend to be relatively poor and have low life expectancy and high infant mortality and high religiosity today. Overall, various indicators of existential security have a strong impact on religiosity, but this impact has a generational delay: the strongest predictor of religiosity around 2018 is the society’s level of infant mortality, not at the time of the survey but almost 40 years earlier, in 1980.Less

Secularity through Time

Phil Zuckerman, Luke W. Galen, and Frank L. Pasquale

in The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies

The subject of secularization—whether or to what extent humanity is becoming less religious—has yielded a wide range of conclusions, some flatly contradictory. Evidence for and against competing ... More

The subject of secularization—whether or to what extent humanity is becoming less religious—has yielded a wide range of conclusions, some flatly contradictory. Evidence for and against competing arguments is considered, and some broad tendencies can be discerned. With greater economic and technological development comes increased personal security, as well as mobility, personal autonomy, and exposure to alternative worldviews. This fosters an individualization of worldviews and lifestyles and, so, some erosion of traditional religious belief, belonging, and authority. This outcome, however, is not evenly distributed throughout the world. Due to cultural heritage, historical tradition, political structure, population makeup, and other local factors, such forces may result in greater secularity or resurgent religiosity. Moreover, while secularity has been gaining ground in some places (especially Europe, the anglophone world, and East Asia), because of higher birth rates in poorer and more religious regions humanity is not becoming more secular, overall, at the present time.Less

Changing Values in the Islamic World and the West: Social Tolerance and the Arab Spring

Ronald F. Inglehart

in Values, Political Action, and Change in the Middle East and the Arab Spring

More than 40 years ago, it was suggested that “a transformation may be taking place in the political culture of advanced industrial societies. This transformation seems to be altering the basic value ... More

More than 40 years ago, it was suggested that “a transformation may be taking place in the political culture of advanced industrial societies. This transformation seems to be altering the basic value priorities of given generations as a result of changing conditions influencing their basic socialization” (Inglehart, 1971, p. 991). This chapter presents a revised version of modernization theory—evolutionary modernization theory—that interprets these changes. The predictions published in 1971 were based on an early version of this theory. More than a generation has passed since then, and today it seems clear that the predicted changes have occurred in high-income countries. A large body of evidence, analyzed using three different approaches—(a) cohort analysis, (b) comparisons of rich and poor countries, and (c) examination of actual trends observed during the past 40 years—all points to the conclusion that major cultural changes are occurring, and that they reflect a process of intergenerational change linked with rising levels of existential security. If evolutionary modernization theory is correct, Middle Eastern countries are in an early phase of a process that has already transformed prevailing values in the United States, western Europe, and Japan. The theory is probabilistic—not deterministic—but some of these changes seem to have high probabilities.Less

The Secularization Debate

Ronald F. Inglehart

in Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?

Well into the 20th century, leading social thinkers argued that religious beliefs reflected a prescientific worldview that would disappear as scientific rationality spread throughout the world. ... More

Well into the 20th century, leading social thinkers argued that religious beliefs reflected a prescientific worldview that would disappear as scientific rationality spread throughout the world. Though the creationism of traditional religion did give way to evolutionary worldviews, this failed to discredit religion among the general public. Religious markets theory argues that the key to flourishing religiosity is strong religious competition, but recent research found no relationship between religious pluralism and religious attendance. The individualization thesis claims that declining church attendance does not reflect declining religiosity; subjective forms of religion are simply replacing institutionalized ones. But empirical evidence indicates that individual religious belief is declining even more rapidly than church attendance. Secularization’s opponents hold that humans will always need religion. This claim seems true if it is broadened to hold that humans will always need a belief system. Norris and Inglehart argue that as survival becomes more secure, it reduces the demand for religion.Less

Jewish Majority and Jewish Minority in Israel: The Demographic Debate

Arnon Soffer

in The Social Scientific Study of Jewry: Sources, Approaches, Debates

This chapter examines demographic debates regarding issues of majority versus minority Jewish populations in Israel. It explains that demographic data are the basis for a geo-political analysis of ... More

This chapter examines demographic debates regarding issues of majority versus minority Jewish populations in Israel. It explains that demographic data are the basis for a geo-political analysis of specific spaces within Israel and the areas adjacent to it and suggests that demography is a major factor underlying the very existence of a sovereign state and hence has existential security implications. It also considers the possibility of annexing areas of “greater Israel, ” where the (fiercely debated) outcome may be a Jewish minority within the Jewish state.Less