Olga Breskaya – författare

Religious freedom has become increasingly important across the global spectrum over the past decades but has remained a contested concept. This book fills the gap in the scholarship on religious freedom by focusing on sociological dimensions and research methods.

Chapters in this book present data and case studies from Italy, Russia, Iran, Israel, South Korea, and the United States, encompassing a broad geographical scope, and highlight three main issues. The first is the deep and persistent gap between normative and actual practices. The detailed analyses bring insights into how religious freedom is understood and implemented in various contexts and its meaning in everyday life. The second one is the complex interplay of various religious and secular actors in each society. Chapters focus on how it is essential to study how states define religious freedom and the impact of other actors, such as nongovernmental organisations, religious institutions, communities, leaders, and members of various religious/non-religious groups. The third is the role of rival ideologies and the impact of extraordinary social events, such as the COVID pandemic, which can considerably change how religious freedom is conceptualised and implemented.

The book will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Religion, Sociology, Comparative Studies, Research Methods and Social Sciences. The chapters included in this book were originally published as a special issue of Religion, State and Society.

Religious freedom has become increasingly important across the global spectrum over the past decades but has remained a contested concept. This book fills the gap in the scholarship on religious freedom by focusing on sociological dimensions and research methods.

Chapters in this book present data and case studies from Italy, Russia, Iran, Israel, South Korea, and the United States, encompassing a broad geographical scope, and highlight three main issues. The first is the deep and persistent gap between normative and actual practices. The detailed analyses bring insights into how religious freedom is understood and implemented in various contexts and its meaning in everyday life. The second one is the complex interplay of various religious and secular actors in each society. Chapters focus on how it is essential to study how states define religious freedom and the impact of other actors, such as nongovernmental organisations, religious institutions, communities, leaders, and members of various religious/non-religious groups. The third is the role of rival ideologies and the impact of extraordinary social events, such as the COVID pandemic, which can considerably change how religious freedom is conceptualised and implemented.

The book will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Religion, Sociology, Comparative Studies, Research Methods and Social Sciences. The chapters included in this book were originally published as a special issue of Religion, State and Society.

This edited volume proffers a sociological outlook on the challenges contemporary societies face when states attempt to govern religious and cultural diversity and still protect freedoms of and from religion claimed by individuals, communities, and institutions. The collection of chapters brings readers into both theoretical discussions and empirical research. It illustrates how the promise of religious freedom has become a burgeoning social issue at the center of struggles over equity, inclusion, and cohesion in both public institutions and everyday interactions.

The book is divided into three parts: the state’s legal and political mechanisms governing religious freedom; the challenges of religious pluralism for public institutions and global communities; social perceptions of religious freedom as an indicator and criterion of human rights culture in society. An international group of authors provide reviews, case studies, and data-driven research for students, researchers and practitioners working in the sociology of religion.