Fellows 2019

Paul Roger Lichterman

Professor für Soziologie und Religion, University of Southern California

Aufenthalt am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

Mai–Juli 2019

Forschungsthema am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Repositioned religion and transformations of political belonging in the U.S.«

Projektbeschreibung:

I am beginning a project on changing forms of political community, and how religious identities and practices animate them. One form of political community in the U.S., an instance of the populism surging worldwide, is highly insular and relies on sharp, rigid boundaries. It focuses on a »team-like« identity and loyalty more than any explicit ideology. It makes loyalty rather than deliberation or instrumental interest the basis for judging policies or leaders. My research starts with one, overriding gambit: This particular form of national, political belonging, one among several in the U.S., has its own cultural and institutional sources, its own history. It may well be associated with populist-sounding ideologies or global economic dislocations but is not simply a logical or natural reflection of them; it is a phenomenon in itself. My ultimate goals are to identify this form of political community carefully, chart its cultural, institutional and media dimensions, and trace its roots in U.S. public and religious life. I suspect that it builds partly on forms of group belonging that have developed in some religious congregational settings, religious fellowships, and social movement organizations in the U.S. since the 1970s, even as it is further cultivated and channeled by political operatives, media entrepreneurs and social media practices too. (Paul Roger Lichterman)

Zusammenarbeit:

Paul Lichterman folgt einer Einladung von Ferdinand Sutterlüty (Professor für Soziologie an der Goethe-Universität) und dem an der Universität angesiedelten LOEWE-Schwerpunkt: »Religiöse Positionierung. Modalitäten und Konstellationen in jüdischen, christlichen und islamischen Kontexten«.

Wissenschaftliches Profil von Paul Roger Lichterman

Paul Lichterman ist Professor für Soziologie und Religion an der University of Southern California. Er beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie Menschen in einer sozial ungleichen, kulturell vielfältigen Gesellschaft aktive Bürgerschaft praktizieren und öffentliche Themen definieren. Die kultursoziologische Sektion der American Sociological Association (ASA) zeichnete seine Artikel in American Journal of Sociology und in Theory and Society aus. Sein Buch Elusive Togetherness gewann den »Distinguished Book Award« von der Society for the Scientific Study of Religion sowie den den »Distinguished Scholarship Award« der Pacific Sociological Association..

Website:
Weitere Informationen zu Paul Lichterman finden Sie hier.

Forschungsschwerpunkte:

Kultur, Religion, zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen und soziale Bewegungen, Politische Soziologie, qualitative Methodik und Theorie

Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl):

(mit Kushan Dasgupta): »How a Housing Advocacy Coalition Adds Health: A Culture of Claimsmaking«, in: Social Science and Medicine 165 (2016), S. 255-262.
(mit Isaac Reed): »Theory and Contrastive Explanation in Ethnography«, in: Sociological Methods and Research 44/4 (2015), S. 585-635.
(mit N. Eliasoph): »Civic Action«, in: American Journal of Sociology 120/3 (2015), S. 798-863.
»Religion in Public Action: From Actors to Settings«, in: Sociological Theory 30/1 (2012), S. 15-36.
(Hrsg. mit C. Brady Potts): The Civic Life of American Religion, Stanford: Stanford University Press 2008.
»Religion and the Construction of Civic Identity«, in: American Sociological Review 73 (2008), S. 83-104.
Elusive Togetherness: Church Groups Trying to Bridge America’s Divisions, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2005.
The Search for Political Community: American Activists Reinventing Commitment, New York: Cambridge University Press 1996.

Paul Roger Lichterman

Wissenschaftliches Profil von Paul Roger Lichterman

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