Opportunity Constraint and Religious Life

• In Event: 084 - Student Forum Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. How the Social Shapes Behaviors

Abstract

Researchers typically study the relationship between the secular world and religious life using qualitative methods. Quantitative studies using a rational choice approach to religious behavior often acknowledge the role of the secular world, but they also often focus on individuals who belong to marginalized groups with restricted access to secular alternatives. This study fills a gap in the literature by applying an analytic framework that reframes personal constraint (e.g. inability to access secular resources due to socioeconomic status) in terms of ecological constraint (e.g. inability to access secular resources due to the absence of spaces where these resources are found or developed). Through this paradigm, termed associational ecology, I explore the religious behavior of congregants and congregations in communities with few alternative spaces for social interaction. Based on the first wave of the United States Congregational Life Survey (USCLS) of 122,404 individuals within a nationally representative sample of 443 congregations conducted in 2001, and Census ZIP Code Business Patterns data from the same year, I find evidence that congregants are more socially embedded in their congregation and congregations are more likely to facilitate secular activities (i.e. sporting activities or teams; hobby or craft groups; other social, recreational, or leisure activities) when located in communities with fewer alternative spaces for meeting people in the community. This suggests that religious organizations play a compensatory role when secular alternatives are relatively scarce, and challenges the concept that religious markets are separable from their community contexts.

Author

• Christopher Michael Graziul, University of Chicago