1.
Look at this Group of People....
Who are most and least likely to be
involved in a faith?

2.
Learning Objectives
1. Identify and describe the trends in religious
participation in terms of age, gender, class and
ethnicity (C-)
2. Use a range of evidence to support developed
descriptions on social class and religious
participation (C)
3. Explain reasons for differences between social
groups and participation (B)
4. Give developed explanations for the
differences, analyse the reasons and evaluate
the evidence. (B+)

3.
SOCIAL GROUPS AND RELIGION

4.
Class

5.
CLASS
• Class and Participation – no real figures,
although Marxist & Neo-Marxists provide
views on this!
Churches Try to appeal to all (whatever class)
Denominations Slightly anti-establishment, but still respectable. Wallis believes
they tend NOT to attract the lower classes and appeal most to the
upper working and lower middle classes.
Sects Traditionally recruit the most disadvantaged, require members to
give up previous life, so those with more, are less likely to want to
give that up! Wallis also mentions the ‘Relatively Deprived’
especially among some 1960s/70s sects, e.g. Moonies
Cults A wide category, can appeal to the already successful – those who
have time and money to further enhance their lives. Others
attract the disadvantaged and relatively deprived.

6.
Age

7.
AGE
• Older people ARE more likely to go to church
• Brierley (2005) average age of church goer in 1979
was 37, but by 2005 it was 49. In 2005 nearly 60% of
churches had NO attendees between 15-19 yrs
• Why?

8.
Attendance at Church Services, England: by age
(thousands)
Age 1979 2005
Under 15 1,416 624
15-19 490 153
20-29 598 231
30-44 870 496
45-64 1,088 907
65 and over 979 755
Source: English Church Census, Christian Research

9.
David Voas & Alasdair Crockett (2005)
• Give 3 reasons why older people appear more religious
than younger people:
1. The ‘Ageing Effect’ - People become more religious
as they age. Life experiences e.g. having children, or
getting older might encourage them to return to
religion.
2. The ‘Period Effect’ those born in a particular period
(time) are more likely to be religious than those born
at another time period.
3. The ‘Generation Effect’ or ‘Progressive decline’ each
generation is less religious than the previous one.
V&C = This is the most significant!
Voas & Crockett say each generation are half as religious
as their parents! IMPACT???

10.
Gender

11.
Women
• Women tend to be more religious:
• Are these figures reliable?
• Brierley (2005) found 84% of women believed in God,
compared to 64% of men.
• Modood (1997) found women were more likely to
believe religion was important to them than men, but
men were more likely to attend mosques
• Why are women more likely to be religious?
•Church Census Records
•DATE ATTENDEES WHO WERE MALE ATTENDEES WHO WERE FEMALE
•1979 45% 55%
•1989 42% 58%
•2005 43% 57%

12.
Alan Miller & John Hoffman (1995)
• Differential Socialisation – women are taught to be
more submissive, passive, obedient and caring than
men, these characteristics are associated with being
more religious and valued by religion.
• Structural Location – women take part in religion
because of their social roles. Men are more likely to be
the full time breadwinner (instrumental role), women
are more likely to be housewives/work part-time and
raise children. This gives them more time for church
related activities. If they do not have paid jobs they
may need a role that provides a sense of personal
identity and religion can fulfil this. Finally taking
children to church can be an extension of the ‘mother
role’ – women tend to be the primary carers.
• Risk – women tend to be risk-averse, where as men
tend to be risk-takers. Not going to church can be risky
as it could lead to failure to enter heaven.

13.
Steve Bruce (1996)
• Bruce says women tend to be less goal-orientated, more co-
operative and less domineering (these are traits of femininity).
These attributes fit well with religion and spirituality.
• Bruce says the world falls between the
a. Public Sphere (paid work and politics)
b. Private Sphere (home, family and personal life)
Bruce agrees that secularisation is occurring, but also we are
retreating from the public into the private sphere. Women are
more involved in the private sphere than men, they can remain
within religion through the private domain (especially New Age
Movements / Cults) (Davie Agrees – closer to birth & death)
1. Working Class women tend to continue to support religions
which believe in an all powerful God and in which they are
quite passive.
2. Middle Class women have more experience of controlling their
lives and are more attracted to New Age groups in which
individuals can develop their own spirituality.

14.
Heelas & Woodhead (Kendal Project)
This is a 2 Year study of all the religious/spiritual
experiences in Kendal.
• They found traditional churches declining, while
NRMs increasing.
• 80% of attendees to NRMs were women
Why?
1. These sorts of movements celebrate nature and
involve cults of healing (where women have
higher status)
2. They agree with Bruce and Davie that womens
caring and child rearing experiences (private
sphere) makes them more inclined to new age
movements. ‘Where men wish to achieve, women
wish to feel’.

15.
Ethnicity

16.
Ethnicity
UK Census
% (2011)
Christian Buddhist Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh No
Religion
White 75.89 0.12 0.02 0.83 0.38 0.01 15.34
Black or Black
British
71.1 0.13 0.26 0.08 9.33 0.05 7.66
Indian 4.89 0.18 45.0 0.06 12.7 29.06 1.7
Pakistani 1.09 0.03 0.08 0.05 92.01 0.05 6.16
Bangladeshi 0.50 0.06 0.60 0.05 92.48 0.0 0.43
Chinese 21.56 15.12 0.07 0.05 0.03 0.03 52.60
Modood (1997) looked at participation and identification.
He found there were big differences in the importance attached to religion.
Only 11% of white members of the C of E saw religion as very important in
their lives, compared to 71% of Caribbean members of new Protestant
churches, and 43% of Hindus and 74% of Muslims. Minority ethnic groups
(with the exception of Chinese) were all ore likely to attend places of worship
than whites.
Why do Ethnic minorities show higher rates of religiosity?
Will 2nd Generation make a difference?

17.
John Bird
• He identifies 5 reasons why ethnic minority groups are
more religious:
1. Many members of ethnic minority groups originate in
societies that have high levels of religiosity such as
Pakistan and the Caribbean.
2. Belonging to a minority ethnic group within a society
means that religion can be an important basis for a sense
of community and solidarity. It can give members a point
of contact, sense of identity and introduce them to
potential marriage partners.
3. Minority groups see religion as a way of maintaining
cultural identify in terms of traditions, e.g. Food,
language, art and music.
4. Socialisation can lead to strong pressure on children to
maintain religious commitment (especially among Asian
groups)
5. Religious beliefs may be a way to cope with oppression.

18.
Steve Bruce (1995)
• Accepts that ethnic minorities are more religious than
whites in modern society, but believes religiosity is
more an expression of community than religious
commitment.
• Religion is:
1. Cultural Defence – using religion to protect identity in
a hostile environment
2. Cultural Transition – religion is used to cope with the
upheaval of migration
Bruce believes that over time the secular nature of British
society will erode the importance of religion for
ethnic minorities. Modood supports this. He found
that younger Chinese, white and Afro Caribbean
people were considerable less religious than their
parents. He found that in some groups there was no
decline between generations – particularly Muslims.

19.
Ken Pryce (1979)
• Studied the African Caribbean community in Bristol. The
study shows cultural defence and cultural transition have
been important.
• He argues that Pentecostalism is a highly important
adaptive ‘religion of the oppressed’ that provided
migrants with values appropriate to the new world in
which they found themselves.
• Pentecostalism helped African Caribbean's to adapt to
British society, playing a kind of ‘Protestant ethic’ role in
helping it members success be encouraging self reliance
and thrift.
• It gave people mutual support and hope of improving
their situation.
• On the other hand, Rastafarianism represented a different
response for some African Caribbean's radically rejecting
the wider society a racist and exploitative.

20.
Now we’ve gone through the social
groups, your task is....
• Work in 4 groups to contribute to a detailed
spider diagram – using the headings below
and anything else you think is relevant.

21.
Additional Articles
• Now using the additional articles (1 each) decide:
1. Where it fits on the spider diagram (it may be in
more than one group)
2. Using a different colour add it onto your own
diagram and then onto the board.
3. Does it confirm what you’ve written (previous
ideas), elaborate on a point, or reject it?
4. If it rejects previous studies and trends –
comment on whether you accept the new
evidence or not and why. (add your view onto
the diagram)

22.
Finally
1. Has your original ideas regarding ‘trend’ been
challenged?
2. What evidence supports this (studies, data,
newspaper reports, polls etc) and do you
trust it?
3. Where you’ve spotted conflicting evidence,
explain why reasons for this and whether you
more strongly support one view over another
and why.

23.
Question
‘Assess the view that
the ‘average’ religious
participant will be a 65
year old +, white,
middle class woman.’

24.
Task:
• Plan for the question. (5 mins planning)
• Now give your answer to your partner (you have up
to 5 mins to answer). You will be scored on:-
• 1 point every time evidence is used to back up a
point
• 1 for explanation of argument
• 2 marks for a good and sustained explanation
Record points on white board and total up.
Switch roles.
Feedback on scores, comment on any good evidence
/explanation heard.

25.
Past 33 Mark Essay
JUNE 2013
B. ‘Different social groups have different social and spiritual
needs and use religion and religious organisations in very
different ways’. To what extent do sociological arguments
and evidence support this view? (33 marks)
JUNE 2011
B. Assess the view that new religious movements are mainly
for the middle classes and the young. (33 marks)
JAN 2010
B. Critically examine the relationship between different social
groups and their religious beliefs and practice. (33 marks)

26.
How to Flag Up AO1 and AO2 Skills
AO1
Knowledge &
Understanding
(Outline, identify)
AO2
Interpretation &
Analysis
(Explanation and
links to the
question)
AO2
Evaluation
(Discussing the
value of, strengths
and weaknesses)
Sociologists
suggest
This means However
Modood claims If this is so On the other hand
Wallis maintains
that
This tells us The usefulness of
Statistics reveal This could be
applied to
This is flawed
because

27.
Command Words
Identify/outline – pick out the
main points.
Explain – talk about how and
why, give reasons or examples.
Discuss – talk about all sides of
an argument.
Assess – evaluate arguments
for and against.

28.
Item A
• For some people, religion plays an important role in their lives; for
others, its role is minimal. One factor that seems to be important
here is that of age, shown clearly by statistics on religious belief and
participation.
• In 2005 the English Church Census showed that the number of
people attending church regularly had fallen from 5.4 million in
1979 to 3.2 million in 2005. Over the same period, the average age
churchgoers had increased from 37 to 45. The age group that
decline the least was 65 years. In fact, 12% of churchgoers were 75
or over. In contrast, the age groups that had declined the most in
this period were the 15-19 and 20-29 cohort. For these age groups,
the numbers had fallen by over 60%.
• Although there figures apply only to the Christian Churches, other
religious groups in the UK also show significant differences between
young and old in terms of religious belief, though these differences
are less marked among the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the
reasons why the young seem less likely to believe and
participate in religion than older people. (18 marks)

29.
What kind of things might you
include?
• Issues of elderly being closer to end of life's and impact of spirituality
(Voas & Crockett)
• Elderly more effected by loneliness
• Young more susceptible to secularisation (Voas & Crockett)
• Young have ‘Cultural Amnesia’ not been socialised into religious stories
• Young are exposed to so much spiritual choice ‘spiritual supermarket’
it can make it difficult to stick with one, plus influenced by a range of
other factors, such as music, drugs etc, which may replace spirituality
• Impact of private sphere – religion can happen at home, young people
might be more susceptible to this (e.g. Chat rooms)
• Davie – Believing without Belonging (links to PoMo and technology)
• Bedroom Spirituality and the issues relating to assessment (as with B
w/o B
• Some young are strongly religious – Pakistanis and Bangladeshis
• Range of evidence -