Showing papers in "Society in 2014"

Commercial Relationships and Spaces after Disaster

Abstract: Sociological research on the relationship between social bonds and economic activity typically focuses on how social bonds facilitate economic activity. There is, however, a growing and important literature on the development of commercial relationships into social friendships and the important role that commercial spaces can play in facilitating social connections. To date, however, this research has not focused on the important role that these commercial friendships and spaces can play in facilitating an individual’s recovery efforts after a major disaster like a tornado, hurricane or flood. It has also not focused on the effect that major disasters can have on commercial ties. Moreover, while the sociological literature on post-disaster recovery has emphasized the important role of social capital, it has not emphasized the role that social networks developed within commercial contexts can play in helping individuals to rebound from disaster. This article is an effort to fill these gaps in the literature. Using interview data collected in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, we argue and describe how meaningful social bonds that emerge out of and are facilitated by commercial activity as well as the social spaces provided by commercial entities can facilitate community rebound after a major disaster.

The Political Epistemology of Science-Based Policy-Making

Abstract: Improving the use and impact of science-based policies and practices at the national and transnational level is important for enhancing the quality and legitimacy of democratic governance systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the major drivers behind strengthening the creation, application and mediation of scientific expertise for policy-making. Science-based policy-making can take different forms, such as evaluation of practices, implementation of independent or commissioned research, application of quantitative and qualitative analyses, or the development of statistical and environmental monitoring systems. However, scientific evidence is only one among several factors contributing to sound democratic decisions. Scientific expertise needs to be mediated through a complex process of social and political deliberation. The paper aims to identify the main policy challenges behind science advisory bodies and to set out an agenda for rebuilding public trust in science-based policy-making.

Popular Mass Entertainment in Japan: Manga, Pachinko, and Cosplay

Abstract: The Japanese, just like any other people of the world, love entertainment. In this article we discuss and analyze three kinds of popular, Japanese mass entertainment utilizing a semiotic approach. We are concerned with what and how manga (Japanese comics), pachinko (vertical Japanese pinball machines), and cosplay (costume play) represent and reflect Japanese-ness: its culture, tradition, history, and society.

Semiotics and Society

Abstract: This essay introduces some of the basic concepts that can be used in applied semiotic analysis and discusses the work of some prominent semioticians, such as Ferdinande de Saussure, Charles Sander Peirce, Umberto Eco, and Roland Barthes. Barthes’ book Mythologies is identified as a seminal text in applied semiotic analysis. Marshall McLuhan’s book The Mechanical Bride is discussed as being semiotic in nature, though he doesn’t use the term. The utility of semiotics utility in studying teeth, facial expression and other aspects of people watching and communication is also dealt with.

Anti-Minotaur: The Myth of a Sociological Morality

Abstract: Recently Philip Gorski has argued that sociology can help us answer moral questions such as how to live and how to organize societies. Gorski rejects “value-free sociology” and the distinction between factual statements and value judgments, but actually factual statements and value judgments are distinct and sociology can be value-free. The practice of value-free sociology is ethically imperative, even, if we are to be honest with our audiences and if we are to fulfill our vocation as sociologists.

The Not-So-Good News about Teenage Pregnancy

Abstract: Over the past few decades there has been a significant reduction overall in both pregnancy and childbearing among adolescents in the United States. Since the most recent peak of the early 1990s, the rate of pregnancy per 1,000 girls aged 15– 19 dropped from about 116.9 to 67.8 and the birthrate from 61.8 to 31.3 (the exact rates reported depending upon the data source). These dramatic declines of 42 and 49 % respectively occurred more or less steadily, and represent unequivocally good news. The downward trends occurred among teens in all racial and ethnic groups, of all ages, and in all states, to their current historic lows. Though the overall teen birth rate in the U.S. is nearly twice that of the next highest among developed nations, the U.K., the consistency of these positive trends over time and across various socio-demographic groups suggests that the tide of increased high-risk sexual activity among everyounger girls and boys has been stemmed. However, not all the news is good. Despite within-group declines, about half of all Latinas and black girls will become pregnant at least once before age 20, compared to 19 % of whites. Births to teens in rural counties are now almost 30 % higher than in urban or suburban communities and account for about 20 % of all births to teens. There also has been recent recognition of high levels of risky sexual activity among girls in foster care, who are twice as likely to give birth as those in the general population of teens. Preventing pregnancy among many of these adolescents—such as the young woman above whose early sexual initiation and motherhood resulted from fear of incest– and for whom the costs to the larger society are the highest, may prove to be extraordinarily difficult. In other words, as Sarah Brown, the Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy observed, we may already have achieved the “easy wins” in bringing down rates of pregnancy and childbearing among American youth.

US “Partnership” with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its Effect on Civil Society and Human Rights

Abstract: Looking at Egypt before, during and after the Arab Spring, this paper examines the intersection of Christian Copts, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian army, moderate Muslims and secular groups. In turn, it examines the Obama administration’s policies toward Egypt. It discloses the surprising finding that the only consistent aspect of the administration’s policy toward Egypt has been outreach to and engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood. At no time before or after the Brotherhood’s ascent to prominence in Egyptian politics and society did the administration make support of the Brotherhood conditional. At no time did it use US leverage - given the massive amount of financial and military aid Egypt was depending on, and given the new Egyptian government’s desire for prestige in the world community–to pressure the Morsi government to respect human rights, religious liberty and the impartial rule of law. Arguing that American foreign policy at its best is rooted in democratic ideals, this paper asks whether the United States, while respecting that Egyptians must choose their leaders and their political system, could have done more to encourage a positive strategic, moral and political outcome.

Race and Mortality Revisited

Abstract: In an article in the January/February 2000 issue of Society titled “Race and Mortality,” I explained the statistical pattern, inherent in other than highly irregular risk distributions, whereby the rarer an outcome, the greater tends to be the relative (percentage) difference between the rates at which advantaged and disadvantaged groups experience the outcome and the smaller tends to be the relative difference between rates at which such groups avoid the outcome. By way of example with respect to the health and healthcare outcomes on which the article principally focused, as mortality declines, relative differences in mortality tend to increase while relative differences in survival tend to decrease; as healthcare generally improves, relative differences in receipt of appropriate care tend to decrease while relative differences in failing to receive such care tend to increase. In 2000, however, this pattern was virtually unknown to health disparities researchers or anyone else examining demographic differences in favorable or adverse outcomes. Consequently, most efforts to appraise demographic differences in such outcomes were fundamentally unsound. This article addresses the extent to which the appraisal of demographic differences in outcome rates is any sounder today than it was in 2000. In summary, while there has been increasing recognition of the ways that relative differences in outcome rates tend to be systematically affected by the prevalence (frequency) of an outcome, that recognition has yet to affect the way observers analyze group differences in outcome rates in any context. Though today vastly greater resources are devoted to the study of disparities in health and healthcare outcomes than in 2000, almost nothing said about such things as whether those disparities have increased or decreased over time or are otherwise larger in one setting than another, or even whether a disparity should be deemed large or small, has had a sound statistical basis. Meanwhile, federal regulators encourage mortgage lenders and public schools to reduce the frequency of adverse borrowing and student discipline outcomes in order to reduce the commonly observed severalfold racial and ethnic differences in rates of experiencing those outcomes. Neither the regulators, the congressional committees monitoring regulator policies, nor the institutions reducing the frequency of those outcomes in response to federal encouragements understand that reducing any outcome tends to increase, not reduce, relative differences in experiencing it. More broadly, events since 2000 do little to bolster one’s faith in the validity of accepted scholarship or the capability of individuals or institutions to recognize and acknowledge that things they have been doing for decades or generations have been incorrect or misleading.

The Armenian-American Lobby and Its Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy

Abstract: Most of the few studies and press articles dealing with the U.S. Armenian lobby have tended to insist on this lobby’s successes, regarded as impressive and disproportionate. This has generated a few problems in its global understanding, especially with regards to its impact on U.S. foreign policy, and has contributed to shape a generalized perception of a “small” lobby, capable of considerable influence on U.S. foreign policy. The main goal of this article is to question this common perception in order to propose a more accurate evaluation of this lobby. Mostly thanks to its influence in Congress, it has succeeded in getting positive results, particularly concerning U.S. financial assistance to Armenia. However, it has also experienced some failures, particularly on issues related to Turkey or American energy policy.

Christian Martyrdom as a Pervasive Phenomenon

Abstract: Historians have undertaken the study of Christian martyrdom primarily to understand its impact on the growth of the religion since its inception. This article takes a different perspective on the study of martyrdom, instead examining how many Christians around the world have died in situations of witness every year. Included is a comparative analysis of twentieth- and twenty-first-century trends regarding the phenomenon, highlighting both qualitative and quantitative differences between the two periods. Measuring Christian martyrdom is not without controversy, however. Here, the number of martyrs per year is determined by a specific set of criteria that takes into consideration historical, sociological, and theological arguments. This article will present a definition of martyrdom highlighting two important aspects: (1) the motivation of the killed rather than the killer, and (2) the inclusion of Christians who have died as a result of mass killings and genocides. Drawing on historical and contemporary descriptions of martyrdom situations, we argue that martyrdom is a broad-based phenomenon not limited to state persecution that is profoundly affecting thousands of Christians in the context of civil war, genocide, and other conflicts.

Changing the Culture of Health: One Public Health Misstep at a Time

Abstract: In this article, I argue that public health regulations are a necessary component of changing the culture of health in the US. After considering libertarian critiques of public health interventions, I maintain that many of the interventions critiqued are not in fact coercive. Looking forward, I do not envision an either/or between the nanny state vs. a libertarian polity. Instead, a middle ground will emerge that respects individual choice and personal responsibility while accepting that government has a legitimate interest in securing the population’s health. Better health helps people make better choices and enjoy freedom; being free from poor health status is as important to liberty as free choice.

The “Professionalized” Solution to the “College Bubble”

Abstract: It has been argued that higher education is about to encounter a “bubble” comparable to the one the housing market did. Critics charge either that current college resources cannot meet the potential demand or that the demand is likely to decline such as to produce excess supply. Among the problems cited are spiraling high costs, shrinking enrollments, low graduation rates, declines in humanities majors, extended periods of matriculation, inferior quality, and a lack of social justice. By the same token, there is a lack of agreement about how colleges should be reformed. Some commentators insist that higher education must be more efficient. Meanwhile others focus on academic relevance. For still others the crucial goal is fairness, which generally comes down to social mobility, affordability, and affirmative action. The question then becomes: How are we to decide what should be done, which, in turn, depends on how we conceptualize the mission of higher education.

Implikasi Terbitnya Regulasi Tentang Pertimahan Terhadap Dinamika Pertambangan Timah Inkonvensional Di Pulau Bangka

Abstract: Implication of the publication of the regulation of dynamics of tin mining on Bangka Island, it is most clearly visible are the rise of tin mining unconventional. The Central Government controls over commodities lead is so strong that they use their hands to do military protection. The local community is prohibited to mine, sell, even save them even one kilogram of matter. This condition is a precondition for the emergence of dissharmonsation in the management of lead in this area. Last issue about the rules of tin mining this regulation until now has never been resolved. So in a forum, all conflicts that erupted about tin mining will stop when the tin islands of Bangka Belitung Province have been exhausted.

Secularization: An International Debate from a British Perspective

Abstract: Fundamental concepts like secularization are initially formulated from perspectives embedded in particular histories, and the contrast between the British perspective and the French provides a network of clues as to how secularization is systematically inflected in the British and French cases Once one follows these clues through it becomes clear that secularization as a concept is not a neatly bounded entity suspended ahistorically in neutral ideological space but bound up with culturally constructed binaries, such as 'the religious' and 'the secular', with ideological notions of the direction of history and the teleology of progress, and with ages and stages Secularization gathers together several semi-related changes, but should not be understood as a one-way-street

Modern Muslims and the Challenge of Plurality

Abstract: Contrary to the earlier forecasts of secularization theory, religious practices and ethical imaginaries are flourishing across the Muslim world. But Muslim scholars and intellectuals disagree on the question of how to deal with the pluralization in mind and society that marks our age. This paper examines the ways in which contemporary Muslim engagements with religious plurality are discursively path dependent. The engagements are shaped by, on one hand, discourses long associated with Islamic ethics and law, and, on the other hand, circumstances extrinsic to this normative tradition that inform the way in which those internal discourses are selectively reconstructed in the face of modern plurality. The article suggests that, notwithstanding certain anti-pluralist currents, there is a growing community of Muslim intellectuals intent on engaging diversity in society by devising a “plurality in mind” that is still recognizably Islamic in method and message but accommodating of a higher degree of social diversity than was typical of classical Islamic discourses on religious “others.”

The Intellectual Crisis in Philanthropy

Abstract: Defenders of modern philanthropic freedom often defend donor intent and celebrate voluntary action. Nevertheless, donor intent and voluntarism have often undermined the conditions of constitutional freedom. This paper proposes that philanthropy currently suffers an intellectual crisis very much like the intellectual crisis in public administration diagnosed by Vincent Ostrom. The Common Core State Standards initiative is a case study of the problems of epistemic drift in philanthropy and raises questions about whether merely defending donor intent and voluntary action for their own sake is sufficient. To escape philanthropy’s current intellectual crisis requires a clearer consideration of the epistemic choices that shape donor intent and voluntary action.

Islam and Plurality, Old and New

Abstract: All of the historical religions emerged in a context of religious plurality and, at times, bitter inter-religious rivalry. In our late modern age, the challenge of plurality has become all the more pervasive. This paper examines the varied traditions of knowledge and practice developed by Muslim jurists, political leaders, and religious thinkers to engage people of non-Muslim faith, from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to today. It highlights three themes. First, there was never any single message with regard to how the Muslim community should engage plurality. Second, the historical practice of Muslim rulers has often shown greater variation (and occasional "liberality") with regard to questions of plurality than has jurisprudence. Third, and last, however, as with the practitioners of other faiths, Muslims in modern times have had to revisit and rethink their traditions with regards to plurality, and both inclusive and exclusive currents have emerged. The challenge of plurality is likely to remain a core issue in Muslim politics and public ethics for some years to come.

A Future of “Happiness”: Can Markets Be Co-evolved?

Abstract: The downturn of the markets in the recent global economic crisis points to a need to question the current dynamics of the market system, a decade after the turn of the millennium. The inequalities with regard to the consumption of resources across world markets, the declared low satisfaction rates over what is offered in the marketplace, and the increasing skepticism with marketing practices are all more pronounced than ever. It is becoming evident that consumer marketing fails in constructing a happier society. Consumers, producers, and governments as the three main market stakeholders, share responsibility for the undesired consequences. This article provides a critical perspective on the contemporary paradigm that dominates marketing thought in relation to the central role and the evolving meaning of consumption in the market economy that is favored by most governments. The core position of the article is that determining happiness as the ultimate end requires a shift to a new societal orientation for all stakeholders of the market system.

Dampak persepsi siswa tentang kondisi ekonomi keluarga terhadap motivasi melanjutkan pendidikan ke perguruan tinggi di kalangan siswa madrasah aliyah putra al-islahuddiny

Abstract: Penelitian ini dilakukan pada siswa Madrasah Aliyah Putra Al-Islahuddiny dengan memadukan pendekan kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Adapun obyek kajian dalam penelitian ini yakni melihat kondisi perspesi siswa terhadap kondisi ekonomi keluarganya dan pengaruhnya terhadap motivasi melanjutkan pendidikan keperguruan tinggi. Berdasarkan data yang telah dihimpun menujukkan bahwa para siswa Madrasah Aliyah Putra Al-Islahuddiny sebagian besar atau diatas rata-rata memiliki persepsi postif terhadap kemampuan keluarganya untuk membiayainya secara finansia melanjutkan pendidikan keperguruan tinggi. Namun demikian cukup banyak diantara mereka memiliki motivasi melanjutkan pendidikan keperguruan tinggi berada pada kategori kurang baik. Hal ini disebabkan berbagai factor antara lain tidak adanya kepastian untuk mendapatkan hasil secara ekonomilebih baik jika melanjutkan kuliah dibandingkan tidak kuliah. Adanya motivasi belajar yang renda dan sebagian yang tidak melanjutkan pendidikan keperguruan tinggi dikarenakan keinginannya untuk lebih memperdalam pendidikan agama pada lembaga takhassus yang khsuus mengkaji pelajaran agama. Walaupun persepsi terhadap keadaan ekonomi keluarga dikalangan siswa Madrasah Aliyah Putra Al-Islahuddiny berpengaruh signifikan terhadap motivasi melanjutkan pendidikan ke perguruan tinggi dan bersifat linear, namun pengaruhnya tidaklah besar.

Obama’s Foreign Policy: “Smart Power,” Realism and Cynicism

Abstract: This article reviews the foreign policy of the Obama administration with a special focus on the Middle East. It shows the gap between the lofty rhetoric of the President, a great orator, and the decisions taken by the Administration. This gap is the inevitable result of the normal play of forces in the decision-making process involving many actors and the interplay of domestic policies and foreign policy. The author argues that if Obama’s foreign policy is analyzed in electoral and domestic terms then it is quite wrong to argue, as some have done, that it is dumb. Smart in electoral terms, however, does not necessarily mean smart on the international stage.

Treating Rationality as a Continuous Variable

Abstract: Granted, Behavioral Economics has demonstrated that “people” (implying all) are unable to act as strong definitions of rationality assume. Their cognitive limitations are “hard wired”. However Behavioral Economics’ own data show that important segments of the population find “the” rational answer to choices posed to them. How do these findings square with the thesis that limitations are hard wired and universal? And, more attention should be paid to the extent to which various people deviate from the rational choice, and—whether training can improve performance despite the claim that flaws are hard wired.

The Role of Arab American Advocacy Groups in Shaping American Foreign Policy

Abstract: This paper aims to offer some insights into the ways in which Arab-Americans experience the United States and adjust to its political institutions. It stresses how such a community still finds it difficult to consolidate its efforts and exert pressure on the decision making process. But to gain national visibility and recognition, they need first to voice its concerns throughout mainstream advocacy groups. In this regard, the term “Arab lobby” is a misnomer as very often it is used as a shorthand word for the loose coalition of organizations that seek to improve Arabs’ conditions in the U.S. and to influence American foreign policy in the Middle East. Notwithstanding, this study is meant to highlight the difference between what some termed the informal Arab lobby, sponsored by rich oil countries, and the formal Arab American lobby, represented today by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and headquartered in Washington D.C. However, while the different components of the pro-Arab lobby cannot represent “the Arabs” as a united political group, they have been able to share a common concern: Palestine. In effect, not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a top priority and a principal focus of the Arab lobby as a whole, but it has also been viewed as a tool to measure its political efficacy. Last but not least, despite the very limited success achieved by the Arab lobby in its attempts to shape American foreign policy (compared to its pro-Israel counterpart), this study demonstrates that the members of the Arab and Jewish communities in the United States share common grounds on almost every issue central to Arab-Israel peace and U.S. policy in the Middle East, on top of them the two-state solution (Zogby International, 2007).

Our Killing Schools

Abstract: On Friday, December 14, 2012, a deranged 20-year-old walked into Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and executed 20 young children and six teachers and administrators. The killer, Adam Lanza was the most recent in a long line of teenage or near-teenage boys who have committed mass murder at a public school. The statistics are frightening. Between 1997 and 2012, ten boys have killed 73 students, parents, and teachers, and wounded 99 more, in the nine most well publicized school shootings. Previously unknown places such as Pearl, Mississippi (1997); West Paducah, Kentucky (1997); Jonesboro, Arkansas (1998); Springfield, Oregon (1998); Littleton, Colorado (1999); Santee, California (2001); Red Lake, Minnesota (2005); and Chardon, Ohio (2012) have become a part of the American consciousness. The best known of these ten killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, massacred 13 students and teachers at Columbine High School and then killed themselves. The boys’ original goal (planned over a year before the attack) was to bomb and level the entire school in a series of massive explosions and then to shoot everyone left alive. They hoped to kill every single person at the school (over 2,000 students, plus 150 teachers and staff). Less well known to Americans but no less shocking is the fact that scores of boys around the United States have been arrested since 1999 for conspiracy to commit large-scale shootings and bombings at their respective schools. Here are just a few examples. In Fort Collins, Colorado, three boys were arrested in 2001 for attempting to carry-out a “Columbine-like” massacre with propane bombs and semi-automatic rifles. Their plan was to shoot as many people as possible and to then take 10 seventh-graders hostage, execute them, and then kill themselves. That same year, three teenage boys were arrested in New Bedford, Massachusetts, for conspiracy to commit mass murder at their school. After the killing spree, they planned to meet on the school roof, drink alcohol, smoke pot, drop acid, and then shoot each other in the head. Three years later, a 17year-old boy in Nebraska was arrested at his school with 20 homemade bombs and a rifle. According to officials, the boy “intended to kill everyone in the school except three friends.” On December 14, 2012— the same day as the Sandy Hook massacre—an 18-year-old boy in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was arrested for conspiracy to launch a massive bombing and shooting attack at his high school. Despite statistics suggesting that overall school violence has declined in recent years, millions of parents send their children to school every year worried they may never come home. And with every new school shooting or attempted bombing, many Americans experience a sense of deja

Communitarian Bioethics: Three Case Studies

Abstract: In recent years, communitarianism has turned bioethics away from an overwhelming emphasis on liberal individualism. Growing emphasis on the common good has created no few dilemmas for medical practitioners used to weighing the interests of their patients above all else. Three cases exemplify the conflict between community and individual interests. The first is the Israel Patient Rights Act (IPRA), a first of its kind statute that allows hospital ethics committees to impose lifesaving treatment on competent patients who refuse medical care. The second case investigates the medical treatment of wounded soldiers and suggests that community based obligations may, in some circumstances, allow physicians to give priority to treating compatriots over non-compatriots. The last case discusses force feeding political detainees. While many physicians are resolved to preserve a hunger striker’s right to refuse food, many state governments are equally resolved to feed them. Hunger striking sets the stage for a classic battle between respect for autonomy and concerns about the public welfare that communitarian principles can help resolve.

Multiple Modernities: A View from Jerusalem

Abstract: This essay is a reflection on Peter Berger’s “Further Thoughts on Religion and Modernity” (Society, 49:4) from the perspective of S. N. Eisenstadt’s concept of “multiple modernities” that is rooted in his experience as a Zionist scholar educated in Jerusalem and concerned with Jewish society throughout history and in the present. Eisenstadt’s concept of “civilization” reflects an appreciation that many diverse and even apparently contradictory strands may co-exist, and it rejects religion and secularism as dichotomous and mutual exclusive. Eisenstadt’s approach is thereby complementary to Berger in finding that modern societies can and do comprehend both and that pluralism and co-existence more accurately describe contemporary societies.

Same-Sex Marriage, Korean Christians, and the Challenge of Democratic Engagement

Abstract: The contest over gay rights (e.g., same-sex marriage) dramatizes the clash between increasingly nonwhite (“majority-world”), religious conservatives and mostly white, progressives. It renews longstanding debate about the compatibility of religious conservatism and liberal, pluralistic democracy. A study of one influential group, Korean Christians, shows that the younger, western-educated generation generally combines religious conservatism and political liberalism; they are much more likely to espouse liberal-democratic principles and to participate in the larger, plural society than the older, immigrant generation. However, the polarizing politics of gay rights partly reverses the generational pattern: the historically insular, first generation participate more in mainstream politics, while some western-educated, second-generation Korean Christians become intolerant and isolated from elite-educated circles. Ideological minorities self-segregate themselves in the face of hostile, energized majorities, whether progressives in Korean Christian circles or conservatives in secular, educated ones. Public deliberation on same-sex marriage depends on whether it becomes viewed like the clear-cut issue of interracial marriage or the more ambiguous one of abortion.

“How Can We Stay Sober?” Homeless Women’s Experience in a Substance Abuse Treatment Center

Abstract: This article presents findings from an exploratory, qualitative examination of an intensive outpatient treatment program for homeless women recovering from substance dependence disorders. Structured interviews of seven current program clients and three graduates of the program were conducted to ascertain how clients maintain their sobriety in addition to meeting the unique challenges of being homeless. Based on these interviews, there are four main concerns discussed: lack of communication between service providers, inconsistency in personnel during recovery, inconsistency in relapse policies, and clients feeling ill prepared to live in the “real world” after program completion.

Multiple Realities and Religion: A Sociological Approach

Abstract: The essay introduces a number of sociological theories that can be used to explore how individuals combine religious and secular discourses in their consciousness and behavior in pluralistic societies. Two concepts coined by Alfred Schutz seem to be most fruitful for this enterprise: the notion of “multiple realities” (that make up an individual’s life-world) and the notion of “relevance structures” (as co-existing and potentially conflicting perspectives within the reality of everyday life). While the capacity to switch between realities and to juggle relevancies is probably an anthropological constant, the number of available relevancies increases radically in the course of modernization.