Religion, the state and disaster relief in the United States and India
- 20 April 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Emerald in International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
- Vol. 32 (3/4), 179-196
- https://doi.org/10.1108/01443331211214758
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the place of religion in civil society and how that relates to the problem of social order.Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory comparative case study was conducted of flood relief in Mumbai with the relief following the Katrina disaster in the summer of 2005, using a qualitative content analysis of regional media documents.Findings: A more fluid and less clearly defined division between religion and government in the USA was found that created opportunities by which a much larger response by religious institutions occurred. Religiously‐based disaster relief in the US case is conducted more through groups and networks, while in the Indian case, religious‐based relief takes place more through values and norms. These conditions led to more immediate social order following the floods in Mumbai but less intensive cooperation and coordination that was not tied to religious institutions. After Katrina in the US case, coordination and cooperation were less immediate but of higher intensity and explicitly tied to religious institutions.Research limitations/implications: This research offers new categories for understanding the role of religion in civil society by focusing on disaster relief in a comparative manner, proposing a framework based on qualitative and exploratory research for pursuing more deductive and explanatory quantitative analyses in the future.Originality/value: Finally, instead of assuming religion as either a source of conflict or a source of social order, dependent on the nature of a given religious group, this paper shows the additional complexity and variation in social order that is dependent on the relationship between religion and state and the social context in a given time and place.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Religion and Life Satisfaction Worldwide: The Role of Government RegulationSociology of Religion, 2009
- State Religious Exclusivity and Human RightsPolitical Studies, 2008
- Contemporary Evidence Regarding the Impact of State Regulation of Religion on Religious Participation and Belief*Sociology of Religion, 2008
- Democracy and Tradition: A Catholic Alternative to American PragmatismLogos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 2008
- The Capacities and Challenges of Faith-Based Human Service OrganizationsPublic Administration Review, 2007
- Rising to the Challenges of a Catastrophe: The Emergent and Prosocial Behavior following Hurricane KatrinaThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2006
- At RiskPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2005
- Fate, Responsibility, and "Natural" Disaster Relief: Narrating the American Welfare StateLaw & Society Review, 1999
- Qualitative Media AnalysisPublished by SAGE Publications ,1996
- The Strength of Weak TiesAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1973