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Conformity and Contrast: Religious Affiliation in a Finland-Swede Youth Context

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Conformity and Contrast: Religious Affiliation in a Finland-Swede Youth Context View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Conformity and Contrast: Religious Affiliation in a Finland-Swede Youth Context Maria Klingenberg Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki in Auditorium XII (Unioninkatu 34), on the 8th of February, 2014 at 10 o’clock. Pre-examiners Dr Nils G Holm Professor emeritus of Comparative Religion Åbo Akademi University Dr Pål Repstad Professor of Sociology of Religion University of Agder Opponent Dr Pål Repstad Professor of Sociology of Religion University of Agder Cover illustration: Malin Klingenberg ISBN 978-952-10-9718-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-10-9719-5 (PDF) Unigrafia Helsinki 2014 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 6 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 9 1. Religion and language in contemporary Finland ............................................................................... 11 1.1 Young people in the intersection between the individual and the social ..................................... 11 1.2 Religious patterns in Finland ....................................................................................................... 13 1.3 An introduction to the Finland-Swedish context ......................................................................... 16 1.4 Introduction to the research topic ................................................................................................ 20 2. Belonging in late modern society: theoretical perspectives and previous research ........................... 24 2.1 Belonging through learning, reflecting and interacting ............................................................... 24 2.1.1 The challenges of socialization theories ............................................................................... 24 2.1.2 Role-identity theory: reflecting and negotiating social positions ......................................... 28 2.1.3 Religious affiliation as a majority or minority marker ......................................................... 32 2.1.4 Young people in late modern society ................................................................................... 35 2.1.5 Stability or change? .............................................................................................................. 39 2.2 Religious affiliation in contemporary Nordic societies ............................................................... 42 2.2.1 Religious affiliation as a social category .............................................................................. 42 2.2.2 Religious socialization in contemporary Finnish society ..................................................... 46 2.2.3 Religious affiliation and language – the Swedish-speaking group ....................................... 50 2.3 Proposing a model for understanding religious belonging .......................................................... 52 3. Research problem and method .......................................................................................................... 55 3.1 Specified research questions and limitation of study .................................................................. 55 3.2 Determining the questions ........................................................................................................... 57 3.2.1 Methodological implications from previous research .......................................................... 57 3.2.2 The interview guide .............................................................................................................. 62 3.3 The informants ............................................................................................................................ 65 3.3.1 Selecting the informants ....................................................................................................... 65 3.3.2 Conducting the interview ..................................................................................................... 69 3.3.3 Ethical considerations ........................................................................................................... 72 3.3.4 Life phase: status and plans .................................................................................................. 74 3.4 Analyzing the data ....................................................................................................................... 77 3.4.1 The role of the researcher in interviews and analysis ........................................................... 77 3.4.2 Content analysis as a research tool ....................................................................................... 79 4. Religious belonging: majority patterns ............................................................................................. 83 4.1 Religious affiliation ..................................................................................................................... 83 4.2 Church membership – why? ........................................................................................................ 85 3 4.2.1 “It is something you do” – Church member families ........................................................... 85 4.2.2 “I’m still here…” Members from families with mixed membership patterns ...................... 89 4.3 Religious socialization in the family ........................................................................................... 91 4.3.1 Parents from a religious perspective ..................................................................................... 91 4.3.2 Religious practice in the family ............................................................................................ 98 4.3.3 “A Christian home?” .......................................................................................................... 101 5. School and the Church in the peer context ...................................................................................... 106 5.1 Religion and friends .................................................................................................................. 106 5.2 School as a religious socialization agent ................................................................................... 113 5.3 The Church as a socialization agent .......................................................................................... 121 5.3.1 Activities for children ......................................................................................................... 121 5.3.2 Confirmation training and beyond ...................................................................................... 124 6. Religious role identities ................................................................................................................... 132 6.1 Being Christian .......................................................................................................................... 132 6.2 Beliefs ........................................................................................................................................ 138 6.3 The four ways of being a church member ................................................................................. 147 7. Minority positions: religion and language ....................................................................................... 156 7.1 The experience of the minority member as a stark contrast ...................................................... 156 7.2 Language use and linguistic identity ......................................................................................... 160 7.2.1 Monolingual and bilingual life: language use in everyday life .......................................... 160 7.2.2 Being a Finland-Swede – the value of linguistic identity ................................................... 166 7.2.3 Religious affiliation – a marker of ethnic identity? ............................................................ 169 8. Discussion and conclusions ............................................................................................................. 173 8.1 Empirical findings ..................................................................................................................... 173 8.1.1 Church membership............................................................................................................ 173 8.1.2 Religious socialization amongst church members .............................................................. 177 8.1.3 Religious affiliation in a minority context .......................................................................... 182 8.2 Theoretical implications ............................................................................................................ 184 8.2.1 Majority and minority......................................................................................................... 184 8.2.2 Institutional dimensions of vernacular religion: exploring religious conventions ............. 186 8.2.3 Socialization theory and role-identity theory: what is so special about youth?.................. 188 8.2.4 Religious socialization.......................................................................................................
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