Professor David Voas is Head of Department of Social Science at University College London, and member of the Executive Committee of the European Values Study . He will give a speech entlitled “The power of nones: Why secularization matters”

Abstract:

In her Presidential Address at the 2018 conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Korie Edwards urged social scientists to study the way that religion affects the distribution and use of power.  In doing so, she criticized the amount of attention given to secularization.  She advises scholars to avoid “framing our work in ways that could be construed to suggest that religion is losing power.  This is simply not true.”

Using data from various sources, I will make four points in response:

1) Whether, why and to what extent religion is losing power is an empirical question.  The evidence strongly suggests that in nearly all highly developed societies, religion is less central in personal and social life now than in the past. 

2) The common claim that “the presuppositions that informed secularization theory have been effectively refuted” is odd, in view of the evident association between modernization and religious decline.

3) Scholars who are interested in the power of religious ideas, institutions and leaders should be attentive to studies of secularization; “The decline in power, popularity, and prestige of religion across the modern world is not a short-term or localized trend nor is it an accident” (Bruce 2011).

4) The undoubted power of religion can be deployed for good or ill, and there is a widespread belief that religion has done more harm than good.  People are increasingly choosing to live without religion partly because they reject the exercise of its power over their own affairs.

Program

Thursday 10 October

9:00 – 10.00 Welcoming speeches

George Sharvashidze, Rector of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

Merab Pachulia,  Managing Director of GORBI and National Program Director of EVS in Georgia Video

Loek Halman, Chair of the European Values Study

 

10:30 – 11:50 European identity, political values and dynamics of value change Chair: Markus Quandt

Kseniya Kizilova – Patterns and Dynamics of National and European Identities in Central and Eastern Europe Abstract Video

Pepijn van Houwelingen, Plamen Akaliyski, Jurjen Iedema, Paul Dekker – Convergence of political values? A multi-level analysis of developments among EU countries 1990-2017 Abstract Presentation Video

Frédéric Gonthier – Who drives the increase in authoritarian values? Abstract  Presentation Video

Quita Muis, Tim Reesken, Inge Sieben – Different Across, Similar Within? Educational Polarization in Social and Political Attitudes Abstract Presentation Video

12:00 – 13:00 Economic insecurity   and attitudes towards Welfare Chair: Edurne Bartolomé Peral

Carriero Renzo, Marianna Filandri – Explaining longitudinal and cross-country changes in support for conditional unemployment benefits Abstract Presentation Video

Julia Zelikova – Ageing of Population and Social Justice  Abstract Video

Michael Ochsner – Social Responsibility of the State? The Welfare State and Legitimacy of the State Abstract  Presentation  Video

14:15 –  15:55  Special Session: Religion, national identity and pro-choice values  Chair: Gergely Rosta

Keynote Speaker:

David Voas – The power of nones: Why secularization matters  Video

Selected contributions:

Francesco Molteni – Burning the bridge with the past: religion and national identity after the fall of the Berlin Wall Abstract Presentation Video

Jara Kampmann – Does Atheism matter? – Atheism’s influence on homophobia in Europe – EVS data revisited Abstract Video

Veronica Kostenko – Dynamics of nationalism and pro-choice values relations: the cases of post-Soviet and Balkan states Abstract Presentation

16:25 – 17:45 Family , gender and generations  Chair: Ferruccio Biolcati Rinaldi

Zuzanna Brzozowska – Are family values multidimensional? Evidence from the last three decades in Europe Abstract Video

Natalia Soboleva – Parental family and country context as determinants of gender-role attitudes in Europe (the evidence of EVS data) Abstract Presentation Video

Gevorg Poghosyan  – The new Values for the new generation Abstract

Ana Lortkipanidze – Aging and Ageism in Comparison Abstract Video

Friday 11 October

9:00 – 11:00 Special session: Measurement equivalence and validity in cross-cultural research Chair: Dominique Joyce

Christian Welzel  – Measurement Equivalence? A Tale of False Obsessions and a Cure  Presentation  Video

Bart Meuleman – Measurement equivalence: Between Statistical Dogmatism and Anything Goes   Video

Selected contributions:

Boris Sokolov – Cross-national and cross-level measurement equivalence of choice and gender equality values in the EVS 2017 Abstract Video

Vera Lomazzi – Gender role attitudes in EVS2017: is the measurement improved? Abstract Video

11:30 – 12:15  Dealing with non-response and interview falsification Chair: Ruud Luijkx

Lucy Flynn – Interview falsification: an exploratory analysis Abstract_  Presentation   Video 

Dustin Gilbreath – How predictable is item non-response in Georgia? Abstract Presentation Video

13:30 – 15:10  Illiberal democracies and  populisms Chair: Lucy Flynn

Malina Voicu, Ioana Ramia, Claudiu Tufiș – Measurement of radical populism in Romania: dimensions and over time change Abstract  Presentation   Video

Hristo P. Todorov – Present Challenges to European Values Abstract

Olga Lavrinenko – The conditional effects of the economic insecurity on the voting for the populist parties in the European Union     Abstract

Bogdan Voicu – Remitting Populism? Abstract Video

15:30 – 16:30 Attitudes towards migration  Chair: Natalia Soboleva

Ferruccio Biolcati – Rinaldi, Riccardo Ladini – Who do you prefer not to have as a neighbour? An “immigrant” or a “foreign worker”? Evidence from a survey experiment in the Italian edition of the European Values Study – World Values Survey 2017 Abstract Presentation   Video

Horatiu M. Rusu – Civic and ethnic ethos and attitudes toward immigrants Abstract Video

Kathrin Bush – Hostility towards immigrants: Economic and Cultural Threat perceptions as causes in times of the economic crises and rising numbers of immigration Abstract Video

16:30 – 17:00 Closing remarks

Chairs: Vera Lomazzi and Loek Halman

In collaboration with GORBI (Georgian Opinion Research Business International), the European Values Study organizes the first international workshop of EVS2017 “Comparing values in (post)crisis Europe“.

In the recent years, Europe was exposed to remarkable dynamics of simultaneously growing together and falling apart. The workshop aims at dealing with two main questions: How do all these changes affect the Europeans’ values? And how can researchers measure and compare human values in an adequate and meaningful way?

A Call for Abstract has been launched on May 8th welcoming contributions on European values and attitudes with a focus on multilevel and longitudinal research questions on topics such as (but not limited to) social solidarity, social cohesion, national and European identity, we are interested also in papers investigating validity and cross-cultural comparability of values and attitudes.

Read the full program (with abstracts, presentations and videos).

Alongside selected proposals, the program is enriched by keynote contributions and special panels:

In a special panel on Religion, national identity and pro-choice values, Professor David Voas (Head of Department of Social Science at University College London, and member of the Executive Committee of the European Values Study) gives a keynote speech entitled :”The power of nones: Why secularization matters“

The special panel on Measurement equivalence and validity in cross-cultural research gives the opportunity to discuss such matters with Professor Christian Welzel (Chair in Political Culture Research, Center for the Study of Democracy at Leuphana University, and Vice-President of World Values Survey Association), who proposes his speech on “Measurement Equivalence? A Tale of False Obsessions and a Cure, and Professor Bart Meuleman (Coordinator of the Centre for Sociological Research at KU Leuven, and President of the European Survey Research Association), who gives a contribution entitled: “Measurement equivalence: Between Statistical Dogmatism and Anything Goes“.

The Local Organizing Committee at GORBI, Tbilisi, Georgia

Lucy Flynn, Rian Hulscher , Merab Pachulia

The Scientific Committee of the Workshop

Morten Frederiksen (Aalborg Universitet, Copenhagen, Denmark); Vera Lomazzi (GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany); Gergely Rosta (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary); Natalia Soboleva (Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, NRU Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia)