The paradigm of rational choice: the regulated market and religious pluralism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-20702008000200002Keywords:
Religion, Market, Social theory, Religious PluralismAbstract
The theory of 'religious economies' advanced by Rodney Stark, Roger Finke and Larry Iannaccone has received scant attention from Latin American academia. Few local works have assessed their arguments carefully and evaluated them according to their own definitions and presuppositions. In this article, I review their main ideas regarding rational choice, the dynamics of the religious market and its consequences for religious pluralism. This discussion is particularly important since their new definition of 'rational choice' is virtually unknown locally, and their ideas about the religious market have been - more often than not - understood from the perspective of Peter Berger, whose position stands in sharp contrast to their own. Calling attention to the degree of regulation of religious economies, the authors show that these economies are not defined solely in terms of 'monopoly' or 'market,' but that there is actually a continuum of possibilities.Downloads
References
BECKFORD, James. (2003), Social theory and religion. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
BERGER, Peter. (1971), El dosel sagrado. Buenos Aires, Amorrortu.
BOUDON, Raymond. (1993), “Toward a synthetic theory of rationality”. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 7: 5-19.
CAROZZI, María Julia & FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (1994), “Los estudios de la conversión a nuevos movimientos religiosos: perspectivas, métodos y hallazgos”. In: FRIGERIO, Alejandro & CAROZZI, María. El estudio científico de la religión a fines del siglo XX. Buenos Aires, Ceal.
CAROZZI, María Julia & FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (1997), “Não se nasce batuqueiro: a conversão às religiões afro-brasileiras na Argentina”. Religião e Sociedade, 18 (1): 71-94.
DE LA TORRE, Renée & GUTIÉRREZ ZUÑIGA, Cristina. (2005), “Mercado y religión contemporánea”. Desacatos, 18: 9-11.
DIOTALLEVI, Luca. (2002), “Internal competition in a national religious monopoly: the catholic effect and the Italian case”. Sociology of Religion, 63 (2): 137-156.
FINKE, Roger. (1990), “Religious deregulation: origins and consequences”. Journal of Church and State, 32: 609-626.
FINKE, Roger. (1997), “The consequences of religious competition: supply side explanations for religious change”. In: YOUNG, Lawrence. Rational Choice theory and religion. Nova York, Routledge.
FINKE, Roger & STARK, Rodney. (1992), The churching of America: 1776-1990. New Brunswick, Rutgers.
FINKE, Roger & STARK, Rodney. (2003), “The dynamics of religious economies”. In: DILLON, Michele. Handbook of the sociology of religion. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (1998), “Desregulación del mercado religioso y expansión de nuevas religiones: una interpretación desde la oferta”. Trabalho apresentado no XXII Encontro Anual da Anpocs, Caxambu, MG, Brasil, 27-31 de outubro de 1998.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (1999), “El futuro de las religiones mágicas en Latinoamérica”. Ciencias Sociales y Religión/Ciências Sociais e Religião, 1: 51-88.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (2000), “Teorias econômicas aplicadas ao estudo da religião: em direção a um novo paradigma?”. BIB – Revista Brasileira de Informação Bibliográfica em Ciências Sociais, 50: 125-144.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (2003), “ ‘¡Por nuestros derechos ahora o nunca!’: construyendo una identidad colectiva umbandista en Argentina”. Civitas, 3 (1): 35-68.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (2005), “Identidades porosas, estructuras sincréticas y narrativas dominantes: miradas cruzadas entre Pierre Sanchis y la Argentina”. Ciencias Sociales y Religión/Ciências Sociais e Religião, 7: 223-237.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (2007a), “Repensando el monopolio religioso del catolicismo en la Argentina”. In: CAROZZI, María & CERIANI, César. Ciencias sociales y religión en América Latina: perspectivas en debate. Buenos Aires, Biblos/ACSRM.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro. (2007b), “Analyzing conversion in Latin America: theoretical questions, methodological dilemmas and comparative data from Argentina and Brazil”. In: STEINGENGA, Timothy & CLEARY, Edward. Conversion of a continent: contemporary religious change in Latin America. New Jersey, Rutgers University Press.
FRIGERIO, Alejandro & WYNARCZYK, Hilario. (2004), “Cult controversies and government control of New Religious Movements in Argentina (1985-2001)”. In: RICHARDSON, James. Regulating religion: case studies from around the globe. Nova York, Kluwer Publishers.
GOOREN, Henri. (2007), “Reassessing conventional approaches to conversion: toward a new synthesis”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46 (3): 337-353.
GRIM, Brian & FINKE, Roger. (2006), “International religion indexes: government regulation, government favoritism, and social regulation of religion”. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 2, article 1, www.religjournal.com.
GUERRA, Lemuel. (2002), “A metáfora do mercado e a abordagem sociológica da religião”. Religião e Sociedade, 22 (2): 115-134.
GUERRA, Lemuel. (2006), “Mercado religioso na Paraíba: a competição e o aumento da racionalização das atividades das organizações religiosas”. Religião e Sociedade, 26 (2):155-186.
HECHTER, Michael. (1997), “Religion and rational choice theory”. In: YOUNG, Lawrence. Rational choice theory and religion. Nova York, Routledge.
HECHTER, Michael & KANAZAWA, Satoshi. (1997), “Sociological rational choice theory”. Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 191-214.
IANNACCONE, Laurence. (1997), “Rational choice: framework for the scientific study of religion”. In: YOUNG, Lawrence. Rational choice theory and religion. Nova York, Routledge.
IANNACCONE, Laurence. (2006), “Economy”. In: EBAUGH, Helen R. Handbook of religion and social institutions. Nova York, Springer.
IANNACCONE, Laurence, FINKE, Roger & STARK, Rodney. (1997), “Deregulating religion: the economics of church and state”. Economic Inquiry, 35: 350-364.
LIE, John. (1997), “Sociology of markets”. Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 341-360.
MARIANO, Ricardo. (2003), “Efeitos da secularização do Estado, do pluralismo e do mercado religiosos sobre as igrejas pentecostais”. Civitas, 3 (1): 111-125.
MAUSS, Armand. (1993), “Research in social movements and in new religious movements: The prospects for convergence”. Religion and the Social Order, 3A: 127-151.
PARKER, Cristián. (2005), “¿América Latina ya no es católica? Pluralismo cultural y religioso creciente”. América Latina Hoy, 41: 35-56.
PIERUCCI, Antônio Flávio. (2006), “A religião como solvente: uma aula”. Novos Estudos Cebrap, 75: 111-127.
PRANDI, Reginaldo. (1996), “Religião pagã, conversão e serviço”. In: PIERUCCI, Flavio & PRANDI, Reginaldo. A realidade social das religiões no Brasil. São Paulo, Hucitec.
RICHARDSON, James. (1980), “Conversion careers”. Society, 17: 47-50.
SEMÁN, Pablo. (2001), “Cosmológica, holista y relacional: una corriente de la religiosidad popular contemporánea”. Ciencias Sociales y Religión/Ciências Sociais e Religião, 3:45-74.
SHERKAT, Darren. (1997), “Embedding religious choices: integrating preferences and social constraints into rational choice theories of religious behavior”. In: YOUNG, Lawrence. Rational choice theory and religion. Nova York, Routledge.
SHERKAT, Darren & WILSON, John. (1995), “Preferences, constraints and choices in religious markets: an examination of religious switching and apostasy”. Social Forces, 73 (3): 993-1026.
STARK, Rodney. (1997), “Bringing theory back in”. In: YOUNG, Lawrence. Rational choice theory and religion. Nova York, Routledge.
STARK, Rodney & FINKE, Roger. (1993), “A rational approach to the history of American cults and sects”. Religion and the Social Order, 3A: 109-126.
STARK, Rodney & FINKE, Roger. (2000), Acts of faith: explaining the human side of religion. Berkeley, University of California Press.
STARK, Rodney & IANNACCONE, Laurence. (1993), “Rational choice propositions about religious movements”. Religion and the Social Order, 3A: 241-261.
STARK, Rodney & MCCANN, James. (1993), “Market forces and catholic commitment: exploring the new paradigm”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 32 (2):111-124.
WARNER, Stephen. (1993), “Work in progress towards a new paradigm for the sociological study of religion in the United States”. American Journal of Sociology, 98:1044-1093.
WARNER, Stephen. (1997), “Convergence toward the new paradigm: a case of induction”. In: YOUNG, Lawrence. Rational choice theory and religion. Nova York, Routledge.
ZURCHER, Louis & SNOW, David. (1981), “Collective behavior: social movements”. In: ROSENBERG, M. & TURNER, R. Social psychology: sociological perspectives. Nova York, Basic Books, pp. 447-482.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Tempo Social
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
