EXC 2060 B3-39 - Cross-Organizational and Cross-National Differences in Religious Accommodation

The project focuses on the accommodation of religious majorities and (immigrant) religious minorities in public organizations. It asks whether decisions on religious accommodation that are taken on this sub-national, organizational level are influenced by a national state-religion regime. It seeks to contribute to debates about the negotiation of secularity. Relying on theories from the sociology of organizations, the project refines and tests hypotheses about how organizational specificities such as an organization’s goals, its conditions of membership and hierarchies as well as its relationship with the organizational environment may impact decisions on religious accommodation. Empirically, it pays particular attention to decisions on religious accommodation that are similar within one type of organization across many countries as well as organizational rules that systematically reflect national state-church relationship. To answer these questions, the project collects data on six indicators of religious accommodation (e.g., time and space for prayer, religious apparel) in five public organizations per country (police, military, prison, hospital, school). For each indicator, information is collected for a historically established religious majority and an (immigrant) religious minority. The dataset aims to cover a total of 30 countries.