Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Methods for the Investigation of Christian Environmentalist Networks

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Praying and Campaigning with Environmental Christians

  • 291 Accesses

Abstract

Given the fact that my research with environmental Christians is based on primary data, I present here a set of methods and models that will help me analyse and discuss the data. I do this in two sections: in the first section, I discuss the research field and its boundaries from an Actor–Network–Theory (ANT) standpoint and I outline my approach to collecting and interpreting data. I start by presenting my reflections from my pilot study, which will help justify my approach to the field. In the second section, I develop three theoretical models for the analysis of my data: (1) a model on dynamic countercultural networks, their expansion and organising processes; (2) a model based on relational identity theory and the socio-cognitive model of transference, a model that links identity changes with the affective re-engagement that accompanies cognitive and behavioural processes; and (3) a model for understanding ecological ritual as a practice of relating to the planet.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arweck, Elisabeth, and Martin D. Stringer (eds.). 2002. Theorising faith: The insider/outsider problem in the study of ritual. Birmingham: The University of Birmingham Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin, John L. 2005. How to do things with words. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1941. Rabelais and his world. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baszanger, Isabelle, and Nicholas Dodier. 2004. Ethnography: Relating the part to the whole. In Qualitative research: Theory method and practice, ed. Silverman David. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boomer-Trent, Laura. 2007. The Chrystal Ocean: An astrological study of the most venerable Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche blessing the world’s water. Astrological Journal 49(4): 20–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowman, Marion I. 2009. Glastonbury festival and the performance of remembrance. DISKUS, 10 [online]. http://www.basr.ac.uk/diskus/diskus10/bowman.htm. Accessed 10 Mar 2011.

  • Braud, William, and Rosemarie Anderson. 1998. Transpersonal research methods for the social sciences. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brint, Steven. 2001. Gemeinschaft revisited: A critique and reconstruction of the community concept. Sociological Theory 19(1): 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryman, Alan. 1988. Quantity and quality in social research. London: Unwin Hyman.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Charmaz, Kathy. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chryssides, George D., and Ron Geaves. 2007. The study of religion: An introduction to key ideas and methods. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corrywright, Dominic. 2004. Network spirituality: The Schumacher-resurgence-Kumar nexus. Journal of Contemporary Religion 19(3): 311–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coupland, Nikolas, and Justine Coupland. 1997. Bodies, beaches and burn-times: “environmentalism” and its discursive competitors. Discourse and Society 8(1): 7–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox, James L. 2004. Separating religion from the sacred: Methodological agnosticism and the future of religious studies. In Religion: Empirical studies, ed. Steven Sutcliffe, 259–264. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Kerry. 1997. Replacing theory in ethnography: A postmodern view. Qualitative Inquiry 3(3): 343–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eagleton, Terry. 1981. Walter Benjamin: Towards a revolutionary criticism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezzy, Douglas. 2002. Qualitative analysis: Practice and innovation. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 1993. Critical discourse analyses and the marketization of public discourse: The universities. Discourse and Society 3(2): 193–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 2006. Global capitalism and critical awareness of language. In The discourse reader, ed. Adam Jaworski and Nikolas Coupland, 146–157. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman, and Ruth Wodak. 1997. Critical discourse analysis. In Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction, ed. Teun A. van Dijk. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, Timothy. 2000. The ideology of religious studies. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flood, Gavin. 1999. Beyond phenomenology: Rethinking the study of religion. New York: Cassell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1971. The order of discourse. In Untying the text: A poststructuralist reader, trans. and ed. Robert Young. London: Rutledge, 52–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1972. The archaeology of knowledge. London: Tavistock Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late Modern Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving. 1967. Interaction ritual. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving. 1981. Forms of talk. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, Brian. 2009. Resilience. Resurgence 255(1): 33–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • HarrĂ©, Rom. 1995. Discursive psychology. In Rethinking psychology, ed. Jonathan A. Smith, Rom HarrĂ©, and Luk van Langenhove. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Marvin. 1976. History and significance of the emic/etic distinction. Annual Review of Anthropology 5(1): 329–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Zellig S. 1991. A theory of language and information: A mathematical approach. Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, Graham. 2003. Guesthood as ethical, decolonising research method. Numen 50(2): 125–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, Immy. 1997. Basic concepts for qualitative research. Bournemouth: Blackwell Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, Rob. 2008. The transition handbook: From oil dependency to local resilience. Chelsea: Green Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, Rob. 2009. Resilience thinking. Resurgence 257(1): 12–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hufford, David J. 1995. The scholarly voice and the personal voice: Reflexivity in belief studies. Western Folklore 54(1): 57–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaworski, Adam, and Nikolas Coupland, eds. 2006 [1999]. The discourse reader. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knott, Kim. 2002 [2000]. The sense and nonsense of “community”: A consideration of contemporary debates about community and culture by a scholar of religion. A paper given at the The British Association of the Study of Religions annual conference. Leeds: University of Leeds.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, Bruno. 1987. Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, Bruno. 2005. Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macnaughton, Phil, and John Urry. 1998. Contested natures. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the western Pacific; an account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: G. Routledge & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClure, Bill A. 2005. Putting a new spin on groups. The science of chaos. London: LEA Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, Margaret. 1923. Coming of age in Samoa: A psychological study of primitive youth for Western civilisation. New York: William Morrow and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, Edward. 1994. Orientalism. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1999. What next?: Language and social interaction study at the century’s turn. Research on Language and Social Interaction 32(1): 141–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Searle, John. 2004 [1969]. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaffir, William. 1991. Managing a convincing self-presentation: Some personal reflections when entering the field. Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of Qualitative Research, ed. Robert A. Stebbins and William B. Shaffir, 72–83. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, David. 2001. Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analysing talk, text and interaction. London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, Ninian. 1973. Science of religion and sociology of knowledge. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, Anselm, and Juliet Corbin. 1998. Basics of qualitative research. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutcliffe, Steven. 2003. Children of the New Age: A history of spiritual practices. London/New York: Rutledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutcliffe, Steven. 2006. Rethinking New Age as a popular religious habitus: A review essay on the spiritual revolution. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 18(3): 294–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, Gary. 2011. How to do your case study: A guide for students and researchers. London: Sage publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timseena, Bhanu. 2009. Participant observation in field research: An overview. Nepalese Journal of Qualitative Research Methods 3(1): 75–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tremlett, Paul-François. 2009. Religion and the discourse on modernity. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waterhouse, Helen. 2002. Perspectives on ritual in Soka Gakkai International UK. In Theorising faith: The insider/outsider problem in the study of ritual, ed. Elisabeth Arweck and Martin D. Stringer. Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weller, Paul. 2008. Religious Diversity in the UK: Contours and Issues. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, Linda A., and Rolf O. Kroger. 2000. Doing discourse analysis: Methods of studying action in talk and text. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahle, Julie. 2012. Practical Knowledge and Participant Observation. Inquiry 55 (1): 50–65.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wales Trinity St David, Carmarthen, UK

    Maria Nita

Authors
  1. Maria Nita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Nita, M. (2016). Methods for the Investigation of Christian Environmentalist Networks. In: Praying and Campaigning with Environmental Christians. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60035-6_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation