Reaching for a new sense of connection? The diversity of nonreligion in Europe

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Time: 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Venue: Room 1008, John Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road campus, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE
Price: free
Speaker(s): Professor David Herbert & Dr Josh Bullock

This lecture brings to a close our 18-month study which has examined the nature and diversity of unbelief, practice and social connections amongst nonreligious Millennials in six European countries chosen for their differences – from low nonreligion (Romania, Poland) to high nonreligion (UK, Netherlands), and with a mix of Christian heritages (Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic, mixed), political and migration histories, welfare and wealth. We conducted 70 interviews across 25 European cities/towns and triangulated our findings with survey and social media network data. Our lecture highlights three key findings. First, the persistence of beliefs and practices connected to luck, fate and human and cosmic interconnection, which do not fit within a strictly rationalist-materialist framework. Second, we found a range of forms of collective organisation, from state-funded humanist organisations in Norway to Polish movements focused on challenging aspects of the populist religious conservative government's public policy. Third, our social media analysis shows that while national forums remain important, nonreligious Millennials engage with transnational circuits of nonreligious discourse, particularly in English.

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Contact: Josh Bullock
Email: J.Bullock@kingston.ac.uk