Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religion and the Professional Middle Class in Contemporary China

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project examines how one portion of the Chinese population?the growing professional middle class?is engaging with religious practice and asks how they are using these practices to make sense of their success and place in their country and global society. Why is a rapidly modernizing society that underwent forced secularization now awash with religious activity even in the face of continued governmental control of religion? What does this growth of religion actually look like in people's everyday lives, and how do they use these religious practices, beliefs, and identities to make meaning and build community? Drawing on critiques of the standard sociological theories of religion and ways of conceptualizing and measuring of religion, this project uses the lens of religious practice to analyze distinctively Chinese ways of practicing religion that transcend established religious lines. The data collection involves community observations and interviews with individuals from the following communities: self-identified Buddhists, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, and the non-religious in a prefecture-level city on China's eastern seaboard. Using a combination of qualitative methods (ethnography, in-depth interviews, and photo elicitation interviews), this project will answer the research questions by examining the religious practices of the cosmopolitan sector of Chinese society while also analyzing distinctively Chinese ways of practicing religion that transcend established religious lines. The research also will examine key tensions in the lives of this population and the ways that they use religion to address practical concerns, make meaning, and pursue happiness in the context of rapid social, cultural, and economic change. This project will further our knowledge of both contemporary Chinese society and the role of lived religion among the global middle class.