Crockett, Alasdair

Dr. Alasdair Crockett is Data Services Manager and Senior Research Fellow at the UK Data Archive, University of Essex. His research interests cover the changing social significance of religion over the modern historical period. He is currently analyzing recent religious change in Britain as evidenced by the major social surveys.

Patterns and Processes of Religious Change in Modern Industrial Societies. Europe and the United States

2004 0-7734-6431-X
This book addresses the central debates about religious change in advanced industrial societies. The contributors, among them some of the best known sociologists of religion in Britain, the United States and continental Europe, present a wide range of opinions on the central question of whether the overriding characteristic of religious change in modern industrial societies is decline, persistence or transformation. It includes proponents of the two main paradigms in the sociology of religion: the traditional paradigm of secularization theory, and the ‘new’ paradigm of ‘rational choice’ and ‘supply-side’ theory. Many of the chapters contain highly sophisticated, yet simply presented, analyses of the best available empirical data from current and historical social surveys in western and eastern Europe (including Russia) and the United States.