Religious communities and moral entrepreneurs in a context of affective polarization

In a context of social crisis, derived from the economic, climate and health crisis, polarization, and especially affective polarization, emerges as a key issue for understanding social complexity and the challenges for coexistence. We start from the premise that, in this scenario of affective polarization, the positional issues are of a moral nature, where historically religious communities have played a role as the main providers of moral discourses.

Currently, however, in a context of secularization and religious plurality, as is the case in Catalonia, we ask ourselves what role religious communities and moral entrepreneurs play as agents of polarization or, on the contrary, of dialogue and construction of spaces of consensus on positional issues related to religion, gender and health. Specifically, we focus on the trans law, euthanasia, abortion and vaccination for Covid. It is therefore a question of predicting and assessing the scope of religious communities and moral entrepreneurs in moral issues of public interest.

To do this, we adopt a methodology in which we combine two research techniques: Big Data analysis of social networks and in-depth qualitative interviews. The project thus aims to have a social and political impact, including the holding of participatory seminars with stakeholders and the development of dissemination materials.

Project Data

Principal Investigators	Maria del Mar Griera Llonch and Rosa Martinez-Cuadros
Funded by	General Directorate of Religious Affairs, Generalitat of Catalonia
Date	July 2023- October 2024
Work Team	Rafael Cazarin Joseba Garcia Martin Gabriela Irrazábal Martin Couto Romina Martinez Rosa Martinez Sea of Griera