Religious Map of Catalonia

In recent decades, Catalonia has experienced transformations that have generated changes in the country's religious landscape. After national Catholicism and the secularizing processes of the democratic transition, the waves of migration that began in the 1990s created a new scenario in which religious minorities became increasingly important.

The research on the Map of Religious Minorities in Catalonia is framed within this context and aims to understand how this diversity is expressed in data, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

With the aim of being able to locate and gain in-depth knowledge of the different religious confessions present in Catalonia, in 2001 the Secretariat for Religious Affairs of the Generalitat de Catalunya (now the General Directorate for Religious Affairs) commissioned the research group ISOR – Research in the Sociology of Religion, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, to design a map of religious minorities , not including the Catholic Church in the research, which was traditionally already known in the country.

The research group, led by Dr. Joan Estruch first and by Dr. Maria del Mar Griera later, has dedicated itself to searching for all places of worship and entities belonging to religious minorities located in Catalonia to analyze various aspects of their creation, formation and religious activity.

The unit of analysis of this research is, therefore, the places of worship and the entities belonging to the religious minorities present in the territory. This unit of analysis allows, on the one hand, to limit the object of study to a reality that can be comprehensively covered; on the other hand, it makes it possible to know the degree of implementation of the different religious confessions in Catalonia. As this is a research with a desire for exhaustiveness, all centers of worship and entities are taken into account.

Publications

• Estruch, J.; Gomez, J; Griera, M.; Iglesias, A. (2004) Other religions . Barcelona: Editorial Mediterrània.

• Fons and Duocastella, C., Luque Capellas, B., & Forteza, M. (2012). The Map of religious minorities in Catalonia. Journal of the Catalan Society of Sociology, (28), 15–27.

• García-Romeral, G. (2013). Islamic communities of Catalonia. Community development, Islamic movements and organizations. Diversia, (3), 93–131.

• Gomez, J.; Griera, M.; Iglesias, A. (2005) “Immigration and Religious Diversity” In: Nadal, M and Larios, M. Immigration in Catalonia today. Yearbook 2004. Col. Polítiques. Nº 47. Barcelona: Ed. Mediterrània.

• Griera, M. (2013) "New Christian geographies: Pentecostalism and immigration in Barcelona". In: Mapril, J. and Blanes, R. (Eds.) Sites and Politics of Religious Diversity in Southern Europe . Brill: Leiden/Boston.

• Griera, M. (2008) “Secularization and religious diversity in Catalonia”. In: Montagut, T. (coord.) Catalan Society 2008. Catalan Association of Sociology: Barcelona.

• Griera, M. and Garcia-Romeral, G. (2009) “Immigration and religious communities”. In: Estanyol, MJ (coord.) Immigration, religions and society . Barcelona: PPU.

• Griera, M. (2008) “Of elective affinities: Pentecostalism and immigration”. Catalan Journal of Sociology , 28. 59-77.

• Martínez Ariño, J, Griera, M., García-Romeral, G., & Forteza, M. (2011). Immigration, religious diversity and centers of worship in the city of Barcelona, (30), 101–133.

Project Data

The current project is funded by the General Directorate of Religious Affairs of the Generalitat de Catalunya , for a duration of 3 years 2017-2020.

The principal investigator is Dr. Maria del Mar Griera , and the project has a team of four researchers: Maria Forteza, Clara Fons, Ramon Macià, Teuta Spitsic.