Formulating a Question, Conceptualizing a Framework, Designing our Methodology

Driving Questions: What is the role of charismatic leadership (a la Bordieu) and specific institutions or organizations in encouraging particular behaviors and forms of engagement with the larger social and political community? How do spiritual leaders and institutions mobilize their constituencies outside the bounds of the [church, synagogue, mosque]? What are the role of religious institutions and faith systems more generally in initiating/developing broader social movements?

Specific Research Question: How do specific religious institutions (we are in the process of identifying one mosque, one church, one synagogue) encourage engagement with the Amsterdam community? What behaviors do they validate and promote (both in terms of interacting with people of different faiths and in terms of more secular Amsterdamian social behaviors like prostitution, pot, etc)?

Framework: Honestly, I don't feel like any of the frameworks fit our research project exactly (our specific church/synagogue/mosque is not necessarily a synecdoche for the larger religious organization as my peers have so clearly and correctly pointed out...) However, I feel like cultural tradition/memory can be shaped to our project is in the sense that these behaviors are deeply ingrained in and socialized into the congregations. Thinking about cultural tradition and memory in a Mieke Bal sense, she addresses ethnocentrism and ingrained cultural biases/attitudes through this framework. We are tackling a somewhat parallel issue-- ingrained behaviors and attitudes encouraged by the institution. In terms of Zwarte Piet, we would be studying the continuing drivers behind this tradition rather than its implications for society.

Methodology: Close reading and participant observation. We will close read interviews with spiritual leaders, bulletins, public materials, etc. and interpret the significance of not only the content but particular word choices and structural elements. We will observe sermons and services through our active and full participation (a la Ziesel) in them. I feel like the "secret outsider" position is unethical and marginal participation (simply sitting in a service and not engaging with the sermon and rituals [singing hymns, saying prayers, etc] does not allow us to understand the significance of the behaviors).