Dear Robert,
I can't imagine what contradiction might exist between Anglicanism and any other form of superstition. The point is certainly not to get a handle on the intimate details of people's superstitious beliefs.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my understanding is that the rationale for the religion question in the Australian census is explicitly so that religious groups can request funding on the basis of evidence of the population of adherents. And the question does indeed provide tick box response options for the nine most common responses from the previous Census, alog with an 'Other ့ please specify' option.
Harry Feldman
Safe Work Australia
Data & Analysis Section
Strategic Policy Branch
GPO Box 641
Canberra ACT 2601
Location code: C220NB2
Phone (02) 6240 6812
-----Original Message-----
From: email list for Radical Statistics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Moore, Robert
Sent: Tuesday, 21 December 2010 11:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Religion and the census
As someone who has written in the field of the sociology of religion, I must say I find the idea of a religion question ('What religion are you?' kind of thing) absurd. One would need a battery of questions about belief and practice in order to get anywhere near interesting results. Sociologists might create religious profiles exploring the ambiguities and contradictions of both belief(s)* and practices, but this is hardly a suitable undertaking for the census. My understanding of the 2001 religion question was that Jack Straw wanted it as a proxy for differences within populations of Indian and Pakistani origin in the UK.
I suspect also that governments have not wanted a more denominational tick-box census question because of the way the results would be deployed in lobbying for additional funding for faith schools. Some interesting issues raised in Scotland some years ago - in a paper that the sponsors refused to publish because ... etc etc
Robert
*David Martin wrote a memorable paper some years ago describing a devout Anglican lady who was deeply superstitious, holding beliefs about 'bad luck' and so on alongside her Anglicanism.
Professor Robert Moore
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Eleanor Rathbone Building
The University of Liverpool
L69 7ZA
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