Browsing by Author "Bolger, Daniel"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A Nationally Representative Survey of Faith and Work: Demographic Subgroup Differences around Calling and Conflict
    (MDPI, 2020) Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Daniels, Denise; Bolger, Daniel; Johnson, Laura
    Research has increasingly highlighted the importance of business leaders allowing people to bring their whole selves to work. And religion is an important part of the whole self for many. However, we lack the large-scale national data needed to explore how Americans see the connections between religion and work. Here, from “Faith at Work: An Empirical Study”—a novel, nationally representative dataset—we explore the extent to which working Americans (N = 8767) see their work as a spiritual calling and/or experience work conflict because of their religious faith. We find that one fifth of workers identify their work as a spiritual calling. Our findings also suggest that experiences of religious conflict and discrimination are shaped not only by religious beliefs, but also social location. The initial results highlight future avenues for research and demonstrate the potential of the “Faith at Work” data to shed further light on how religion enters the workplace.
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    Determinants of Confidence in U.S. Institutions: Comparing Congress and Corporations
    (Wiley, 2021) Bolger, Daniel; Thomson, Robert Jr.; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    Objectives: The political discourse surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted discontent with both Congress and corporations, a reality corroborated in recent scholarship highlighting declines in institutional confidence among U.S. citizens. Here we test theories of institutional confidence to understand the social and cultural determinants of confidence in Congress and corporations prior to the start of the 2016 presidential campaigns. Methods: We draw on data from the Religious Understandings of Science Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted in 2013–2014 (N = 9,416). Results: We find that political ideology largely explained confidence in corporations while social location (particularly racial‐ethnic identity and gender) strongly related to confidence in Congress. Seemingly opposing factors converged to predict trust in both institutions. Conclusions: Institutional confidence is shaped not only by social and cultural factors but also by the symbolic functions of institutions themselves.
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    Examining Links Between Religion, Evolution Views, and Climate Change Skepticism
    (Sage, 2016) Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Scheitle, Christopher P.; Peifer, Jared; Bolger, Daniel
    Recent media portrayals link climate change skepticism to evolution skepticism, often as part of a larger “antiscience” tendency related to membership in conservative religious groups. Using national survey data, we examine the link between evolution skepticism and climate change skepticism, and consider religion’s association with both. Our analysis shows a modest association between the two forms of skepticism along with some shared predictors, such as political conservatism, a lack of confidence in science, and lower levels of education. Evangelical Protestants also show more skepticism toward both evolution and climate change compared with the religiously unaffiliated. On the whole, however, religion has a much stronger and clearer association with evolution skepticism than with climate change skepticism. Results contribute to scholarly discussions on how different science issues may or may not interact, the role of religion in shaping perceptions of science, and how science policy makers might better channel their efforts to address environmental care and climate change in particular.
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    Heaven and Health: How Black, Latino, and Korean Christians View the Relationship Between Faith and Health
    (Springer, 2018) Bolger, Daniel; Tinsley, Cleve IV; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    Religious congregations have increasingly been viewed as potential access points to health care in underserved communities. Such a perspective stems from a robust literature identifying the unique civic role that churches potentially play in African American and Latino communities. Yet, research on congregational health promotion has often not considered how congregants view the connections between religious faith, physical health, and the church community. In order to further interrogate how congregants view the church’s role in health promotion, we compare views on the relationship between faith and health for two groups that are overrepresented in American Christianity and underrepresented in medical careers (African Americans and Latinos) with a group that is similarly religious but comparatively well-represented in medical professions (Korean Americans). Drawing on data from focus groups with 19 pastors representing 18 different congregations and 28 interviews with church members, we find that churches across all three groups promote initiatives to care for the physical health of their members. Nonetheless, notable differences exist in how each group frames the interface between religious faith and physical health. African Americans and Latinos highlighted the role of faith in providing physical healing while Korean Americans saw the support of the religious community as the main benefit of their faith. Distrust of medicine was primarily articulated by members of African American churches. The results offer important implications for the future potential and nature of health initiatives in racial minority communities.
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    Spatial and Cultural Dimensions of Social Service Access in Majority Black Neighborhoods
    (2022-04-13) Bolger, Daniel; Ecklund, Elaine
    Reforms to the U.S. welfare system over the past 25 years have made the urban poor increasingly dependent on the work of local social service providers. Such organizations, however, are often not located in disadvantaged neighborhoods, particularly those with a high proportion of Black residents. This dissertation explores the implications of these spatial disparities in social service access through a comparative study of two majority Black neighborhoods in Houston, Texas which are demographically similar but have different levels of organizational infrastructure. Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic observation, 60 interviews with organization members and service recipients, and data from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, I explore how the presence of local social service organizations shapes both the provision and receipt of assistance in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In doing so, I provide a new model for understanding social service access which highlights both the structural and cultural barriers residents face in accessing the social safety net. In particular, I highlight the cultural processes shaping how residents view the social safety net and the cultural repertoires they draw upon to express agency in meeting their material needs. I find that local social service providers contribute to neighborhood life in ways that far exceed the sum of the programs and services they offer by fostering cultural processes like perceived neighborhood collective efficacy. Assessments of the accessibility of local organizations are also shaped by another cultural process, stigmatization, as racialized and gendered stereotypes about welfare recipients continue to inform how residents perceive the sufficiency of the social safety net. In response to these cultural barriers, I highlight two cultural repertoires that residents draw upon to destigmatize receiving assistance: getting out and giving back. The presence of local organizations imbues residents with agency to enact these repertoires. I conclude by developing a conceptual model for understanding how structural and cultural barriers to assistance intersect, which offers a more complex picture of the consequences of racial disparities in social service access. I conclude that the responsibility of caring for the urban poor in U.S. society ultimately falls upon the poor themselves.
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    Spatial Logics: The Politics of Place in Faith-Based Social Service Provision
    (2018-11-28) Bolger, Daniel; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    Prior research indicates that, in the provision of social services, faith-based organizations are unique in their propensity to locate in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Yet, scholars and policymakers know little about why this is so, and thus we have little understanding of how they and other social service organizations understand the significance of place in their operation. I draw on 12 months of ethnographic observation (175 hours) and interviews with 24 key informants in two faith-based social service organizations in Houston, Texas to interrogate how organizations articulate a spatial logic for their work and how conceptions of place matter for service provision. I identify two types of spatial logics: a people-centric logic that imbues place with significance based on proximity to a target demographic community, and a place-centric logic that prioritizes service to a specific geographic area. Both types of spatial meanings are shaped not only by religious convictions, but also through relationships with key constituent groups, particularly donors and volunteers. These spatial logics subsequently shape the ways that agencies use space to attract certain populations and deter others. The results have implications for understanding the importance of place in the social safety net, as well as the institutional logics of faith-based social service provision.