Primordialists and Constructionists: a typology of theories of religion

This article adopts categories from nationalism theory to classify theories of religion. Primordialist explanations are grounded in evolutionary psychology and emphasize the innate human demand for religion. Primordialists predict that religion does not decline in the modern era but will endure in perpetuity. Constructionist theories argue that religious demand is a human construct. Modernity initially energizes religion, but subsequently undermines it. Unpacking these ideal types is necessary in order to describe actual theorists of religion. Three distinctions within primordialism and constructionism are relevant. Namely those distinguishing: a) materialist from symbolist forms of constructionism; b) theories of origins from those pertaining to the reproduction of religion; and c) within reproduction, between theories of religious persistence and secularization. This typology helps to make sense of theories of religion by classifying them on the basis of their causal mechanisms, chronology and effects. In so doing, it opens up new sightlines for theory and research

Extraversion strategies within a peripheral research community: Nigerian scientists' responses to the state and changing patterns of international science and development cooperation

Labelled ‘giant of Africa’ in the 1970s on account of its promising human and natural resources, Nigeria entered in the early 1980s in an unprecedented period of recession following the domination of corruption over government operations, the fall of the oil market price and the introduction of a structural adjustment programme in 1986. Despite its potential wealth, Nigeria is ranked today as part of the world’s thirty least developed countries. This has, of course, had severe repercussions on institutions of higher learning and the scientific community through the twin effects of the deterioration of working conditions and that of the purchasing power of the academic staff. However, our study, based on visits in nine of the most prestigious research institutions and interviews with forty five scientists working there, reveals that, contrary to all expectations, research has not died. It has, rather, been transformed in various ways along the survival strategies evolved by scientists and the needs of the international community

Sustaining the ivory tower: Oxbridge formal dining as organizational ritual

In this ethnographic study of formal hall ritual in Oxbridge Colleges, the authors show how this special form of dining plays a key role in organizational cohesion, demarcation, and continuity. Formal hall serves as a central organizing principle of the colleges, having social, political, and pedagogic facets. Drawing upon participant observation of 22 formal dinners, this article explores its significance on different levels. It examines how formal hall creates social stability, provides historical continuity, reaffirms hierarchy and bureaucratic order, perpetuates exclusivity and reverence, and provides college level space for organizational politicking, relationship-building, and information exchange. It also cements important stakeholder relations at broader societal levels. Furthermore, these outcomes feed into its overriding purpose of solidifying shared elite identity through selective membership and participation. Transgressions against this elitist formal dining ritual are also addressed, being conceptualized on a continuum from “higher order” to “lower order” according to degree of potential threat to the ritual. The authors conclude with a discussion of their findings’ implications for research on organizational ritual, whereby inclusion, exclusion, and identity issues lie at the heart of the ritual’s power over organizational processes, and the social control of actors not solely within but also beyond immediate organizational boundaries

Ethnicity or tribalism? : The discursive construction of Zimbabwean national identity

In Zimbabwe any attempt to discuss ethnicity risks being labelled as ‘tribalism’ and, therefore, divisive to a supposedly ‘united nation.’ But what is ethnicity? This paper will attempt to discuss this issue, with particular focus on its intersection with nationalism and the construction of national identity. It will illuminate the liminal process of the ‘criminalisation of ethnicity’ through some moves aimed at blocking open discourse on ethnicity as a form of identity. Furthermore, the paper illustrates how Zimbabwe’s Shona-dominated nationalist discourses tend to follow the social constructivist path, which publicly dismisses the existence of ethnicity while clandestinely embracing it for dubious political purposes. In the process, the paper will also challenge the Eurocentric-theoretical perspectives underlying the normative engagement of ethnicity within the political and culturalist perspectives in Africa for presenting ethnicity as retrogressive and divisive. It is further argued that the scarcity of indigenous theoretical lenses of understanding ethnicity, exacerbated by grotesque forms of nationalism, as seen in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa sustains the suppression of ethnic minority voices and the shrift dismissal of their issues as peripheral or regional. This lack of proper vent has thus led to the continued resurgence of violent ethnic upheavals across the African continent.Peer reviewe