Triangulating the World’s Most Dynamic Religious Market: Africa Using a Quanti-Qualitative Method (QQM) [Grim]
Brian J. Grim
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
The African continent is arguably the world’s most dynamic religious marketplace, not only in terms of the growth of indigenous forms of Islam and Christianity but also the growing impact of African spirituality on the world. Despite this, empirical data on religion in Africa are scattered and lacking coordination. In this article I begin by briefly discussing important trends in the study of religion and public life. Then, applying what I have called the quanti-qualitative method (QQM), I describe the “triangulation” of three different types of information used to provide a richer understanding of religion and public life in Africa. First, I show how censuses, demographic surveys and public opinion surveys are used to develop well-sourced adherent estimates for countries. Second, I demonstrate how cross-national public opinion surveys are used to identify the type and intensity of attitudes, religious beliefs and reported behaviors among different demographic segments of countries. And third, I describe how deeper information on the regulation of religion and religious violence is obtained by coding major reports such as the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom reports. I conclude with the argument that a clear understanding of religion is no longer an academic specialty – it is an academic necessity.
File: Grim_B_J_Triangulating_Religion_in_Africa.pdf [531.33KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *grim, @asrec'07, africa, cross-national, religious markets