In sociology,secularization is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." Most versions of secularization do not lead to atheism,irreligion,nor are they automatically anti-thetical to religion. Secularization has different connotations such as implying differentiation of secular from religious domains,the marginalization of religion in those domains,or it may also entail the transformation of religion as a result of its recharacterization.
Bryan Ronald Wilson,was Reader Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Oxford and President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (1971–75). He became a Fellow of All Souls College,Oxford in 1963.
David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University,Richmond,VA and the University of Virginia,Charlottesville,VA,specialized in sociology of religion and the academic study of new religious movements. He has written extensively about cults,new religious movements,apostasy,and the anti-cult movement.
Tariq Modood,is a British Pakistani Professor of Sociology,Politics,and Public Policy at the University of Bristol. Modood is the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship and one of the leading authorities on ethnic minorities in Britain.
Rodney William Stark was an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington. At the time of his death he was the Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University,co-director of the university's Institute for Studies of Religion,and founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.
John David Brewer HDSSc,MRIA,FRSE,FAcSS,FRSA is an Irish-British sociologist who was the former President of the British Sociological Association (2009–12),and was Professor of Post Conflict Studies in the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace,Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast (2013–2023),and is now Emeritus Professor in the Mitchell Institute. He is also Honorary Professor Extraordinary,Stellenbosch University (2017–present) and Honorary Professor of Sociology,Warwick University (2021–present). He was formerly Sixth-Century Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen (2004–13). He is a member of the United Nations Roster of Global Experts for his work on peace processes (2010–present). He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2012 from Brunel University for services to social science.
David Marsh,is a British political scientist. He is currently Professor of Political Sociology and the Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Birmingham and Fellow at the Institute of Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA).
Geoffrey N. Cantor is Emeritus Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds and Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. He has written about Michael Faraday,the wave theory of light and the responses of the Quaker and Jewish religions to science. With John Hedley Brooke he delivered the 1995–1996 Gifford Lecture at the University of Glasgow,which were subsequently published as Reconstructing Nature:The Engagement of Science and Religion in 1998. He contributed to the SciPer Project,which researches the popularization of science in the periodicals of the 19th century,such as the Boy's Own Paper and Punch,and has lectured upon this subject at the Royal Institution in 2005.
The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) is a national data archiving and dissemination service that was founded in January 2003. It is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Jisc. In July 2012,the ESRC announced it will become a partner in the UK Data Service,to be established as of October 1,2012.
Diane Rosemary Elson is a British economist,sociologist and gender and development social scientist. She is Professor Emerita of sociology at the University of Essex and a former professor of development studies at the University of Manchester.
David Oscar Moberg is an American Christian scholar,who is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Marquette University. His areas of specialization included methodology in qualitative research,sociology of religion,sociology of American evangelicals,ageing and religion (gerontology).
The UCL Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences is one of the 11 constituent faculties of University College London (UCL). The current Executive Dean of the Faculty is Professor Jennifer Hudson,having been appointed from September 2022.
Bryan Stanley Turner is a British and Australian sociologist. He was born in January 1945 in Birmingham,England. Turner has held university appointments in England,Scotland,Australia,Germany,Holland,Singapore and the United States. He was a Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge (1998–2005) and Research Team Leader for the Religion Cluster at the Asian Research Institute,National University of Singapore (2005–2008).
The AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme was a five-year strategic research initiative funded by two UK research councils:the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council,running from 2007 to 2012. It funded 75 projects across UK universities investigating various aspects of the complex relationships between religion and society,both historical and contemporary.
David Alfred Martin,FBA was a British sociologist and Anglican priest who studied and wrote extensively about the sociology of religion.
Cathie Marsh was a British sociologist and statistician.
Grace Riestra Claire Davie is a British sociologist who serves as professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Exeter. She is the author of the book Religion in Britain Since 1945:Believing Without Belonging.
Angela Dale is a British social scientist and statistician whose research has involved the secondary analysis of government survey data,and the study of women in the workforce. Formerly Deputy Director of the Social Statistics Research Unit of City,University of London,and Professor of Quantitative Research and Director of the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research at the University of Manchester,she is now a professor emerita at Manchester.
