1
Religion, Postsecularism and
Social Justice at
Neighbourhood Level
A Case study of a Protestant Faith Based Organisation in Spoorwijk, The HagueMaster Thesis Derk Harmannij
Studentnumber: 10081453 Human Geography
Supervisor: Dr. Fenne Pinkster
2 Table of content
Chapter 1: Introduction 3
Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework 6
Chapter 3: Research Questions, Research Design and Methodology 24
Chapter 4: Introduction to Spoorwijk and Community and Church House ‘De Oase’ 30 Chapter 5: Volunteers, Users and Activities of Community and Church House ‘De Oase’ 44
Chapter 6: Networks, Contacts, Politics and Funding 61
Chapter 7: Religion, Postsecularism and Social Justice: Conclusion and Discussion 67
Chapter 8: Appendix 75
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4 Chapter 1: Introduction
In recent years scholars and politicians have begun to see faith based organisations as important factors in the quest for social justice (Dinham et al 2009; Beaumont & Cloke 2012; Cloke et al 2013). Faith based organisations are religious organisations that function as welfare providers or political actors (Beaumont 2008). These faith based organisations are being recognised by governments and academics as being important contributors to welfare and social services, helping socially excluded people and as contributors to community cohesion (Birdwell & Litter 2012; Bekkers 2013; Baker & Beaumont 2011 ; Putnam 2000). Faith based organisations offer care and assistance to a wide variety of people, often regardless of their faith (Cloke & Beaumont 2013). According to Birdwell & Litter (2012) governments are even behaving foolishly if they do not include faith based
organisations in their quest social justice.
Several major cities in the Netherlands have what is called ‘buurt en kerk huizen’ (community and church houses) within their city borders. Examples are Buurt- en Kerkhuis ‘De Oase’ in Spoorwijk in The Hague, Buurt- en Kerkhuis ‘De Paardenberg’ in The Transvaal in (again) The Hague, ‘De
Wijkplaats’ in the neighbourhood Lombok in Utrecht, ‘Kerk en buurtwerk Lombardijen’ in Rotterdam and ‘Kerk en Buurt Westerpark’ in Amsterdam. The aim of all these projects is according to the organisations themselves to support the local residents and help them to improve the
neighbourhood. The activities that these organisations organise range from yoga and painting lessons to the running of food banks and homework assistance and are aimed at the local residents. The Protestant Church in the Netherlands and Roman Catholic in the Netherlands are the initiators and financiers of these projects but all the projects explicitly state on their websites that they are open to everyone regardless of religion.
Geography has until recently as an academic discipline never been really interested in religion (Henkel 2005 ; Proctor 2006 ; Kong 2010). Although faith based organisations like the Salvation Army have existed for more than 150 years in the cities it has never really got the attention from
geography (Proctor 2006). Geography often regarded cities as a secular space and did not pay much attention to religion (Dias 2013). It is only in the last 10 years that there is an increase in research on geography and religion (see Kong 2010) but the amount is still rather small. Religion however is clearly visible in the contemporary society, especially in the cities ( see Garbin 2012 ; Strhan 2013 ; Dwyer et al 2012 ; Bielo 2013) and is an important research topic for scholars from both the social sciences and the humanities.
Faith based organisations seem to be dedicated to a lot of topics which in which geographers take an interest. Faith based organisations frequently use phrases like ‘creating a sense of community’ , ‘supporting minorities’ or ‘defeating urban poverty and making neighbourhoods more just’ (from the websites of the Community and Church houses). The mission statements and objectives given by faith based organisations are often favouring local bottom up initiatives and action but it is not clear how the faith based organisations want to achieve this and what their final goal is.
5 Faith based organisations are often described as actors that offer care, welfare and justice to socially excluded people (Cloke & Beaumont 2013). There has however hardy been any research about faith based organisations in the context of the local neighbourhood. Research focused mostly on the organisations themselves or the city wide context. Faith based organisations have received much praise from a wide range of scholars for their ability to create social justice. Some scholars however have questioned whether projects/organisations who are said to be creating social justice are actually creating social justice. Creating social justice and making ‘just cities’ involves more than ‘helping socially excluded people’ (see Fainstein 2010 and Uitermark 2014). Organisations such as faith based organisations might be helping residents and might be bottom up or locally embedded but this does not mean that these organisations or projects create social justice. Central to this thesis will be the following research question:
What role(s) do faith based organisations play in creating more urban social justice in neighbourhoods.
Answering this question will give insight in who is involved in faith based organisations, how embedded in the neighbourhood and the wider institutional context faith based organisations are and how ‘just’ faith based organisations are.
The empirical data for the thesis will be collected during one in-depth case study on one faith based organisation in one neighbourhood in The Hague. The case is located in the neighbourhood
Spoorwijk in the south of The Hague . This case is the mainstream Protestant Buurt-en Kerkhuis (Community and Church house) ‘The Oase’. This organisation organises a wide range of activities such as language classes, homework assistance or coffee mornings for elderly people. The organisation explicitly state that the local neighbourhood has their interest but it is not clear to which extend this is reflected in their actions. The research will be based around interviews with volunteers and leaders and participant observations in the chosen organisation.
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7 Chapter 2.1: Academic Research and Religion
For many years scholars have believed that in the modern society religion would eventually die out. Famous scholars like Weber, Durkheim and Marx thought that with ongoing process of
modernization religion would eventually disappear from society or at least be confined to the private sphere (Inglehart & Norris 2004). According to the famous psychologist Sigmund Freund religion was the greatest of all neurotic illusions that would die upon the therapist's couch (Stark 1999). This was not just a view that was held by scientists a long time ago, many see religion as a realm from the past and as something in the margins of Western society, with the possible exception of the US (Dias 2013). The view that the modern Western society is in an inevitable march towards secularism is called the secularization thesis (Berger 1969 ; Bruce 2006 ; Tschannen 1991). This view has been criticized for lacking empirical evidence and a narrow view on certain Western European (Taylor 2007; Stark 1999) and scholars have come up with alternatives to explain the secularization is Europe such as the idea of believing without belonging (Davie 1994), the nova effect (Taylor 2007) and ideas about the changing demand sides of religion (Stark & Iannaccone 1994). But this does not mean that these scholars think that there has not been a process of secularization, there certainly is secularization is countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway but it did not lead to the disappearance of religion and the effects of secularization differs greatly between places (Habermas & Ratzinger 2006).
Religion turned out to be much more persistent in Western Europe than it was thought to be (Beaumont & Baker 2011 ; Berger et al 2008). The events following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 and similar events in London and Madrid and the process neo liberalisation made religion again very prominent on agendas in the cities (Dias 2013). These processes gave rise to a wide range of policies and ideas that tried to include religion. Especially in the light of neo liberalization and the rolling back of the government have religious organisations had much attention from politics (Hackworth 2010 ; Hackworth & Akers 2010 ; William et al 2012 ; Peck & Tickett 2002; Dinham et al 2009). Politicians and policy makers alike saw religious organisations as private community based organizations which were in their minds perfect vehicles to replace the retreating governments (Dinham et al 2009 ; Furbey & Macey 2005). In this prospective religious organisations are often seen as ‘little platoons’ through which the government implements neo liberal policies (Peck & Tickett 2002).
the mobilization of the “little platoons” in the shape of (local) voluntary and faith-based associations in the service of neoliberal goals, and the evolution of invasive, neopaternalist modes of intervention (along with justifications for increased public expenditure) in areas like penal and workfare policy.
Peck & Tickett (2002 p390) Viewing the growing popularity of religious organisations as a consequence of neo liberal politics and portraying religious organisations as no more than government tools has received a lot of criticism.
8 Furbey & Macey (2005) argue that religious organsations are certainly not willing actors that are being used by the government but that they often challenge ideas from the government and have their own agendas. William (2012) also criticises this view and argues:
The manner in which the concept of neoliberalism has been theorised and ‘put to work’ in accounts of voluntary sector co-option is currently overstretched, and inadequate in understanding the
interconnections of religion, politics and society. (William 2012 p14)
Although faith based organisations are independent actors and not simple executers of
governmental policies there is an increasing amount of collaboration between the two and it is certainly true that some faith based organisations are very much dependent on the government in terms of finance (William 2012). The special attention from politics for religious organisations brings forwards a paradox that exists between neo liberalism and secularization (Dias 2013). Due to the process of secularization religious organisations have lost much of their role and importance at the national level in a number of Western European countries. This forced the religious organisations retreat from the national level and focus more on the local and neighbourhood level were they are thought to have a continuing influence (Dias 2013). At the same time neo liberalization caused national governments to lose much of their power and influence and divert this power to the local and global level. Religious organisations who were often restrained to small scale local community activities at neighbourhood level became very attractive partners for politicians and policy makers who were looking for candidates to take over tasks of governments (Dias 2013).
Chapter 2.2.1: Postsecular turn
Developments as described above made scholars question the process of secularization and current role of religion in society. A recent term that has been used to describe the current situation is postsecular ( Habermas 2006 ; Beaumont & Baker 2011). It a relative new term and gaining in popularity (Beckford 2012). The term was first coined by the German philosopher and sociologist Habermas. The term postsecular implies the idea that modernity does no longer lead to
secularization and that in a democracy the secular mentality must be to open towards to the religious influence of believing citizens (Habermas 2008 p17). Religious organisations who perform tasks previously done by the government often seen as expressions of this postsecular idea. Beaumont & Baker (2011) speak in their book even about postsecular cities. According to Lacione (2014)implies the concept of postsecular three things. Firstly it implies that religion is still very much present in the contemporary society and will continue to do so. Secondly is it a theoretical tool to describe the move away from the secularization thesis and lastly it implies ‘a form of crossing over’ in the public life between religious and secular (Lacione 2014).
This mixing of religious and secular is a very important notion in the idea of post secular thinking (Habermas 2008).This idea of post secular implies that non-religious people and organisations and religious people and organisations work together and form partnerships and are willing to set aside differences in order to offer care, welfare and justice (Cloke & Beaumont 2013). To create this willingness religious people have to ‘translate’ their religious language into universally
understandable, secular language (Habermas 2006 p8). They have to create ‘crossover narratives’ which form common grounds on which religious and secular people can collaborate with each other (Cloke & Beaumont 2013 ; Habermas 2006). This willingness of religious and non-religious
9 organisations and individuals to create ‘crossover narratives’ is very important and has been called post secular rapprochement (Cloke & Beaumont 2013). According to Beaumont & Baker (2011) should religion serve as ‘an inspiring energy for all of society’(Habermas 2006 p8). Postsecular rapprochement is not about faith as a dogma but faith as a praxis (Cloke & Beaumont 2013). There are many books and articles about what post secularism exactly is and how its came into existence ( see Habermas et al 2010 ; Habermas 2006 ; Habermas 2008). The idea of post secular is not just a philosophical approach without much practical implications. There are examples of post secular rapprochement and geographers have begun to map geographies of postsecular rapprochement (Cloke & Beaumont 2013). Post secularism is also a very useful tool to create more social justice, especially in terms of diversity. Examples of post secularism creating social justice are the studies on the UK based organisations City of Sanctuary and London Citizen (Darling 2010 ; Jamoul & Wills 2008). These organisations form places where people from a wide range of religious and non-religious backgrounds work together to help the lesser off in the city:
There is significant evidence to suggest that these campaign spaces reflect a range of religious and other interests, brought together to express values at the heart of which lie significant points of ethical convergence between theological, ideological and humanitarian concern.
Cloke & Beaumont (2013 p33) Chapter 2.2.2: Criticism of the Post Secular Turn
This post secular thinking however has also received criticism. According to Beckford is the concept of “the postsecular” ripe for critical analysis (Beckford 2012). There is according to Beckford (2012) a lack in coherence about what post secularism actually means and some definitions about the
concept are contradicting each other (Beckford 2012). Postsecularism reduces religion too much to a single category although the concept of religion is the most diverse, problematic and contradicting concept there is (Beckford 2012). Sigurdson (2010) argues that philosophers of postsecularism are plundering religion merely for resources that might be useful for their philosophy or politics (Sigurdson 2010 in Beckford 2012). The concept of postsecularism needs according to Beckford (2012) much more critical inspection of concepts, and empirical investigation in order to be useful. Lacione (2014) has been critical about the lack of critical and contextual research on faith based organisations who offer assistance to people regardless of their religious background, something which is seen by scholars as an expression of postsecularism. Current research seems to accept without criticism the answers given by faith based organisations on the question why they help non-religious people or people with a different non-religious background (Lacione 2014). The common answer to this question that helping people regardless of their faith is a task that was given to believers worldwide by God or Jesus personally and that helping others is an important part of the Christian faith or Islam, Hinduism or whatever belief they have. Researchers however never critically reflect on these answers and assume that this theological view takes away any barriers that exist between the faith based organisations and their non-religious clients or clients with different believe systems. Lacione (2014) however shows with his case studies on faith based organisations which help
homeless people in Turin that reality is much more complicated. Although people from all religion and those who do not practice any religion were all welcome they had to obey to the explicit (religious) rules set by the faith based organisations. According to Lacione (2014) are the programmes not designed to give voice to users but to give them the same standardised help.
10 Clients had to be ready and willing to be helped and were expected not to be critical (Lacione 2014). Lacione (2014) argues that:
‘The rationale and moral ethos behind the FBO’s (Christian FBO’s) interventions on homelessness
resides in the fact that homeless people are seen as vehicles through which eternal life (and therefore the eternal love of God) will be reached’.
Lacione 2014 p9 A second criticism Lacione (2014) has is that there is still very little empirical research done on post secular rapprochement. Most research done on the topic is theoretical and lacks an empirical basis and studies that do provide empirical data don’t look very critical at their findings according to Lacione (2014). A related criticism is that the study of post secularism up till now has only focused on religion in urban environments in Western European contexts and that post secularism outside urban environments outside Western Europe is not yet researched (Kong 2010; Lacione 2014). Another criticism is that the acceptation of post secularism means an almost automatic rejection of the secularization thesis. Wilford (2010) however has been very critical about this instant rejection of the secularization thesis by geographers. He argues that the secularization thesis is still useful and relevant for geographers. According to Wilford (2010)provides the secularization thesis still a very useful and powerful theoretical framework for understanding contemporary religion. Geographers who argue that the secularization thesis is outdated do this with a focus on the early writings on the secularization thesis. Recent writings on the secularization thesis are according to Wilford (2010) much more refined and theoretical underpinned. These writings stress the point of differentiation within the secularization thesis. The idea of differentiation argues that in society different functions are becoming increasingly separated. This means for religious institutions that they lose their importance outside the religious sphere in some cases. This however does not lead to the disappearance of religion in society or public life. Secularization has different effects on different spatial scales (Wilford 2010). At the national level it is true that religion has lost much of its influence and authority. On the local level however religious institutions may continue to play an important role. They are however rather confined to the local level, their own sacred archipelago as Wilford (2010) puts it.
Secularization does not mean the end of religion nor does postsecularism make idea of
secularization outdated. Secularization in the modern Western society is according to Wilford (2010) a multidimensional and multiscalar complexity which requires the attention of geographers of religion. This does however not mean that Wilford (2010) sees post secularism as a useless concept. The secularisation thesis has different outcomes on different spatial levels and the same can be said of the post secular idea (Kong 2010). Both secularisation and post secularism are not global and uniform phenomena that happen all over the world, nor is one right and the other wrong. Instead they are very complex and multidimensional processes that both take place at many different spatial levels at the same time (Kong 2010 ; Wilford 2010). The idea of postsecularism however remains a very useful term when examining faith based organisations in a low income neighbourhood in The Hague. The first reason is that many of the aspects mentioned by Habermas are present in the researched case as will be shown later and secondly because the concept of post secular is still very new and constantly developing and although it is true that the concept lacks empirical evidence.
11 However, more and more research is being conducted on the idea of postsecularism which is increasing the understanding of post secularism. The list of publications on the topic is still growing and although the criticisms are relevant they do not make the concept of post secularism useless. Chapter 2.3.1: Faith Based Organisations
Within the research on religion at neighbourhood level, city level or on postsecularism faith based are organisations the most important focus of attention. Faith based organisations in the context of sociological, anthological and geographical research are often regarded as local religious
organisations that often perform a wide range of welfare related tasks (Beaumont & Dias 2008 ; William et al 2012 ; Baker & Beaumont 2011). Faith based organisations have only recently become an topic of interest for geographers and their rise in prominence in the civil society has often been linked to the idea of postsecularism (Cloke & Beaumont 2013 ; Beaumont & Baker 2011). Faith based organisations in the academic literature are much more than just houses of worship although there is also research that indicates that just the mere presence of a church in a neighbourhood can already have a positive effect on the neighbourhood (Kinney & Winter 2006). Faith based organisations have been described as
a wide range of organisational types, from congregations whose primary and often sole purpose is to provide spaces for acts of worship and to facilitate worship to social service providers who might provide job assistance, rehabilitation services, medical services and so on, all of which might seem indistinguishable from those provided by secular actors.
Dias (2013 p46) Faith based organisations often perform the same tasks as their secular counterparts but the
motivations and ideas lying behind the work are often religious. According to Beaumont (2008) are faith based organisations:
Any organisation that refers directly or indirectly to religion or religious values, and that functions as a welfare provider and/or as a political actor.
Beaumont (2008 p2020) Beaumont (2008) argues that geographers should look at faith based organisations as religious interventions into the public sphere. These religious interventions by faith based organisations bring together a diverse array of religious and non-religious actors for the common cause of creating social justice, helping the poor, charity work and fostering new forms of social capital (Beaumont 2008 ; Beaumont & Dias 2008 ; Beaumont & Baker 2011).
Chapter 2.3.1.2: Typology of Faith Based Organisations
Chaves (2002) distinguishes three different types of faith based organisations. Denominational organisations, congregations and non-profit organisations. Congregations are the places were the worshipping takes place, denominational organisations is a category that covers all administrative and bureaucratic aspects of religions. The non-profit organisations make up a large variety of organisations that range from highly structured, organised and integrated organisations to informal grass roots organisations which are community based (Dias 2013). Other studies that categories faith based organisations according to for example their denomination, target group or services have not
12 yet been made. At the moment the literature mostly speaks about ‘faith based organisations’ and makes no distinction between different groups of faith based organisations. A study that tries to distinguish different categories of faith based organisations is the study by Sider & Unruh (2004). They however distinguish categories based on the role that religion plays in the organisations. They make six categories: faith-permeated, faith-centred, faith-affiliated, faith-background, faith-secular partnership, and secular (Sider & Unruh 2004). The typology of Sider & Unruh (2004) mostly focuses on the place that religion has in these categories and doesn’t play much attention to different geographically located working grounds, different target groups or different methodologies. The typology is focused on the faith aspects of faith based organisations and not so much on other aspects. Davelaar et al (2011) did also make typology based on the functions of faith based organisations. They distinguish seven different functions that faith based organisations may have.
1. Professional services offered to specific target groups within the framework of the (local) welfare state and regulated by the authorities.
2. Supporting vulnerable people and groups who are outside the view and/ or the reach of the official authorities.
3. Offering informal assistance and mutual support. Mostly provided, in silence, by religious communities
4. Recruiting, activating and supervising volunteers from specific religious communities to carry out activities for vulnerable individuals and groups, inside or outside their own community. 5. Community building and empowerment of their own or other deprived groups.
6. Political advocacy - indicating and listing problems, lending a voice to socially excluded groups and trying to get (solutions to) problems on the political agenda.
7. Bridging more or less inaccessible groups with regular welfare and care organisations and public agencies.
These seven functions are being performed by faith based organisations. Not every faith based organisations performs all seven types but they often perform several at the same time. This typology is much more useful for studying embeddedness in the neighbourhood then typologies based on religion.
Chapter 2.3.2: Faith Based Organisations and their Secular Counterparts
The study by Dias (2013) suggests that faith based organisations tend to downplay their religious background and motivations in the field in order to encourage non-religious people or people from other faiths to join in but in their documentations and correspondence they still put much emphasis on their religious background. This does not mean that faith based organisations are almost identical to their secular counterparts in their behaviour. The study by Ebaugh et al (2003) show that there are many difference between faith based and secular organisations in terms of organisational structure, funding, leadership , decision making and staff characteristics (Ebaugh et al 2003).
13 According to Ebaugh et al (2003) stem most of these differences from the fact that faith based organisations are religious and secular organisations are not religious:
In summary, secular and faith-based organizations delivering the same range of social services to the same population in the same metropolitan area differ consistently and significantly on a number of organizational characteristics. Although not totally absent from secular agencies, religion is what makes faith-based agencies religious. Where’s the religion? Everywhere. Religion infuses agency self-presentation, personnel, resources, decision-making processes, and interactions with clients and among staff in faith-based agencies.
Ebaugh et al (2003 p423) Another study which has researched the differences between faith based and secular organisations is Kissane (2007). In her study she shows that half of the directors of secular organisations view faith based organisations as capable or even more capable than other organisations when it comes to providing services to families in need. But the other half sees faith based organisations less positive and is concerned about its abilities to provide employment-related and education services (Kissane 2007). The directors often presume that faith based organisations are different from their secular counterparts and that they can provide caring, religiosity and individualized treatment to families in need and have good connection with the local community. The users of the services however saw less differences between faith based and secular organisations. They did not experience a more personal touch and more care by faith based organisations compared with secular organisations nor did they experience much more religiosity (Kissane 2007).
There are as already said studies that suggest that faith based organisations are downplaying their religious background. Both the studies by Dias (2013) and Tse (2013b) find that the faith based organisations that they researched are downplaying their religion. Dias (2013) in her study on faith based organisations argues that religion in the sense of theological believe systems does not play an important role in their work but that their religious background was linked with trust and a holistic social view by the users, regardless of whether or not the users shared the same religious
background (Dias 2013). According to Dias (2013) are faith based organisations especially appealing for immigrants from countries where religion and religious structures are still prominent and hold authority in society because they see religion as something that is familiar and that they can trust, regardless if it is their own religion.
Tse (2013b) found in his study among Cantonese Protestants in Hong Kong, Vancouver and San Francisco also that faith based organisations try to downplay their religious background but his explanation for this downplaying is different from the explanation given by Dias (2013). According to Tse (2013) are Cantonese Protestants downplaying their religious background because when these Chinese Protestants engage their local civil society:
They (Cantonese Protestants) are often drawn into the practices of secular contestation that mark their respective public spheres by leveraging their Chinese ethnicity while playing down their theological convictions as private. Tse (2013b p519)
14 Tse (2013b) argues that the Cantonese Protestants in his study often inadvertently reinforce the secularization thesis through their ‘essentialised ethnic engagements’ in civil society (Tse 2013b p519-520). Although Cantonese Protestants are often rather conservative (some faith based organisations were involved in protests against same sex marriage) they often unintentionally conceptualise the civil society in which they are involved as separate spaces outside their as private conceptualised church congregations, this was especially the case among evangelical Protestants (Tse 2013b). Instead they tried to build networks of ethnic Chinese people to democratically influence the civil societies in which they were involved. By creating this strict separation between religion and secular the Cantonese Protestants reinforced the secularisation thesis which implies that religion and secular are becoming increasingly separated according to Tse (2013b).
Chapter 2.3.3: Faith Based organisations and Social Justice
Within the research and the debates on the role of religion in the contemporary society is the question to what extend faith based organisations can create social justice is an often returning topic (Beaumont & Dias 2008 ; Cloke et al 2013). Social justice is a widely discussed topic in many
academic fields. The idea of social justice is that outcomes of processes, investments or policies should produce more equitable outcomes rather than support those already well off (Fainstein 2010). The question scholars on urban social justice try to answer is: How can you create cities in which the many different problems, ambitions and capacities of residents are being acknowledged and where at the same time residents can live their own lives free from exclusion, marginalization or repression (Staeheli 2011). Fainstein (2010) tries to answer this question by applying three concepts and using them as a measurement for measuring social justice in her case studies. The concepts are democracy, diversity and equity. Democracy is the idea that residents and the local community should have a decisive choice in the decision making process and that without the support from the local neighbourhood a project or policy should not be started or implemented. Diversity is used as a concept to refer the position that not one group should benefit exponentially or be the sole
beneficiary from a development or project in the city. Developers or governments should develop with more than one group in mind. For example housing projects should not only contain market housing and offices but also affordable housing and offer spaces for local entrepreneurs according to Fainstein. The last concept is equity and stands for the idea that urban developments should never exclude the lesser off but urban development should aim to include these lesser off residents and help them gain a better position. When a city confirms to most of the requirements given by Fainstein she calls it a ‘just city’. Being a just city however is also subjective, dependent on the local context and only applicable to cities in the Western world. The concept of the just city is more about the process towards becoming a just city than being a just city in itself (Fainstein 2010).
Social justice has been a topic of interest for faith based organisations and more general religion since many years. Many church leaders have urged their members to help create a more just world (Marsch 2005 ; Faith in the City 1985). An early example of explicitly stating the need to improve social justice in world was given by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Rerum Novarum (Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour) in 1891. In this encyclical letter he condemns the conditions of the working people (Massaro 2011). He does not only condemn socialism but also capitalism and favours what he calls economic distributism and demands fair wages and time off for workers (Leo XIII 1891). The first theories about biblical based thinking about social justice however dates back to the 13th century scholar and philosopher Thomas Aquinas whose writings about social justice are still
15 influential especially in the Roman Catholic Church (Massaro 2011).Due to the fact that there are so many different denominational backgrounds within Christianity or other faiths it is not possible to come up with a single definition on what social justice means but all denominations agree on the fact that creating social justice is a task given by God. This (biblical) task to create more social justice is often taken very seriously:
To do this (creating social justice), the church rightly emphasizes the administration of mercy. But this also involves identifying the root causes of what keeps people poor, hungry, and powerless. The vast web of structural factors that perpetuates these social injustices cannot be overcome without broad systemic reform, and so we witness and work to remove these barriers.
Website Reformed Christian Church, Office of Social Justice This progressive statement about a broad systemic reform in order to overcome social injustice shows many similarities with remarks on how to move towards a more just city by Fainstein in her book. The Reformed Christian Church however is –somewhat surprisingly- a conservative Calvinist American church with Dutch roots. Furbey & Macey (2005) state that churches often pose a
surprisingly radical challenge to the dominant political agenda and the Reformed Christian Church is a clear example of that. Another example about progressive views on social justice is the report Faith in the City: A Call for Action by Church and Nation. This report by the Church of England criticised the government for failing to battle poverty in its cities. The government of Thatcher however accused the Church of England of ‘Marxism’ (Dinham 2008). Churches tend to be willing to fight for urban social justice and can have quite radical views on the topic.
Churches are the driving forces behind many movements that have tried to create more social justice. Examples are the civil rights movement and the resistance against the Apartheid regime in South Africa (Marsch 2005). There are however also a number of cases in which churches helped to create more injustice. Examples of this are the support for the Apartheids regime from conservative Calvinists in the Netherlands (Meijers 2008) and the promotion of neo liberal politics by the Christian Right in the United States (Hackworth 2010). These movements had agendas that completely
contradict all the three concepts by Fainstein (2010). This does not however mean that Christianity or religion creates injustice. Religion comes in many shapes and flavours and with many different views on social justice.
The work that religious organisations and institutions are doing in order to create social justice has often been conceptualised by politicians, policy makers and other actors in civil society as locally embedded and community based (Dinham et al 2009). To what extend religious organisations can be considered local however has not yet extensively been researched and mostly remains a phrase used in debates about the future of the welfare state or the separation between church and state (See also the parts on faith based organisations and politics and faith based organisations and
neighbourhoods). On one hand religion is very global but on the other hand are the followers of religions practising and expressing their believes on a very local scale in their own everyday lives.
16 Chapter 2.3.4: Impact of Faith Based Organisations
Much research on the role of religion in the society, community and its ability to create social justice is very positive about the role that religion takes in society. Scholars have especially praised religion for its ability to create social capital (Putnam 2000 ; Verba et al 1995). According to Putnam are ‘faith communities in which people worship together are arguable the single most important repository of social capital in America’ (Putnam 2000 p66). There have been complete books dedicated to the study of social capital and religion. An example of this is the book Religion as Social Capital:
Producing the Common Good. But it is not just America where religion has a large positive influence on society according to scholars. In Western European there has been research on the relation between social capital and the role of religion with very positive conclusions. According to the Dutch Wetenschappelijke Raad voor Regeringsbeleid are churches ‘voorraadkamers van sociaal kapitaal en
katalysatoren van maatschappelijke inzet’ (Van de Donk, Jokers & Plum, 2006 p160). Research has
shown that religious people give more money to charity, volunteer more and have much more trust in society than non-religious people (Bekkers 2013 ; Ruiter & de Graaf 2006 ; Putnam 2000;). These kind of characteristics of religious people are very important for the creation of social capital (Putnam 2000). Social capital is a concept which tries to gasp all the relations and bonds between individuals and groups in society. According to Putnam (2000) social capital: ‘refers to the
connections among individuals-social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them’. (Putnam 2000 p19). Social capital is a very popular conceptual for both scholars
and policy makers who try to understand how relationships and bonds between people can unite people and make them form groups, communities that are involved in neighbourhoods. One important ingredient in becoming involved in society is being religious according to many scholars (Uslaner 2002 ; Bekkers 2013 ; Van de Donk, Jokers & Plum, 2006 ; Putnam 2000). According to Putnam (2000) is religiosity after the level of education the most powerful correlate of civic engagement. Although more conservative religious organisations are less involved in donating to charity or volunteering for charities or community organisations outside their own church (Schwadel 2005; Uslaner 2002 ; Putnam 2000). More conservative faith based organisations create more bonding social capital while less conservative faith based organisations create more bridging social capital (Granovetter 1973 ; Putnam 2000 ; Leonard & Bellamy 2010). More specifically focused on faith based organisations argues Beaumont (2008) that faith based organisations are:
‘a crucial site not only for bonding capital but also of a bridging capital within and beyond the city’ (Beaumont (2008 p2021)
These findings about social capital and religion have of course a somewhat American bias and there is a lot of criticism about the concept of social capital but the findings still showed a large potential for faith based organisations and politicians and policy makers are more than willing to include faith based organisations as private community based replacements for the government (Dinham et al 2009 ; Furbey & Macey 2005 ; Dias 2013).
17 Chapter 2.3.5: Faith Based Organisations and Politics
Faith based organisations are often seen as the ideal type of organisations to replace the
government in times of neo liberalization (Hackworth 2010 ; Furbey & Macey 2006 ; Dinham et al 2009). Governments and policy makers see faith based organisations as actors who are embedded and connected to the local community, who are trusted and who can revitalize the community and politics ( Chaves & Tsitsos 2001 ; Warren 2009 ; Jamoul & Wills 2008 ; Greenberg 2000). These assumptions have been the focus of much academic research and many scholars have made very critical remarks on it. The faith based organisations have their own ideas, goals and agendas and do not let themselves be guided easily by governments or other stake holders. They have their own plans but these ideas are quite surprising. According to Furbey & Macey (2005) these ideas present quite often:
‘a progressive and radical challenge to their government-assigned ‘place’ in urban policy and practice.’
Furbey & Macey (2005 p110) According to Furbey & Macey (2005) provide faith based organisations a very critical voice in the neighbourhood. Their long history and experience in the neighbourhood which is surprisingly full of action makes them well informed and critical players. In many deprived neighbourhoods faith based organisations are the large and most prominent organisations in fighting social injustice and inequity (Furbey & Macey 2005). Ideas about justice among religious organisations, which often enforced by their religious beliefs goes much further than just their own neighbourhood.
A point of criticism that is often made regarding the role faith based organisations in politics is the amount of contacts that exists between governments and faith based organisations. This number of contacts is very limited (Lelievelt et al 2009 ; Musso et al 2002). The Dutch study by Lelievelt et al (2009) shows that only 15% of the by them researched faith based organisations have ever been in contact with someone from politics and none of the researched faith based organisations had ever developed and executed projects or developments in collaboration with the government (Lelievelt et al 2009). The study of Musso et al (2002) also finds a lack of political engagement of faith based organisations. Musso et al (2002) research the involved of faith based organisations in
neighbourhood councils in Los Angeles. Their finding is that faith based organisations have little or no interest in being involved in the neighbourhood councils. There are a wide variety of reasons for that:
This lack of participation appears to be rooted in a variety of factors, including diversity of religious mission, the uncoupling of religious institutions from the neighbourhood setting, deep-rooted concerns about separation of church and state, resource constraints, and the changing role of urban ministries.
Musso et al (2002 p84) Another often heard criticism is the lack of funding that faith based organisations receive from
governments (Ebaugh et al 2005 ; Lelievelt et al 2009). Lelievelt et al (2009) show that faith based organisations just 5,9% of their total budget receive from the government. Research by Ebaugh et al (2005) shows that more strict religious faith based organisations receive less governmental funding.
18 According to Ebaugh et al (2005) are stricter religious faith based organisations more suspicious towards governmental funding. Ebaugh et al (2003 this study is not the 2005 study) show in their study that 47% of the faith based organisations does not receive any funding from the government while 51% of the secular organisations does at least get 50% of its funding from the government (Ebaugh et al 2003 table 2).
Often the networks of faith based organisations seem to lack formal contacts with for example politics or financial institutions (Jamoul & Wills 2008 ; Greenberg 2000 ; Lelievelt et al 2009). Faith based organisations lack contacts with formal actors and this could result in for example a lack of funding, a lack of knowledge about bureaucratic procedures or problems in voicing their opinion about the functioning of policies or partnerships. Formal network links with other actors however are very important if governments wants actively to include faith based organisations.
Chapter 2.3.6: Involving Faith Based Organisations
In order to make faith based organisations more politically involved and to give them a better voice faith based organisations have to organize themselves in broad based organisations according to Jamoul & Wills (2008). This will extend their networks and will also give faith based organisations the opportunities to create more formal networks. Jamoul & Wills (2008) and show that faith based organisations can be politically very involved and active if faith based organisations can organise themselves . The study by Jamoul & Wills is a case study about the broad-based organisation London Citizens which is an alliance between 90 civil society organisations, with many faith based
organisations but also a substantial number of secular organisations which actively tries to influence the local politics (Jamoul & Wills 2008).The faith based organisations who stood previous somewhat outside the debates and were often viewed with suspension and fear by secular organisations managed with the broad based organisation to become a well-known and respected actor which was able to influence the political process and work together with secular organisations (Jamoul &Wills 2008). The broad based organisation gave faith based organisations opportunity to engage in the political process and influence its outcomes. According to Jamoul & Wills (2008)can faith based organisations play important roles in tackling the problems posed by increasing inequalities and urban social injustice if there is cooperation between faith based organisations and also cooperation with secular organisations (Jamoul & Wills 2008).
Chapter 2.3.7: Western Bias
There remains however a large bias in the study of faith based organisations. The primary focus of the current research are mainstream Christian organisations. Evangelical, Pentecostal or Charismatic organisations have already received substantially less attention. Islamic faith based organisations have received some attention from scholars, mostly in context of development projects in the third world (see De Cordier 2009 and Clarke 2007)but Islamic faith based organisations who are active in the Western society remain a blind spot. Buddhist, Hindu or other faiths remain unexplored by the current research. Hindu organisations have received some attention but this has mostly focused on Hindu immigrants (see Mazumdar & Mazumdar 2009a) and the ways how Hindu believers create their sacred places of worship and belief in the Western society (see Mazumdar & Mazumdar 2009b and David 2012). Dias (2013) does include one Hindu organisation (on a total of 13 organisations) in her research on faith based organisations but this Hindu organisation is focused specifically on immigrants and she does not look in depth at this Hindu organisation.
19 Chapter 2.4: Faith Based Organisations in the Dutch context
The study of faith based organisations and postsecularism has mostly been focused on the urban context of the UK and the US (Kong 2010 ; Lacione 2014). Academic studies on faith based
organisations in the Netherlands are sparse and have focused on just one city, Rotterdam (see Dias 2013 and Beaumont & Dias 2008). Faith based organisations in the Dutch context have however been researched by private research companies. These studies have often been commissioned by churches or other religious organisations (See Castillo Guerra et al 2008 ; Van der Sar & Visser 2006 ; Van der Sar 2004).
Where the academic studies use a qualitative approach and rely on interviews and participant observations the studies by the private research companies are applying a much more quantitative approach. These studies try to quantify the work that the faith based organization do and try to put a price tag on it. Castillo Guerra et al (2008) calculate that work of all the churches in Rotterdam creates a saving for the council of no less than 130 million euro. The study by van der Sar (2004) calculates that the Protestant Churches in the city of Utrecht save the council 16 million euro in welfare costs and that in total the professionals and volunteers of Protestant Churches do welfare related work for more than 408,000 hours each year. The study by van der Sar & Visser (2006) on immigrant churches in The Hague calculates that immigrant churches save the council 17,5 million euro in welfare costs and that members of immigrant churches do welfare work for a total of 293,000 hours each year. All these calculations are conservative calculations as they only take activities into account which are directly linked to the churches. These calculations don’t give any insights in motives, processes or dynamics which take place within faith based organisations but they do however clearly show the impact of faith based organisations on Dutch society. The outcomes of the calculations form the end of a long process of relationships, networks and motives which the qualitative focused academic research on faith based organisations tries to understand.
Faith based organisations have also been researched by the EU-7FP FACIT project. This is an EU sponsored research programme which tries to examine the role that faith based organisations play in the battling social exclusion in European cities. In the Netherlands the research programme focuses on cases in Tilburg, Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Davelaar et al 2010 ; Davelaar et al 2011). The research was conducted by the university of Groningen and the Verweij Jonker Instituut. The outcome of these studies was that there a wide variety of faith based organisations in the
Netherlands in terms of ‘history, identity, scale, scope, working philosophy, method and religious
background’ (Davelaar et al 2011 p93).
Davelaar et al (2011) state that in the Netherlands the diaconal activities of the established churches are dwindling due to a decrease in membership and shrinking financial means. The however argue that this decrease has been compensated by the arrival of new faith based organisations.
However, this decrease has been compensated for in terms of innovative working methods of (independent) organisations affiliated with Catholic and Protestant communities and through the creation of new contacts between those communities, independent FBOs, funds with an ideological background, general welfare organisations and public authorities.
20 These new organisations have more communal and less ‘innate’ projects and in these projects religion takes on new forms according to Davelaar et al (2011). They collaborate with both religious and non-religious organisations and can be seen as expressing of the postsecular turn (Davelaar et al 2011). The study of Davelaar et al (2011) also found that all the examined faith based organisations were well embedded in the local networks.The study argues that:
Almost all FBO involvement in networks starts on a practical level; it stems from individual contacts and relates to a common context: certain issues and projects, a shared working philosophy, or area-based concerns. Cooperation with other FBOs and NGOs is often informal and practical.
(Davelaar et al 2011 p97) Informal contacts are very important for Dutch faith based organisations when they try to form networks. The faith based organisations had also many contact with the government but the amount of contacts is remarkable stable since the 1990’s according to Davelaar et al (2011). The faith based organisations however see themselves as an addition to the activities of the government and not a replacement.
Chapter 2.5: Religion and Geography
Geography ,faith based organisations and place do have a difficult relationship. Faith based organisations have only recently submerged as a research topic in geography (Henkel 2005).The relationship between geography and religion is also somewhat difficult as scientific study of religion from a geographical perspective is very limited and only a few geographers are involved in study of religion (Proctor 2006).
Most academic geographical journals publish relatively sparsely on the topic although there have been special issues about religion in Urban Studies, Social & Cultural Geography and Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. But the total numbers of studies in the geography of religion remain very small compared to the amount of studies in urban geography, economic geography, political geography or its counterpart sociology of religion. Religion however is something that influences the lives of billions of people on a daily base, also in a spatial way. The influence of
religion on space was already acknowledged by Lefebvre in his famous book The production of Space (Knott 2008). Both Foucault and Lefebvre had long before the recent rise in interest in geography of religion recognised the authority and power of religious institutions and religious discourses and the ability of religious institutes to produce and shape spaces (Knott 2008).
Academic (sub)disciplines such as sociology of religion, anthropology of religion but also theology and religious studies have however increasingly turned their attention towards the spatial aspects of their research fields. This focus on the spatial aspects of social phenomena is known as the spatial turn (Warf & Arias 2009). This spatial turn points at the growing interest that the humanities and other social sciences have in place and space that their research objects have or use in society. It is not only just the growing interest that other academic disciplines outside geography have in place and space but spatial turn also points towards the growing amount of studies in sociology,
anthropology, economics and religious studies that take space and place into account or use spatial theory to answer their research questions (Warf & Arias 2009 ; Knott 2008). Within the academic
21 study of religion there has also been a spatial turn and a growing awareness of the spatial context of religion (Knott 2008 ; Knott 2009 ; Bergmann 2007).
Within religious studies and theology the study of spatial aspects of religion is an area of study which only recently attracted the attention from religious scholars and theologians (Knott 2008). Similar to human geography it was only during the last decade that religious scholars and theologians have started to research the spatial aspects of religion (Knott 2009 ; Bergmann 2007). This spatial turn within the academic study of religion has led to a growing number of studies which try to include and explain the spatial context of religion in order to get a better understanding of religion in contemporary society (see Tweed 2009). Spatial research is gaining importance in the study of religion. Place, space and religion are often perceived as being very much intertwined (Knott 2010). The spatial turn has had clear effects on how scholars of religion have perceived and defined religion (Knott 2010). In his book Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion, Thomas Tweed (2009) defines religion as:
‘confluences of organic-cultural flows that intensify joy and confront suffering by drawing on human and suprahuman forces to make homes and cross boundaries”
Tweed (2009 p54) Tweed (2009) continues even further on this ‘spatial’ path and argues that: ‘religions are flows, ‘translocative’ and ‘transtemporal’ crossings” (Tweed ,2009 p158). This definition of religion uses clearly a number of spatial concepts and shows the usage of spatial concepts within the academic fields of religious studies and theology. The rise of interest in geography of religion from human geographers and spatial turn in social sciences and the humanities is however only a very recent event. The effect of the growing attention for religion from the academic discipline of geography and the attention to place and space from scholars of religion is something that is still underway. This means that making research on faith based organisations at neighbourhood level, spatial and geographically relevant, is not easy due to the lack of geographical research on the topic of religion. Chapter 2.6: Faith based organisations and the neighbourhood
Research on religion and geography is as said only a very small sub discipline within human
geography (Stump 2008). Although is the number of studies conducted on the relationship between geography and religion has been on the rise in recent years, the amount remains rather small (Proctor 2006 ; Kong 2010). This is even more true for the relationship between religion and the neighbourhood. Studies like Baker & Beamont (2011) and Dias (2013) do study faith based organisations in the city but they remain at city level and do not focus on one or two specific neighbourhoods. Dias (2013) does look at Dutch faith based organisations in neighbourhoods in Rotterdam but she does not look at the relationship between faith based organisation and neighbourhood in the sense of networks but she does say that some faith based organisations described the neighbourhoods as ‘blank,’ as places in need of re-creation by the faith based organisations (Dias 2013). I Personally couldn’t find any book or article who looked at a faith based organisation in relationship with one particular neighbourhood. Despite this many politicians and policy makers continue to argue that faith based organisations are locally well embedded
22 claim by looking at a faith based organisations in a particular neighbour and investigating how many linkages between the faith based organisation and the neighbourhood do exist.
There are however some studies outside geography that have made an attempt. A report written by religious research bureau KASKI which is linked to the Radboud University Nijmegen researched to what extend churches and mosques have social and cultural activities in 12 selected ‘problem neighbourhoods’ (Vogelaarwijken). These churches and mosques were all located in or nearby the selected neighbourhoods. Of the 108 researched organisations 56 organisations had activities aimed at the residents in these 12 neighbourhoods. These organisations organised ‘inloop’ activities, developed courses for residents and lobbied for the residents (belangen behartigen) and they also supported residents with material and financial support (Grevel 2009). It has to be said that in the case of 35 organisations the researchers couldn’t determine if they were active in the chosen neighbourhoods or not. A substantial number of 108 organisations also refused to participate in the research. That 56 churches and mosques are active in these 12 neighbourhoods is quite a high number and shows that faith based organisations are quite frequently active in their own
neighbourhoods . Another study that more specifically focuses on the relationship between churches and the local neighbourhood is the study by van der Meulen (2009). This study researches how African churches in Amsterdam South East choose their location to start their church. Van der Meulen (2009) argues that the local environment is important for these churches. The African churches want, inspired by missionary motives, to become part of a local community in which they can practice and nurture a practice of helping and being engaged with the local environment (van der Meulen 2009). They explicitly choose locations where they can do that. The study by van der Meulen (2009) suggests that churches deliberately choose locations which gives them opportunities to become engaged in the local neighbourhood in which their church is located. These two studies show that faith based organisations are aware of their neighbourhood and are active in their own neighbourhoods. There is however very little research done on this topic especially by geographers. From the very limited number of studies about this topic it can be said that faith based organisations are active in their neighbourhood and that it might be expected that they have a substantial network in the local neighbourhood.
23
Chapter 3: Research Questions, Research
Design and Methodology
24 Chapter 3.1: Research questions
As already stated in the introduction the main research question for this thesis will be:
What role(s) do faith based organisations play in creating more urban social justice in neighbourhoods?.
With this research question the thesis will attempt to find out what roles the chosen faith based organisation in Spoorwijk plays. The focus lies mostly on the ways in which the chosen faith based organisation and the neighbourhood interact with each and how this relates to the concept of social justice. This question mount to the question to what extend the chosen faith based organisation can create social justice in Spoorwijk and for The Hague in general. This question will be answered using the prospective that Fainstein provides in her book ‘the just city’. The concepts of social justice are closely related to the subquestions about users and producers and the embeddedness of faith based organisation in the neighbourhood. Local residents and especially the lesser off residents have to benefit from the outcomes created by the projects and activities and also need to have a voice in the whole decision making process in the activity or organisation (Fainstein 2010). This requires that a faith based organisation has a strong relationship with the neighbourhood. In total there are four subquestions:
Who are the ‘producers’ and who are the ‘users’ of the services provided by the faith based organisation?
How is the chosen faith based organisation embedded in the neighbourhood and the wider institutional network?
What role plays religion in this process?
To what extend is the faith based organisation able to create social justice in terms of democracy and diversity?.
The first sub question tries to find out what activities are being organised and who the involved volunteers are in the chosen case study. The second sub question continues with this question and tries to find out to what extend the services provided by faith based organisations are embedded in the neighbourhood and have a strong relationship with its residents. The third question looks at the role of religion in these processes and the final sub question tries to find out to what extend the outcomes of the previous sub questions can create a more just city in terms of democracy and diversity. Organisations such as faith based organisations might be bottom up, community based or embedded in the local neighbourhood. This however does not mean that the outcomes will be good for the entire neighbourhood or community.
According to Uitermark (2014) and also Fainstein (2010) local bottom up projects can be just as exclusive and undemocratic as large scale top down projects. Local self-organised projects can easily exclude certain groups or residents and make the projects only beneficiary for a small group and the projects often turn out to be not as bottom up as people would expect. To examine the results of the (bottom up) projects run by the chosen faith based organisation in Spoorwijk and determine to what extend they create social justice the concepts of democracy and diversity which were
developed by Fainstein (2010) will be used. The concept of equity is less relevant here. Equity is more about reducing existing inequalities for the lesser off in society. It is difficult to say something
25 about this because equity is more about the whole city or society. When you only look at faith based organisations from the prospective of one neighbourhood it is hard to say to what extend they can reduce inequality.
Diversity and democracy are of course rather subjective words. Deciding whether something is diverse or democratic is a normative process that is very much dependent of the view of the person who takes the decision whether or not to call it diverse or democratic. Diversity in the context of this thesis means that an organisation has a variety of activities and people involved in its organisation that reflects the composition of the neighbourhood. The different groups present in the
neighbourhood should in the perfect situation be able to participate in activities organised by the organisation. This is especially true for the lesser off in the neighbourhood. Individual activities can of course focus on a specific group but the organisation as a whole should try to include the entire diversity in the neighbourhood with special attention to the lesser off. Democracy in this thesis means that the people who are participating in the activities can also participate in for example meetings that affect their activity in the organisation. All participants should be able to voice their opinion about the decisions being made in the organisation and this opinion should be taken seriously and taken in consideration when decisions are being made. Leadership has of course a more dominant role but no group or person should dominate the organisation.
Chapter 3.2.1: Research Design
To answer the research questions the empirical basis for this thesis will be formed by an in-depth case study of one faith based organisation, namely Community and Church house ‘De Oase’. This is a Protestant faith based organisation which is located in the Spoorwijk , a low income neighbourhood in The Hague.
The case of Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ represents a Christian faith based organisation which offers a wide range of services to both Christians and non- Christians, believers and non- believers. Christian faith based organisations have widely been researched by sociologists, geographers, anthropologists and theologians but despite this Community and Church house ‘de Oase’ remains a very interesting topic which can reveal new findings. The choice for The Hague (there are also Community and Church houses in other large Dutch cities) was based on two reasons. First reason is that The Hague is a city with a wide range of social problems which need to be solved. This makes The Hague a place where geographies of postsecular rapprochements (Cloke &
Beaumont 2013)can exist. The Hague is a place where secular and religious organisations can work together to make The Hague a ‘Just City’. The second reason for the choice of The Hague was that I already had done some research for my bachelor thesis in Rijswijk which is a city located on the border of Spoorwijk. This made me already somewhat familiar with the neighbourhood. Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ represents an embedded single case study (Yin 2009). Embedded because although the focus of research is a faith based organisation this faith based organisation is made up of many actors such as volunteers and users who are all involved in the faith based organization and single because the study involves one case, namely Community and Church House ‘De Oase’.
26 Chapter 3.2.2: Choice for case study
Faith based organisations have already been acknowledged as important players in the providing of welfare services (Beaumont & Cloke 2012 ; Cloke et al 2013) but the Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ is still interesting for several reasons. First the ‘De Oase’ presents itself explicitly as a neighbourhood organisation which is aimed at the residents of Spoorwijk. In the academic literature however faith based organisations are seldom analysed in relationship to the neighbourhood in which they are located. Faith based organisations are seen as service providing organisations without giving much attention to the spatial context of the faith based organisations. Secondly ‘De Oase’ also provides an interesting case because the important role that faith based organisations play in the providing of welfare services is often seen as only a relatively recent phenomenon. Faith based organisations are often described as ‘emerging geographies of postsecular rapprochements’ (Cloke & Beaumont 2013 p31). There is a strong idea that faith based organisations and the
collaboration of faith based organisations with secular organisations have only recently gained a more prominent position in civil society due to ‘the rolling out of the neo liberal policies’ which has put the faith based organisations in centre of attention from governments and council as
replacements for state led welfare services (Pick & Tickell 2002 ; Hackworth 2010). Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ however was founded more than 25 years ago and has always been located in Spoorwijk and has also always been open to everyone who needed their services during all these years. The Community and Church house is a long established neighbourhood actor and certainly not an emerging phenomenon. The third reason why Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ is an interesting case is because it offers a wide range of different activities and services, often in
collaboration with other organisations which is different from the focus on one problem or group (such as homeless people or young mothers) that many other faith based organisations have. Instead Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ focuses on all the problems and people in one particular area.
Chapter 3.3: Methodology
In order to get the right information about the networks and the way in which the faith based organisation is embedded in the neighbourhood it is very important to get a thorough understanding about how these networks work and how they are organised. An important part of this thesis is understanding the networks that form the faith based organisation and its working field. This requires in-depth knowledge about all the networks that people involved in the faith based organisation have with each other, with the clients and with other institutions and actors that are active in Spoorwijk and at city level. To research the embeddedness of Community and Church house ‘De Oase’ in Spoorwijk social network analyses will be applied.
Social network analyses tries to map all the different relations that volunteers, users, politicians or whoever have in a certain case (Knoke & Yang 2008). This creates a picture of how the relationships are within a certain case and which people or which group has an important position or much influence on the things that happen within a network. The aim of social network analyses is to draw a picture which shows how the network of for example a faith based organisations is build up. Who are the important figures?, what is the relationship between the leaders and the volunteers? , how is the organisation making contact with potential users?, what is the role of volunteers?. The aim of social network analyses is often to answer the question to which extent organisations can be seen as bottom up or as top down.
