Abby Day | Goldsmiths, University of London (original) (raw)

Papers by Abby Day

Why Baby Boomers Turned from Religion

Mocked, vilified, blamed, and significantly misunderstood—the ‘Baby Boomers’ are members of the g... more Mocked, vilified, blamed, and significantly misunderstood—the ‘Baby Boomers’ are members of the generation of post-World War II babies who came of age in the 1960s. Their parents of the 1940s and 1950s raised their Boomer children to be church-attenders and respectable, and yet in some ways demonstrated an ambivalence that permitted their children to spurn religion and to eventually raise their own children to be the least religious generation ever. The Baby Boomers studied here, living in the UK and Canada, were the last generation to have been routinely baptised and taken regularly to mainstream, Anglican churches. So, what went wrong—or, perhaps, right? This book, based on in-depth interviews and compared to other studies and data, is the first to offer a sociological account of the sudden transition from religious parents to non-religious children and grandchildren, focusing exclusively on this generation of ex-Anglican Boomers. Now in their 60s and 70s, the Boomers featured her...

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2018

Contemporary Issues in the Worldwide Anglican Communion, 2017

Contemporary Issues in the Worldwide Anglican Communion offers unique perspectives on an organisa... more Contemporary Issues in the Worldwide Anglican Communion offers unique perspectives on an organisation undergoing significant and rapid change with important religious and wider sociological consequences. The book explores what the academic research community, Anglican clergy and laypeople are suggesting are critical issues facing the Anglican communion as power and authority relations shift, including: gender roles, changing families, challenges of an aging population, demands and opportunities generated by young people, mobility and mutations of worship communities; contested conformities to policies surrounding sexual orientation, impact of social class and income differences, variable patterns of congregational growth and decline, and global power and growth shifts from north to south.

Believing in BelongingBelief and Social Identity in the Modern World, 2011

POLIANTEA, 2013

El famoso escritor de ciencia-ficción Ray Bradbury lo dijo muy bien: “Si usted escribe cien cuent... more El famoso escritor de ciencia-ficción Ray Bradbury lo dijo muy bien: “Si usted escribe cien cuentos cortos y todos son malos, eso no significa que usted ha fracasado. Uno fracasa sólo cuando deja de escribir”. El texto de Ray Bradbury es una de las interesantes citas de este artículo que invita a los académicos a escribir. En él se analizan las razones más comunes que dan los profesores para publicar sus trabajos y, por su puesto, los motivos más frecuentes que aducen para no publicar. Pero, en el fondo, todos los profesores quieren hacerlo. Sin embargo, cuando piensan en un trabajo sesudo para una revista científica, los asalta una multitud de dudas. De ahí que este artículo, de manera ordenada, presente una completa y sencilla guía del proceso que suele seguirse, respondiendo las preguntas que surgen inevitablemente. Por ejemplo, ¿Cuál es el objetivo que se busca con el tema del artículo? ¿Qué se entiende por calidad y cómo se aplica a un escrito destinado para una revista cientí...

The Sociological Review Magazine

A chapter in an edited collection - The Study of Ministry, This chapter The chapter explores anth... more A chapter in an edited collection - The Study of Ministry, This chapter The chapter explores anthropology as a discipline committed to exploring what it means to be human. In so doing, it privileges the human, or social, over the apparent divine. An anthropology of ministry may contrive to do both, to hold in comfortable tension this world/other world.

Religious Imaginations, 2018

Journal of Beliefs & Values, 2015

orientation to meaning, connects us to the world. If, however, these insights are to be harnessed... more orientation to meaning, connects us to the world. If, however, these insights are to be harnessed in the provision of a persuasive account of the distinction and value of a Christian University – and surely they can be – the reader is left to do the work. Most immediately, in the British context, what is offered here would provide the basis for a theological grounding of the increasing attention which is being given to ‘education for sustainable development’ and to the accompanying notion of ‘global citizenship’. More generally it would facilitate a robust philosophical grammar concerning why the formation of persons should come before the transmission of particular information and skills. Helpfully this book roots itself in the concrete, lived specificity of the operations of human subjectivity, with the claim that one can test the validity of what is said by reference to one’s own experience of thought (e.g. 180). Yet the ideas it contains are commonly expressed in generalities. This, combined with the precise but often clinical and desiccated prose, can make the book daunting to read and more seriously detracts from the claim to reflect experiences verifiable by all. One should also treat its claim that this work is not for specialists in the area, nor that it requires prior acquaintance with its central dialogue partners (xi), with a degree of scepticism. This is not to say that the work will be impenetrable, far from it, but one does need a degree of wilful persistence to push on to the conclusion. Such persistence will, however, receive a more than adequate reward.

The Religious Lives of Older Laywomen, 2017

- Provides a detailed record of a vanishing people (Generation A) through ethnographic fieldwork ... more - Provides a detailed record of a vanishing people (Generation A) through ethnographic fieldwork situated historically and socially. - Offers insights and theory into why the women engage in a particular mode of religious practice. - Reflects on the consequences of their loss in both religious and secular domains. - Challenges, revises, and introduces theories related to religiosity, women, and generations. The Religious Lives of Older Laywomen draws on ethnographic fieldwork, cross-cultural comparisons, and relevant theories exploring the beliefs, identities, and practices of 'Generation A'—Anglican laywomen born in the 1920s and 1930s. Now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, they are often described as the 'backbone' of the Church and likely its final active generation. The prevalence of laywomen in mainstream Christian congregations is a widely accepted phenomenon that will cause little surprise amongst the research community or Christian adherents. What is surprising is that we know so little about them. Generation A laywomen have remained largely invisible in previous work on institutional religion in Euro-American countries, particularly as the focus on religion and gender has turned to youth, sexuality, and priesthood. Female Christian Generation A is on the cusp of a catastrophic decline in mainstream Christianity that accelerated during the 'post-war' (post-1945) age. The age profile of mainstream Christianity represents an increasingly aging pattern, with Generation A not being replaced by their children or grandchildren—the Baby-Boomers and generations X, Y, and Z. Generation A is irreplaceable and unique. 'Generation' shares specific values, beliefs, behaviours, and orientations, therefore, when this generation finally disappears within the next five to 10 years, their knowledge, insights, and experiences will be lost forever. Abby Day both documents and interprets their religious lives and what we can learn about them and more widely, about contemporary Christianity and its future.

Religion and Society, 2016

It is a great privilege to be in conversation with scholars who are so closely connected to my ma... more It is a great privilege to be in conversation with scholars who are so closely connected to my main research interests and who excel in their own areas. Their comments pertain to my book that arose from empirically based AHRC-funded doctoral work at Lancaster University between 2002 and 2006 and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship to allow theoretical elaboration between 2007 and 2009 at the University of Sussex. In response, I will restrict myself to five main points: (1) Davie-what about the marked differences between generations and the shifting middle ground? (2) Beckford-what of the place for forms of propositional belief that are unconnected to 'belonging'? (3) Chattoo-what is the potential impact of the theory for scholars working across religious traditions, cultures, and geographical contexts? (4) Lövheim-how can the theory and model take better account of increasing mediation through print, electronic, and not least digital media in contemporary society? (5) Vásquez-what forms of relationality make the embodied belief in and experience of transcendence possible in time and space? Beginning with Davie's question about generational changes, I agree with her observations that much may be changing and will continue to change. While I was unconvinced by much of the believing-without-belonging thesis that emerged in the 1990s in both the UK and the US (Davie 1994; Warner 1993), I noticed later that Davie also found it insufficient and consequently developed her concept of 'vicarious religion' (see Davie 2007; Day 2015). This, too, has generational implications: will the idea of a church as a place of symbolic community travel well among generations who have not been socialized into it? I echo Davie's questions about this in greater detail elsewhere, initially through an ESRC-funded project that permitted me to return to the original field to revisit that sample of the population first explored during my initial fieldwork between 2003 and 2005. The significant finding from my longitudinal study was that beliefs were generally stable and that when change occurred, it was always mediated by changes in social relationships. Considering patterns that show how the number of people choosing to say they have no religion is increasing, most markedly among young people, and that the oldest, most loyal cohort of churchgoers is dying and not being replaced (Day, forthcoming), I agree with Davies that the middle ground is shifting through generational decline. 1 Young people were the focus of a network I created with Gordon Lynch, funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme. Titled "Belief as Cultural Performance," its goal was to establish a new framework for studying the religious and secular life-worlds of young

Modern Believing, 2015

Those I have termed 'Generation A' are female, Christian and born in the 1920s and 30s, everywher... more Those I have termed 'Generation A' are female, Christian and born in the 1920s and 30s, everywhere regarded as the backbone of mainstream Christianity; a generation dying out and not being replaced in the churches. They are often presented as deeply religious, loyal and hardworking, but wholly different from a younger, more 'spiritual' generation. Long-term ethnographic fieldwork suggests otherwise, and this study suggests researchers may have been asking the wrong questions and searching for spirituality in the wrong places.

Anthropology News, 2007

outside of AAA. I encourage all members to get involved in some way, and if you have ideas about ... more outside of AAA. I encourage all members to get involved in some way, and if you have ideas about projects that SAFN could be involved in, please let me know. I am especially interested in finding ways to better serve our student members. We have some exciting opportunities on the horizon, and I look forward to making the most of them!