Gordon Lynch | University of Kent (original) (raw)

Books by Gordon Lynch

On the Sacred continues to develop Gordon Lynch's work on the cultural sociology of the sacred. I... more On the Sacred continues to develop Gordon Lynch's work on the cultural sociology of the sacred. In addition to setting out the core understanding of the sacred presented in his book, 'The Sacred in the Modern World', 'On the Sacred' explores new areas such as changing forms of the sacred from pre-modern to modern societies, nationalism and humanitarianism as dominant forms of the sacred in modernity, the distinction between religion and the sacred and the challenges of living ethically in relation to sacred commitments.

In a series of recent papers, the Danish media scholar, Stig Hjarvard has proposed a theory of th... more In a series of recent papers, the Danish media scholar, Stig Hjarvard has proposed a theory of the mediatization of religion in late modern society. His work builds on a wider argument about the mediatization of society, n which the increasing dependence on media for a range of social practices is claimed to lead to those practices being increasingly formed according to the logics of those media. More specifically, in relation to religion, Hjarvard argues that the increasingly important social role of media makes it a primary source of public engagement with religion, weakens the authority of traditional religious institutions, generates new forms of media-based ritual and practice, and supports the broader circulation of 'banal religion'.

In this special issue, co-edited by Mia Lovheim and Gordon Lynch, Hjarvard's thesis is subjected to critical discussion from a range of disciplinary perspectives, making it the most focused discussion of the mediatization of religion thesis currently in print. Contributors to the special issue are Stig Hjarvard, Mia Lovheim, David Morgan, Lynn Schofield Clark, Alexandra Boutros and Gordon Lynch

Over the past twenty years, there has been a significant growth in the amount and sophistication ... more Over the past twenty years, there has been a significant growth in the amount and sophistication of work in the broad field of religion, media and culture. Drawing together a range of disciplinary interests and approaches - from the study of religion and media, lived religion and material religion - the reader demonstrates how this work is moving from a being specific sub-field within the study of religion to offering theoretical perspectives and approaches that may re-frame the study of religion more generally.

The Reader is structured around four key sections: religion, spirituality and consumer culture; media and the transformation of religion; the sacred senses and religion and the ethics of media and culture. Drawing together key international contributors, the Reader represents both a useful classroom resource and a statement of current debates for more advanced research.

It is often claimed that we live in a secular age. But we do not live in a desacralized one. Sacr... more It is often claimed that we live in a secular age. But we do not live in a desacralized one. Sacred forms - whether in 'religious' or 'secular' guise - continue to shape social life in the modern world, giving rise to powerful emotions, polarized group identities, and even the very concept of moral society. Analyzing contemporary sacred forms is essential if we are to be able to make sense of the societies we live in and think critically about the effects of the sacred on our lives for good or ill.

The Sacred in the Modern World is a major contribution to this task. Re-interpreting Durkheim's theory of the sacred, and drawing on the 'strong program' in cultural sociology, Gordon Lynch sets out a theory of the sacred that can be used by researchers across a range of humanities and social science disciplines.

Using vividly drawn contemporary case material - including the abuse and neglect of children in Irish residential schools and the controversy over the BBC's decision not to air an appeal for aid for Gaza - the book demonstrates the value of this theoretical approach for social and cultural analysis. The key role of public media for the circulation and contestation of the sacred comes under close scrutiny. Adopting a critical stance towards sacred forms, Lynch reflects upon the ways in which sacred commitments can both serve as a moral resource for social life and legitimate horrifying acts of collective evil. He concludes by reflecting on how we might live thoughtfully and responsibility under the light and shadow that the sacred casts, asking whether society without the sacred is possible or desirable.

Papers by Gordon Lynch

use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you g... more use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

UK Child Migration to Australia, 1945-1970, 2021

This chapter examines the wider policy context and administrative systems for child migration to ... more This chapter examines the wider policy context and administrative systems for child migration to Australia in the period 1948-1954. With stronger concerns about child migration being expressed by some professional and voluntary organisations in Britain, in 1949 the Home Office began a process of drafting regulations for the emigration of children from the care of voluntary societies. The chapter examines how the process of developing these regulations was delayed through a complex bureaucratic process, with a final draft of the regulations not completed until 1954. Concerns about the legal limitations of these regulations and their effective power in safeguarding child migrants once overseas contributed to a subsequent decision in the Home Office not to introduce them. This decision was also informed by an independent review of child migration to Australia by John Moss, published in 1953, which offered a broadly positive view of this work. The chapter considers why Moss—a former mem...

The Introduction sets this book in the wider context of recent studies and public interest in his... more The Introduction sets this book in the wider context of recent studies and public interest in historic child abuse. Noting other international cases of child abuse in the context of public programmes and other institutional contexts, it is argued that children’s suffering usually arose not from an absence of policy and legal protections but a failure to implement these effectively. The assisted migration of unaccompanied children from the United Kingdom to Australia is presented, particularly in the post-war period, as another such example of systemic failures to maintain known standards of child welfare. The focus of the book on policy decisions and administrative systems within the UK Government is explained and the relevance of this study to the historiography of child migration and post-war child welfare is also set out.

The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users ar... more The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.

This chapter examines the development of UK child migration to Australia in the inter-war period.... more This chapter examines the development of UK child migration to Australia in the inter-war period. Following the opening of Kingsley Fairbridge’s experimental farm school for child migrants at Pinjarra in 1913, the 1920s and 1930s saw a gradual increase in the number of voluntary societies involved in this work and of residential institutions in Australia receiving child migrants. The growth of these programmes in the wider context of the UK Government’s assisted migration policies is discussed. During the 1930s, the global financial depression weakened governmental support for assisted migration, and greater caution emerged within the UK Government about the value of some planned migration schemes. Nevertheless, by 1939, child migration to Australia was seen by UK policy-makers as a small but important part of the attempt to strengthen ties with Britain’s Dominions and to make more efficient use of their collective human and material resources.

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2020

Between 1947 and 1965, 408 British children were sent to Australia under the auspices of the Chur... more Between 1947 and 1965, 408 British children were sent to Australia under the auspices of the Church of England Advisory Council of Empire Settlement and its successor bodies. Situating this work in wider policy contexts, this article examines how the council involved itself in this work with support from some senior clergy and laity despite being poorly resourced to do so. Noting the council's failure to maintain standards expected of this work by the Home Office and child-care professionals, the article considers factors underlying this which both reflected wider tensions over child migration in the post-war period as well as those specific to the council.

This concluding chapter explores why it was that post-war child migration to Australia was allowe... more This concluding chapter explores why it was that post-war child migration to Australia was allowed to resume and continue by the UK Government despite known failings in these schemes. It is argued that one factor was the sheer administrative complexity of a multi-agency programme operating over different national jurisdictions and large distances which made control and oversight of conditions for British child migrants harder to achieve. Despite concerns that the post-war welfare state would be a powerful, centralised mechanism, the history of these programmes demonstrates British policy-makers’ sense of the limits of their powers—limits arising from lack of resource, the perceived need to avoid unproductive conflict with powerful stakeholders, the wish to respect boundaries of departmental policy remits and assumptions about the value of following policy precedents. The chapter concludes by considering how fine-grained analyses of such policy failures can contribute to public debat...

Contemporary British History, 2019

The publication of the Report of the Care of Children Committee in 1946 was a pivotal moment for ... more The publication of the Report of the Care of Children Committee in 1946 was a pivotal moment for the out-of-home care of children in Britain. With its key recommendations implemented in the 1948 Children Act and the creation of bodies such as the Central Training Council in Child Care and the Home Office's Advisory Council on Child Care, the report also had wider public significance in associating progressive approaches to childcare with the emerging postwar welfare state. This article argues that the creation of the Curtis Committee was far from inevitable and resulted from the interplay of the growing recognition of the problems associated with a fragmented legislative and administrative framework for children's care and a successful public campaign to reform standards in residential childcare which created the political conditions in which the Labour Government felt obliged to establish a formal Committee of Inquiry. The degree of interest that these processes generated in the Committee's work led to its final report receiving substantial public attention. Although its effects as a mechanism of policy change were uneven, the context through which the report was produced meant that it became a significant benchmark for childcare standards in the emerging postwar welfare state.

Journal For the Scientific Study of Religion, 2006

Culture and Religion, 2013

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 1999

Background: Young people aged 10-24 years are at the highest risk for mental health problems and ... more Background: Young people aged 10-24 years are at the highest risk for mental health problems and are the least likely to seek professional treatment. Owing to this population's high consumption of internet content, electronic mental (e-mental) health services have increased globally, with an aim to address barriers to treatment. Many of these services use text-based online counseling (TBOC), which shows promising results in supporting young people but also greater variance in outcomes compared with adult comparators. Objective: This pilot study qualitatively explored the characteristics of users aged 15-25 years accessing TBOC services, their motivations for access, and their perceptions about factors believed to influence the effectiveness of these modalities. Methods: E-surveys were administered naturalistically to 100 young service users aged 15-25 years who accessed webchat and email counseling services via an Australian e-mental health service. Thematic analysis of qualitative themes and quantitative descriptive and proportional data presented in electronic surveys were examined across the areas of user characteristics, motivations for selecting TBOC modalities, and their perceptions of TBOC effectiveness. Results: Participants were predominately female high school students of Caucasian or European descent from middle socioeconomic status, living with their parents in major cities. Four domains and various themes and subthemes were related to participants' reasons for accessing TBOC and perceptions of its effectiveness: user characteristics (ie, physical and mental health syndrome and perceived social difficulties), selection factors (ie, safety, avoidance motivation, accessibility, and expectation), factors perceived to increase effectiveness (ie, general therapeutic benefits, positive modality and service factors, and persisting with counseling to increase benefit), and factors perceived to decrease effectiveness (ie, negative modality and service factors, and persisting with counseling despite benefit). Conclusions: Participants were motivated to use TBOC to increase their sense of safety in response to negative perceptions of their social skills and the response of the online counsellor to their presenting problem. By using TBOC services, they also sought to improve their access to mental health services that better met their expectations. Factors that increased effectiveness of TBOC were the counsellor's interpersonal skills, use of text-based communication, and persisting with beneficial counseling sessions. Factors that reduced TBOC effectiveness were poor timeliness in response to service requests, experiencing no change in their presenting problem, not knowing what postcounseling action to take, and persisting with ineffective counseling sessions.

Journal of Religious History, 2020

Between 1938 and 1956, an estimated 1,147 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia... more Between 1938 and 1956, an estimated 1,147 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia through child migration initiatives delivered by Catholic organisations. Whilst experiences of child migrants varied, there has been a growing public recognition over the past thirty years of the trauma experienced by many. Although the suffering of child migrants occurred in the context of wider policy failures, this article argues that there was a particular pattern of systemic failures characteristic of these Catholic schemes. After providing an overview of the complex organisational structure through which Catholic child migration operated, the article identifies six systemic failures in this work relating both to organisational processes and the institutional conditions to which child migrants were sent. It goes on to argue that these occurred in a framework of religious legitimation which emphasised the unique role of the Church as a mediator of salvation, the need to safeguard ch...

Contemporary British History, 2019

The publication of the Report of the Care of Children Committee in 1946 was a pivotal moment for ... more The publication of the Report of the Care of Children Committee in 1946 was a pivotal moment for the out-of-home care of children in Britain. With its key recommendations implemented in the 1948 Children Act and the creation of bodies such as the Central Training Council in Child Care and the Home Office’s Advisory Council on Child Care, the report also had wider public significance in associating progressive approaches to child-care with the emerging post-war welfare state. This article argues that the creation of the Curtis Committee was far from inevitable and resulted from the inter-play of the growing recognition of the problems associated with a fragmented legislative and administrative framework for children’s care and a successful public campaign to reform standards in residential child-care which created the political conditions in which the Labour Government felt obliged to establish a formal Committee of Inquiry. The degree of interest that these processes generated in the Committee’s work led to its final report receiving substantial public attention. Although its effects as a mechanism of policy change were uneven, the context through which the report was produced meant that it became a significant benchmark for child-care standards in the emerging post-war welfare state.

As the earlier sections of this book demonstrate, research in the sociology of religion has much ... more As the earlier sections of this book demonstrate, research in the sociology of religion has much to contribute to our understanding of important structures and processes in religious institutions and individual religiosity as well forms of interaction between religious organisations and other fields of social life. The aim of this chapter is to delineate an area of research within the contemporary sociology of religion that has arguably been less well-developed than this work on the religious lives of individuals and organisations, but which constitutes an important area for future work. A central assumption of much work in the sociology of religion over the past forty years is that it most naturally focuses on beliefs, practices, organisations and social structures and processes that relate to human engagement with supra-human beings or forces. This piece examines an alternative focus for the discipline, namely the broader study of moral meanings across and beyond religious traditions.

UK Child Migration to Australia, 1945-1970, 2021

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2020

Contemporary British History, 2019

Journal For the Scientific Study of Religion, 2006

Culture and Religion, 2013

British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 1999

Journal of Religious History, 2020

Contemporary British History, 2019

The publication of the Report of the Care of Children Committee in 1946 was a pivotal moment for ... more The publication of the Report of the Care of Children Committee in 1946 was a pivotal moment for the out-of-home care of children in Britain. With its key recommendations implemented in the 1948 Children Act and the creation of bodies such as the Central Training Council in Child Care and the Home Office’s Advisory Council on Child Care, the report also had wider public significance in associating progressive approaches to child-care with the emerging post-war welfare state. This article argues that the creation of the Curtis Committee was far from inevitable and resulted from the inter-play of the growing recognition of the problems associated with a fragmented legislative and administrative framework for children’s care and a successful public campaign to reform standards in residential child-care which created the political conditions in which the Labour Government felt obliged to establish a formal Committee of Inquiry. The degree of interest that these processes generated in the Committee’s work led to its final report receiving substantial public attention. Although its effects as a mechanism of policy change were uneven, the context through which the report was produced meant that it became a significant benchmark for child-care standards in the emerging post-war welfare state.

This article argues that a range of child welfare interventions that sought to relocate children ... more This article argues that a range of child welfare interventions that sought to relocate children away from their birth families and home communities between the middle decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries drew on a common moral frame. These interventions – child migration schemes, assimilationist policies towards indigenous children, institutions of corrective confinement and the child protection movement – have typically been previously studied as isolated national or organizational phenomena. However, this article outlines a common moral frame to which they made reference structured around the figure of the redeemable child, vulnerable to the effects of polluted social environments, seen as needing to be relocated to new environments that would enable their civic, moral and spiritual redemption. This argument is situated within a discussion of the articulation of moral meanings as a social practice, which addresses both the central elements of this moral frame and the contexts in which it was articulated. This moral frame did not determine childcare practices within these schemes, but was one source of influence on them. In particular, the article examines the role of economic rationality in the management of these schemes, arguing that the sacralised status of the child within the family discussed in the work of Vivianna Zelizer was not

This working paper discusses the development of migration schemes operating from Britain that sen... more This working paper discusses the development of migration schemes operating from Britain that sent around 6,500 children, unaccompanied by their parents, to Australia between 1914 and the early 1970s. The development of these schemes against the background of the cessation of UK child migration schemes to Canada is discussed as are the political and organizational interests that prevented significant reform or closure of these schemes after they had clearly fallen behind more widely accepted standards of child-care in Britain.

This draft chapter notes both the wave of sexual abuse cases concerning Christian organisations t... more This draft chapter notes both the wave of sexual abuse cases concerning Christian organisations that have come to public attention over the past thirty years and sustained criticism of institutional responses to these by these organisations. Drawing on sociological and anthropological understandings of the social nature and uses of moral meanings, the chapter suggests that one factor causing poor institutional responses to abuse are the ways in which moral cultures structured around sin and redemption operate within these organisations. Whilst the difficulties arising from these moral cultures have become a matter of theological reflexivity within the Church, the difficulty in moving beyond an emphasis on sin and redemption in such reflections continues to generate problematic responses to abuse. The entrenched nature of these moral cultures within the Church - and their apparent shadow-side in relation to responses to abuse - may give additional impetus to calls for further legal intervention into the ways in which cases of child sexual abuse are dealt with in Christian organisations.

Focusing on the history of the Irish industrial school system, this piece examines both the origi... more Focusing on the history of the Irish industrial school system, this piece examines both the origins of the moral symbolism of the Irish Catholic nation and the reasons for its decline in the 1990s. It argues that this cultural shift made it possible for public scandals concerning the treatment of children in industrial schools to become the focus of moral outrage, culminating in the creation of the 'Ryan Commission'.