VT2023: Complex Inequality (additional lecturer); Globalization (seminar leader)

HT2019; 2020: Introduction to Quantitative Data Management and Statistics

VT2020: Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences II (math supports)

 

Jag jobbar om projekt "En undersökning av religiöst medlemskap i högsekulär Finland med nationella registerdata" på Åbo Akademi Univeristy, Finland, med Wenner-Gren Fellow-stipendier, och är ansluten forskare hos Stockholms universitets Demografiska avdelning (SUDA), Sociologiska institutionen, inom samarbetsprojekt "Demographic change and ethnolinguistic identity in an intergenerational perspective: The Swedish-speaking population in Finland (DemSwed)", samt "RelFin: Forskning vid Åbo Akademi om trender i religiöst medlemskap i Svenskfinland" mellan Stockholms universitet och Åbo Akademi i Finland. Jag fokuserar på religiöst medlemskap i Finland med hjälp av finska registerdata.

Jag arbetar också med projektet "Leavers and stayers - Migrant and non-migrant life trajectories in Sweden and Finland" baserat på Södertörns högskola, som undersöker de socioekonomiska och demografiska resultaten av migration för finska migranter och deras barn sedan 1970-talet genom att kombinera svenska och finska registerdata.

Min avhandling fokuserar på religions påverkan på politiska attityder och politiska beteenden genom politiska konfliktdimensioner, politiska institutioner och politisk artikulation, i sekulariserande europeiska samhällen.

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

• Socioeconomic Advantage or Community Attachment? A Register‐Based Study on the Difference in National Lutheran Church Affiliation Between Finnish and Swedish Speakers in Finland

  2024. Weiqian Xia, Martin Kolk, Jan Saarela. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

  Artikel

  Secularization theory has been challenged by research showing religious persistence and upswing in contexts across the world. In Europe, particularly in highly secular and historically religiously homogeneous Nordic settings, there has been little research, and representative data for minority groups are rare. We offer a pioneering study using national register data to study religious changes over the past five decades in Finland, where the two native ethnolinguistic groups—Finnish and Swedish speakers—offer a unique study context. We use register data with yearly information on every individual's religious affiliation to compare the two groups, exploring the mechanisms behind any differentials. Swedish speakers are found to be consistently more affiliated with the National Lutheran Church than Finnish speakers. This finding contradicts the expectation of modernization theory because the Swedish-speaking population is, in some aspects, socioeconomically advantaged in Finnish society. The higher affiliation level of Swedish speakers can be partly explained by lower levels of internal migration, which is possibly driven by stronger community attachment. Our results suggest that community cohesion may help preserve the religious tradition of a minority group, even in the absence of socioeconomic disadvantages or threats from the majority.

  Läs mer om Socioeconomic Advantage or Community Attachment? A Register‐Based Study on the Difference in National Lutheran Church Affiliation Between Finnish and Swedish Speakers in Finland

• Christian Religiosity, Religious Nostalgia, and Attitudes Toward Muslims in 20 Western Countries

  2022. Weiqian Xia. Sociological forum (Randolph, N.J.)

  Artikel

  Radical ethnonationalism has drastically risen in Western politics, largely mobilized by nostalgia for the country's past with homogeneity and Christianity as a cultural symbol against non-Western immigrants, especially Muslims. However, how nostalgia for Christianity's past significance can invoke anti-Muslim sentiments is unknown, especially given that Christianity is increasingly losing its previous status under secularization, resulting in radical backlash from the Christian right. In the current study, I examine whether nostalgia related to religion and the religious–secular gap in the perceived status of religion can induce anti-Muslim attitudes among Christians from 20 Western countries using International Social Survey Programme data and mixed-effect multilevel modeling. Contrary to expectations, anti-Muslim attitudes are stronger for people with higher levels of Christian religiosity and doctrinal belief, and exclusivist view on religion, when they have less religious nostalgia by perceiving a stronger status of religion. Moreover, in countries with a larger religious–secular gap in the perceived status of religion, people holding exclusivist views on religion are more hostile to Muslims. Yet, the findings can still be consistent with theoretical expectations, since anti-Muslim attitudes are likely promoted through backlash from the Christian community against religious diversity, expressed in demands for a larger salience of religion rather than nostalgia.

  Läs mer om Christian Religiosity, Religious Nostalgia, and Attitudes Toward Muslims in 20 Western Countries

• Mediators explaining radical right voting patterns of Christians in Europe: Attitudes toward immigrants, values, or social capital?

  2021. Weiqian Xia. Social Science Research 97

  Artikel

  Previous studies show that radical right parties in Europe receive relatively low levels of supports from Christian voters, despite that Christian value is highlighted in the European radical right agenda. However, the mechanism remains largely untested. The study investigates the factors underlying Christians voting or not voting for populist radical right parties across Europe, using Round 8 European Social Survey data. It is shown that there is no general relationship between Christian religiosity and radical right voting across European countries. In most countries, Christians are neither more nor less likely to vote for the radical right parties compared to the non-religious. When Christians are underrepresented in radical right supporters, it can hardly be explained by tolerance towards immigrants, pro-social values or social capital presumed to be fostered by Christian religion and church engagement. In some other cases, where Christians are more likely to vote for radical right parties, it is likely to be driven by anti-immigrant attitudes, authoritarian values and moral conservative values. In addition, Christians could have been more mobilizable for radical right parties due to their authoritarian and moral conservative values, which have not been fully capitalized. The study suggests that Christian religiosity does not serve as an “antidote” to the radical right. Tolerance towards immigrants, pro-social values or social capital are rarely the mechanisms driving European Christians away from supporting radical right parties.

  Läs mer om Mediators explaining radical right voting patterns of Christians in Europe: Attitudes toward immigrants, values, or social capital?

• The Political Sociology of Religion

  2021. Weiqian Xia.

  Avhandling (Dok)

  European societies have experienced extensive secularization. However, the impact of religion in governing people’s political attitudes and behaviors persists, which has been enhanced by several recent developments, including the growing salience of religious and conservative values for the remaining committed religious people, the rise of radical right parties that use Christianity in their anti-immigrant and nationalist rhetoric, and the increasing number of immigrants from outside Europe that contribute to the diversification of religion in European societies. This dissertation investigates the continuing impact of religion on political attitudes and political behaviors in European societies under a secularizing age as embodied in those developments. I will inquire using aspects of political cleavage, political institution, and political articulation related to religion.

  Study I examines how national contexts related to religion (secularization and party polarization on morality issues) moderate the impact of same-sex marriage and partnership legislation on public attitudes towards homosexuality. Using eight rounds of European Social Survey (ESS) data, the study shows that, first, in more secular countries and after partnership legislation has passed, there are more divergences in attitudes towards homosexuality between core religious members and the more secular others, with the former showing more negative attitudes. Second, in countries where political parties are more polarized on morality issues, the impact of partnership legislation is more negative in the general population across religiosity and partisanship; however, this effect is not repeated for marriage legislation. The study uncovers distinct effects of different normative institutions in moderating the relationship between legislation and attitudes through the articulation process.

  Study II focuses on the mechanism underlying the relationship between Christian religiosity and voting for populist radical right parties in Europe, using ESS Round 8 data. Mediation analysis shows that the factors suggested by previous theories, including tolerance towards immigrants, pro-social values and social capital, hardly explain the underrepresentation of Christians in radical right voters. On the contrary, Christians and radical right voters across Europe have high ideological compatibility in authoritarian and moral conservative values, highlighting ample political space for radical right parties to articulate within for attracting Christian support that has yet to be successfully capitalized. This finding is against Christianity itself being an antidote to the radical right. It suggests that the enduring religious cleavage linked to mainstream right parties may still explain why Christians avoid voting for radical parties.

  Study III investigates the role of religion in mobilizing immigrant political participation in the context of Sweden, using the 2010 Level of Living Survey for the Foreign Born and Their Children (LNU-UFB) data. Contrasting the theoretical expectations, this study finds little evidence that religion mobilizes immigrants to participate in politics; actually, religious attendance is found to be negatively related to political participation. The demobilization effect of religion is stronger for women, first-generation migrants. Those who have experienced religion-based societal discrimination, especially Muslims, are less active in political participation. However, second-generation Muslim immigrants are more active in participating in demonstration than the first generation, possibly due to higher perceived discrimination. The results do not support the theory on religious organizations promoting immigrant political participation in Sweden, nor is there suggestive evidence for the emergence of immigrant or Muslim political cleavage in the Swedish context.

  Läs mer om The Political Sociology of Religion

Visa alla publikationer av Weiqian Xia vid Stockholms universitet