Theoretical-methodological aspects of researching the area of religion and public administration
| Published date | 01 October 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/09520767241265151 |
| Author | Adrian Kay |
| Date | 01 October 2024 |
Special Issue: Religion as an explanatory factor in public administration:
Directions for research
Public Policy and Administration
2024, Vol. 39(4) 625–638
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/09520767241265151
journals.sagepub.com/home/ppa
Theoretical-methodological
aspects of researching the area
of religion and public
administration
Adrian Kay
Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, UK
Abstract
This article, commissioned by the editors of Public Policy and Administration, contributes
to the theoretical and methodological groundworks for the development of research in
religion and public administration. It does so in three ways. The first part contrasts
different approaches to defining the concept of religion, those from the vantage of
academic observers against those from within religious traditions themselves. Several
theoretical and methodological challenges for public administration follow. Part two sets
out two theoretical concerns; first, the role of religious belief in intentional explanations
of public administration activity; second, the institutionalised position of secularity in the
recently freighted concept of a religious regime. Part three identifies a clutch of
methodological concerns associated with these theoretical issues. A final section con-
cludes with a summary of the contribution of the article to the nascent research pro-
gramme in public administration for a post-secular world.
Keywords
Religion, public administration, methodological agnosticism, secularism, beliefs
Introduction
Of the many post-concepts in academic use to describe a changing, contingent and
uncertain contemporary world, post-secular is perhaps the most unsettling for the social
sciences because it dents confidence in progress. Post-secular is not a label for a novel
Corresponding author:
Adrian Kay, Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, LLandaf Campus, Western
Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK.
Email: akay@cardiffmet.ac.uk
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