BELIEF ACROSS BORDERS
Religion as Networked Social Capital
Keywords:
Social CapitalAbstract
This paper uses data gathered through interviews with Indian transnational migrant workers in the greater Durban1 area in the province of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa and uses the analytical lens of social capital to contextualize their religious practices in a transnational space. The paper argues that, within the context of the transnational lives of the migrant workers, religion, and religious ritual and activities, can perhaps be understood as (re)emerging in the form of social capital that helps build cohesive bonds and ties amongst the migrants.
References
P. Levitt, “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging: The Institutional Character of Transnational Religious Life” in Sociology of Religion 65, 1 (2004), 118;
C. Peach, “South Asian migration and settlement in Great Britain, 1951-2001” in Contemporary South Asia 15, 2 (2006), 133-146;
K. Leonard, “Transnationalism, Diaspora, Translation: Comparing Punjabis and Hyderabadis Abroad” in Sikh Formations 3, 1 (2007), 51-66;
S. Vertovec, Transnationalism. New York: Routledge, 2009.
K. Gardner and R. Grillo, “Transnational households and Ritual: An Overview” in Global Networks 2, 3 (2002), 179-190.
P. Levitt, “You Know, Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant: Religion and Transnational Migration” in International Migration Review 37, 3 (2003), 847;
P. Levitt, ‘Transnational migration: taking stock and future directions” in Global Networks 1, 3 (2000), 195-216.
M. Naidu, “The Global Mobile Subject: Mobility and Transnationalising Hinduism” in Nidan Journal for the Study of Hinduism 32, (2008), 16-32.
Naidu, M. “Tied to Each Other: Transnationalised Work and Workers” in The Anthropologist (2009), forthcoming.
J. Urry, Sociology Beyond Societies: mobilities for the twenty-first century. New York: Rout ledge, 2002 and Urry, J. Mobilities. Cambridge UK: Polity Press, 2007.
S. Vertovec,”‘Migration and Other Modes of Transnationalism: Towards Conceptual Cross-Fertilization” in International Migration Review 37, 3 (2003), 641-665.
C. Voigt-Graf, “Towards a Geography of transnational spaces: Indian transnational communities in Australia” in Global Networks 4, 1 (2004), 25-49.
A. Portes, “Introduction: the debates and significance of immigrant transnationalism” in Global Networks 1, 3 (2001), 181-193.
L E. Guarnizo and S P. Smith, “The locations of transnationalism”, In: M. P. Smith and L. E. Guarnizo eds., Transnationalism from below: comparative urban and community research. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1998, pp 3- 34.
Poros also speaks of transnationalism at the level of the individual see M V. Poros, “The role of migrant networks in linking local labour markets: the case of Asian Indian migration to New York and London” in Global Networks 1, 3 (2001), 243-259.
S. Castles and M J Miller, The age of migration. London: Macmillan, 1993.
J D. Kelly, “Time and the Global: Against the Homogenous, Empty Communities in Contemporary Social Theory”, In: Birgit Meyer and Peter Geschiere eds., Globalisation and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure. Oxford UK: Blackwell, 2003, 239.
B. Williams, “Asian Indian and Pakistani Religions in the United States” in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 558 (1998), 178195;
P. Kurien, “Religion, ethnicity, and politics: Hindus and Muslim Indian immigrants in the United States” in Ethnic and Racial Studies 24 (2001), 263-93;
P. Levitt, “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging: The Institutional Character of Transnational Religious Life” in Sociology of Religion 65, 1 (2004), 1-18.
K. Gardner, Global Migrants, Local Lives. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1995.
C. Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System”, In: Banton M. ed., Anthropological Approaches to the study of Religion. London: Tavistock (1966), 89.
P. Levitt, “You Know, Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant: Religion and Transnational Migration” in International Migration Review 37, 3 (2003), 861.
A. Portes, “The Two Meanings of Social Capital” in Sociological Forum 15, 1 (2000), 2.
S. Janjuha-Jivraj, “The Sustainability of Social Capital within Ethnic Networks” in Journal of Business Ethics 47, 1 (2003) 32.
J. Farr, “Social Capital: A Conceptual History” in Political Theory 32, 1 (2004), 6-33.
W H. Lockhart, “Building Bridges and Bonds: Generating Social Capital in Secular and Faith-Based Poverty-to-Work Programs” in Sociology of Religion 66, 1 (2005), 46.
N T. Ammerman, Congregation and community. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997;
R A. Cnaan, S C. Boddie, E. Handy, G. Yancey R. and Schneider, The invisible caring hand: American congregations and the provision of welfare. New York: New York University Press, 2002
S. Thieme, “Sustaining Livelihoods in Multi-local Settings: Possible Theoretical Linkages between Transnational Migration and Livelihood Studies” in Mobilities 3, 1 (2008), 51-71.
R D. Putnam, Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000;
Portes, 2000; F J. Schuurman, “Social Capital: the politico-emancipatory potential of a disputed Concept” Third World Quarterly 24, 6 (2003), 991-1010.
Adler and Kwon (2002) P S. Adler and S. Kwon, “Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept” in The Academy of Management Review 27, 1 (2002), 17-40.
S. Vertovec, “Migration and Other Modes of Transnationalism: Towards Conceptual Cross-Fertilization” in International Migration Review 37, 3 (2003), 647.
M. Chamberlain and S. Leydesdorff, “Transnational families: memories and narratives” in Global Networks 4, 3 (2004), 232.
K S. Cook and J. M. Whitmeyer, “Two Approaches to Social Structure: Exchange Theory and Network Analysis” in Annual Review of Sociology 18, (1992), 115.
A. Smart and J. Smart, “Urbanization and the Global Perspective” Annual Review of Anthropology 32, (2003), 274.
K. Meagher, “Social capital or analytical liability? Social networks and African informal economies” in Global Networks 53, (2005), 220.
M. Gargiulo and M. Benassi, “Trapped in Your Own Net? Network Cohesion, Structural Holes, and the Adaptation of Social Capital’, Organisation Science 11, 2 (2000), 184.