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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Religion and Society Interactions

Religion and Society Interactions is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 37k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the complex interplay between religion and secularism in modern society, addressing topics such as the public sphere, globalization, atheism, nationalism, religious pluralism, and their impact on politics and civil society. It delves into the challenges and transformations brought about by the coexistence of religious and secular ideologies in various cultural and national contexts.

  • Religion
  • Secularism
  • Public Sphere
  • Globalization
  • Atheism
  • Nationalism
  • Pluralism
  • Politics
  • Civil Religion
  • Democracy
Research works
37k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-14%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
45% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Religion and Society Interactions

Which countries lead Religion and Society Interactions research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (1.7k and 541 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.7k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 541 works
  3. 3 Germany 369 works
  4. 4 France 201 works
  5. 5 Canada 195 works
  6. 6 Russia 184 works
  7. 7 Poland 154 works
  8. 8 Italy 152 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 132 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 131 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 44.8%United Kingdom: 14.5%Germany: 9.9%France: 5.4%6 others listed: 25.4%45%largest
United States1,669 · 44.8%United Kingdom541 · 14.5%Germany369 · 9.9%France201 · 5.4%6 others listed947 · 25.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Religion and Society Interactions research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Oxford publishes the most Religion and Society Interactions research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 61 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 59 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 39 works
  4. 4 Baylor UniversityUnited States 36 works
  5. 5 University of ViennaAustria 34 works
  6. 6 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 32 works
  7. 7 University of Notre DameUnited States 29 works
  8. 8 University of HelsinkiFinland 27 works
  9. 9 KU LeuvenBelgium 23 works
  10. 10 University of ChicagoUnited States 21 works

Who are the leading researchers in Religion and Society Interactions?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Religion and Society Interactions include Albert Bandura, Pierre Bourdıeu and Michel Foucault.

  1. 1 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
  2. 2 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  3. 3 Michel Foucault France 208k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Religion and Society Interactions?

The most cited paper in Religion and Society Interactions is "Foundations of Social Theory" (Frederick C. Gamst, 1991), with 8,033 citations. Next come "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy" (7,088) and "Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation" (6,567).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Foundations of Social Theory Frederick C. Gamst · Anthropology of Work Review Sep 1991 8,033
2 Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy Seymour Martin Lipset · American Political Science Review Mar 1959 7,088
3 Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation David A. Snow, E. Burke Rochford, Steven K. Worden et al. · American Sociological Review Aug 1986 6,567
4 Modernization, cultural change, and democracy the human development sequence Ronald F. Inglehart, Christian Welzel 2005 3,725
5 Two Faces of Power Peter Bachrach, Morton S. Baratz · American Political Science Review Dec 1962 3,387
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Religion and Society Interactions research done?

The largest centres of Religion and Society Interactions research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Moscow (Russia), Paris (France) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Waco and Notre Dame.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 99 works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 95 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 91 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 73 works
  5. 5 OxfordUnited Kingdom 68 works
  6. 6 Washington D.C.United States 54 works
  7. 7 ChicagoUnited States 52 works
  8. 8 BudapestHungary 51 works
  9. 9 ViennaAustria 49 works
  10. 10 WarsawPoland 49 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. WacoUS · 35.6 works34×
  2. Notre DameUS · 29.8 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Religion and Society Interactions than the world average.

See Religion and Society Interactions on the map

Where is the best place to study Religion and Society Interactions?

Among universities, judged by research, Baylor University, University of Oklahoma and University of Oxford score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.68%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of OklahomaBaylor UniversityUniversity of OxfordUniversity of Vienna
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Baylor UniversityUnited States 63.121.4%40.0×36 +13.4%
2University of OklahomaUnited States 62.946.2%7.5×14 -7.4%
3University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 61.77.8%8.5×61 -1.4%
4University of ViennaAustria 54.06.8%13.1×34 +62.4%
5Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 53.410.3%6.6×20 +7.2%
6University College LondonUnited Kingdom 51.521.7%1.9×16 +14.0%
7KU LeuvenBelgium 50.214.7%4.7×23 -11.3%
8Lund UniversitySweden 49.122.0%4.2×12 +20.7%
9The University of Texas at AustinUnited States 49.010.5%3.5×15 +21.5%
10Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 48.115.4%4.3×16 -8.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Religion and Society Interactions, country by country

Is Religion and Society Interactions research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 14% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Religion and Society Interactions as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.026% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Religion and Society Interactions0.021% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Religion and Society Interactions over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Religion and Society Interactions10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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