For assignment 8, you were required to address some of the ways your concepts

related to your observational, participation, and/or interview data. For this

assignment you should:

1. Select ONE of your theoretical concepts.

2. Go to the website of your faith community.

a.) If your specific community does not have a website that is unique

to that particular community, then you should use either its

“parent’s” website or an equivalent “sister” community. For

example, if I had selected Royal Oak Lutheran Church, but it did not

have its own website, I would look at the website of the Lutheran

Church (that would be its “parent”). Or, I might find a suitable

equivalent and use its website as a substitute. For this example, that

might be the website of the Ferndale Lutheran Church.

3. Using any portion of the website (e.g., a video recorded message, a podcast,

the images you find of the site or the people who worship there, a mission

statement, etc.), you should explain how the concept you selected in step 1 of this

assignment is apparent in that portion(s) of the website. One approach to this

step is to consider what you learned about content analysis (without actually

conducting any coding).

This should be a well-written narrative, a minimum of 1 page in length, and

written as though it is a section of your final research project.

If I were to use an example from my work on megachurches, I might use the

images of the interior of the church to discuss “implosion” (perhaps the way the

auditorium looks like a cinema and what that means sociologically). Or I might

look at documents on the website that lay out the church’s organizational

structure and talk about McDonaldization. Or I might watch a video of a service

and discuss collective effervescence, etc.

Peer Review of Data and Concepts of Research Project

Name of Author __________________________________

Reviewer’s Name _________________________________

1. List the concepts the author includes in this portion of the paper.
2. How well does the author explain/define her/his concepts? How might the

author improve their explanation/definition of each of those concepts?
3. How well has the author studied/measured each concept? (In other words,

is the author’s methodological approach an appropriate fit for studying
each of the concepts? If not, provide an alternative.)

4. What is one way the author might conduct her/his research given the
current circumstances and limitations (i.e., not being able to do in-person
visits or interviews)?

Please type your responses to each of the above items in the space below.

1) Although not clearly stated, from my understanding, two concepts used to

understand Buddhism and some borrowed religious procedures from Islam
and Christianity are meaning and sociological imagination. You can also use
other concepts such as collective effervescence, secularization or implosion
if you like.

2) I think D needs to clearly specify her concepts so that a reader is not trying
to piece it together. She needs to fully explain the definition of the
concepts and how it may be used in Buddhism and potentially provide
examples from what she may find on the religious website to illustrate her
point. For example: Collective effervescence, one of five concepts being
studied to understand Buddhism, is a sociological term used to depict
groups bubbling up/coming together to share common religious ground. In
my research I found ​ ……………………..​ to be a representation of collective
effervescence in which my literature review supports or opposes.

3) I think D picked great methodological approaches for her research but now
that we will be unable to further visit our sites, deeply analyzing the
website and providing understanding of her concepts through her findings
will be a good form of content.

4) As stated in number 3, I think the religious website will be a great place for
analysis for the remainder of our research project. How Buddhism is

illustrated to her can be ways to interpret as well as finding literature
review that may support her findings on the website. Defining religion was
very good, but we want to know more about Buddhism, what they practice,
how they practice, how they interpret life and their daily
practices/regulations. How may literature review support or go against
what you found on the website? Also, take a look at their services online,
what events they host and their religious calendar. These are good ways of
understanding what they are about and searching those religious practices
online will be a good way to understand the material clearly.

Assignment 8

After conducting two of my four interviews with women as my focus, I have found some

interesting perceptions. In my interviews, I have asked about my interviewees day-to-day life

with respect to their timely aartis and how this impacts their lens on their own religion. I also

asked about their frequency in attending Sunday prayers and the effectiveness of the mind-soul

concept with respect to Hare Krishna consciousness. Moreover, I asked what effect does

chanting give to followers and devotees. Aside from interviewing, I have captured some

beautiful moments of devotees fully engaged in their Sunday religious practices at the temple.

Hare Krishna devotees have raised my awareness in the religion and have helped me in

understanding different perspectives between devotees.

Through my observations in the Hare Krishna Temple and my conducted interviews, I

have found central concepts studied in class to support my data. One of my interviewees, being

unmarried, a college student, a cisgender female and hailing from a big family stresses how her

life is best associated with our central concept of cocktail spirituality. Being of millennial age,

she says Hare Krishna faith is very intense and places much restriction on the individual. Her

school schedule conflicts with the timely aartis and pujas and although she feels a sense of

enchantment when chanting with her loved ones she is bored of the religion and would much

rather be with her boyfriend. Being in a romantic relationship for two years, she has confessed

that she practices in pre-marital sex happily and enjoys non-vegetarian food in public places.

However, with family, she adapts herself to the Hare Krishna regulations and would face

consequences otherwise. Although she is practicing collective effervescence when participating

and regulating the Hare Krishna rituals with family, she also is involved in cocktail spirituality. My

second interviewee, a stay-at-home married woman with two children and a cisgender male

spouse offered a different perspective as opposed to my millenial interviewee. In this interview,

my interviewee is one who spends day and night worshipping Hare Krishna, Prabhu and Radha.

She recited biblical chapters to her children and every Sunday, her children are required to

wake up as early as 5am to take part in the early morning rituals. Her and her husband reside in

authoritative parenting and are strict in following everyday practices which reinforce Hare

Krishna consciousness. My literature review from the Gupta-Vrindavan article supports my

findings through this article in the sense that the ISKCON structure is much like a commercial

office where different individuals have delegates tasks based on their position in the hierarchy

and seeking the spiritual self can be done through daily religious practices. On the other hand, I

believe this literature review is not supportive of my first interview. My journal article named

Family Structure, Commitment, and Involvement in the Hare Krishna movement focuses on how

family life may impact religious organization and individual commitment. This literature review

represents what my second interviewee and her family exercises and is in proper accordance

with the impact family has on religion holistically.

Rochford, E. Burke. “Family Structure, Commitment, and Involvement in the Hare Krishna

Movement.” ​Sociology of Religion​, vol. 56, no. 2, 1995, pp. 153–175. ​JSTOR​,

www.jstor.org/stable/3711761. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

Peer Review of Data and Concepts of Research Project

Name of Author __________________________________

Reviewer’s Name _________________________________

1. List the concepts the author includes in this portion of the paper.

2. How well does the author explain/define her/his concepts? How might the author improve their explanation/definition of each of those concepts?

3. How well has the author studied/measured each concept? (In other words, is the author’s methodological approach an appropriate fit for studying each of the concepts? If not, provide an alternative.)

4. What is one way the author might conduct her/his research given the current circumstances and limitations (i.e., not being able to do in-person visits or interviews)?

Please type your responses to each of the above items in the space below.