Articles
Dr. Hewlett currently has the following articles pending publication based on revisions or under peer review. Click on the titles below to download earlier versions of the papers.
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Tables, Types, and Topography: Developing Qualitative Indicators for Social Analysis of Experiential Reality
Author: Brian N. Hewlett, Ph.D.
Publication: In revision for requested resubmission by the International Journal of Qualitative Methodology
Abstract: The post-positivism perspective acknowledges the value of scientific empirical examinations while calling for particular alterations in the utilized methods. This work echoes that post-positivist call by arguing that in order for social science to truly understand relations within particular societal phenomenon, relations across societal phenomenon, the effect that social structure has on relations within or across societal phenomenon, and how societal phenomenon are produced in general, social analysis must begin at the level of experiential reality. Rooted in this argument, the work presents a method for developing indicators for social analysis that begins with characterizing experiential reality as the actual summative scope of qualitative dimensions experienced by the cases involved in a given experience. The method offers a systematic way to conceptualize and build representations of the “phenomenal experiences” of particular samples that is practical, replicable, and applicable using tables to illustrate the overall dimensional complexity of concepts, typologies to illustrate the relational and contextual complexity in which cases are or can be situated, and topographical representations as a means of visualizing the relational landscape to either discover unknown or confirm theoretically predicted associations, which can be subsequently tested for significance using proven quantitative and qualitative models.
Multi-Secularity Disorder: Assessing the Multi-Dimensionality of European Secularity
Author: Brian N. Hewlett, Ph.D.
Publication: Currently under review with the British Journal of Sociology
Abstract: Many scholars have judged Europe as one of the most secular continents in the world. This judgment is characterized along a number of dimensions including conventional religious participation, personal identification with conventional institutional religion, and popular authority afforded the conventional religious institution that have previously been examined independent of each other. Rather than examine secularity in terms of these dimensions separately, using individual data from 32 national European contributors to the World Values Survey, this paper examines the secularity of this continent at the conjunction of these dimensions in addition to the dimension of spirituality to establish a multidimensional picture that is rarely depicted in the literature. This mixed methods analysis empirically suggests that there are significant multidimensional combinations of secularity that characterize the European population while commenting on supposition formed by the previous secularization research. The combinations that arise present a picture of European secularity that is most indicative of a popular desire to be free from the authority of the religious institution authority and church aversion and somewhat indicative of subjective non-religious dispositions.
A Necessary Evil: Clarifying the Role of Sentiment Opposing Religious Politicalization in the Production of Non-Religious Identification
Author: Brian N. Hewlett, Ph.D.
Publication: Currently under review with the American Sociological Review
Abstract: In their ground breaking work outlining changes in religious preference in the U.S. over the last century, Michael Hout and Claude A. Fischer argue that sentiment against the religious institution aligning with particular political ideologies leads individuals to dislodge themselves and not identify with religion. This paper challenges that claim based on the results of a qualitative comparative analysis of populations in 32 European countries that examines the necessary and sufficient nature of this sentiment of “anti-politicalization” as a causal factor in producing non-religious identification. Using data from the European Values Survey, this work finds the apparent necessity of this sentiment to be non-exclusive to non-religious identification and offers further evidence in association with this finding that weakens the claim that it is a causal mechanism while supporting an alternate hypothesis.
Ready, Set, Go! Making a Case with Race and Religion for the Use of Set-theoretic Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Address Social Problems
Author: Brian N. Hewlett, Ph.D.
Publication: Currently in preparation for submission
Abstract: Both clinical and applied sociology are dedicated to employing sociological theory and research methods for the development of solutions that address social problems. This sociological practice involves two overall components – the theoretical investigation and the practical application. This work outlines the use of particular set-theoretical components of Qualitative Comparative Analysis to investigate interactions of multiple dimensions within property spaces of social phenomenon to determine their impact in the production of multidimensional outcomes within the same phenomenon or across different phenomenon. This method pinpoints particular combinations of qualities within social spaces that produce presence and absences of outcomes indicative of social problems. Using research scenarios and invented data, the work illustrates how this method is applicable for determining spaces associated with given populations that produce particular problematic social patterns and for evaluating expected hypothetical associations and causes based on the scope of prior theoretical investigation.
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