Despite the fact that religious belief and observance remain high in Northern Ireland compared to much of western Europe, the sociology of religion in NI has seen little empirical research outside of the study of conflict and peacebuilding. Furthermore, the sociology of religion more broadly has been critiqued for neglecting critical theoretical approaches which explore how religious beliefs and practices shape the processes of racialisation. Sociological research in racial and ethnic studies in the UK and Ireland have frequently omitted NI as an outlier because of its unique history of sectarian conflict and its relatively small population of ethnic minorities. Studies of race in Northern Ireland have been mostly quantitative and macro-sociological, focusing on social attitudes and instances of racist violence.
As the first qualitative study of racialisation within religious communities in Northern Ireland, this research aims to use ethnographic methods in the context of evangelical mission organisations to explore:
- How people’s religious beliefs and practices relate to how and why they engage in international mission work;
- NI evangelical Christians’ understandings of themselves in relation to the wider world, and;
- How NI evangelicals’ experiences and views of missions relate to ethnic relations in Northern Ireland
