PRIMROSES

 

   No. 1            No. 2             No. 3

 

 

Group members:

 

• Anica
• Maruša
• Mateja
• Petra
• Sabina

 

Distribution of roles:

 

Leader: Anica

Secretary: Maruša

Reporter: Sabina

Time-keeper: Mateja

Reserve person: Petra

 

 

 

TITLE:  Secularization among young Slovenian people between

the ages of 20 to 25

 

 

 

Definition:

It appears that religion and religious affiliation have less and less importance for youth and their identity formation. Instead of young people attending the Sunday mass to pray, honour and worship God, the great majority of them have in the recent time more faith in the mass media, horoscope, fortune-telling, idols, new "religious" movements, etc.

It seems that Slovenian youth has gone through a huge transformation from loyal believers to secular youth with new values and preferences in their lives. That is why we want to know why secularization among youth in Slovenia occurred, what the consequences of this process are and what is replacing the role religion used to have in their lives. We would also like to find out what can be done to reduce secularization and to increase the role of religion in lives of young Slovenian people.

 

 

Research questions:

1. What is secularization? (Maruša)

2. When did secularization in Slovenia appear? (Anica)

3. How did secularization in Slovenia appear? (Anica)

4. Is secularization present among the youth in Slovenia and to which extent? (Petra)

5. How did the level of secularization among Slovenian youth changed in the last 15-20 years? (Petra)

6. What are the reasons for secularization among youth in Slovenia? (Mateja)

7. What are the consequences of secularization among young people in Slovenia? (Mateja)

8. What is replacing the position of religion in life of youth in Slovenia? (Maruša)

9. What can be done (from the media`s, the Roman Catholic Church`s and the state`s point of view) in order to reduce secularization among young people in Slovenia? (Sabina)

10. What are the predictions for the future concerning secularization of young people in Slovenia? (Sabina)

 

 

List of literature:

1. Ammerman, Nancy T. 2007. Everday religion: observing modern reigious lives. New York: Oxford University Press.

2. Flere, Sergej and Kerševan, Marko. 1995. Religija in (sodobna) družba: uvod v sociologijo religije. Ljublana: Znastveno in publicistično središče.

3. Haralambos, Michael and Holborn, Martin. 2001. Sociologija: Teme in pogledi. Ljubljana: DZS.

4. Inglehart, Ronald and Norris, Pippa. 2004. Sacred and secular: religion and politics worldwide. United Kingdom: University of Cambridge.

5. Interviews. 2009. (see Appendicies in the report)

6. Kerševan, Marko. 1969. Srednješolci in religija: iz raziskovalne naloge ''Družba in religija''. Ljubljana: Visoka šola za sociologijo, politične vede in novinarstvo.

7. Kerševan, Marko. 1994. Religija, Evropa in Slovenci. Teorija in praksa 31 (3/4), p. 242-255.

 

 

GLOSSARY:

Adherent - pripadnik

Christening - krst

Church dignitary - cerkveni dostojanstvenik

Clergy - duhovščina

Confirmation - birma

Dogma - verski nauk/resnica

Ecclesiastical institution - cerkvena institucija

Established church - državna cerkev

Laicization - proces osvoboditve od cerkvene kontrole

Pilgrimage - romanje

Secularization (secularisation) - proces zmanjšanja družbenega pomena religije kot posledice modernizacije

Transcendence - doživetje/stanje, ki presega običajno raven človekovega razumevanja in zaznavanja

 

 

 

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MINUTES

 

THE MINUTES OF THE FIRST MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on 24 February, 2009 at FDV)

 

Present: Anica, Maruša, Mateja, Petra, Sabina

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Topic discussion and selection

2. Title discussion

3. Defining problem and research questions

4. Distribution of tasks

5. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: We decided to join our project with the project for the subject Sociology of religion thus our topic must be connected with religion and sociology. Petra suggested that we could write about gender and religion and we came to an agreement that we will use this topic. Our topic about sex in connection with religion was still to wide for our research and that is why we had to find more specific one. We mutually agreed that we want to do something about a role of women in Islamic religion. Petra suggested that we could do the comparison between the role of women in one Islamic country and the role of women in Slovenia, where most of the people are Roman Catholics. But because the role of women in everyday life is very broad concept, we decided that we will research only the role of women in a family.

Decision: We all liked this topic so we agreed that we will use it for our project in English and Sociology of religion class.

Our topic is not finally selected because we have to wait for the confirmation from professor Smrke who is absent this week.

 

Item 2:

Discussion: We talked about the title for our project.

Decision: We came to an agreement that our title could be 'The Influence of religion on the role of women in the family - comparison of Slovenia and ? (one Islamic country)'. We have not decided yet which Islamic country we will use for our project. We hope that professor Smrke will advise us about the second country.

The title is not final either because we have to consult with prof. Smrke first.

 

Item 3:

Discussion: We talked about some questions which could be relevant for our project and we also discussed the possible definition of our problem, but we did not form any real questions and definitions.

Decision: We agreed that we will do this task more specifically on the next meeting when we will know if our topic and title are appropriate.

 

Item 4:

Discussion: We talked about literature and sources for our project.

Decision: We decided that all members of our group will try to find suitable literature and other sources for our project and bring their list to the next meeting.  

Further specific assignments will be distributed on our next PBL meeting.

 

Item 5:

Discussion: We had to choose one member of our group who will write the minutes on the wiki and choose the date of our next meeting. We also agreed that we will contact professor Smrke via email and ask him for his opinion about our topic.

Decision: We agreed that Maruša will write the minutes of our first meeting on the wiki. We also made an arrangement for our next meeting which will be held next week. We decided that Mateja will contact prof. Smrke and then notify us about his answer.

 

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 at 13:15 at FDV.

 

Minutes taker: Mateja

Chair: Anica

 

 

THE MINUTES OF THE SECOND MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on 3 March, 2009 at FDV) 

 

Present: Anica, Maruša, Mateja, Petra, Sabina

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Action-item follow-up

2. Final title discussion and selection

3. Research questions

4. List of literature

5. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: Firstly, it is important to stress out that all members of our group did their previous assignments in appropriate way up to the set day which was Tuesday, 3 March. Secondly, all the members agreed with distribution of roles and were prepared to cooperate at any time. Thirdly, all the members accepted to work hard on this project and to do their best to improve their English while working on it. To sum up, until now there were no conflicts and disagreements around our project.

Decision: We sincerely hope that good atmosphere will be present during the whole semester in creating the final report in our English course and of course later on.

 

Item 2:

Discussion: At the beginning of our meeting we had to discuss about the title of our project because our previous title was not so specifically defined. We tried to think of the problem as a whole and then gradually select the most appropriate topic which combine our interests in religious influences in Slovenia and to some extent women rights in this environment taking into account the views of Islamic and Catholic religious affiliation.

Decision: We all shared the same interests in changing our first topic to The influence of religion on the partner relationships - comparison of the role of Muslim and Catholic women in the partner relationships in Slovenia.

 

Item 3:

Discussion: We talked about research questions for our project and we had different suggestions, but we manage to form the most basic questions that will help us focus on a more specific issue and find possible solutions for our problem. Maruša and Mateja agreed that it is important to expose the importance of the Quran and the Bible as origins of the Muslim and Catholic religion. Anica suggested us to consider the role of women with regard to financial decisions. Petra suggested us to think about women role in decisions relating to divorce, getting married and having a child. We have all considered the questions about women role in household and some other main questions that we believe are crucial for our project.

Decision:  We formed the questions together. We selected six main questions and than we added five additional questions to the question number six.

 

Item 4: 

Discussion: We decided to write a list of literature until our next meeting which will be held on March 5, Thursday. Each member will look up for some relevant books and other sources for our project.

Decision: List of literature will be stated on the basis of suitability of each book that each member of the group will suggest to be added on the list of a possible literature for our project.

 

Item 5: 

Discussion: We discussed the possibilities of selecting respondents, who will be our subject of analysis, until Thursday. We have thought that it will be the most properly to have an interview with two women, one Muslim and one Catholic woman. With this selection we will avoid our questionnaires being to complicated for analyzing the chosen problem and this will help us focus on the most relevant questions that need to be analyzed if we want our project to be successfully finished. We also talked about forming the questionnaires at home. We agreed that each member would do sample questionnaire and bring it to our next meeting and then we will pick the most relevant questions regarding our topic from them. We agreed to seek the literature of our project too.

Decision: All the members will have to do both tasks: forming the questions and thinking of a Muslim and Catholic woman who will be ready to share her personal views and feelings about her everyday life, her obligations and attitude toward her partner with us. The task which is important as well is also finding the literature for our topic until the next meeting which we will have in two days time. 

 

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 10 March, 2009 at 12:00 at FDV. 

 

Minutes taker: Mateja

Chair: Anica

 

THE MINUTES OF THE THIRD MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on 10 March, 2009 at FDV) 

 

Present: Anica, Maruša, Mateja, Petra, Sabina

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Corrections of the topic and the title

2. Distribution of tasks

3. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: We had another meeting after we talked about our topic with professor Smrke. He was not very content with our chosen problem and thus we decided to change the topic and start the whole project from the beginning. We discussed about possible topics and we came to an agreementabout our new topic for the project. It is important that this new topic was alsoconfirmed by professor Smrke.

Decision: We decided that our topic will be ''Secularization among young (20-25 years old) people in Slovenia''.

 

Item 2:

Discussion: On our meeting we talked how the tasks between all the members will be distributed and which questions are relevant for our project.

Decision: We decided that Anica will answer on the questions two and three, Maruša will find the answers on the question one and eight, Mateja on the question six and seven, Petra will dedicate on the questions four and five and Sabina will find answers to the last two questions (nine and ten). We also agreed that we will check the individually done work together and correct eventual mistakes. 

 

Item 3:

Discussion: We talked about research questions, literature, methods and our future assignments. We also formed the final research questions and decided to look for more relevant literature for our problem.

Decision: For our research methods we decided that we will do a short survey (among a certain number of Slovenian youth) by ourselves and then compare our data to the data from the surveys and researches that have already been done in Slovenia in the past years. We decided that Maruša will write the research questions on the wiki page and that we will form some possible questions for the survey until our next meeting.

 

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 12 March, 2009 at 14:00 at FDV.

 

 

 

Minutes taker: Mateja

Chair: Anica 

 

 

THE MINUTES OF THE FOURTH MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on 12 March, 2009 at FDV) 

 

 

Present: Anica, Maruša, Mateja, Petra, Sabina

Absent: / 

 

Agenda:

1. Research methods

2. Formulation of interview

3. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: We discussed our research methods. At first we wanted to do a short survey and we have talked about possible questions. But then we talked with professor Smrke about our research technique and he said that our survey would not be representative enough. He also suggested us to use the data which is accessible on ADP (Arhiv družboslovnih podatkov) for our project.

Decision: After our discussion we decided that it would be better for us to do an interview with two or three professors (one will be from FDV and another from Filozofska fakulteta or Teološka fakulteta) as Maruša suggested and with approximately five young people between the ages of 20 to 25 as it was proposed by Sabina. We think that with these interviews we will get enough information from two different sides, from a professional side and from a side of (lay) youth in Slovenia.

 

Item 2:

Discussion: We talked about questions that would be good for our interviews. We formed some questions according to our research questions. We formed seven questions for the youth aged between 20-25 and than we added two more questions for the professors who know something more about our chosen problem.

Decision: We decided that Anica will write emails to professors and ask them if they are prepared to cooperate and to answer on a couple of questions. We also decided that we will do an interview with one person between the ages of 20 to 25.

 

Item 3:

Discussion: We also talked about the possible dates for our interviews with professors and in which way we will interpret our gained results. We agreed that all of us have to read some of the selected literature that we will be able to begin with our writing.

Decision: We decided that when professors will answer on sent emails, we will interview them as soon as possible. And when we get the professors` answers, we will finally be able to start analysis and interpretation of our gathered literature and research material.

 

Minutes taker: Mateja

Chair: Anica 

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Sources:

No. 1: BBC (online) Primroses, http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/images/2008/04/08/primroses_203_203x152.jpg (accessed on 17 February 2009).

No. 2: BBC (online) Primrose, http://www.geocities.com/area51/hollow/2281/cmb7primrose.jpg (accessed on 8 April 2009).

No. 3: BBC  (online) Primroses, http://www.workpuzzle.com/.a/6a010535f94817970b010536f3820b970c-800wi (accessed on 8 April 2009).