Abstract
In the 2011 Census for England and Wales, 14.1 million people—approximately 25% of the population—reported that they have ‘no religion’. Relational and bottom-up qualitative studies of ‘non-religion’ can better reveal the diversity that lies behind the act of ticking this box. This chapter reports data from interviews about such matters, conducted with 23 14- and 15-year-olds from two non-denominational secondary schools in England who reported no religion. Participants took photographs that were used as prompts for discussions which explored what was important to them, prior to answering questions about religion and their reasons for reporting none. This chapter presents an overview of participants’ constructions of religion, the variety of reasons they gave for ticking the ‘no religion’ box, and the range of atheist, agnostic, and less clearly defined stances that lie behind participants’ choices to respond to the religion question in this way. Part of the appeal of the generic ‘no religion’ category was that it allowed for diversity. However, the question of whether participants expressed a non-religious identity by ticking the ‘no religion’ box depends upon the relative significance that relationships of difference to religion were given by participants during the interviews.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Participants’ names have been changed.
References
Arweck, E. (2013). ‘I’ve been christened, but I don’t really believe in it’: How young people articulate their (non-)religious identities and perceptions of (non-)belief. In A. Day, G. Vincett, & C. Cotter (Eds.), Social identities between the sacred and the secular (pp. 103–125). Farnham: Ashgate.
BHA (British Humanist Association). 2012. Census results show huge shift in cultural identity from Christianity to no religion. https://humanism.org.uk/2012/12/11/census-results-show-huge-shift-in-cultural-identity-from-christianity-to-no-religion/. Accessed 4 December 2016.
Catto, R., & Eccles, J. (2013). (Dis)believing and belonging: Investigating the narratives of young British atheists. Temenos, 49(1), 37–63.
Collins-Mayo, S., Mayo, B., Nash, S., & Cocksworth, C. (2010). The faith of Generation Y. London: Church House Publishing.
Cotter, C. (2011). Toward a typology of ‘nonreligion’: A qualitative analysis of everyday narratives of Scottish university students. MSc Diss. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.
Cush, D. (2010). Teenage witchcraft in Britain. In S. Collins-Mayo & Pink Dandelion (Eds.), Religion and youth (pp. 81–87). Farnham: Ashgate.
Day, A. (2009). Researching belief without asking religious questions. Fieldwork in Religion, 4(1), 86–104.
Day, A. (2011). Believing in belonging: Belief and social identity in the modern world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Day, A., & Lynch, G. (2013). Introduction: Belief as cultural performance. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 28(2), 199–206.
Hemming, P. J., & Madge, N. (2012). Researching children, youth and religion: Identity, complexity and agency. Childhood, 19(1), 38–51.
Lee, L. (2012). Research note. Talking about a revolution: Terminology for the new field of non-religion studies. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 27(1), 129–139.
Lee, L. (2014). Secular or nonreligious? Investigating and interpreting generic ‘not religious’ categories and populations. Religion, 44(3), 466–482.
Liebenberg, L. (2009). The visual image as discussion point: Increasing validity in boundary crossing research. Qualitative Research, 9, 441–467.
Madge, N., Hemming, P., & Stenson, K. (2014). Youth on religion: The development, negotiation and impact of faith and non-faith identity. London: Routledge.
ONS. (2012). Religion in England and Wales 2011. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/rpt-religion.html. Accessed 4 December 2016.
Page, S.-J., Yip, A. K. T., & Keenan, M. (2012). Risk and the imagined future: Young adults negotiating religious and sexual identities. In S. J. Hunt & A. K. T. Yip (Eds.), The Ashgate research companion to contemporary religion and sexuality (pp. 255–274). Farnham: Ashgate.
Quack, J. (2014). Outline of a relational approach to ‘nonreligion’. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 26(4–5), 439–469.
Smith, J. M. (2011). Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing meaning and identity from the rejection of theism. Sociology of Religion, 72(2), 215–237.
Taylor, C. (1989). The sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wallis, S. (2019). ‘I’m Not Really a Non-religious Person’: Diversity among Young People of No Religion. In: Arweck, E., Shipley, H. (eds) Young People and the Diversity of (Non)Religious Identities in International Perspective. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16166-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16166-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16165-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16166-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)