Abstract
The aims of this review article are two-fold: (1) to set out the key theoretical trends in the study of religion, populism and social policy as antithetical concepts that also share common concerns; (2) to re-assert the relevance of social policy to the social and political sciences by making the case for studying outlier or indeed rival topics together - in this case populism and religion. Social policy scholars do not necessarily associate these two topics with modern social policy, yet they have a long history of influence on societies all over the world; populism is also especially timely in our current era. The article contributes to the literature by: (a) helping social policy better understand its diverse and at times contradictory constituencies; (b) contributing to a more complex and inclusive understanding of social policy and, therefore, social welfare. In setting out the state-of-the-art, the article also draws upon research on social policy which spans various continents (North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and Latin America) and a preceding paper collaboration by the authors on religion and social policy (Pavolini et al., 2017).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 267-281 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Social Policy and Society |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 11 Jan 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Apr 2021 |
Keywords
- Christianity
- Islamic populism
- Latin America
- Populism
- religion
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Political Science and International Relations