This document provides an abstract for a study examining how religious groups and individuals construct shared meaning through symbols and practices. It will compare two religious groups that differ in how they regulate morality. One-on-one and focus group interviews will be conducted using grounded theory and comparative case study methods. The study aims to understand how shared meaning is created individually and collectively and how moral regulation relates to social integration.

1. Religion:
Individual and Collective
Practice
Daniella Escobar | Faculty Advisor: Dr. Deeb Kitchen | Florida Gulf Coast University
MR: [T]he Quran says you cannot
hurt a human being. Innocent
human being.
MR: Islam was spread because wherever
the companions of the prophet went,
people got so much impressed with them,
the way they were dealing things, the way
they were living their lives…
HW: [A]ctivism is my rent for living on
the planet… that’s essentially my
mantra.
HW: I actually have a firm belief that our
differences can make us stronger. We
don’t have to have the exact same beliefs
to live in harmony.

2. Abstract
This is an exploratory study that uses a comparative case study approach. I
will be examining how religious members construct and utilize shared meaning
individually and collectively through externalization, internalization, and
objectification. These questions will be answered through the following:
 How individual members define and practice their religion.
 How religious groups and individual members use symbols, such as language,
authority, creed, and rituals, to create shared meaning in their lives.
 How our use of symbols and objects structure and organize individual experiences.
Aside from looking at how groups and individuals make meaning in their
religious lives, I will also be looking at groups that vary along the lines of moral
regulation. While religious institutions use the same processes of instilling
moral regulation, they are executed differently through language, creed, and
ritual. With that, I will then be touching on any connections between moral
regulation and social integration both inside the religious congregation and
out in the local community. It is said that individual and group identity
formations are shaped by historical and social contexts where “[r]eligious
identities become more salient for immigrants in the United States… because
of the role religions have in preserving ethnic identities (Cadge and Ecklund,
2007, p. 48).”

3. Methodology
 Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2006)
 Exploratory Research/Inductive
 Coded Data (Internalization, Externalization, Objectification)
 Comparative Methods
 Constructivist/ Interpretive
 Open-ended, directed interviews
 One one-on-one, one focus group
 Ethnography (Participant Observation)
 Active Interview (Holstein and Gubrium, 1995)
 Not traditional interview style
 Interactional/ Active
 Not objective/truth based
 Mutual discourse
 Narrative Linkages
 Institutional Ethnography (Smith, 2005)
 Participant observation
 Text-reader conversation
 Intertextuality
 Regulatory Frames
 Standpoint
 discovering dimensions of institutional relations that are at work in the local setting
 Deep listening (Hanh, 1995)
 “Through the practice of deep looking and deep listening, we become free, able to see the beauty and values in our own and
others’ traditions.”

4. Strengths Limitations
Theories grounded in data themselves (Charmaz
2006)
Flexible guidelines (Charmaz 2006)
Research shapes methods chosen
Not having limited conclusions
Not validity based (Charmaz 2006)
Embraces multiple perspectives
Interactive (Charmaz 2006)
Allows the participant to elicit own definitions of
terms
Embraces the subjectivity of the observer, where
they play a role in the meaning making process
Outside perspective
Understanding of members’ taken-for-granted
assumptions and rules (Charmaz 2006)
Few Cases
Comparative study of two different,
extreme methods of moral regulation
Limited Geographic area
Convenience sampling
Limited time constraint
Lack of insider perspective
Observer is not unbiased and passive
Not replicative—interpretive instead
Interview conversations NOT a
“pipeline for transmitting knowledge
(Holstein and Gubrium, 1995)
Learning the hows through which
meaning is produced and made visible
(Holstein and Gubrium, 1995)

5. Literature Review
 Subject of the Study: Religious Sociology and the Theory of Knowledge (Durkheim, 1995)
 Religion is imminently collective but individual beliefs are still independent of them.
 There is a moral community in the church, but that doesn’t “exclude the private religions which the individual establishes for himself and celebrates
by himself (p. 6).”
 Social phenomenon
 Solve problems like the unknown about life, death, and all that in between.
 Simultaneity:
 Same interests form to create a shared meaning
 Revolves around symbols and rituals that allow members to reach their own divinity (Mills, 2000).
 A moral regulation- Certain manners of acting
 Even in different forms, the same forces are shaping these experiences.
 The profane and the sacred.
 Provide divisions of the world into two domains that are metaphorical—there is nothing in these relations that are religious.
 Humans assign meaning to these things—objects, a place, language, actions –that can in turn make them sacred or profane—i.e. we
carry the sacred and the profane within us and they are determined by our belief system that embeds certain moral regulations.
 As C. W. Mills stated in The Sociological Imagination (2000), “[i]t is never the content of an action that makes a ritual religious; rather,
it is the meaning that people attach to doing something in a particular way.”
 The Sacred Canopy (Berger, 1967)
 Externalization, Objectification, Internalization
 “The ordering of experiences is endemic to any kind of social interaction” implying that religion, being an ongoing social interaction, involves the
collective realities of people that have been integrated into an order of common meaning (p. 8).
 With social interaction, humans are able to make meaning in their lives, which seems to be the desire of humanity.
 Living Buddha Living Christ (Thich Nhat Hanh, 1995)
 Deep listening between traditions/religions, where each side is willing to learn from one another, allows for fruitful dialogue (p. 7).
 “We have different roots, traditions, and ways of seeing, but we share the common qualities of love, understanding, and acceptance (p.7).”
 In relation to religion, “all the branches belong to the same tree (p. 29).”

6. Findings:
Islam Center of Naples
Fatalism
 Collective Interpretation
 Narrow range of scripture interpretation
 Only original Arabic translation is “true” Quran
 Specific language used
 ~MR: “First of all, especially in the religion of Islam, you cannot under any circumstances provide wrong information. By wrong information, like
you know, that’s coming from your thoughts. It has to be the absolute truth… it has been mentioned in the Holy Book, like the Quran, or it has to
have came from the prophet, may peace be upon him….”
 Narrow range of acceptable behaviors
 ~[In reference to the Topi, which is the top hat used by Muslim men] MR: “it’s sacred for the fact that… the prophet never prayed
without a hat. So like you know, I said, we try to resemble him, to follow him in the most minute detail that we can.”
 Homogeneic way of experiencing religion
 ~ [when asked how Islam as a religion is internalized] MR: “[religion is] everything…to a Muslim, a true Muslim, religion should be a part of life.”
 Internal integration
 Diverse demographics
 The center has brothers with Greek and Cuban background, as well as from Pakistan, Morocco, Nigeria, Turkey, Albania, Egypt.
 ~MR: “[We have] a mix. So when we talk, that thing stays out. It’s like, we are here, we are brothers.”
 ~GC: “One community.
 Benefits of collective prayer
 ~MR: “If they [other Muslim brothers] need something, somebody need help, somebody need like an advice, and so when you have more
interaction on a daily basis, they’re more comfortable.”
 Create certainty, even in the unknown
 ~ GC: “We hear and we obey.”
 ~ MR: “…if it’s the word of God, then we don’t question it”
 In constant worship mode
 ~ GC: “I just recently found God… the real God. Before that, I always wondered, ‘why these people always pray five times a day?’… Then I realized
that praying five times a day… you constantly have it on your mind and it’s constantly engrained... So it’s a constant reminder of God all day and
it’s the least you can do after all he’s done for us. You know, so that’s why we pray five times a day, to keep us sinless.”

7. Findings:
Unitarian Universalist Church
Anomie
 Individual interpretation
 Diverse Experiences
 ~ HW: “that active prayer, that’s essentially how I reflect… when I feel like I’m doing something that matters to a larger community,
that’s meditation for me cause I’m reflecting on what that means for everybody.”
 Every member internalizes the essence of the Unitarian Universalist Church differently.
 ~ HW: “my view of the divinity is that active collaboration. When we’re working together, whether it’s just at work or it’s holding hands
with someone, like… I feel something there. Some kind of connection that I just can’t explain.”
 Homogenous Demographics
 ~HW: “Being a bisexual woman with a physical disability… I don’t feel like I have biases against people for who they are and what they
can’t control. So… personally I don’t have the problem, but our larger faith has had some issues with those kinds of things.”
 Rejection of creed
 Broader range of acceptable behaviors, practices, and sacred text
 Inclusive language
 ~HW: “This flaming Chalice that I’m wearing is the symbol of our faith, which means we always have that sacred fire within ourselves… to keep
pushing, to keep going through whatever struggles, whatever path we are… whatever comes through in our life, so to always have
that hope.”
 Embraces differences
 ~ HW: “You can’t limit the love of God to one religion. So that’s where the multi-faith kind of belief comes from in our Unitarian Universalist faith
that we respect so many traditions and life paths. So, no one’s essentially right, no one’s essentially wrong, it’s just what brings you to your highest
self and what can connect you to the larger community to help you through that and help others through that.”
 External Integration
 ~HW: “The community work is kind of bigger than your personal belief and personal… like, I mean we respect everybody’s personal path, but
everybody’s personal path brings that person to this bigger picture for a different reason, and we respect that.”

8. Questions Raised
How do the different degrees of moral regulation influence the degree of
social integration for both individuals within the group and the groups within
the broader social networks such as communities?
Would a more established insider perspective have generated different
answers?
Would a one-on-one interview with a member of the Islam Center of Naples
have allowed for more reflexivity of their answers? i.e. would a more private
setting have allowed for more personal thoughts/opinions/questions to take
form.
Would having interviewed a member who, not only doesn’t work there, but
also closer resembles the general demographics of the church have generated
different answers?

9. References
Berger, P. L. (1967). The Sacred Canopy. In M. O. Emerson, W. A. Mirola, S.C. Monahan (Ed.),
Sociology of Religion: A Reader (pp. 7-12). Boston: Pearson
 Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis.
London: Sage Publications.
Durkheim, E. (1995). Subject of the Study: Religious Sociology and the Theory of Knowledge. In M.
O. Emerson, W. A. Mirola, S.C. Monahan (Ed.), Sociology of Religion: A Reader (pp. 1-6).
Boston: Pearson.
Hanh, T. N. (1995). Living Buddha, Living Christ. New York: Riverhead Books.
Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (1995). The Active Interview. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Mills, C. W. (2000). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press.
Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People. Lanham: Altamira Press.