The Lens Through Which We Observe: Choosing A Conceptual Framework

Latest Version of Our Research Inquiry:
How are various urban religious spaces in Amsterdam--namely mosques, synagogues, and churches--used, both physically and discursively, to address the issues of their respective communities and to negotiate between religious unity and metropolitan diversity?

Conceptual Framework:
The "looking glass" that I feel, thus far, would be most appropriate in our investigation of religious institutions in urban spaces is Mieke Bal's discussion of tradition in Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide (2002). In the chapter on tradition, Mieke Bal discusses how cultural norms, traditions, and symbols are purposefully and consciously constructed and perpetuated. The idea fits into a larger discussion, largely situated in the filed of anthropology, of social construction--that there is nothing inherently "natural" or "organic" about culture, but that all cultures are produced and reproduced by both its own members and outside forces. This production, as post-colonial theorists like Edward Said (whom Mieke Bal in fact cites) claim, often is--and has historically been--inextricably linked with power relations.
As Charles C. Ragin points out in Construcitng Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method, "analytic frames are fundamental to social research because they constitute ways of seeing" (61). Seeing, then, religious spaces and the practices of those spaces through the lens of what I refer to as "critical constructivism" will allow us to produce one, but obviously not only, informed representation of religious social life in the urban hub that is Amsterdam.

Methodology:
1. By the very nature of the research question, we will be engaged in a comparative study of three religious groups in the city of Amsterdam.
2. We will be observing and close reading physical space (i.e. the religious buildings themselves) and physical traces (documents produced or provided by the religious institutions, like newspapers, flyers, or books found in the buildings).
3. We will also engage in participatory observation, by attending services held in the various structures--particularly paying attention to the sermons.
4. We will be conducting interviews with members of the religious institutions--most likely, the leaders, both spiritual and administrative, of the congregations.
5. We will also use virtual methods, primarily in two ways:
a. visiting the websites of the places of worship (if the institutions have websites) to gain more insight into the kinds of discourses and issues with which the communities are engaged, as well as to gain background historical information about the buildings and the communities they serve.
b. researching the histories of religious communities in modern Amsterdam, via both scholarly and journalistic writings, to situate our knowledge within the larger realm of the history and place of religion in Amsterdam.