It is with great pride and pleasure that we announce that spsTREND team member, Dr. Francesco Molteni has been awarded with the prestigious best article award from the International Society for the Sociology of Religion.
Dr. Molteni was awarded for his article “Rising Security and Religious Decline: Refining and Extending Insecurity Theory” published in Sociology of Religion.
In this article, Dr. Molteni examines the drivers of religious decline over recent decades. He focuses on the insecurity theory proposed by Norris and Inglehart (2011), which interprets religious decline as a consequence of the increased security associated with modernization. The article reviews existing empirical evidence by distinguishing between individual and contextual insecurity, as well as static and longitudinal approaches. It also highlights the distinction between economic and existential insecurity and emphasizes the central role of socialization processes. Building on this foundation, Dr. Molteni summarizes key criticisms of the theory and discusses its potential weaknesses, aiming to refine its theoretical scope and clarify what insecurity theory can—and cannot—explain about secularization.
The award committee praised the article as “a major contribution to our discipline,” noting that it “provides an extensive literature review, meta-analysis, and theoretical discussion of the insecurity theory that underpins many discussions of religious secularization.” They highlighted how “this theory paper offers a clear and compelling explanation of the causal mechanisms at play in insecurity theory.”
We suspect (and hope) Francesco will forgive us (eventually) for making a fuss about his achievement, but we couldn’t let this moment pass without celebrating it 🙂
Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash