John Sheffield is working on a project with Professor Beth Simmons and graduate student Richard Nielsen on the inducements states are given to ratify international human rights agreements. John's work involves collecting reports of intangible reactions of foreign governments to ratification, including praise, recognition, and invitations to meet or to join various organizations or groupings. He will be downloading and developing a computerized search technique for reactions to such ratifications, and he will assist in training and assessing the computerized coding process. We hope to find out whether states actually earn kudos for participating in international human rights regimes, as much of the literature assumes.
We aim to gather and analyze diverse data sets, using GIS technology, to test hypotheses about the sources of violence in Kenya following the elections of December 2007. We have data on ethnicity, land status (tenants, squatter, land owner), income, migration status, and partisan affiliation. Some comes from surveys, others from polling stations, and still others from administrative reports. The best way of interrelating this data is by exploiting common spatial attributes.
America and Britain present an interesting paradox with regards to religion and other forms of civic engagement. In America, civic engagement has declined but religious activity is stable, while in Europe civic engagement has largely remained stable while religious activity has declined. Thus the question arises, what is it about the role of religion in America compared to Britain that makes it so distinct from other forms of civic participation? Or, framed another way, what is it about religion in Britain that allows religious activity to fall below other forms of civic participation? This is the central question driving our research.
Using original data from Faith Matters, a survey distributed in the US in the years 2006 and 2007, as well as in Britain, and with a sample size of nearly 2,200, our research investigates whether religious participation yields certain benefits or kinds of social capital distinct from what is generated by secular forms of civic participation more generally: benefits of social capital that are needed more in one society but not the other, depending on social structures or government provisions. In general, exploring and comparing the role of religion with regards to civic engagement in both America and Britain will shed light on the classic and still largely unanswered question of cross-national variations in religious vitality.