Resistance to change in a North Midlands parish
This study is a sociological account of the relative failure of a Roman Catholic parish in the North Midlands to implement the changes in parish life implied by the documents of The Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965). Initial observation suggested resistance to liturgical, pastoral and ministerial changes On the basis of a critical sociology developed along the lines of a Giddensian critique of both structuralism and phenomenology the following elements were identified by the processes of enumerative and analytic induction: 1) resistance both ideational and practical on the part of the majority of nuclear parishioners of (St Margaret's, Acton), to the process of sacral transformation evident elsewhere, whereby objects formerly hierophanized are desacralised in favour of newly sacralised phenomena; 2) the knowledgeability of social actors as they draw on the rules and resources of the Church and society in the context of the unintended outcomes of their predecessors' actions; 3) the ideological distortions in communication between priest and people; 4) the processes whereby the rules and resources referred to in (2) above are drawn on asymmetrically by hegemonic groups in ways which create forms of exploitative
Leslie, John H.
Philosophy
Resistance to change in a North Midlands parish. This study is a sociological account of the relative failure of a Roman Catholic parish in the North Midlands to implement the changes in parish life implied by the documents of The Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965). Initial observation suggested resistance to liturgical, pastoral and ministerial changes On the basis of a critical sociology developed along the lines of a Giddensian critique of both structuralism and phenomenology the following elements were identified by the processes of enumerative and analytic induction: 1) resistance both ideational and practical on the part of the majority of nuclear parishioners of (St Margaret's, Acton), to the process of sacral transformation evident elsewhere, whereby objects formerly hierophanized are desacralised in favour of newly sacralised phenomena; 2) the knowledgeability of social actors as they draw on the rules and resources of the Church and society in the context of the unintended outcomes of their predecessors' actions; 3) the ideological distortions in communication between priest and people; 4) the processes whereby the rules and resources referred to in (2) above are drawn on asymmetrically by hegemonic groups in ways which create forms of exploitative
resistance change north_midlands parish study sociological account relative failure roman_catholic parish north_midlands implement change parish life imply document second_vatican_council initial observation suggest resistance liturgical pastoral ministerial change basis critical sociology develop_along line critique structuralism phenomenology follow element identify process analytic induction resistance practical part majority nuclear parishioner process sacral transformation evident elsewhere whereby object formerly favour newly phenomenon social actor draw rule resource church society context unintended outcomes predecessor action ideological distortion communication priest people process_whereby rule resource refer draw hegemonic group way create form