Population active, pratiques religieuses et espaces de référence. Etude statistique d'un millier de cantons ruraux français / Occupational Structure of the Labor Force, Religious Practices and Spatial Frame of Reference. A Statistical Study of a Thousand French Rural Counties

In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions: ASSR, Band 41, Heft 1, S. 137-164

Abstract

Centered on the contextual determination of religions practice, this study, using multiple and stepwise regression techniques, finds a significant relationship between the internal variations of the occupational structure of the labor force and the fluctuations in the level of different Roman Catholic worship practices such as pascalisation (Easter duty), messalisation (Mass attendance) and cenalisation (frequent Communion).
Two spacial frames of reference are used in this study: the departement (thirty-four of these administrative districts grouping about thirty countries each are analysed), and the whole (empirical aggregate of the rural counties of these departments). The relationship is stronger and better explained in the first case. However, the departmental variations suggest that it is not a simple and uniform connection. All the observations have to be interpreted in terms of a genuine theory of the determination of religion by the economic basis of society.